Elijah Merchant and Sean Williams find themselves in the odd position of having made their first career starts, performing quite well and winding up back on the bench for the next game.
Merchant and Williams were the starting cornerbacks for Navy in the season opener against Colgate. Both youngsters earned praise from multiple coaches for their performance as they combined for 10 tackles and two pass breakups.
"I thought those two guys stepped up and played really, really hard," Navy secondary coach Dan O'Brien said of Merchant and Williams.
Merchant was second on the squad with six tackles versus the Raiders.