Author: Mike

THE BIRDDOG HALL OF AWESOME: CHRIS MCCOY

On By MikeIn Hall of Awesome, navy football25 Comments

Who’s the best Navy quarterback to run the spread option? Among the old tales being retold when two or three of us meet, that’s a fairly common one. Some point to Kaipo’s grasp of the finer points of the offense. Some point to Craig Candeto’s leadership or Ricky Dobbs’ passing and toughness. Others remind us that the team went 10-2 behind Aaron Polanco. My moment of clarity came as I was scanning through the postgame media notes handed out following the Mids’ 38-37  win over Central Michigan in 2010. Kriss Proctor started that game in place of an injured Dobbs, and did so in grand fashion, running for 201 yards on only 20 carries. One of the notes was on the ten best rushing performances by a quarterback in Navy history. Kriss was on the list, as was Alton Grizzard, Ricky Dobbs, Brian Broadwater, and Brian Madden. There was one player, though, who claimed half of the list all for himself.  Five of the ten best QB rushing performances in Navy history (including #1 and #2) were turned in by Chris McCoy.

McCoy started his first game as a sophomore against SMU in 1995. I was a plebe that year, and as such I was forced to make a bet on the game. My second class wanted me to lay a “motivational” 99 points for Navy, since I was in the class of 1999. That didn’t seem very sporting to me, so I offered a compromise of taking Navy -28 instead, since we were in the 28th company. He graciously accepted, figuring it was almost as safe a bet given Navy’s recent football fortunes. The Mids won that game 33-2, led by McCoy and his 273 rushing yards. I won my bet and had my floor waxed. Chris McCoy earned himself the undying gratitude of a mediocre plebe.

As a runner, McCoy was a special talent. Nowadays, the only time we see a quarterback sweep is when the backup is in the game and the coaches are trying to run out the clock. With Chris McCoy, that play was a staple of the offense; anything to get him out into space with the ball. He was the master of turning sideways and scooting through a hole in the line, and nobody was better at the fake pitch. As a passer, McCoy wasn’t great, but he was better than a lot of people remember and made some huge plays with his arm.

He ran for 273 yards in his first game, and capped his career by running for 201 yards against Army. In between, he was a big part of making Navy football a lot of fun for one lifelong fan in the Brigade. For that, he is granted entry into the Birddog Hall of Awesome.

Links 5/18

On By MikeIn conference talk, navy football, navy sports, patriot league1 Comment

— Filed under “obviously we all know nothing about anything,” SMU fired AD (and former Navy associate AD) Steve Orsini. As an outsider, the move is a bit of a shock since it appears on the surface that all of SMU’s athletic vectors are up. This is one of those things reminding us that when all we know is what’s on the surface, we don’t really know anything at all. One writer in Fort Worth panders to his audience by wondering if TCU’s successes influenced the move. Kate Hairopoulos reports the far more likely scenario that it was more about clashes with SMU’s president, R. Gerald Turner. Whatever the reason, I can’t imagine that Orsini will be out of a job for long.

— It’s official: Old Dominion is joining Conference USA. As Navy people, a lot of us have spent considerable time in & around Norfolk and are quite familiar with ODU. This is crazy! In a good way, though. I’ve only recently become used to the idea of the Monarchs having a football team. But a I-A team? Bananas. I’d say to get them on the schedule, but that’ll be hard to do once Navy is in the Big East. But it HAS to happen, right? Meanwhile, Pete Medhurst wonders what it means for the future of the CAA.

— Pre-Snap Read continues with its look at every I-A program, including Navy opponents Central Michigan and Troy (plus a bit more on Troy).

— I’m telling you, it’s consolidation.

— Lafayette lacrosse coach Terry Mangan resigned. The Leopards had half of a good season in 2010. That’s about it.

— A life well lived.

— Finally, I will be a guest on the Three Point Stance show tomorrow, talking Navy and the Big East and whatever else comes up. It’s archived afterwards, so you don’t need to plan your Saturday night around me. Because you know you were totally thinking about it.

Links 5/17

On By MikeIn navy football, navy sportsLeave a comment

— If I was going to steal money from Maryland taxpayers, I’d probably buy Navy season tickets too!

— Some recruiting bits here and here.

— CollegeSwimming.com has some accolades for Navy assistant coach Rob Lias.

— Press Box has a blurb on local football programs, and PennLive.com has a Navy preview from a Penn State perspective. Neither is all that profound, but at least it isn’t more conference expansion stuff.

Expanding the Expansion Update

On By MikeIn Big East, conference talk1 Comment

As Andy mentioned this morning, San Diego State is lobbying the Big West on Boise State’s behalf as the Broncos search for a home for sports other than football. The conference is at least willing to listen, but it’s far from a done deal. Hopefully this effort gains some traction so the Big East can get past this hurdle and move into television negotiations without any lingering membership issues.

Continue reading “Expanding the Expansion Update” →

I’M SURE THEY’D LOVE TO, BUT…

On By MikeIn Big EastLeave a comment

Andrea Adelson blogged on Friday that the Big East needs to step up its PR game:

At a time when the Big East has lost its automatic qualifying status, it needs somebody to vociferously defend the league, to explain why the league deserves an equal share of the BCS revenue pie as the Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, SEC and Pac-12. Someone to beat the Big East drum; to make every attempt possible to let an entire nation know that the ACC is not better than the Big East when it comes to BCS performance.

Nobody in the Big East has even attempted to make this case. Or to provide a breakdown of how the Big East has done vs. the ACC in the BCS. It should be an absolute outrage that the Big East is teetering on the brink of being left out of the big BCS money. Why? Going back to the first BCS game in 1999, the ACC is 2-13 all-time; The Big East is 8-6.

It’s a nice pep talk for the Big East, which is something of a surprise coming from an ESPN entity. However, it’s hard for the Big East to make the kind of PR push that Adelson is calling for when the future of conference expansion (and by extension, Big East membership) is still unclear. While most conferences seem content at the moment, the Big 12 has a new commissioner and may or may not be looking to get back to 12 teams. Louisville and Cincinnati have been rumored as potential Big 12 targets for a while now, but with the recent $200 million/year agreement that the conference has made with ESPN & Fox , it’s hard to imagine either of those schools adding value to the deal.  It’s not surprising, then, that most rumors have involved the Big 12 poaching the ACC instead, with Florida State, Clemson, and Virginia Tech as the latest targets of wild speculation. And make no mistake– right now it really is just wild speculation. The Big 12 hasn’t made any public indication that it’s looking to expand. At this point the only thing revealed as a result of these rumors is just how dysfunctional the leadership is at Florida State. Even if it’s just speculation at this point, it’s still reason to be nervous; if the ACC is raided, they are sure to respond by poaching the Big East yet again. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that. If TV is the biggest driver in conference realignment, it doesn’t make much sense for ESPN to weaken a conference it owns the rights to while strengthening a conference that it shares with Fox.

If it’s just left alone for once, the new Big East could still put together a very lucrative television deal. It’s just hard to move into the future when the dark cloud of uncertainty is hanging over your head. Pray that the Big 12 is content with its already huge TV deal so that we can move into our own negotiations with what should be a very good football & basketball package.

MUSICAL COMMISSIONERS

On By MikeIn Big EastLeave a comment

I’m sure that by now you all have heard that John Marinatto has resigned as the Big East’s commissioner. My news and Twitter feeds have been overflowing all week with stories and comments about how messed up the Big East is, and maybe it’s true for all I know. I don’t see how this (presumably) forced resignation is evidence of that, though. If the league presidents want to move in a different direction, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re moving in opposite directions.

Anyway, Marinatto seems to be taking a lot of the blame for the loss of Pitt, Syracuse, and West Virginia. I’m not sure what exactly anyone expected him to do to stop it. Some argue that the Big East should’ve taken ESPN’s offer for their TV rights, which would have brought stability to the league. But it was Marinatto coaxed that offer from ESPN in the first place. He didn’t turn it down; the university presidents did, including Pitt’s. Some argue that if he was more aggressive in expansion, the league might have stayed together. But he was aggressive in expansion. TCU was on board, and he went after the service academies and UCF, with the latter being shot down by USF’s president. Syracuse and Pitt left anyway. It’s not like the conference was going to bring in any bigger names than that without the Big 12 falling apart. The conference took its lumps, and now it’s moving on.

Continue reading “MUSICAL COMMISSIONERS” →

LADIES DOIN’ WORK

On By MikeIn navy sports3 Comments

The women’s lacrosse team beating Oregon on Saturday to clinch a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the third straight season is one more accolade in what has been a banner year for women’s sports at USNA. The team is 18-2 and went undefeated in conference play, winning their third Patriot League title in only their fifth varsity season. The other upstart women’s team, tennis, finished 20-3 and advanced to the conference finals in their third varsity season. The women’s track team just won the Patriot League championship on Saturday, while the crew team placed second the week before. The basketball team advanced to the NCAA tournament after winning their second straight Patriot League tournament. The soccer team completed another winning season, finishing 13-6-3 and advancing to the Patriot League tournament final. The swimming & diving team set a meet record in winning the Patriot League before moving on to their first ECAC championship. The cross country team won the Patriot League championship and placed 7th at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship, their highest finish since 2000. Our cup runneth over.

That’s a good thing, not just as a fan, but because it’s important to the school that Navy’s women’s programs have success. In order to attract high-achieving women to USNA, it’s vital to show that they can excel in an environment that has traditionally been more appealing to men. Individual women are themselves the best recruiting tool as they go out into the fleet and have successful careers, but athletics are another highly visible way to demonstrate overall kick-assness. Navy’s ladies are doing just that, putting together what might be the most successful year for women’s athletics in service academy history.

I’m not going to look it up. Let’s just accept it as fact and brag about it.

SOME CHATTER

On By MikeIn conference talk, football, navy sports2 Comments

A few things to discuss:

— The conference expansion gong show continues. Moving on from its failed merger with the Mountain West, Conference USA is adding five teams: North Texas, FIU, Louisiana Tech, UTSA, and UNC-Charlotte. Old Dominion also reportedly has an invite, but is mulling things over. The Sun Belt added Texas State and Georgia State to make up for its losses. In a move that was long anticipated, San Jose State and Utah State made their way to the Mountain West.

The departure of Louisiana Tech, UTSA, Texas State, SJSU, and Utah State on top of those that have already left means that the WAC is pretty much dead as a football conference. Only Idaho and New Mexico State remain, and the future looks pretty bleak for them as those two might be the first casualties of the haves-have nots divide. Even if they intend to find a way to survive in I-A, how on earth will these guys be able to recruit? Who’s going to want to sign on for four years when they can’t be sure that there will even be a program in four years? Expect a lot of JUCO transfers for the Aggies and Vandals in the near future.

Paul Meyerberg sums it up:

As someone who grew up watching Hawaii and epic BYU-San Diego State shootouts, seeing the WAC go is a sad thing, even if those days were already long gone. There was a lot of innovation in that league, from Air Coryell, to the spread option, to the 3-3-5 defense. Even the modern WAC was fun to watch, with Pat Hill’s take-on-all-comers Fresno State teams, Boise State’s rise to the national spotlight, and Hawaii’s run & shoot for those of us who wanted our college football Saturdays to stretch into Sunday morning. Those programs are still around, but having them all in one crazy package made for a good time. Of course, the Mountain West is basically the nuWAC now, so maybe some sense of the spirit of the WAC will live on for a little while longer, just with a stupider logo.

For those of us who have been stationed in Norfolk or have been long-time residents… ODU MIGHT BE PLAYING FOOTBALL IN C-USA. How bonkers is that?

— Speaking of the Mountain West, they released their hodgepodge national television schedule yesterday. Of note is that Navy will be playing Air Force on CBS again (cool), but at 9:30 a.m. local time (lollerskates). Crazy early start times and midweek games were a driving factor for the MWC in leaving ESPN and starting their own network, but I guess beggars can’t be choosers at this point. CBS Sports Network owns the conference’s rights, but “will sub-license games to NBC Sports Network and ESPN” according to the release. Judging by television appearances, the Mountain West is made up of Boise State and the nine dwarves, with the Broncos getting 10 of their games picked up under this arrangement. The announcement includes games like Boise State at Michigan State and Air Force at Army that aren’t part of the Mountain West package, but rather the respective home teams’ TV deal. Not on the list is Air Force’s game at Michigan on Sept. 8, which will definitely be televised. It might end up on ESPN, although looking at the Big Ten schedule that week there’s a chance it’ll be on the Big Ten Network instead. Teams will be forced to look for local TV coverage for the rest of the conference’s games.

— Don’t forget the women’s lax game vs. Oregon on Saturday, which will be streamed live online for free.

THE DRAFT POST

On By MikeIn navy football1 Comment

Here’s the list of past Navy opponents taken in this year’s NFL draft:

Round 1

Stephon Gilmore – CB – South Carolina
Michael Floyd – WR – Notre Dame
Melvin Ingram – DE – South Carolina
Harrison Smith – S – Notre Dame

Round 2

Alshon Jeffrey – WR – South Carolina
Mike Adams – T – Ohio State*

Round 3

Ronnie Hillman – RB – San Diego State
DeVier Posey – WR – Ohio State
Josh LeRibeus – G – SMU
Demario Davis – LB – Arkansas State
Michael Egnew – TE – Missouri
Mohamed Sanu – WR – Rutgers
Bernard Pierce – RB – Temple
Lamar Holmes – T – Southern Miss

Round 4

Chris Givens – WR – Wake Forest
Gino Gradkowski – G – Delaware
Evan Rodriguez – TE – Temple
Kyle Wilber – LB – Wake Forest
Joe Looney – G – Wake Forest
Miles Burris – LB – San Diego State

Round 5

Tahir Whitehead – LB – Temple
Robert Blanton – CB – Notre Dame
Taylor Thompson – TE – SMU**
Rokevious Watkins – T – South Carolina
Jonathan Massaquoi – DE – Troy
Darius Fleming – LB – Notre Dame

Round 6

Ryan Lindley – QB – San Diego State
Josh Bush – S – Wake Forest
Dan Herron – RB – Ohio State
Nate Ebner – DB – Ohio State

Round 7

Aaron Brown – LB – Hawaii*
Richard Crawford – DB – SMU
Jerome Long – DT – San Diego State
Antonio Allen – S – South Carolina
Kelvin Beachum – T – SMU
Travian Robertson – DT – South Carolina
Chandler Harnish – QB – Northern Illinois

*Did not appear against Navy in 2009 game

**Drafted as a TE but played defensive end in college