FanHouse Army Navy Game

Promise me this: Once in your life, please try to make it to a football game at one of our service academies. I can't promise you a great game, but I can promise a great experience. Yes, even if Army football is involved.

Army-Navy is one of the sport's oldest rivalries. It hasn't been much of a rivalry lately, though. Navy has had Army's number, winning nine of the last 10 games, including today's contest, which Navy won 34-0. The Black Knights of the Hudson have really hit the skids. The last time they won more than four games in a season was in 1996, when they went 10-2.

Navy dominated today's game, which was basically over after Navy's first possession. The Midshipmen controlled the line-play on both sides of the ball. Paul Johnson may have taken his system to Georgia Tech, but he left behind his top assistant, Ken Niumatalolo, who hasn't missed a beat. Navy's triple-option offense still works beautifully, with both Shun White and Eric Kettani going for well over 100 yards of rushing. The real story is the dominance of Navy's defense, which held Army to seven first downs and 150 yards.

Okay, that's not the real story.

Real-live, albeit low quality videos from the 107th installment of the Army-Game on Saturday. Videos taken from the "Navy" side of the field, although occasional commentary coming from a veteran of the Army's 101st Air Assult Division.

Me: "It's kinda high up"

Father: "Yea its really high up"

Uncle: "You could call artillery from up here"

Me: "hmmmmm"

It wasn't pretty, but it a rivalry game as big as Army-Navy, nobody said it had to be.

Despite being held to only 275 total yards of offense, the Navy Midshipmen proved to tough to handle for the Army Black Knights, as Paul Johnson's Bowl-bound team held on for a 26-14 win to capture the Commander-in-Chief's trophy for a fourth consecutive year.

On a day marked by the pageantry of the pre-game march-on and the familiar site of pregame flyovers, the game proved to be an anomaly in the Paul Johnson era, and perhaps a throw back to the Army-Navy games of old. The dominant Navy offense everyone expected to bury Army with an insurmountable lead slowed as a emotionally charged and highly physical Army defense led the way for the Black Knights. It was in fact the Cadets who drew first blood in the game, as Jeremy Trimble took a 41-yard double reverse to the house to give Army an early 7-0 advantage. The Midshipmen echoed with a nine-yard Reggie Campbell touchdown run minutes later, before the second quarter turned into a defensive struggle. Led by linebacker Rob Caldwell's eleven tackles, the Midshipmen defense was able to keep Bobby Ross' conservative style running attack in check for the rest of the game. The Black Knights did a tremendous job executing the "perfect" game-plan, for the first-half but were unable to sustain the momentum in the second-half after Jason Tomlinson took a reverse thirty-three yards for a Navy touchdown.

The game remained close into the fourth quarter, as neither offense could get sufficient leverage on the opposing defense. However, a Matt Harmon field goal put the Mids up at 17-7with 7:07 left in the game, and sent the Black Knight offense into panic mode. True Freshmen quarterback Carson Williams, who had done a fine job managing the game up until that point, proceeded in throwing an pick-six to Navy cornerback Keenan Little, which put the Mids up by 24-7. Then, on the ensuing possession, Williams was sacked in the endzone by linebacker Tyler Tidwell, giving Navy a safety and a 26-7 lead. A late score proved to be somewhat of a moral victory for Army, which fell to 3-8 while suffering their tenth consecutive losing season. Navy improves to 9-3 on the year, while the team's senior class becomes the first to ever go 8-0 against the service academies in their careers.

Great news out of Annapolis today, as Head Coach Paul Johnson confirmed that injured Navy quarterback Brian Hampton will suit up for this Saturday's Army-Navy game. Hampton was well on his way to rushing for over 1000 yards this season before a dislocated knee ended his career and opened the door for current starter Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku Enhada. Coach Johnson said that Hampton came to him with request, and wished "more power to him" for his decision. The Baltimore Sun is reporting that Hampton will line-up behind center and take the final kneel-down play if the game warrants it.

Set your Tivo for 10:30 on Saturday, as the folks over at ESPN finally decide to give Navy some exposure. College Game Day will run a "Day in the Life" piece on Caldwell, and the station is supposedly slated to "preview" the game. The segment is to air sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 on Saturday.

Lastly, the Annapolis Capital ran a story today on David Mahoney, Navy's four year staple at outside linebacker. The article explains how Mahoney, who was thought to small to play I-A ball, came to the attention of the Midshipmen by way of fellow teammate Matt Hall. It's a fitting read for a great career.

To some of you, this probably sounds like the stupidest question ever, and not necessarily for the same reasons. For individuals like me who grew up around the game the answer is rather simple; Yes, it is by far the greatest rivalry in college football, and perhaps even in all of American sports. The tradition, history, pageantry, and even symbolism of the game are unrivaled in college or pro sports, at least according to me. That being said, I wasn't born and raised in Michigan blue or Ohio State red, so I can't speak for some of the other well known and self proclaimed "greatest college football rivalries."

Fortunately, Nick can. At least I think he can, according to a very insightful if not somewhat perturbed comment he made on a post I made last week. You see, Nick is a die-hard Ohio State fan, so naturally he believes that the Ohio-State Michigan rivalry takes the cake as the best rivalry in college sports. Here's what he had to say when I asserted that the Army-Navy game was the greatest rivalry in all of sports:

So much for the "throw the records out the window" rivalry game approach, as VegasInsider.com has the Navy Midshipmen (8-3) as a twenty point favorite over the 3-8 Army Black Knights. The Mids are coming off of three consecutive blowout wins in which they outscored opponents by an average of nearly thirty points per game, while the Cadets are limping into the perennial rivalry after suffering five straight loses.

I'm no betting expert, but I think the line is more of an indication of Navy's recent dominance in the rivalry then with the state of these two programs, which remain polar opposites in respect to the win/loss column. Paul Johnson has not lost to another Service Academy team since 2002, and has guided Navy to four consecutive blowout wins over the Cadets. The "high point" in the rivalry over the past four years for Army was last year's game, in which Bobby Ross's senior laden squad "only" lost by nineteen points. The offensive and defensive matchups also give a clear advantage to Navy. The Mids sport the nation's top ranked rushing offense, while Army ranks among the five worst against the run in the entire country. Army's offense has been more or less unable to throw the ball all year, which plays into Navy's defensive strengths, as the Mids are a respectable 43rd against the run in the nation.

All this sounds fine and dandy on paper, but is it indicative of how the game will actually turn out? Unfortunately for Army, I think so. This year's Navy team is the clearly the best in the Paul Johnson era, while this year's Army team has fallen decidedly short of what looked like a promising season when the year started. But be warned, the only other time Navy came into this game as a more heavy favorite was in 1981, and the Mids ended up coming out with a 3-3 tie.

Speed. It kills you know. And if your not careful it will kill a defense near you. Don't believe me? All you have to do is look at what Navy's offense has done to Army's defense over the past four years, piling over at least 30 points per game over the past four seasons on the Black Knights. While Paul Johnson's triple option offense has long been looked at as a methodical, grind-the-clock type of offense, an increase in team speed over the past few seasons has led to big play and quick strike ability.

Speed, the critics say, is Navy's decisive advantage against the Black Knights. Slotbacks Reggie Campbell and Shun White (both on the Navy track team) have the ability to take the ball the distance whenever they touch it, while quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enahada runs a 4.4/40 and possesses Vick-like escapability (not a real word, I know). But the advantage in speed is not only limited to Navy's skill position players, as Army Head Coach Bobby Ross pointed out last week.

Paul (Johnson) has done an outstanding job with the offense. They have the speed to make it work. Their scat backs are not big, but they can run. They have great speed, and they have great speed on the defensive side of the ball too. Their offense draws so much attention, but their defense runs very well also.

Ross makes a good point about the Navy defense, which, while undersized, reacts well when the ball is in the air and does a good job keeping everything in front of them. I know guys like Rob Caldwell and David Mahoney looked slow against the likes of Rutgers and Notre Dame, but fortunately Army is no Notre Dame. Against Temple last week, the defense not only swarmed to the ball carrier, but blew up plays in the backfield. Any kind of stretchers, counters, or other slow developing plays could be trouble for the Black Knights, who will likely try to keep the ball on the ground for most of the game. As far as the Navy offense goes, you can't say enough about the ability of the offensive line to come off the snap and throw their blocks. For as physical as Army's defense has been, they have struggled coming off blocks and reading plays all season. Once you throw in Navy's small but quick skill players, you start creating major problems on the outside for Army's defense, while in turn opening huge lanes in the middle of the field for the fullback (See 2005 Army-Navy game.)

It has been a down week in Navy football, but things are about to speed up as the Midshipmen brace to take on the Army Black Knights in the 107th Army-Navy Game in Philadelphia this weekend. Navy currently owns a four game winning streak over the Black Knights, thanks in large part to Paul Johnson's triple option offense, which has outscored Army by an average of 30.5 points a game over the past four seasons. At a pregame press conference last week, Army Head Coach Bobby Ross outlined how his defense has to play to be successful against Navy's top ranked rushing offense.

They know what they're doing with it and they do it very well. We're going to have to execute very well and have a good tackling game. I want to make them go a long way with the ball every time. That means that we can't turn the ball over, and our offense has to move the ball some. Our kicking game has to work for us as well. In the past, we've given up big plays to them. We have to try to stop that and keep those out of the game.

Is it just me, or does it sound so easy on paper? I'll be the first to admit Army has a very physical defense which is fundamentally sound, but is nevertheless among the worst in the country (giving up 193 yards per game) against the run. Defensively, Army struggled against Air Force's triple option, giving up 263 yards on the ground. These defensive statistics are only made worse by Army's offensive woes. The Black Knights lead the country in turnovers, and sport an anemic passing attack which hasn't gotten on track all season. Considering the current Navy's defense may be the best in the Paul Johnson era, it's going to be difficult for Army to control the clock and keep Navy's offense off the field. Ross is not only going to need an error free game from his own defense to win this game, he's going to need an offensive implosion by Navy not seen since the Rutgers game. And for as much respect I have for the Army defense, they're nowhere near as good as Rutgers.

It is the finest rivalry in all of sports. More the Ohio State-Michigan, greater the Red Sox Yankees, and more prevalent then Cowboys-Redskins. The Army-Navy game is, undoubtedly, the premier rivalry in all of American sports, and college football's most sacred and storied of events. It is an absolutely American rivalry, a single event which transcends the bonds of records, personnel, and national importance, and embraces a rich historical tradition as patriotic as the Stars and Stripes themselves. It is, as the adage goes, much more then game. Surely I don't need to harp on the meaning of this game to our deployed soldiers, seamen, and marines worldwide, and surely I don't need to remind our readers that the bonds formed on the gridiron often translate to the battlefield. I am sure our readers know of the history of the game as well, as this back-and-forth rivalry has been, well, back-and-forth throughout the 107 years of its existence. This year, Navy (8-3), which won the "First to Fifty" contest of a year ago, will clash with a 3-8 Army squad which has seen better days. But this is not to dissuade the average fan from thinking any less of this game, which, as it does every year, will decide the success or failure of the teams involved. The following is an outstanding video produced by "PhatPhelix" documenting the history of the game as it led up to last year's contest, and an fine place to start the chronicling of the 107th Army-Navy Game.