Author: Mike

ON TO MARYLAND

On By MikeIn navy football28 Comments

The football team has wrapped up fall camp and has moved on to game preparation for Maryland, so it’s only natural that I should do the same. Today’s Maryland question:

Should Navy and Maryland play every year?

It seems like such a no-brainer for the Mids and the Terps to face off every year. The two schools are only 20 miles apart, so if nothing else they’d save on travel costs. Both coaches seem to be on board with the idea:

“I think it’s huge – especially for us,” Maryland Head Coach Ralph Friedgen said of a rivalry. “I know Navy is a big rival with Army. But to have an in-state rival, I think it just helps the whole state.

“I think it just brings the whole state together and having it in Baltimore just accentuates that. … I think anybody that went last time will want to come back this year because they know it’s going to be a great show.”

“We need to play more,” Niumatalolo said. “We’ve got two great institutions that are so close together. There’s a history involved. Hopefully we can continue this series going on.”

Coach Niumatalolo is right in that there is a history here, although most of that history revolves around the fact that Navy and Maryland haven’t played each other very much. We all know the story; Jerry Fishman has a couple of late hits that draw boos from the Brigade, the Brigade gets into Fishman’s head, and Fishman gives the Brigade the finger. </series> for the next 40 years. The two teams finally met again in 2005– much to the chagrin of Fishman, who seems to resent being reduced now to a historical footnote (as evidenced by his somewhat pathetic attempt to buy his way onto the field before the game). While Fishman relished being the guy that ended the series, in reality his act was just the last in what was already a contentious relationship between the two schools.

Navy-Maryland wasn’t an annual game even before the series went on hiatus. In the nascent days of Maryland football, the Mids would occasionally use the Aggies (as they were known at the time) as a tune-up for games against the Ivy League powerhouses on their schedule. They would also run up the score, including a 76-0 trouncing in 1913. The games became more competitive in the 1930s as Maryland grew. In 1934, a late Slade Cutter field goal gave Navy a 16-13 win. Maryland protested the game, however, after their coaches watched film and accused Navy of using an illegal play. That led to the first break in the series; this time, it was Maryland that refused to play Navy for 16 years. A last-minute schedule opening brought the teams back together in 1950, and the series continued off and on for a few more games marked by rough play on the field and mischief off of it. Navy’s 19-7 win in 1965 would be the last time the Terps and Mids shared the same football field until coming together in Baltimore in 2005. Now, with a second meeting in six years, it appears that bygones are bygones. Well, sort of. Even this game seemed to be on the verge of falling through after Debbie Yow’s brinkmanship. But Yow is now the athletic director at North Carolina State, and her departure has led to an apparent thaw in the schools’ relationship. The handshakes and smiles make it seem likely that more Navy-Maryland games are in our future. How many is a matter of speculation.

There’s no doubt that playing Maryland is fun. M&T Bank Stadium will be packed, and both schools will reap the financial rewards from ticket sales and television. Navy’s season ticket sales even see a bump when they can add marquee games in Baltimore to the package. I’m not sure that’s enough to justify an annual meeting, though.

Coach Friedgen talks about the appeal of playing an in-state rival, and he’s right. Rivalry games energize fans and get them excited about both programs. Unfortunately for Maryland, they don’t have a natural rival. Virginia and West Virginia sort of fit the bill, but they both have bigger rivalries with other schools. Virginia fans might not like Maryland, but Virginia Tech is the game they circle on their calendar. The same goes for West Virginia and Pitt. Things wouldn’t be any different with Navy, obviously, since Army, Notre Dame, and Air Force will always get top billing on the Mids’ schedule. Perhaps the thinking is that there might be a little added spice due to the schools’ proximity. Other than fitting the geographic criteria, though, Navy and Maryland don’t exactly fit the in-state rival profile. Navy fans come from all over the country, spend four years in Annapolis, then go back out all over the world. This isn’t a situation where both teams’ fans pick a side at birth and spend a lifetime sparring with neighbors who chose the other side. Rivalries that don’t evolve out of that kind of grassroots origin are usually the product of the same kind of bad blood that got this series cancelled to begin with.

Still, even if the Navy-Maryland series doesn’t turn into everything that Coach Friedgen envisions, the financial reasons alone would probably be worth it for Maryland. Navy’s situation, on the other hand, is a little more complicated. The Mids are already locked into annual games against Notre Dame, the other two service academies, and soon, SMU. One could argue that Maryland has more appeal than SMU, but Navy tries to play a Texas team in most years for recruiting purposes anyway. Add the Terps to that list, and nearly half of Navy’s schedule would be set each year. One of the advantages that Navy gets from being independent is scheduling flexibility. They can schedule whatever games they see fit for recruiting, money, and competitive balance. The more games that Navy commits to, the less flexibility they have. That’s especially true when scheduling a BCS team like Maryland that has resources and a recruiting pool that no service academy can match. That doesn’t mean that Navy can’t beat Maryland, but it does mean that in most years, they won’t be favored. Notre Dame is already on the schedule. Does it really make sense to make the schedule any more of an uphill battle than it has to be?

Perhaps there will come a time when Navy doesn’t have a choice. The Army-Navy game has been the program’s golden goose for years, but ratings have been declining. They improved after the game was moved back a week in order to once again have a Saturday to itself, but now there’s nowhere else for it to go. If networks aren’t willing to pay as much for the game’s television rights, Navy will have to find some other way to generate that revenue. This summer’s conference expansion bonanza showed us how much money other schools are making from television. Navy might have to find additional revenue streams just to remain competitive, regardless of what happens to the Army-Navy game. Maybe that’s already happening, with big-money games against Penn State, South Carolina, and Ohio State on the horizon.

We can cross that bridge when we come to it. I like playing Maryland, but it might be best to only schedule them every 3-4 years or so. That way, every class has a chance to square off against the Terps, but the Mids aren’t stuck with a scheduling albatross.

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE

On By MikeIn air farce, conference talk, football18 Comments

There’s no way this is happening, is there? There can’t possibly be anything to this story, right?

I have a very hard time believing that the official Colorado State football Twitter account would be the one to break a story like this, so I’m not setting off fireworks in the street just yet. But on the off chance that this is true, Navy should play BYU every year (a la Notre Dame) out of gratitude for the sheer entertainment that will come from watching the ensuing Air Force meltdown.

ANALYZING THE HYPERBOLE

On By MikeIn air farce, army, football, navy football12 Comments

Troy Calhoun called this year’s Air Force schedule “the strongest a service academy has played in decades.” With Oklahoma and the Mountain West’s big three, there are definitely some strong teams on there. But the strongest schedule in decades? I don’t think so. I’m not even sure it’s the toughest Air Force schedule in decades, let alone the toughest among all 3 service academies. I doubt Calhoun looked them up before making that comment, anyway. But just to kill time, we will. So which of these was the toughest service academy schedule of the last 3 decades?

1980 Air Force: at Colorado State, at Washington, San Diego State, at Illinois, at Yale, Navy, at Tulane, Boston College, at Army, at Notre Dame, at Hawaii

1982 Air Force: at Tulsa, San Diego State, at Texas Tech, at BYU, New Mexico, Navy, Colorado State, at UTEP, Wyoming, at Army, Notre Dame, at Hawaii

2006 Air Force: at Tennessee, at Wyoming, New Mexico, Navy, Colorado State, at San Diego State, BYU, at Army, Notre Dame, Utah, at UNLV, at TCU

1998 Army: Miami (OH), Cincinnati, at Rutgers, at East Carolina, at Houston, Southern Miss, at Notre Dame, Air Force, Tulane, at Louisville, Navy

2005 Army: at Boston College, Baylor, Iowa State, UConn, Central Michigan, at TCU, at Akron, at Air Force, UMass, Arkansas State, Navy

2007 Army: Akron, Rhode Island, at Wake Forest, at Boston College, Temple, Tulane, at Central Michigan, at Georgia Tech, at Air Force, Rutgers, Tulsa, Navy

1982 Navy: Virginia, at Arkansas, Boston College, at Duke, at Air Force, William & Mary, The Citadel, Notre Dame, at Syracuse, at South Carolina, Army

1984 Navy: at UNC, Virginia, at Arkansas, at Air Force, Lehigh, Princeton, at Pitt, Notre Dame, at Syracuse, South Carolina, Army

2000 Navy: Temple, at Georgia Tech, at Boston College, TCU, at Air Force, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Toledo, at Tulane, Wake Forest, Army

THE STATE OF SERVICE ACADEMY FOOTBALL: AIR FORCE

On By MikeIn air farce, football50 Comments

I said in my post on Army’s football program that even if the team isn’t as good as some people think they are, they finally have some stability and are moving in the right direction. What do I mean by instability? Over the past decade, Army has been in and out of Conference USA, had to scramble to fill an independent’s schedule in 2005, seen the Alternative Service Option come and go, went through two athletic directors, and labored under four head coaches (five if you count John Mumford’s half-season interim stint in 2003). Now, with winnable games on the schedule and a coach that the school is committed to, Army has a chance to get better. That certainly doesn’t guarantee success, and there is a lot of work to be done; but changing the environment was the first step on the road to recovery.

Stability has never been much of a concern for Air Force, which over the years has been the most rock-steady of the service academies. While Army technically had 5 head coaches in the last decade, Air Force has had 5 head coaches since 1958, including 23 years under Fisher DeBerry. When Ken Hatfield left, Air Force hired DeBerry, one of Hatfield’s assistants. When DeBerry retired, Air Force hired Troy Calhoun, one of DeBerry’s former players. Not surprisingly, neither strayed far from their predecessors’ formulas. 2009 was Air Force’s also 30th year as a conference member, having joined the WAC in 1980. Even when the Mountain West rocked the boat and split from that conference in 1999, all it really did was re-create the WAC that Air Force originally joined. Air Force is stable even in ways they don’t necessarily want to be; with 8 conference games plus Army and Navy, they have pretty much the same schedule every year. They’ve finished 8-5 in back-to-back seasons, played in the same bowl game 3 years in a row, and even faced the same opponent in those bowl games the last two seasons. Things haven’t changed much in the land of bus driver blue.

Continue reading “THE STATE OF SERVICE ACADEMY FOOTBALL: AIR FORCE” →

THE WORLD’S FASTEST SAMOAN

On By MikeIn Ken Niumatalolo, navy football20 Comments

Coach Niumat pulls 7 Gs in the back seat of a Hornet, smiles, and shows us his war face. I do one Immelman in a T-34, whimper, and regret having corn chips* with lunch. This is a splendid illustration of the difference between a DAGGONE PACK OF HYENAS FOOTBALL COACH and the average blogging internet nerd.

*Seriously, corn chip barf has a high viscosity; less like the gazpacho-ish consistency of my usual upchuckings and more like a paste. It burns the nose and smells like acrid dog feet.

BECAUSE WHO WANTS ORIGINAL THOUGHTS?

On By MikeIn e-beef, football11 Comments

Paul Finebaum says that it’s time to kick Vanderbilt out of the SEC. Why, you ask? Because they aren’t good, and their new head coach is entertaining. I didn’t think that anyone actually yearned for hard-hiting media day coaching insight like “well we just have to score more points than the other guys,” but apparently I was wrong. Heaven forbid a coach shows a little personality. Of course, since most coaches are cyborgs that give the same answers to the same questions they receive every media day, you can just recycle the same stories every year. Robbie Caldwell and his “free thinking” and “honest answers” just create more work for everybody. And that’s “insulting.” MEDIA DAYS: SERIOUS BUSINESS

As for the rest, one can’t help but be reminded of this.

THE STATE OF SERVICE ACADEMY FOOTBALL: ARMY

On By MikeIn army, football24 Comments

During the offseason, I like to take a step back and look at how each service academy program is doing relative to each other and the college football world in general. A “state of the union” of sorts. First on the list: Army.

The Navy is a complicated profession. There are so many different elements one must master in order to succeed, from understanding the different culture, to leading people, to the finer points of individual warfare specialties. After all, it is by no means enough that an officer of the Navy should be a capable mariner. He must be that, of course, but also a great deal more. Or so I’ve been told. With so much to remember, sailors have passed down various sayings and mnemonic devices to guide them through the years. There’s “choose your rate, choose your fate”– sage advice for the junior enlisted sailor to be educated about what exactly his chosen career path entails. Conning officers across the Fleet depend on “red right returning” to keep their ships in the channel (if you’re about to leave a comment about IALA-A, you’re a nerd). Even cynics have their reminder to Never Again Volunteer Yourself. There are no cynics in Annapolis, obviously, and “IHTFP” has helped generations of midshipmen express their boundless joy.

Not all of these memory aids are unique to the Navy, or even to nautical life. A more common expression that’s a favorite among officers–and one that I’ve always hated– is “perception is reality.” It’s not that it’s bad advice. The problem is that some people become so attached to these little one-liners that they won’t listen to anything else. While it’s helpful to remember the importance of image consciousness, most issues are far more complex than the way they appear to the outside world. It’s one thing to acknowledge the old “perception is reality” axiom, but to end the conversation there would be to defer to the knee-jerk reactions of the uninformed on any matter of importance. Perception is truly reality only to those who don’t care enough about something to take the time to dig any deeper.

Continue reading “THE STATE OF SERVICE ACADEMY FOOTBALL: ARMY” →

THE GB&U, 7/21

On By MikeIn Garbage, those lousy set-asides6 Comments

The Good: Blatant Homerism’s excellent Dobbs for Heisman campaign continues with a pair of podcasts. First, he talks to Heisman Pundit writer Chris Huston about the award in general, including Ricky’s chances. In the second podcast, he interviews the man himself.

Adam Nettina conducted his own interview of Huston here.

Speaking of notorious set-asides like Ricky Dobbs, he’s been nominated for the American Football Coaches’ Association Good Works Team. One more black eye for Canoe U.

The Bad: The new NCAA Tournament format, if you ask Billy Lange. And if you were a head coach in the Patriot League looking at a tournament with four auto-bid teams going to play-in games, you’d probably say the same thing. John Feinstein says that while the new 68-team tournament could have been worse, that’s a far cry from saying that it’s better.

The Good Again: Since we’re on the topic of basketball… The Naval Academy doesn’t announce its new class of athletic recruits until after I-Day, since incoming athletes don’t sign LOIs and therefore have nothing binding them to the school until they’re actually enrolled. That means that even though we’re gearing up for football season, we also get our first official look at the new class in every other sport at the same time. Billy Lange talked with the Sun’s Matt Bracken in pretty good detail about Navy’s incoming basketball class and how they’ll fit into the big picture.

The Ugly: This week has served as a reminder as to why athletic departments have compliance directors. It can be really, really easy to commit a violation. Florida and Ole Miss coaches also got a slap on the wrist for writing on recruits’ Facebook walls. Far more serious for Florida, though, are the allegations that Maurkice Pouncey was paid $100K by an agent prior to the Gators’ Sugar Bowl appearance. The NCAA is apparently cracking down in the wake of the USC/Reggie Bush investigation, because Florida isn’t alone; similar stories are coming out of South Carolina, North Carolina, and Alabama. For the record, Pouncey says that he received no such payment.

I usually have no problem reveling in the DAMN DIRTY CHEATING SEC talk that usually follows such stories, but it’s hard to point fingers at these schools when agents are essentially predators hunting their players. You can educate your players, but those lessons can be hard for them to remember when someone is waving thousands of dollars in their faces.

The Case Study: Vanderbilt head coach Bobby Johnson stepped down after 8 years in Nashville. For spread option fans, Johnson is an interesting case study. No coach has faced Paul Johnson’s offense more. Not only is Bobby the only head coach to have faced Paul at Georgia Southern, Navy, and Georgia Tech, but they also squared off as coordinators in the 1985 I-AA title game. There will probably be a blog post on this in the future.

The Poetry: You all know of my fondness for haiku.

The Industry: I’m fascinated by the newspaper industry. I enjoy getting glimpses into how the news world works. Knowing how things operate leads to more educated criticism, which helps if you want your lousy blogger opinion to be taken serously by anyone. HAHA WHO AM I KIDDING WE DON’T CARE IF WE’RE INFORMED THIS IS THE INTERNET. There were a pair of boomshakalaka haymakers thrown this week. First, we have Pete Pelegrin’s parting shot as he left the Miami Herald and the FIU sports beat. Then there was Jason Whitlock’s piledriver on Mitch Albom and the newspaper industry in general, which I hesitate to link because I’m pretty sure half my readers like Mitch Albom. My willingness to alienate all of you is second only to my work ethic when it comes to reasons why I will never be paid to write this blog.

The Air Farce: Pre-Snap Read looks at Team Jesus Christ in his countdown.

The Chargers: As much as I want to believe this study on Petco Park’s economic benefits, the critics make some good points.

The iPod: Liz Phair– May Queen

The Padres: Having swept them to start the second half of the season, the Arizona Diamondbacks are the cure for what ails you. Unless you sneeze.