All Aboard The Blake Horvath Heisman Express for 2025
10 years after Navy predecessor Keenan Reynolds was snubbed for a Heisman invite, Press Break starts the campaign for Blake Horvath to represent the Midshipmen in NYC.
Taking a second-and-9 snap from his own 5-yard line, Blake Horvath read the Oklahoma defense as it shifted parallel with Navy slotback Eli Heidenreich. With the Midshipmen blockers executing their jobs to perfection, a gap opened in the middle of the field for Horvath to keep the ball after selling the handoff to Heidenreich.
Horvath then exploded up the gut, blazing past the only would-be Sooners tackler with any chance at disrupting the Navy quarterback on his way to a game-tying touchdown.
The play helped flip momentum in a tightly contested Armed Forces in Navy’s favor, with another Horvath touchdown and ensuing PAT making the difference once the Mids defense snuffed out an Oklahoma two-point conversion attempt.
More notably for the history of Navy football, Horvath ran into the program’s extensive records. The 95 yards equal the longest play from scrimmage in Midshipmen history — and given Navy’s illustrious history, that’s no insignificant milestone.
The record-setting touchdown should also lay the foundation for much-deserved preseason buzz placing Blake Horvath prominently in the 2025 Heisman Trophy conversation.
Navy football history boasts a pair of Heisman winners in 1960 recipient Joe Bellino and 1963 winner Roger Staubach. However, even advancing so far as a place on the stage at the Downtown Athletic Club has eluded another Mid in the 60-plus years since.
The 2025 season marks the 10-year anniversary of Keenan Reynolds’ otherworldly 2015 campaign. Reynolds captained Navy to an 11-21 mark that season and final AP Poll rank of No. 18 — the Midshipmen’s best end-of-season polling since ending Staubach’s Heisman campaign at No. 2.
Reynolds rushed for 1,373 yards and 24 touchdowns — the latter second only to 2015 Heisman winner Derrick Henry’s 282 — while passing for another eight scores with only one interception. What’s more, Reynolds was simply electrifying to watch in a manner stats cannot describe.
Reynolds finished fifth in Heisman voting, which is respectable enough, but lacked the support to be in New York immediately after the Army-Navy Game for the award’s presentation. Of all the finalist snubs in my time following college football, it’s the most egregious and did the most to devalue the award’s significance in my eyes — hence why I’m expending so much energy lamenting it a decade later while ostensibly discussing another Navy quarterback.
With Reynolds not getting the invite to Manhattan, I wrote off Heisman voters ever giving players from programs outside of the Power Four conferences genuine consideration. And while I am willing to argue with anyone who’ll listen that Ashton Jeanty deserved the 2024 Heisman more than recipient Travis Hunter, Jeanty finishing as runner-up was somewhat heartening.
Now, all Jeanty had to do to reach the best finish for a non-power program Heisman finalist since Marshall Faulk became runner-up to Gino Torretta in 1992 was flirt with Barry Sanders’ seemingly unbreakable litany of records.
If a similar standard is the bar for Group of Five Heisman contenders going forward, Blake Horvath’s candidacy could be for naught. Then again, the Navy quarterback has shown himself capable of setting records…
As for his production in 2024, the standard Horvath’s already established for himself is quite remarkable. His 103.8 rushing yards per game last season ranked 18th among all FBS ball-carriers, while his 7.1 yards per carry ranked fifth among those with 100-plus attempts.
Horvath’s 17 rushing touchdowns were 12th-most in FBS, and he scored 30 touchdowns in total with a healthy 13 via the pass. Four of those came in Navy’s Top 25 wins over Memphis and rival Army.
Before Horvath’s heroics against Oklahoma, the Midshipmen quarterback’s performance in the annual Army-Navy Game shined as one of that classic’s most memorable in recent history — perhaps ever in the series dating back to 1890.
With a pair of passing touchdowns and two more rushing to power Navy to a 31-13 rout of the best Army team since…maybe the 1950s?…Blake Horvath already cemented a place in Midshipmen lore. The touchdown vs. Oklahoma only added another layer that, altogether, provides the launching point for a Heisman campaign.
Navy’s only losses came against Notre Dame, which was playing for a College Football Playoff berth on the final weekend of the regular season; and Houston, which pounded Florida State in the Peach Bowl.
Scored in 15 games to Reynolds’ 13.