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After heroics in win over Air Force, Navy’s Malcolm Perry is the C.I.C. MVP this week

Perry scored the game-winning touchdown and put up 255 yards of total offense in the impressive win.

By Mitchell Northam

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NCAA Football: Air Force at Navy Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Each week here at Against All Enemies, we hand out an award to a football player who had the best performance over the weekend and call them our Commander-In-Chief MVP. When I’m slated to pick the winner of the weekly award, I go back through the box scores of each Service Academy football game from the weekend, and combine that with what I saw with my own eyes to decide who the award goes to. This week, I didn’t need to look at the box scores. All I needed to see was this.

But I looked at the stats anyway. And it is beyond obvious that Navy quarterback Malcolm Perry was the best player in Service Academy football this past week.

The pint-sized quarterback put up 255 yards of total offense — 144 yards passing and 111 yards rushing — and scored two touchdowns, including the game-winner. He completed 5-of-7 passes with no interceptions for a QBR of 92.6, and averaged 4.8 yards per-carry when he decided to keep it himself and scamper around the Air Force defense.

And Perry did all of that after a limited week of practice, due to a shoulder injury suffered in Navy’s loss to Memphis. Perry even left the Air Force game briefly after a hard hit, but returned to lead his team to a victory.

Without Perry, Navy doesn’t beat Air Force. With him, they’re 3-1 on the season (matching their win total from last year’s abysmal campaign) and have an early edge in the C.I.C. race.

Quotes

“I thought Malcolm willed us to a win.” - Ken Niumatalolo, via Washington Post

“He’s the leader of our pack. When he comes in confident in the huddle knowing we’re going to get this done, it’s contagious.” - Navy center Ford Higgins, via Washington Post

“He’s a tough kid, man. He refused to lose. We were going to ride him at the end.” - Ken Niumatalolo, via The Athletic

C.I.C. honorable mentions

  • DJ Hammond III, Air Force — 205 yards passing, 77 yards rushing, one touchdown
  • Diego Fagot, Navy — 12 tackles, two for loss, two QB hurries, one pass breakup
  • Kelvin Hopkins Jr., Army — 170 yards passing, 132 yards rushing, three touchdowns