Workouts are underway. College football teams are taking shape under the hot August sun. Wall-sized coolers of “Falcon Fuel” are being unveiled in a massive ribbon-cutting ceremony … that last one might be an Air Force-only thing. Regardless, weekends for service academy gridiron fans soon will involve the traditional rivalry smack-talk and the more recent tradition of smashing buttons on the remote control, trying to find your team’s game on one of the approximately 73 cable sports networks in time for that 3:30 p.m. kickoff … or was it noon? Or did they play last night? The below schedule (all times Eastern) should help,…
Browsing: Air Force
The Army West Point Black Knights will need more than a rebranding to beat Navy, at least in the eyes of Las Vegas oddsmakers. The Golden Nugget sportsbook in Vegas released its annual way-too-early-to-take-all-that-seriously betting lines for select college football games Friday. ESPN.com has the full list here, but for Army-Navy watchers, the number to know is 13. That is, Vegas has listed the Midshipmen as 13-point favorites over the Black Knights to extend their rivalry win streak, which now stands at 13 games. The Golden Nugget had the same line set last summer (Navy won, 17-10) and had Navy…
Army, Navy and Air Force have locked in their season-opening football games, all starting the year at home against teams outside the top-tier Football Bowl Subdivision. Navy announced today that it will host Colgate at noon on Sept. 5 with the game televised on CBS Sports Network. It will be a nonconference opener for the first-ever conference football season at Annapolis; the Midshipmen will play in the American Athletic Conference, which has not released its league schedule for the year. The Mids’ nonconference slate is set, and Colgate is the only team on it that won’t make a yearly appearance. Navy hosts Air…
One had his first UFC fight in 2011. The other has never fought professionally outside of Alaska. One will tip the scales in Las Vegas at 135 pounds, give or take a few ounces. The other weighed 300-plus pounds a few years back. One fought less than two months ago, knocking out a Chinese fighter in Australia in front of a global audience. The other hasn’t fought since last January, when he edged out a 40-year-old via five-round split decision. Saying Marcus Brimage and Jared Cannonier have taken different paths to the preliminary card at Saturday’s UFC 182 event would be a bit…
Navy head football coach Ken Niumatalolo stands one win away from a third-straight postseason bowl appearance, remains unbeaten against Army and is poised to lead the Midshipmen into football conference play for the first time in school history. Can you put a price on that? Yes: $1,574,810. That’s Niumatalolo’s 2014 salary, according to USA Today’s annual college football pay roundup, ranking him 60th out of the 121 Football Bowl Subdivision coaches listed. He easily outpaces Air Force’s Troy Calhoun ($892,750 in total compensation, 74th) and Army first-year coach Jeff Monken ($834,667, 77th). Niumatalolo’s pay would rank fourth among coaches in the American Athletic Conference,…
Well, here’s one response to the Navy’s iPhone parody. Two falcon mascots (The Birds?) are featured in this 2014 Air Force v. Navy Spirit Video dubbed “Calamari – The Bird.” The mascots recreated Childish Gambino’s “Freaks and Geeks” rap with a few lyrics of their own. A preview: Alright you navy kids are asinine, we steal yo’ chicks to pass the time Mass appeal, flying time, you ride your ships, I’m sinkin’ mine Navy thinks their good, but beware Air Force is better AF swag so cold, best not leave your sweater yeah Air Force do it big, and these sailors ain’t…
The newly released iPhone 6 is getting all sorts of attention these days. And the Navy is using it to their advantage. In this Siri iPhone parody video, the “Go Navy, beat Air Force” spirit is in full swing before the Midshipmen take on the Falcons this Saturday at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. Watch Siri’s sassy behavior shut down the conversation below: [HTML1]
If you’re a service-academy football fan who doesn’t keep up with the pro game, or even if you just decided to spend your Labor Day doing something other than refreshing the NFL.com practice-squad page over and over, here’s a brief recap of where some academy standouts found themselves as NFL teams trimmed down to the 53-man roster limit: Ben Garland (Air Force): The former standout defensive lineman for the Falcons made the Denver Broncos roster, but not on defense. Garland, who was promoted to captain in the Colorado Air National Guard in May, switched to offensive guard last year. He first…
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:…
USA Today has updated its massive college football salary database and recently published a piece on the exploding cost of employing a major-college football coach, which has nearly doubled since 2006. The payouts for service-academy coaches haven’t seen that big of a surge, at least in recent years. Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo still leads the pack, earning a bit more than $1.5 million in 2013. That’s down from $1.6 million last year, but those figures likely all fall under the contract extension signed by the coach, terms undisclosed, in 2011. It’s good enough for 63rd on the overall list.…
