Longtime Navy DC Buddy Green to retire after Military Bowl
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Version 0 of 1. Longtime Navy defensive coordinator Buddy Green will retire following Monday’s Military Bowl, the school’s athletic department announced Tuesday afternoon. After 13 years as defensive coordinator, Green spent this season as a consultant while recovering from offseason neck surgery. Green was the defensive coordinator until a week into training camp. Coach Ken Niumatalolo decided at the time Green needed to focus on recovering rather than the grind of coaching. Niumatalolo promoted longtime defensive line coach Dale Pehrson to interim defensive coordinator. Pehrson is expected to have the interim tag removed shortly after the Military Bowl, where the Midshipmen will play Pittsburgh at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium following a season in which they posted some of the best defensive statistics in the triple-option era. “Coaching at the Naval Academy is a once in a lifetime experience,” Green, a two-time nominee for national assistant of the year, said in a statement. “We won a lot of games, but what I will remember more than anything are the people I worked with and especially the young men I had an opportunity to coach.” Green, 62, has been among the most trusted and loyal assistants on a staff that has brought the Midshipmen back into national prominence with a 110-56 record over the past 13 years, including 12 bowl berths, 10 Commander-In-Chief’s Trophies and a 14-0 record against Army. The No. 21 Midshipmen (10-2) have won at least nine games six times in the past 12 years. Before the current streak, Navy had won nine or more games just five times in the previous 77 seasons. A victory over Pittsburgh in the Military Bowl would set the program single-season record for victories. With Pehrson in line to take over for Green, Shawn Nua is expected to become full-time defensive line coach. Nua had been an assistant to Pehrson for four years before accepting a position last week on Coach Bronco Mendenhall’s s staff at Virginia under the assumption Niumatalolo would be leaving for Brigham Young. Niumatalolo had interviewed in Provo, Utah, for the then-vacant position Dec. 14. Navy announced Tuesday that Nua would be coming back to Annapolis. “Coach Green has enjoyed a long and illustrious coaching career, a career in which he has influenced and mentored thousands of young men,” Niumatalolo said. “It has been an honor to work alongside Buddy Green for the last 14 years.” |