My fundraiser for the March of Dimes is wrapping up this weekend with the annual March for Babies. I set a modest goal to raise $500, and thanks to the generosity of all you guys, I’ve topped that by a comfortable margin. If anyone has been meaning to donate but putting it off, now’s your last chance! To those of you who have already donated, thank you. While the March of Dimes is universally known, it still says a lot about you that you’d be willing to donate to the cause of a stranger. I’m honored that people like you take the time to read my ranting.
Author: Mike
More Fallout
Thomas Hauser’s piece criticizing West Point’s NFL policy generated quite a stir. Enough that he was compelled to write a follow-up. It’s worth a read, although you’ve already heard most points on both sides of the issue. Some of his readers’ comments make me laugh. Among my favorites:
The decision to offer the alternative service option was made at very senior levels in the Army. Unlike you and I, these general officers are responsible for the accomplishment of the Academy’s mission. Every day, they balance competing priorities and resource constraints to meet the needs of the Army for a new class of West Point graduate lieutenants each May. Inspiring the best and brightest young Americans to seek an appointment to the Academy is part of that mission. If it takes a successful football program to do that, then so be it.
Remember kids, you aren’t responsible for the accomplishment of the Academy’s mission, so keep your opinions to yourself. There are generals making these decisions! And generals never make mistakes!
I also like the strawman about a “successful football program,” as if opposition to this policy equals a desire to see Army lose. Clearly, if a winning program is good, that must mean that anything done in the name of winning must also be good! Don’t argue with me. It’s science.
ESPN will air a piece on this new policy tonight on their E60 show, which is sort of their attempt at a 60 Minutes for sports.
The Weekend That Was
The weekend of the spring football game and the Hopkins lacrosse game is usually when I make my annual pilgrimage to Annapolis from my humble Florida home. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make the trip this year due to some emergency work issues. Bummer for me. Of course, after talking to a few people that did go, I’m not sure that my mood would be any better had I made the trip. Hopkins crushed the Mids, tacking another year onto their mind-boggling streak. The night before, Navy Blue defeated Navy Gold in a snoozer of a spring game. I suppose I’ll tackle the lacrosse game first.
The football team’s losing streak to Notre Dame was more high-profile, but I always thought that that Navy lacrosse’s losing streak to Johns Hopkins was far more perplexing. Navy and Notre Dame are on different planets when it comes to college football, but the delta between Navy and Hopkins lacrosse is much smaller. Sure, Hopkins still has all the advantages when it comes to recruiting against Navy and should win more than they lose against them, but the Mids are still a solid lacrosse program. Hell, if Navy hadn’t lost to Army, they’d have been ranked higher than Hopkins going into the game. You’d think that the law of averages would throw us a bone once in a while. But no, 33 games has now turned into 34, and Navy finds itself in a rather precarious position when it comes to getting an NCAA tournament bid. I wonder if John Feinstein thinks that Navy should stop playing those bullies from Hopkins. Anyway…
The game itself was a suck tsunami. The usually stout Navy defense seemed to have a great deal of difficulty with the Hopkins ride, leading to several turnovers. It probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference even if they were able to get the ball to the offense, though, since that unit continued to struggle. How many games have we watched this year where a graphic pops up on the screen to say “NAVY: NO GOALS SINCE 5:32 IN THE SECOND QUARTER” or “NAVY SCORING DROUGHT- 15:48” or something similar? Our offense just hasn’t cut it since we’ve entered the meat of the schedule. Navy has averaged a little more than 6 goals per game in regulation since the Bucknell game. You’re putting one hell of a load on your defense & goaltender if you’re asking them to hold some of these high-powered offenses to less than that. Being patient and setting up a quality shot is one thing, but what Navy is doing is a whole different ball of wax. The scoring opportunities aren’t developing, and it’s leading to desperation heaves from bad angles or shots from 20 yards away– both of which are easily saved by the opposing goalie.
All of that is easy for me to observe from my La-Z-Boy. Fixing the problem is a different issue. I have no answers. I just hope that the coaches see that there is a problem and can fix it.
Anyway, moving right along…
The spring game wasn’t exactly a suspense-filled drama. The first-teamers who made up the Blue team were for the most part, as Coach Niumat put it, just punching the clock. In contrast, the Gold team seemed to really be playing hard, but just didn’t have the horses to keep up. I’ll give my impressions of what I saw, but it’s important to keep everything in context. People make a big deal out of the spring game, but it really is just one practice out of 15, and nothing more. Anything we see, good or bad, may not be a reflection of reality. That said, it’s the only practice my Floridian ass gets to see, so here’s a bit of stream of consciousness to relay my observations.
– First off, congratulations are in order for next year’s team captains, Jarod Bryant and Clint Sovie. Craig Schaefer also gets a pat on the back for winning the VADM Mack award as the team’s most improved player of the spring. His swift rise up the linebacker depth chart made this one pretty easy to predict.
– The hit of the night came from Joey Taylor, the Gold team safety who stepped up in run support to bounce Greg Shinego to the ground on the sideline. The Gold team in general was hitting hard. Linebackers Trey Grissom and Tyler Simmons were everywhere in the first half. Especially Grissom, who got behind the line of scrimmage to make 3.5 tackles for a loss, including a sack. On the blue side, I thought Ram Vela played well. Corey Johnson made a couple of plays as well.
– It was tough to get a read on the defensive lines, because neither offensive line looked all that great. The Blue d-line spent a lot of time in the Gold backfield. Matt Nechak registered a sack. Nate Frazier only had one tackle, but he seemed to be wreacking havoc on the inside. Andy Lark struggled at center, especially in pass protection. He’s got a ways to go to be ready to back up Ricky Moore, who actually looked pretty good.
– Jarod Bryant looked terrific. He stepped up on the opening drive and marched the first-team offense down the field for an easy touchdown. His passing was clearly improved, as demonstrated by his 25-yard sideline bullet to Shun White that put the ball on the Gold 1-yard line. His running was great, but we already knew that. Most importantly, he also seemed to have pretty good command of the triple option. It was a great showing by next year’s offensive captain.
– Mixed reviews for the other quarterbacks. Greg Zingler and Joe Taylor both looked decent when they weren’t running for their lives– they usually were. Zingler probably had the play of the game, hitting Greg Jones in perfect stride for a 65-yard TD pass that was called back thanks to an illegal shift penalty. As for Ricky Dobbs, whether you feel good about him or feel a little nervous, you got some fuel to support your opinion. For the most part, Dobbs just didn’t look ready for prime time, fumbling twice and looking very tentative on his option reads. But on one busted play, Dobbs unleashed a barrage of moves that will keep Anne Arundel County’s ankle surgeons in business for at least another month. Ricky was able to reverse his direction and turned a doomed play into a 32-yard scamper down the right sideline that led to 1st and goal from the 4-yard line. It’s clear that the athletic ability is there. Now we just need to wait for the learning process.
– Kevin Campbell was the game’s leading rusher, although in all honesty I was a bit underwhelmed by his performance. He ran hard, but usually he ran hard straight into a pile. The difference between 2002 Kyle Eckel and 2003 Kyle Eckel was that while the former tried to move piles, the latter tried to avoid them. The same metamorphosis would work well for Campbell. He did show some good hands and quickness in turning a fullback screen into a 24-yard gain. I was very impressed with Vince Murray, who seemed to have a knack for finding open space. If there was a knock on him, I’d say that didn’t run with his pads low enough. Hopefully one of you more knowledgable readers can correct me if I’m off-base on that one.
– The A-backs didn’t get the ball into their hands very often, but they usually made it count when they did. Shun White led the way with 23 yards on 4 carries, plus that great catch on the pass from Bryant. Greg Shinego looked very quick on a 3rd quarter 12-yard run, and Andre Byrd, while not seemingly as fast as the other two, had a knack for making tacklers miss to gain some extra yards, plus a TD run. I have no idea if these guys were doing the right things without the ball, but in terms of their playmaking ability with the ball, my optimism is unchanged.
– Kyle Delahooke’s missed field goal was a little discouraging, but everyone seemed to punt the ball pretty well.
All in all, it was a typical spring game. Let’s be honest now… None of them are ever that exciting. Huge, huge props go to NAAA for putting it on All-Access. Pete & Omar, despite the audio difficulties, were very entertaining in calling the game. The next step is to wait for the last depth chart of the spring (if there will be one).
Ye Olde Wishbone Returneth
According to reports, Army is going back to the wishbone.
Despite his double-secret spring practices and a spring game that will only be a “defensive scrimmage,” Stan Brock’s plan to keep his new mystery offense under wraps has failed. Not that we have any details or anything, but at least the Army coaching staff’s renewed acquaintance with Jim Young has been explained.
 |
| The general attitude of Army fans at the moment. |
To Army fans, the wishbone is roughly analogous to Jesus Christ, Chuck Norris, Winston Churchill, the Emancipation Proclamation, Luke Skywalker, and penicillin all rolled into one. It’s the wonder drug. The messiah. The badass panacea that will cure all that is wrong with the football program. That’s because whatever football success that Army has had in the last 30 years came when the team was running a wishbone (or wishbone-ish) offense. The architect of those teams was Jim Young, the former Arizona and Purdue head coach who relieved Ed Cavanaugh as Army’s top dog in 1983. After losing 9 games in his first year, Young decided he needed to make a change on offense and installed the wishbone. The success was immediate. In 1984, Army went 8-3-1, won the Commander in Chief’s Trophy, stunned Tennessee with a 24-24 tie, and beat Michigan State in the now-defunct Cherry Bowl. Young won 49 games in seven years at Army after installing the wishbone.
The similarities between Young’s experiment and today’s Army team are pretty obvious. Cavanaugh coached Army for three years before Young was hired. Bobby Ross coached Army for 3 years before Stan Brock replaced him. Both Young and Brock used offenses similar to their predecessors’ in their first year. Both ended up with 9 losses that year. And now, Army is apparently switching to the wishbone once again. Optimism is sure to abound.
Hopefully, that optimism is kept in check. I think most Army fans would agree that duplicating the immediate success they saw under Young isn’t a reasonable expectation. But they all expect it to work before too long. It’s their dogma; the wishbone– or at least the triple option– is the path to service* academy football nirvana. After all, Ken Hatfield installed the wishbone at Air Force and resurrected that program after its doldrums of the ’70s. Fisher DeBerry used the basics of the same offense for two decades. Paul Johnson took Navy to 5 straight bowl games with his option offense. But service* academies have lost with the option as much as they’ve won with it. Elliot Uzelac ran the wishbone at Navy and won a whopping 8 games in 3 years. The Mids ran option-heavy offenses under Charlie Weatherbie and gradually deteriorated into a winless team. And while Army fans like to remember Bob Sutton for the 1996 season that saw the Cadets go 10-2, the rest of his tenure wasn’t nearly as good. Outside of that one season, Sutton’s record at West Point was 34-53-1. Suttonites would argue that at least the team was competitive. But 14 of Sutton’s wins at Army came against non-scholarship I-AA programs (Colgate x4, Harvard, Holy Cross x2, Lafayette x4, Lehigh, Bucknell, Yale). Sutton also lost to The Citadel twice, and lost to Boston University (not Boston College) four years before that school dropped football. If Bobby Ross had the luxury of playing those teams, how much better would his record at Army have looked? The truth is that Army football under Sutton wasn’t much different than Army under Bobby Ross and Stan Brock. Sutton just had a much easier schedule.
That means that the option alone wasn’t the answer to all of life’s problems. There had to be another underlying cause of Army’s futility. Whatever those problems are, Army’s answer to them is to imitate Air Force of the 80s; pack the prep school with players, ease service requirements for graduates, and run the option. Shady, but it worked once already. But can you imagine the meltdown if it doesn’t work? The option is supposed to be the final piece of the puzzle. If Army doesn’t win even with the option, one of two things will happen. Either Army will completely give up and seriously consider dropping to I-AA, or they’ll just completely abandon whatever integrity they have left and start cutting even more corners. Relaxed admissions standards, maybe? Athletic dorms? Kinesiology majors? The sky’s the limit.
Meanwhile, assuming that this report is correct and Army is indeed returning to a true wishbone offense, I think it’s a good thing for college football. I like watching wishbone offenses. And ever since Ken Hatfield left Rice, there hasn’t been a decent wishbone playbook for me to use on my Xbox. Don’t talk to me about that generic “option playbook” garbage, either.
 |
| Word. |
Going off on a bit of a tangent now… Something that annoys me when listening to college football fans– and Army fans are by no means the only ones guilty of this– is how much they overrate the value of individual schemes, both offensive and defensive. “The wishbone” or “the option” do not win games. Coaches win games. I am a firm believer that any scheme can be a winner if the right coach is running it. All it takes is a guy that’s smart enough and experienced enough to know how to adjust within his system to counter whatever the other team is showing him. On the other hand, any brilliant scheme will fail if it’s put into the hands of a coach that doesn’t know how to use it.
Anyway, we’ll see if this report holds up. You never know when stories cite “sources.”
Well that sucked.
What a crappy weekend.
Catching Up
— The big news over the weekend was the lacrosse team’s 5-4 win over Maryland on Friday night. The Mids took a 5-0 lead into halftime and held on at the end. TBO2F sums things up and gives you all the links to game reports here. Between Maryland, Georgetown, and Hopkins, Navy probably needed to win at least one of those three to have a shot at being seeded in the NCAA tournament, assuming they beat Army and win the Patriot League tournament. Of course, that’s no guarantee the way Army and Bucknell have been playing. Navy travels to West Point to take on Army on Saturday at noon.
One more thing on the Maryland game– TBO2F points out that Navy turned the ball over on 14 of its 16 second half posessions. Not good, and not going to cut it if we want to purge the last of the wretched losing streaks that hang over our athletic department.
— Speaking of West Point, the tremendous amount of “good PR” generated by their Alternative Service* Option keeps pouring in. Here we have Thomas Hauser, Muhammad Ali biographer and Pulitzer Prize nominee, taking a break from boxing to write about the new super-awesome West Point policy. Most of his points are things you’ve already read here, but it’s worth a look.
— The other big news from this weekend was the first football scrimmage of the spring. The official report is here. Adam gave a good recap down in the comments of the last post, too. Bill Wagner gave his impressions here. So far the stars on the offensive side look like Bryant, Shinego, and Byrd, with Maurice Cumberland standing out on defense.
— All of next year’s home games (except Notre Dame) will start at 3:30 (ET).
— One Baltimore blogger wonders if the new DC Bowl will keep the proposed Baltimore game from happening.
Presser Bits
The latest post-practice presser transcript can be found here. Some thoughts:
Snyder: Can you talk about some of the guys that have really stepped up?
Niumatalolo: One guy in particular is Craig Schaefer at outside linebacker. That is a spot where we are looking for someone to step up and he has had a great spring practice so far. We are also excited about Nate Frazier. He has done some good things. Defensively we have some guys that have played and the guys that played last year have really showed up so far in the spring. You can see the difference between them and the guys that haven’t played. On offense, Jarod Bryant has been solid. We moved Ricky Moore to center and he has had some growing pains, but he is coming along.
Schaefer is a big hitter. It’s nice to see a little buzz about him and Nate. My only real disappointment here is that Ricky Moore is getting a mention, but not Andy Lark or one of the other centers who made the move from the D-line. It would be a huge boost if one of those guys could catch on so we could use Moore at his natural tackle position. Depth could be a big concern at center.
Snyder: Can you talk about Jarod Bryant and Emmett Merchant switching positions?
Niumatalolo: I thought Emmett had a good practice on Saturday. With Jarod playing slot back, that is all dependent on Kaipo. Right now he is still nursing he knee so Jarod is mostly playing quarterback. When Kaipo is able to go full speed then Jarod will get some time at slot back.
I really hope Jarod gets some snaps at slot before the spring is over. Spring is the time for tinkering, after all.
Snyder: What is the status of Deliz and Sovie?
Niumatalolo: Deliz is still out, but Clint is practicing and is doing a good job. It doesn’t look like he’s missed a beat. We are excited to have him back. He had a good first week of practice.
Woot!
Fratto: Last year at fullback Ballard and Kettani kind of rotated possessions. Would you like to do that again or will Kettani get the bulk of the carries?
Niumatalolo: Eric is the main fullback, but we need somebody to spell him. The ratio of plays probably won’t be the same this year as it was for Adam and Eric, but we need a back-up fullback to give Eric some rest and we are trying to figure out who that is going to be.
Despite the preseason buzz about Devan Clark, he hasn’t quite risen to #2 yet. Then again, it’s only been a week.
Snyder: Can you talk about the slot backs? Other than Shun White you have a lot of new faces over there.
Niumatalolo: Andre Byrd had a good week of practice, Greg Shinego is an experienced guy, we have some younger guys like Greg Jones, Cory Finnerty, Wes Holland and J.J. Cosh that are getting an opportunity to show us what they can do. We are excited about the guys we have there.
I’m surprised to see Bobby Doyle third on the depth chart, only because it seemed like he got some decent playing time last year. Overall, despite the lack of established players I’m pretty confident about the A-backs. Shun White is a proven player with big-play ability. Greg Shinego might not have extensive game experience, but it isn’t as if he’s a rookie with a lot to learn. He’s a senior that has been practicing for three years and waiting for his shot. He’ll be ready. And although it remains to be seen how well Jarod Bryant can adjust to the new position, we know what he can do with the ball in his hands. I’m pretty comfortable with this group, plus our usual bunch of athletic underclassmen waiting for their chance to impress.
But is Andre Byrd really 5-7?
The latest depth chart is here. Lots of movement, especially in the secondary.
Don’t Forget
For those of you planning on attending the Blue & Gold game on the 18th, today is the deadline for signing up for the GoMids.com tailgater.
http://www.gomidshipmen.com/2008tailgate.htm
All proceeds from the event are going to the Fallyn Zembiec Education Fund.
Also, the Erik Kristensen Eye Street Klassic is a golf tournament that will be held on May 9th at Andrews Air Force Base. Kristensen (USNA ’95) was a Navy SEAL killed in Afghanistan when the CH-47 helicopter he was riding went down. From the site:
True to his love of learning, Erik had been awarded an Olmsted Foundation Scholarship and was to have studied at the Institute for Political Studies in Paris in 2006. In his honor, Erik’s family, classmates, friends, and those who were inspired by him founded The LCDR Erik S. Kristensen ’90, USN, Memorial Scholarship Fund. The fund seeks to assist a Gonzaga student whose family serves in the United States Armed Forces, and it will forever remind his fellow Eagles of what it means to be a Man for Others.
The tournament is to raise money for the scholarship fund. Take a look!
Roger Weighs In
Last week you saw a brief piece from South Bend regarding Army’s pro sports pipeline. Now the Dallas Morning News is weighing in, but with an added twist; they got Roger Staubach’s two cents on the subject. So what does Roger have to say about it?
“When I went there [USNA], I knew what the deal was,” Staubach said. “When I left high school, I wasn’t thinking I was going to play pro football. But today if you’re thinking that way, it would be nice to have an option like Army has. If Army has it, Navy should be able to compete with it as well.”
“It’s a complicated issue,” Staubach said. “But I think it’s good for the service academies if you have athletes that can compete at a higher level – and can still give back to the service – that they can find a compromise that allows them to play professional athletics. It’s worth the effort to look at it and try to figure it out.”
Sigh.
I don’t suppose it should be a surprise that a service* academy graduate who played pro football would be in favor of a policy that allows service* academy graduates to play pro football. Something that bothers me, though, is that there hasn’t been any real examination of all these supposed benefits that the Army at large stands to gain from this. Well, outside of this pipsqueak blog, anyway. Supporters say “great PR!” without getting much of a challenge. It’s kind of annoying. It’s almost a sport among service* academy fans to mock the Florida States and Miamis of the world over their lax standards for athletes. But as far as I’m concerned, Army is no different now.
Loose Change, 3/28/08
Odds & ends you may have missed over the past week:
– Unfortunately, this week’s Loose Change leads off with news of the passing of Ben Carnevale. There is nothing that I can say that will possibly do him justice. Carnevale is in many ways the father of Navy basketball, and brought the team to the national stage during his 20 years in Annapolis. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1970, and the work that he did after being inducted was just as impressive. The game, and our school, owe him their gratitude.
– Lacrosse is the big story this weekend as Navy will try to get the Georgetown monkey off of its back Saturday in a game that will be shown on CBS College Sports. The Inside Lacrosse preview of the game is here. Navy fans in the know have been reading Christian Swezey’s lacrosse blog and learned that Tommy Phelan will be the starting goalkeeper, with Matt Coughlin still nursing his hamstring injury. The Fastest Blog on 2 Feet also has a scouting report on the game from former Navy player and DeMatha coach Dick Long. Pete Medhurst will be calling the game for WNAV with the pregame show starting at 4:45 ET.
– One of the side stories in the Navy-Georgetown game is the matchup of the Mirabito brothers.
– Tony Barnhart made the startling discovery that Navy fans like Paul Johnson. No wai!!!11!1
– You Pitch Right expatriates that only stomach this blog because you don’t have a choice anymore will be pleased to see Adam again as he talks about independents’ spring practice news and notes while guest blogging at In The Bleachers.
– David Flores of the San Antonio Express-News catches up with David Robinson, including his take on this year’s tournament, here.
– A somewhat unusual blog about historical markers has a recent entry on the Bill the Goat statue by Gate 1.
– Another blogger ranks Alumni Hall as the venue for one of his favorite pre-game media buffets.
– A Kentucky paper has a column about an upcoming college boxing tournament being hosted by UK, with a couple mentions of Navy.
– Something I talk about regularly on this blog is the value of intercollegiate athletics to a university.
– Marine Captain and former Navy footballer Brian Stan won the WEC light heavyweight title on Wednesday night with a first-round TKO of defending champion Doug Marshall. There was a brief moment when it looked like Stann was in trouble, but he survived a flurry of punches and landed a haymaker of his own, and that’s all it took. You can watch the fight here.
– The Congressional Bowl found a conference partner: the ACC. That’s good news for Navy:
The NCAA requires prospective bowls to have guaranteed opponents, a TV contract, venue and a letter of credit. Metcalf said all those elements are in place, including documents proving the proposed Congressional Bowl can meet its mandate of paying $1 million to each participating school.
Now that everything’s in place, six wins should be enough for the Mids to find a home in the postseason. No word yet on whether the game will be at RFK or the new Nationals’ ballpark.
– And finally, the football post-practice presser makes its glorious return! Those changes in the passing game that Niumat talked about in his presser on Monday? Not exactly an overhaul.
We aren’t making any drastic changes. There might be some technique changes, the way we run our routes, the depth at where we run our routes, what foot we lead with, what shoulder we are looking over, real small intricate details that might help us become a little bit more efficient.
Other than that, Niumat says that practice is going OK and that he’s looking to get Jarod Bryant as many reps at slot as Kaipo’s knee will allow.
Wagner: When he was in at quarterback last year it seemed like you ran a package for him with a lot of inside runs and draws. Running the ball as a slot back is different. Do you think he can be as effective running the ball on the outside?
Niumatalolo: I don’t know. That remains to be seen. We are going to find out. All I know is he makes people miss.
Damn skippy.
I think he’ll be OK.
The Birddog 