Navy Coach, Oklahoma Native Brian Newberry Grew Up On OU Football

Newberry, a Moore native, will coach against OU in the Armed Forces Bowl but acknowledged, "I still root for the Sooners."

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NORMAN — Long before becoming the head coach at Navy, Brian Newberry was just a kid from Oklahoma.

A native of Moore, OK, Newberry fell in love with the Sooners in 1985.

That was the year that Newberry — still in grade school at the time — went to his first OU football game. He and his family were on hand as the Sooners beat Colorado, one of their 11 victories as OU won the national championship that season.

Football had long been a passion for Newberry. But watching OU legends Brian Bosworth and Jamelle Holieway in that game inspired him personally.

“That’s when I decided that I wanted to play college football,” Newberry said.

After achieving that goal with a four-year playing career as a defensive back at Baylor and now having coached college football for 25 years, Newberry will square off against the team that instilled his love for the sport.

Newberry’s Midshipmen will play against Oklahoma in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth on Dec. 27.

“We have a big Sooner family, and I still root for the Sooners,” Newberry said Sunday during a media conference call. “We couldn’t ask for a better bowl selection and a better opponent.”

WATCH: Navy HC Brian Newberry Talks Armed Forces Bowl Matchup With Oklahoma

Newberry hopped around the various ranks of college football before landing in Annapolis in 2019 as the Midshipmen’s defensive coordinator. He was promoted to head coach prior to the 2023 season, replacing longtime Middies coach Ken Niumatalolo.

His first season at the helm was one of growing pains, as Navy finished 5-7 and didn’t reach a bowl game. But Year 2 was a significant turnaround for Newberry’s group, with Navy winning its first six games of the 2024 season and are currently 8-3.

Navy will wrap up the much-improved campaign with two games that Newberry considers bowl games.

First, the Midshipmen will battle service-academy rival Army on Saturday at Northwest Stadium in Landover, MD. Then, just two weeks later, they’ll face the Sooners.

It’s an unconventional situation for Army and Navy, as both are bowl eligible this year. But Newberry thinks it’s one that could make his team better.

“There’s one thing on our kids’ minds right now, and once that gets accomplished, we’ll get excited about playing in this bowl game,” Newberry said.

Like fellow service academies Army and Air Force, the Midshipmen run a version of the triple-option on offense. 

With the service academy athletic department facing challenges — like prohibition of NIL for student-athletes and the inability to acquire athletes from the transfer portal — Newberry cited the “need to be different” in order for them to have success.

That starts with their offense and also affects how they play on defense.

“We have a unique system, and we want to be extremely hard to prepare for,” Newberry said. “What sets us apart (defensively) is how we do it with the intangibles and the fantastic young men in our program.”

While Newberry still considers himself to be a Sooners fan, the coach admitted that he doesn’t get to follow OU sports as closely as he used to.

Still, Newberry has watched a handful of Brent Venables-led Oklahoma games throughout the years and even studied how Venables coaches.

“I’ve always admired how hard he has kids play,” Newberry said. “Him and I are alike in our philosophy. I’ve studied him in the past, the offseason. I have a ton of respect for them.”

Win or lose, Newberry sees so many positives about playing in the Armed Forces Bowl.

Navy has 30 players on its 2024 squad from Texas, where the bowl game will be held. The Midshipmen also have a history in the military-themed game, playing in it twice with a 1-1 record. And it’s a historic postseason game for the Midshipmen, as they haven’t played a bowl game against an SEC foe since the 1954 Sugar Bowl, when they beat Ole Miss.

Between those things and Newberry’s history with — and love for — the Sooners, this game will be a highlight of his young head coaching career.

“No better place to go and no better team to do it against,” Newberry said. “To do it in Texas against a storied program like Oklahoma, it doesn’t get much better than that.”