New Navy OC Drew Cronic Talks Annapolis Move, Wing-T Concepts

After a successful run at Mercer, new Navy offensive coordinator Drew Cronic will officially join the Midshipmen in Annapolis this week. Cronic had his first call with members of the local and national media on Thursday, which lasted about thirty minutes.

Both Cronic and Navy head coach Brian Newberry were in high spirits, taking mostly questions about Cronic's hopes to adapt his offensive philosophy to Navy's skillset. Cronic's style modernizes concepts from the traditional Wing-T system, with a healthy dose of passing to spread the field. At one point during the call, Cronic jokingly referred to the system as the "Sling-T." 

RELATED: Navy Football: New OC Drew Cronic Officially Announced

"We want to make people have to defend everything you can think of, but still not overwhelm our kids with a bunch of stuff," Cronic stated on Thursday. "So a lot of shifting, lot of motions, lot of movement, lot of formations, but still being good at the basic things. Wing-T football is a lot about running bellies, running power sweeps, running nakeds and bootlegs and just keeping the defense where they're having to think one more time."

At Mercer this past season, Cronic and the Bears averaged scored 24.4 points per game and 323.3 yards per game. Things at Navy will look fairly similar to Cronic's past offensive projects, but adaptations will have to be made based on the Midshipmen's roster.

"We're going to have to run some option and do some things that you've seen before, but I also want to be versatile with those things...A lot of it depends on the kids we have. But you play to your strengths. You're going to have disciplined kids, you're going to have tough kids, you're going to have smart kids, it's obviously been done at Navy well several times, several seasons...If I didn't think we could do this, I wouldn't be getting on that plane tomorrow."

With Cronic arriving in Maryland, his initial priorities will be to get to know the rest of Newberry's coaching staff, as well as players returning for the 2024 season and incoming recruits. Newberry noted that while a schedule for spring football has yet to be finalized, he hopes to get at least a few workouts in prior to the Academy's spring break the first week of April. In the meantime, Cronic is putting a heavy emphasis on using the next few weeks to build relationships.

"The first thing I've got to do is get those players to trust me and know that I care about them...There's a lot of great coaches on staff. I'm looking forward to leaning on some expertise that those guys have that I think will make us extremely versatile...It's hard to win until trust is there. I really believe that. If I come in there and everything just has to be my way, people aren't going to buy in. It's about us working together. Everybody brings value. Everybody trusts in each other and a common vision." 

While a voluntary transition from a head coach role to a coordinator will likely take some getting used to, Cronic emphasized he's in an ideal situation to do so under Newberry, who enters his second year as the program's head coach. Navy went 5-7 in 2023, an improvement from each of their previous three campaigns.

"I've been a head coach now for, I guess, eight years. To move out of that chair...I'm kind of looking forward to that a little bit," Cronic noted. "But at the same time, I think when you've been doing that, you want to feel like if you decide to be an assistant coach for somebody, you want it to be somebody you admire and you want it to be somebody you feel like sees the world the same way you do...I'm very excited about working with Coach Newberry. It's almost like we've known each other for years."

Cronic's first regular season with the Midshipmen will kick off on August 31 when Navy host Bucknell.