Category: navy football

What to watch, Week 3

On By MikeIn air farce, army football, navy football4 Comments

Here’s your homework for this weekend:

(All times ET)

Friday

Air Force at Boise State – 8:00 – ESPN

Let’s all read what HDMF has to say about the Smurf Turf, then ask ourselves how on earth there are people in this world that actually buy into his shtick.

Saturday

Stanford at Army – Noon – CBS Sports Network

I’m all about schadenfreude when it comes to Army and Air Force, but watching this one almost seems mean. I don’t know how much of this game I’ll be able to take. I am curious to see how Stanford lines up. I’m also curious to see if it matters. Maybe Army’s offense can hold onto the ball and give the Cardinal a scare. Otherwise it’s going to be one of those “the scoreboard is a lie” games.

New Mexico at Pittsburgh – 12:30 – ACC Network/ESPN3

As an analyst, Bob Davie talked a lot about how much he hated coaching against option offenses. As New Mexico’s coach, he’s putting his money where his mouth is. The Lobos run a shotgun option offense that’s pretty entertaining to watch. More importantly for us, it might give us an idea how Pitt will line up against Navy.

Georgia Tech at Duke – 3:30 – ESPNU

No, I won’t be watching this while the Navy game is on. I will record it to watch later, though. Should be self-explanatory.

Notre Dame at Purdue – 8:00 – ABC

Notre Dame lost to Michigan last week, but I don’t think there’s any shame in that this year. If they struggle against Purdue, though, that might reveal a few weaknesses.

 

Let’s talk scheduling

On By MikeIn American Athletic Conference, army football, navy football6 Comments

There were several reasons for Navy’s planned move to the American Athletic Conference. One of the most significant was scheduling; it’s getting harder and harder to line up teams for the Mids to play. Critics of the move don’t buy it. They point to Army, who apparently has no problem filling schedules as an independent:

Despite the changing landscape of college football at the Division I level, Corrigan said Army isn’t having trouble filling its schedules.

“As you look who it is and who West Point is, people want to play us,” Corrigan said. “There’s no shortage of those teams that I mentioned or bigger schools that want to play West Point. We help fill stadiums. We have a role in college football and a place in college football.”

So who are these schools?

“Our goal is to play people that we look like, that have a similar-type mission that we do,” Corrigan said. “As you look at that, be it Rice, be it Tulane, be it Duke, be it Wake Forest, playing some of our more traditional rivals with a Colgate or an Ivy or other Patriot League teams mixed in there, it’s going very well. We are excited about that.”

A couple of things about that…

Boo Corrigan wants to play schools with similar academic standards. The reason he wants to play those schools is because in theory they’d be about as close to an even matchup as Army can get outside of the other service academies. In other words, he wants to win. Of course, that’s exactly why those schools want to play Army, too. If you’re Wake Forest and have an ACC schedule in front of you, winning your out-of-conference games is crucial to earning a bowl berth. I’m sure Corrigan’s phone is ringing off the hook with other athletic directors looking for a game. That’s what happens when you have one winning season in the last 15 years. The phone gets a lot quieter when you’ve been to 9 bowl games in 10 seasons. Rice, Tulane, and Wake Forest used to play Navy all the time. It’s no coincidence that they’re turning to Army now. We got a great reminder of that this week as Indiana’s coach and AD are basically carrying out a public argument over why Navy was even on the schedule in the first place. Don’t think that they’re the only ones having this conversation.

On top of that, what Corrigan says isn’t the whole truth. While I don’t doubt it when he says there are plenty of programs willing to play Army, that doesn’t mean that the pool isn’t shrinking. Rutgers has been a staple of Army schedules for decades, with the two having met 33 times in the last 50 years. The series is now in jeopardy, though, thanks to the Scarlet Knights joining the Big Ten. Conferences want more games against each other, and they especially want them in the second half of the season. Army might be able to shift games against Rutgers to earlier in the year in order to save the rivalry, but then they’ll just be left with the same problem for anyone else they want to schedule for the original date. Just look at their future schedules now. September and early October dates are filling up quite nicely. Later dates are already taking a bit more work to fill.

The problem is real, guys.

Let’s watch some more football

On By MikeIn navy football1 Comment

If you follow me on Twitter and have no idea what I’m talking about this weekend, it’s because I’m watching one of these games and you’re not:

(All times ET)

Saturday

Army at Ball State – Noon – ESPN3

Ball State is a slightly different matchup for Army than Morgan State. Ball State can score points a-plenty, but if Army has truly cured their fumblitis then they have a chance to keep pace.

Western Kentucky at Tennessee – Noon-ish – SEC Network

WKU beat Kentucky pretty soundly. If they give the Vols a run for their money, Navy’s trip to Bowling Green on the 28th will look a whole lot more interesting. On the plus side, it’ll probably also be televised.

Thomas More College at Capital University – 1:30 – HERE

Craig Candeto’s head coaching debut!

Utah State at Air Force – 3:30 – CBS Sports Network

I’ll be flipping between this and Delaware State-Delaware.

Duke at Memphis – 4:30 – ESPN3

Notre Dame at Michigan – after the Navy game – ESPN

I might try to keep an eye on the Hawaii game too, but I’m usually pretty wiped out after Navy plays.

San Jose State at Stanford – 11:00 – HERE

Until I fall asleep. Hopefully David Fales doesn’t give me nightmares.

SO CLOSE

On By MikeIn navy footballLeave a comment

Just when you thought we were about to get through fall practice without any injuries…

Losing a starting cornerback probably isn’t the best news as the team gets ready to face Indiana’s mile-a-minute offense. Fortunately, Quincy Adams has a good bit of experience. However, with the defense likely to be playing nickel for a good portion of Saturday’s game, the question now becomes who will be Navy’s 5th defensive back.

Depth chart finalized

On By MikeIn navy football7 Comments

Maybe “finalized” isn’t the right word, since the depth chart will constantly change over the course of the season. Still, it’s final in the sense that the time for motivational shenanigans is over. We have a pretty good idea now of who will be getting on the bus for Indiana.

Wags was busy lighting up Twitter last night with some notes and a last-minute change to the depth chart posted over on Navysports.

On the surface it’s a somewhat drastic change, rising from #3 on the chart to supplant last year’s starter. Then again, I’m a firm believer that depth charts are published to give people like us something to talk about, and that the real depth chart exists only in the coach’s head. Maybe this spot was more up for grabs than we realized.

Anyway, some thoughts:

— The offensive line is mostly what we thought it’d be with the exception of Thomas Stone replacing E.K. Binns at left guard. Binns was the only projected starter to have participated in spring camp, but has sat out practice recently with a concussion. I don’t know if it means anything, but I’m hoping that that fact that he’s still listed on the depth chart is a good sign that he’ll be ready to play soon if not this week. Fortunately, Stone is probably the most experienced of all the reserves and might have won the starting job anyway. With Wags’ report that Tanner Fleming and Jake Zuzek are healthy and practicing again, the offensive line should be ready to go.

UPDATE:

So that’s good news if it means Binns is healthy enough to play. My guess is that the two will rotate.

— Also regarding Wags’ notes from last night: I know the coaches are being understandably cautious with Keenan, but I don’t have a warm and fuzzy knowing that he’s being held out of practice in full pads until tomorrow or Thursday.

— Seniority has risen to the top with the slotbacks, which tells me that those who block the best will play the most. I’m sure we’ll see some of the younger guys rotated in on a few plays, but the bulk of the snaps will be going to those who know where to run when they don’t have the ball. As usual.

— We already knew how the outside linebacker situation was going to play out, although A.K. Akpunku has been moved to defensive end.

— DJ Sargenti will be starting opposite Cody Peterson at inside linebacker, which makes for an interesting combination in that neither was recruited as a linebacker. Peterson was originally a fullback, while Sargenti was a strong-armed quarterback. Both were too athletic to remained buried on the depth chart at those positions, though, and have found a home on the defense. Peterson is the team captain who played well last year, so we have a pretty good idea of what he brings to the table. Sargenti is more of a nomad. He was initially moved to outside linebacker, and even led all defenders with 10 tackles in last year’s spring game. Now that Chris Johnson is healthy again, he was moved inside this fall where he quickly played his way to the top of the depth chart. Gap discipline has been an issue for Navy’s ILBs at times over the last couple of seasons, so there’s always that concern when someone has changed positions as often as Sargenti has. There’s certainly no denying his determination to get onto the field, though.

Let’s watch football

On By MikeIn navy football2 Comments

It’s football season. At some point tomorrow evening, I will ascend to the room over my garage, and my wife will say “see you in January.” If you want to watch what I’ll be watching this weekend, here’s the list. There will be some overlap, but that’s because I have two TVs plus the internet and dammit I use them all.

All times ET

Thursday

North Carolina at South Carolina – 6:00 – ESPN

The best game of the night, obviously, although It’ll be relegated to the small screen after an hour. That’s because…

Indiana State at Indiana – 7:00 – Big Ten Network

I know next to nothing about Indiana State, so I don’t know how much we’ll learn about Navy’s first opponent. But it’s all we’ve got of the Hoosiers before they play Navy, so I’ll be watching.

Southern Utah at South Alabama – 7:30 – ESPN3

I usually won’t concentrate on Navy’s late-season opponents until we get closer to those games, but I’ll be keeping an eye on this one just out of curiosity since South Alabama is a FBS newcomer.

Ole Miss at Vanderbilt – 9:15 – ESPN

USC at Hawaii – 11:00 – CBS Sports Network

Not gonna lie, I probably won’t make it past the first quarter.

Other future Navy opponents: Sacramento State at San Jose State, 10:00, MW Digital Network

Friday

Morgan State at Army – 7:00 – CBS Sports Network

Barring an evening monsoon (always a possibility in Florida), I’m putting this game on the DVR and going to the neighborhood high school game instead. If Army has any problem at all with a struggling MEAC program, it’s going to be a very long year at West Point. Just for perspective, Akron was 1-11 last year. Their one win was over Morgan State. They won that game 66-6. Things change, but not THAT quickly. I’m sure Army won’t put anything on film that they don’t have to in this game, and their starters should all be out by the 4th quarter.

Saturday

Elon at Georgia Tech – 12:00 – ESPN3

Meh, it’s the spread option.

Toledo at Florida – 12:21 – SEC Network

I get this on a local channel, but you might have to find it on Gameplan. It won’t take long to find out what the Rockets will be bringing to the table this season.

Colgate at Air Force – 3:00 – ROOT

This will be a better game than Army’s, but not by much. I’ll have to watch, though, since there are only so many Air Force games to take in before they come to Annapolis. Air Force’s defense did have their hands full in their supposed cupcake game last year, so maybe we’ll at least get a chuckle or two.

Temple at Notre Dame – 3:30 – NBC

NC Central at Duke – 4:00 – ESPN3

This is going to be a terrible game, and I’ll probably change over to…

Alabama vs. Virginia Tech – 5:30 – ESPN

…once this game starts, assuming I can get it online. If not, I’m sure I’ll be sick of either the Air Force or Notre Dame game by then.

Kentucky vs. Western Kentucky – 7:00 – ESPNews

This should be a pretty good game, and we’ll get our first look at the new WKU.

Washington State at Auburn – 7:00 – ESPNU

Morbid curiosity.

Georgia at Clemson – 8:00 – ABC

LSU vs. TCU – 9:00 – ESPN

I assume I’ll be sick of Wazzu-Auburn by then.

Boise State at Washington – 10:00 – FS1

Northwestern at Cal – 10:30 – ESPN2

Who doesn’t like Northwestern?

Sunday

Sunday is my wife’s birthday. Ohio-Louisville is interesting, but not THAT interesting.

Monday

Florida State at Pitt – 8:00 – ESPN

Another future Navy opponent to wrap up the weekend.

The Mailbag (8/19)

On By MikeIn army football, navy football8 Comments

What is your take on intrasquad scrimmages? I think they are necessary because it allows our best offense to play full speed against our best defense, but it is rarely against an offense or defense that we will really be up against. If the defense does well, does that mean the offense is bad? And visa versa.

I love to read how so-and-so had a great scrimmage, but what about the guys that he made look bad? Are they really bad?

It’s important to understand what it is you’re looking at when you watch a scrimmage. The coaches aren’t calling plays to win the game as much as they’re calling plays to evaluate both the players and themselves (experimenting with new schemes and plays, for example). That’s why you can’t get too wrapped up in the results. A guy might do his job on a given play, but if the play called isn’t the right one to counter whatever was called on the other side of the ball, it still might flop. What matters is how well each individual player did his job, and that’s something you don’t usually get a feel for from the bleachers. The scrimmage might be fun to watch, but only the coaches know whether it was good or bad. They only really know after watching film and grading each player.

Continue reading “The Mailbag (8/19)” →