Postgame Haiku, Vol. 72
I tried to warn you
Offense hadn’t been tested
They’ve been tested now
WKU week
Navy (2-0) at Western Kentucky (2-2)
Saturday 9/28 2:00 ET
ESPNews
NEVER FORGET
In honor of playing Western Kentucky, let’s all reflect on this great moment in college football history:
I don’t know why but I love that quote so much.
What to watch, Week 5
There’s some interesting stuff happening on the weeknight games, so I have to get this out a day early.
(All times ET)
Thursday
Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech – 7:30 – ESPN
Frank Beamer vs. Paul Johnson? The dean of cut block complainers vs. a man who cut blocked his own mother as he was being born? No I certainly do not have anything better to do on a Thursday night.
Friday
Utah State at San Jose State – 9:00 – ESPN
This game should feature enough offense that it won’t end until sometime around around 6. Chuckie Keeton vs. David Fales? That will be a lot of fun, at least until sometime in the second quarter when you realize that the Mids have to play the latter at the end of the season.
Saturday
South Alabama at Tennessee – Noonish – SEC Network/ESPN3
The appetizer for the Navy game will be another look at future opponent South Alabama. It’s not necessarily weird that the Jaguars are 2-1. It is a bit weird that the wins came over Tulane and Western Kentucky while the loss came against Southern Utah.
Virginia at Pittsburgh – 12:30 – FSN affiliates
I need this game to determine whether Duke has a good offense or Pitt has a bad defense.
Army vs. Louisiana Tech – 4:00 – FS1
Another winnable game for Army. Joined in progress after the end of the Navy game. Toledo and Duke are also playing in 3:00 games on ESPN3, but I don’t know if I’ll get to those since there probably won’t be much left by the time the Mids are done playing.
Air Force at Nevada – 8:00 – CBS Sports Network
This game just got a lot more interesting now that Jaleel Awini has been suspended.
Could Navy compete in the ACC?
One of the Mountain West’s biggest talking points through all the conference realignment turmoil has been their “stability.” That’s just spin, of course. All “stability” really means is that you don’t have anyone left in your conference that another league might want.
The American Athletic Conference doesn’t have that “stability,” which is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because it means that the conference still has some name-brand programs adding to its appeal. It’s a curse because, well…
What to watch, Week 4
Don’t think of it as a bye week. Think of it as getting EI on every other team in the country.
(All times ET)
Saturday
Toledo at Central Michigan – Noon – ESPN3
San Jose State-Minnesota might end up being a better game, but I’m opting for this one since the Mids play Toledo sooner. The Rockets opened with back-to-back games against SEC opponents, then followed that up with a win over FCS Eastern Washington. The conference opener might be the first real indication as to how this team compares to some of the better Toledo teams of the recent past.
Wake Forest at Army – Noon – CBS Sports Network
There’s a huge difference between 2-2 and 1-3, especially when only two of your last eight games will be played on your home field. This game might set the course for the rest of Army’s season.
Pittsburgh at Duke – 12:30 – ACC Network/ESPN Gameplan/ESPN3
Two future Navy opponents in one game. It’s economical.
Michigan State at Notre Dame – 3:30 – NBC
Michigan State is 3-0 but not exactly in impressive fashion. This will be a bellwether game for the Spartans.
Morgan State at Western Kentucky – 7:00 – ESPN3
You’ll have to get online if you want to watch Navy’s next opponent. I originally wasn’t even going to bother watching this game since it’s against Morgan State, but now that WKU might be starting a new quarterback I’ll have to take a look.
Wyoming at Air Force – 10:15 – ESPNU
Air Force football is about the last thing I want to stay up late for, but I’m not going to miss the Ethics Bowl.
NAVY 51, DELAWARE 7
Seriously guys, I mean it. It’s never as good or as bad as it seems.
It’s going to be even harder to convince people of that now. For the second straight week, the Navy offense was a juggernaut. This time they dropped 51 points on a shell-shocked Delaware squad while generating 589 yards of offense. Just to make things confusing for everyone, 237 of those yards came through the air. The Mids only had to punt once, and even that punt was a work of art. Kickoff coverage picked up where it left off against Indiana, holding the Blue Hens to another better-than-a-touchback average of 23.3 yards per return. The defense only gave up 7 points. It was a the mythical “complete game” we’ve always dreamed of.
SHUT UP I CAN’T HEAR YOU WITH YOUR MISSED EXTRA POINT LA LA LA LA LA LA
This week in service academy football
Army (1-2): lost to Stanford, 34-20. This was supposed to be a disaster. It wasn’t. Army put up a great effort. Until the Cardinal scored a touchdown to make it 34-13 with about ten minutes left in the fourth quarter, it never felt like Army was out of the game. (They took advantage of a short field after Rich Ellerson decided to go for it on 4th down on his own 29. Puzzling call.) Things couldn’t have started out much better for Army, with the defense forcing a fumble and a 3 & out on Stanford’s first two possessions of the game. The Black Knights were able to turn that into two field goals, but field goals weren’t going to win this game. Stanford came alive on their next drive, ripping off some long runs to set up a 26-yard touchdown pass and a 7-6 lead. The Cardinal never trailed the rest of the way, although they couldn’t quite pull away, either.
Defensively, Stanford didn’t do anything fancy to stop the option, preferring to just line up in their base defense and counting on their players making plays. They did when they had to, but Army still ran for a very respectable 284 yards. Army’s defense kept Stanford surprisingly in check for a good portion of the game, but I kept getting the feeling that the Cardinal was holding back a little bit with their play calling. They spent most of the afternoon either throwing horizontally or lining up three tight ends and running the ball, both of which Army kept in check well enough. Stanford’s coaches only opened up when they really needed to, and when they did they got it; the Cardinal had 7 plays of 20+ yards. That doesn’t take away from Army’s performance, though. They forced two turnovers and kept the game within reach.
The question for Army now is where they go from here. Can they build on this performance? Can they do it without Larry Dixon, Raymond Maples, and Momo Kime if they need to? All three were injured on Saturday, and we should learn to what extent later today. Army has a reeling BCS conference opponent coming to town this week in what has to be considered a winnable game. After playing well against Stanford, beating Wake Forest to get to 2-2 would give the season a renewed optimism. Fall to 1-3, and things look pretty rough with 5 of the next 7 games coming away from Michie Stadium before heading to Army-Navy. The Wake Forest game might be the key to Army’s season.
Air Force (1-2): lost to Boise State, 42-20. For a while there it looked like this was going to be a real shootout. Air Force and Boise State were going toe-to-toe in the first half, with neither defense looking like it was going to step up. Then one of them did. Air Force was held to 98 yards in the second half as the Broncos eventually pulled away. Schematically, Boise State didn’t deviate very much from what Utah State did. Depending on situation, they either lined up in the same 3-deep 4-4 the Aggies used, or with 4 deep and having the playside safety roll up to play run support. Both are pretty basic defenses that Air Force sees all the time, and in the first half, they played like it. In the second half, Boise didn’t change the scheme. They simply manhandled the Air Force offensive line.
The two big questions for Air Force right now are about the defense and Jaleel Awini’s ability to run the offense. Regarding the latter, I’d say that we still don’t know. Everything sure seemed to be clicking in the first half, and he finished with 107 rushing yards and two TDs. On the other hand, this is the second straight game that Air Force has failed to rush for at least 200 yards. They’ve been able to do that much against even their toughest opposition in years past. Is it all because of the offensive line? How much of this falls on Awini? As for the defense, they had two really bad games against two really good opponents. We should get a more accurate read on that unit this week when Air Force takes on what should be (in theory) a more evenly-matched Wyoming team.
WILL SOMEONE TELL TROY CALHOUN TO SHUT UP
Troy Calhoun is tired of coaching in a conference full of Mormons.
Many Mormons of college age, you see, go on two-year missions; or as Calhoun calls them, the “two-year redshirt program.” That’s because this missionary work consists primarily of eating bowls of steroids and hitting the weightroom for 8 hours a day to turn these Mormon youths into 24-year-old man-beasts with a thirst for Air Force cadet blood (right?). So when Calhoun’s Air Force team is about to face a team from Utah, well, he just has to let the world know what kind of a disadvantage he’s facing.
Troy’s a pretty bright guy, though. He’s all about finding solutions to the tough problems, and this is no exception. His answer? Air Force should be able to redshirt players, too!
No.
It’s time people stopped buying into Troy Calhoun’s act. That’s exactly what it is, by the way. It’s all for show. Every single press conference he has, he finds some way to inject something about “gee golly service and country blah blah” or some pseudo-intellectual nonsense, and it’s so over-the-top that it’s sickening. Just try reading the first two paragraphs of his official bio without having dry heaves. Air Force is playing on Boise’s blue turf? Well gosh tootin’ they’re gonna have to fly over all kinds of colors someday. Sweet comparison, coach. The BCS is unfair, so let’s talk about the days of the “old Soviet Presidium.” Oh he’s so smart! And when Wyoming head coach Dave Christensen goes on a postgame tirade, noted constitutional scholar Troy Calhoun decides it’s time to reflect on the First Amendment. Seriously? How condescending can you be? Who talks like that? Someone looking to avoid the tough questions, that’s who.
And that’s the act. By being so over-the-top with his Howdy Doody facade of courage and the Constitution and whatever other patriotic buzzword you can think of, nobody bothers to question him. Look elsewhere for your stories, nosy media, because Troy Calhoun is an American patriot. There’s nothing to see here. If Dave Christensen goes on a rant because he thought Calhoun had one of his players fake an injury, don’t bother wondering if Christensen might have had a point. Dodging the media after a tough loss and saying it was all about “academics?” You don’t want to appear to be anti-academics, do you? So when Calhoun says he wants redshirts and wants his players to be able to turn pro, don’t bother asking how someone who spent 4 of his 6 years on active duty as a football coach could have the all-out gall to pretend that it’s for the good of the service.
Fortunately, there is one person willing to take Troy Calhoun to task for his comments: Troy Calhoun. Of course, the “no excuses” Troy that threw his fellow Air Force coaches under the bus was 2-1 and just finished taking Oklahoma to the wire. NuTroy is 1-2 and coming off of his first losing season. I guess now that he’s having his own problems, he’s more sympathetic to their plight. Imagine that. Then again, by saying he wants redshirts he might as well stand in his own locker room and say “I can’t win with you guys.”
Winning is hard, and coaching is a high-pressure job. It’s completely understandable that any coach would want whatever edge he could get. At the very least you’d hope for a level playing field. The challenge of service academy football, and the very thing that makes it special, is that you aren’t going to get one. There are some lines that cannot be crossed. Anyone that truly cares about service– or the future careers of service academy athletes– would understand that.
The Birddog 