“A lot of people around here probably look at the Army-Navy game as the game to watch,” Bowden said. “I just see opponents as teams. We play some teams that are a lot better than Navy.”
http://www.denverpost.com/colleges/ci_10860657
Quick! Rank these teams:
Temple
New Hampshire
Akron
Texas A&M
Tulane
Eastern Michigan
Buffalo
Louisiana Tech
Air Force
Rice
Rutgers
Navy
The Birddog 
Let’s see…just a stab.
Navy
Air Force
Rutgers
Rice
Buffalo
Texas A&M
Tulane
New Hampshire
Akron
Temple
Louisiana Tech
Eastern Michigan
Navy
AF
Rutgers
Rest are all unranked and stink.
Ah – to go back to those good old days at the academy when I knew EVERYHING (especially youngster year)!
I’ll rank them from Bowden’s perspective:
Temple (Lost to them 35-7)
Akron (Lost 22-3)
New Hamphire (Lost 28-10)
A & M (Lost 21-17)
Buffalo (Lost 27-24)
E. Mich (Diff win – 17-13)
La. Tech (Another tough win 14-7)
Tulane (Easy win 44-13)
Air Force (not yet played but they are 6-2)
Rice (not yet played 5-3)
Navy (not yet played 5-3 – can’t be as good as a Texas team)
Rutgers (not yet played 3-5)
See how easy it is when you know everything!
navy
af
a&m
rice
buff
tulane
temp
l tech
akron
e mich ,nh. id put army in the bottom 3rd
Perhaps he was misquoted? “I just see opponents as teams. We play some teams that are a lot better than Navy at passing the ball.”
Maybe he meant in the future? Well, this is their 2009 schedule:
Sept. 5 at Eastern Michigan
Sept. 12 DUKE
Sept. 19 BALL STATE
Sept. 26 at Iowa State
Oct. 3 TULANE
Oct. 10 VANDERBILT
Oct. 17 at Temple
Oct. 24 RUTGERS
Nov. 7 at Air Force
Nov. 14 VMI
Nov. 21 at North Texas
Dec. 5 vs. Navy
Army has become Air Force.
Navy
Rutgers
Air Force
Buffalo
Texas A&M
Rice
Tulane
Akron
Temple
New Hampshire
Louisiana Tech
Eastern Michigan
Navy
Rice (may be high, haven’t seen them this year; in an unrelated note, I was disappointed to see them give up on the wings on the helmet)
Rutgers
AF
A&M
La Tech
Temple
E Michigan
Akron
New Hampshire
Tulane
Buffalo
Just a quick guess:
Navy
Air Force
Rutgers
Rice
Akron
Buffalo
New Hampshire
Temple
Louisiana Tech
Texas Tech
Tulane
Eastern Michigan
To be totally impartial….Sagarin ratings: 1. AF (43) 2. Navy (44) 3. Rutgers (58) 4. Rice (73) 4. Buffalo (84) 5. Temple (87) 6. Akron (91) 7. Texas AM (95) 8. NH (99) 9. L Tech (115) 10. Tulane (129) 11. E. Mich (137)
It looks like Army is just getting into the teeth of their “tough” schedule. Welcome to the jungle!
oops two #4’s but you get the idea…
To – Midwatchcowboy
Looking at next year’s schedule, Army could be 0-9 when they play VMI. Then again, perhaps they will learn to play the option and be 9-0. Ain’t college football grand!
For Army next year, 7-5 would be a very good result.
I’m glad Navy players seem to understand (hopefully) they need to play well instead of “say well” every week, just to have a chance to win. I think the “stupidest” thing said by a Navy player lately was Kyle Eckel saying ND was more important than Army. That ain’t to bad.
ain’t too bad
urghh…BOWDEN!
isn’t too bad
With the 16 -7 loss to Air Force on Saturday, I’ve moved them up to #4 (just below New Hampshire) on the “Bowden perspective” ranking of the teams that Army plays.
Sagarin ratings: 1. AF (43) 2. Navy (44)
Off topic: Is anyone else annoyed to see Navy ranked by Sagarin behind AF the past few years when Navy has beaten AF straight up 6 straight years?