The Army-Navy game has made some rare offseason headlines in the last few weeks — not for any on-field reasons, but as an inconvenient outlier for college football’s new playoff system. For Army West Point and Navy fans whose college football season begins and ends on the same Saturday in December, here’s a quick primer: The rankings that determine which teams will play in the College Football Playoff, and the four other top-tier bowl games played on or before New Year’s, come out the weekend before the Army-Navy game. Last year, this simply meant the rankings ignored the game, but that…
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After Action broke the big news last year that set the sports world on fire: The Army-Navy game would be the only top-tier college football contest that would not at all influence the College Football Playoff selection process. Sure, neither the Midshipmen nor the Black Knights were on anybody’s national-championship radar. And yes, that radar hasn’t covered Annapolis or West Point since the 1960s. Still, the fact that the contest takes place with the CFP field already locked in creates the possibility of a highly regarded service academy team earning a chance to play for the national title … then getting demolished…
The 1963 Army-Navy game holds an established place in rivalry lore: Delayed a week following the assassination of President Kennedy, Roger Staubach led the No. 2-ranked Midshipmen to a 21-7 fourth-quarter lead, and the Navy defense fended off a late Army rally to secure a 21-15 victory. Despite that history, the game’s true place in the sports-viewing pantheon has almost nothing to do with the on-field participants and everything to do with Tony Verna, who died Sunday at age 81. Verna, then a 29-year-old director with CBS, had developed what was a then-unheard of bit of video genius, which he used late in…
Aside from the typical midseason TV-directed time changes (more on them later), the 2014 service academy slate is just about set. And as sweltering summer temperatures signal the beginning of full-pad practices and traditional preseason speculation, here’s a few things for the more-than-casual academy football fan to take notice of: 1. A normal Saturday slate. Aside from a trio of games in late November, including two on the day after Thanksgiving, every service academy game will be played during a time typically reserved for college football. Last year, Air Force alone played four non-Saturday games. 2. Mids going big time:…
Could a team lose the Commander in Chief’s Trophy and win that shiny trophy on the right in the same year? Yes, it could. But wagering on it might be a bad idea. The College Football Playoff begins this season, with four teams from the NCAA’s top tier selected to face off in a single-elimination tournament to crown a champion. It’s a history-making innovation … unless you count the postseason for nearly every other team sporting event on the planet. Regardless, the group said Monday that it will make its semifinalist selections public on Dec. 7, live on ESPN before…
A winter wonderland became a frigid mess. A defensive struggle became a rout. A packed stadium became a ghost town long before the final gun. And an 11-game win streak became a dirty dozen. Behind three touchdown runs from quarterback Keenan Reynolds — the first tying the NCAA single-season record for QBs at 27, the last setting a new record at 29 — the Navy Midshipmen used a punishing ground game to hand the Army Black Knights a 34-7 loss Saturday at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field. Navy hasn’t lost to Army since 2001 and now leads the all-time series 58-49-7.…
Army quarterback Angel Santiago didn’t start the game, but he’s hoping to create an improbable finish. The junior hit freshman Xavier Moss with a 29-yard strike about midway through the third quarter, then followed it with a 4-yard scoring run to give the Black Knights life. Navy answered with a clock-eating 11-play drive and a 34-yard Nick Sloan field goal to make it 20-7 at the end of three quarters. If Santiago and Army continue to put the ball in the air, Navy may need some more heroics from freshman cornerback Brendon Clements, who has already forced a fumble and…
Army stumbles. Navy capitalizes. Mix in snow. Repeat. A simple formula, sure, but the Arctic conditions and stingy defenses in Philadelphia are keeping both the Black Knights and Mids from doing anything too complicated. In the first quarter, Navy followed an Army fumble with Quinton Singleton’s 58-yard run, setting up a field goal. In the second, Navy followed an Army personal-foul penalty with a 39-yard touchdown run by Noah Copeland, leading to a 10-0 lead. Later, the Army offense stalled and forced the Black Knights to punt from deep within their own territory. The next play, quarterback Keenan Reynolds watched…
A heavy wind, some snow and a pair of tough defenses added up to make the first quarter of Saturday’s Army-Navy game practically offense-free. Except one play. Following a fumble from Army quarterback A.J. Schurr caused by Navy’s Brendon Clements, Midshipman Quinton Singleton took a handoff up the middle and looked up to see … nothing. Navy blockers cleared out the middle of the Black Knights front, and 58 yards later, only Chris Carnegie’s last-grasp tackle stopped a Navy touchdown. Army’s defense snapped back, and Navy’s offense faltered at the goal line, leaving Nick Sloan to kick a 20-yard field…
