FIGURING OUT THE TEXAS BOWL

With the welcome relief of a bye week slowing things down, now’s as good a time as any to look at how the Texas Bowl is shaping up. The Mids are now 8-3, and officially accepted the invitation following the Notre Dame win last week. Their opponent will come from the Big 12 as long as the conference has enough bowl-eligible teams. Last year we spent half of the run-up to the EagleBank Bowl looking at the ACC standings and praying to avoid a rematch with Wake Forest. Thankfully, there’s no such problem this year (yet).

Here’s the Big 12 Bowl lineup, assuming only the champ makes the BCS:

1. BCS (Fiesta)
2. Cotton
3. Holiday
4. Alamo
5. Sun
6. Insight
7. Independence
8. Texas

It’s possible for more than one team to make the BCS if Texas loses the Big 12 championship game, but still gets selected for a BCS at-large bid. In that case, the Texas Bowl would have the #9 selection from the conference, and we might have to start worrying about having enough teams eligible. If the conference doesn’t have a team available, then Navy’s opponent will be an at-large selection from who knows where.

Here’s how things look in the Big 12 right now:

Bowl eligible: Texas (10-0), Oklahoma State (8-2), Nebraska (7-3), Oklahoma (6-4), Texas Tech (6-4), Iowa State (6-5), Missouri (6-4)

Still alive: Kansas State (6-5), Kansas (5-5), Texas A&M (5-5), Baylor (4-6)

LOL no: Colorado (3-7)

Seven teams are bowl eligible, with four still kicking. None of the four has an easy go of things to finish up the season, so there are no guarantees to get eight eligible teams, let alone nine. Kansas State has 6 wins, but still isn’t bowl-eligible because two of those wins came against I-AA opponents. They play Nebraska next week. Win, and they get a spot in the Big 12 championship game and a chance to play for the Fiesta Bowl. Lose, and they don’t go to any bowl game. Talk about feast or famine… Anyway, the only team I wouldn’t want to play is Texas Tech, since that would be a rematch of the 2003 Houston Bowl. From a football perspective, anyone else in the conference would make a very appealing bowl matchup for the Mids. For obvious reasons, Texas, Oklahoma State, and Nebraska aren’t going to be trickling down to the #8 selection. The best-case scenario for Navy would be a team that would bring a lot of fans to the game, creating a better atmosphere for the game and helping the bowl committee financially. That means Oklahoma or Texas A&M. 

A few things need to happen in order for either of those teams to make their way down to the Texas Bowl. They would most likely have to finish 6-6; the bowls that pick ahead of the Texas Bowl will want OU and A&M too, but they won’t be able to select a 6-6 team if a team with a winning record is still available. That also means that a few other schools need a win in the next couple of weeks to guarantee a winning season. So here’s your Birddog Big 12 Texas Bowl Rooting Guide to give you something to follow during Navy’s week off.

1) Oklahoma at Texas Tech: An Oklahoma win gives them a winning record for the season and likely eliminates them from Texas Bowl contention. Same with the Red Raiders, so root for Texas Tech.

2) Iowa State at Missouri: This is the Cyclones’ last game of the season, while Mizzou still has a game against Kansas next week. Root for Iowa State to get a winning record, making it less likely that they will fall to the Texas Bowl.

3) Baylor at Texas A&M: Call in whatever karmic favors you have to pull for Texas A&M.

4) Kansas State at Nebraska: Not that it’s going to happen, but the more bowl-eligible Big 12 teams, the better. Cheer for Kansas State.

5) Kansas at Texas: Don’t bother hoping for the impossible. Texas.

If by some miracle all of this comes to pass, that will leave us with 6 teams with a guaranteed winning record: Texas, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, Texas Tech, Iowa State, and Kansas State. Oklahoma would be 6-5 with a game at home against Oklahoma State left to play. Mizzou would be 6-5 with 5-6 Kansas next on the schedule. Texas A&M would be 6-5, with their season finale against Texas remaining. If Texas wins the conference, that would leave at least 9 teams for the 8 bowl games to pick from. A Missouri win over Kansas would give them a winning record as well, leaving the Independence Bowl and Texas Bowl to pick from OU and A&M, assuming each loses its last game.

Confused yet? That’s the best-case scenario. I think it’s more likely that Kansas, Missouri, or Iowa State will end up playing Navy. Any of those would make for a great game, but I’m not sure if they’d make for a great crowd. Here’s hoping I’m wrong. Kansas and Missouri both drew well in their bowl games last year, after all. I’m just not as sure they’ll turn out for a game against Navy the way a more local team would.

Postgame Haiku, Vol. 29

Navy wins again;
Seven is greater than three.
Bye week! Sweet relief!

GAME WEEK: DELAWARE

For Navy fans who lived through the two decades after George Welsh left to coach Virginia, it can be hard to admit that the Mids are, in fact, good. Slowly but surely, though, people are coming around. After all, Navy has won a lot of football games over the last seven years– 58 to be exact. “Expect to win” hasn’t just been a marketing slogan for NAAA; it’s been sound advice. While we all understand how challenging it is to win at a service academy, we know that Navy enters every game with a shot to win it. It shouldn’t be a surprise when they do.

The exception to that rule is Notre Dame. Navy could be the 5-time defending national champion, and beating Notre Dame would still be a big deal. It’s just not supposed to happen… A point we were all reminded about for 43 straight years. The losing streak might have ended in 2007, but Saturday’s win was just as satisfying. This was supposed to be the year that Notre Dame put Navy back in its place on the way to a BCS bowl. Instead, the Mids walked out of South Bend victorious, and Navy fans have been giddy ever since. Well, this Navy fan has been, anyway, and I’m sure I’m not alone. If it’s hard for us to move on, imagine how hard it must be for the team. Moving on has been sort of a theme for Navy football this season, as Ken Niumatalolo has found himself trying to keep the team grounded after impressive performances in games like Ohio State and Rice. Too many people patting the team on the back, he said; he had to make sure his guys didn’t let it go to their heads. Niumat probably had to work overtime this week. He knows that the fastest way to squash the feel-good vibe from the Notre Dame win would be to walk out onto the field on Senior Day and lose to Delaware.

It’s not like it hasn’t happened before. In 2003, the Mids jumped out to a 14-0 lead before fizzling out on offense and falling, 21-17. In 2007, the offense was phenomenal, but the defense took the day off in a 59-52 loss. The Blue Hens advanced to the I-AA title game in both of those years, winning in 2003. The wheels fell off the wagon for Delaware last year, as they finished 4-8. This year’s team has bounced back a bit, coming into the Navy game at 6-3 and ranked 23rd in I-AA.

The difference has been primarily at quarterback. Delaware has relied on I-A transfers at quarterback over the last few years to lead their offenses. In 2003, it was Andy Hall, who transferred from Georgia Tech. In 2007, it was Pitt transfer Joe Flacco. Last year, head coach K.C. Keeler was about two games short of holding an open tryout with the student body to find someone to play the position. This year, though, Keeler has Penn State transfer Pat Devlin. With Devlin, the Blue Hen spread offense has regained some of its punch. Devlin threw for 302 yards against William & Mary, 329 against Maine, and 284 against UMass, helping to make Delaware the 25th-rated passing offense in I-AA. The Delaware offense is what Paul Johnson would call the “NCAA Offense:” spread, 3 or 4 wide, QB in the shotgun. The running game is a lot of the same zone schemes that have plagued the Mids in the past, although with an average size of 6-4, 277 pounds, the offensive line doesn’t have nearly the size of the other teams that ran those schemes.

Defensively, Delaware lines up in a 4-3. It’s a fairly young unit that will be taking the field against the Navy offense, with only 3 seniors expected to start. Over the years, Delaware has tried a little bit of everything against the Mids. In the ‘03 game, the safeties basically ignored the possibility of the pass, and it burned them– once. After that, the Mids weren’t able to capitalize. Aaron Polanco was a much better passer than Craig Candeto, so that approach wouldn’t fly in ‘04. Instead, they actually tried more of a straight man-to-man. Kyle Eckel ended up running for 143 yards. Last time, it was the ol’ free-safety-follows-the-slotback defense:

It didn’t work. Of course, the Mids couldn’t stop Delaware either, but I doubt that K.C. Keeler is anxious to recycle a game plan that gave up 52 points the last time out.

The concern after a big win is that it will lead to a letdown the following week. I don’t think that’s what we’re going to see out of Navy, though. The team already had a letdown against Temple. They’ve learned their lesson. I think that the win over Notre Dame will serve as a wake-up call for just how much this team can accomplish. A 10-win regular season is still within reach. As tired and beat up as the Mids are heading into their 11th straight week without a bye, they can go all-out knowing that a break is on the horizon. Ricky Dobbs looked like he hadn’t missed a beat last week, and the Navy offense might get a similar spark from the return of big-play slotback Marcus Curry. Navy fane know how dangerous Delaware can be. They’ll be motivated this week, too, as they will need to win to stay alive for a playoff berth. I don’t know if this Delaware team measures up to the championship contenders of years past, but they aren’t to be taken lightly. Fortunately, nobody knows that better than the Mids.

NAVY 23, NOTRE DAME 21. CORWIN BROWN SAYS THINGS.

I was lucky enough to have made the trip to Ireland back in 1996 when Navy played Notre Dame in Dublin. It was a bowl-game type of atmosphere in the week leading up to the game, complete with parade, pep rally, and the usual festivities. My memory of that week is a bit hazy (for various reasons), but there’s one part of the pep rally that sort of struck a chord with me at the time. You know how pep rallies are; bands, cheerleaders, and speakers getting on stage to lead the rah-rah. One speaker was less rah-rah and more matter-of-fact. I can’t remember who it was… Tom Lynch, maybe? He had to be from the class of ‘64. He got up on the stage, grabbed the microphone, and said, “You know, we beat Notre Dame three out of four times when I was a Mid.” Of all the things that were said that evening, that’s the only thing that has stuck with me. I desperately wanted to beat Notre Dame just once. I wouldn’t dare dream of anything more than that; seeing more than one win over the Irish just felt like too much to ask for.

That which was unfathomable to me then has now become the reality that the Brigade wakes up to every morning. Navy defeated Notre Dame on Saturday, 23-21, for their second win over the Irish in three years. There was no overtime necessary this time, as the Mids scored on their first drive then led for the rest of the game.

CROSSING OVER

The scene: a television studio in Burbank, California. The audience listens in amazement as psychic John Edward relays messages from the other side.

JOHN EDWARD: …and so, Steve, Larry says that just because he’s dead, don’t think you don’t still owe him that 20 bucks.

STEVE: God dammit.

JOHN EDWARD: Larry says that can be arranged.

STEVE: *slinks away*

The audience claps.

Postgame Haiku, Vol. 28

HAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHA

GAME WEEK: NOTRE DAME

It’s Notre Dame week, but you might not have noticed.

There was a time when the week before the Notre Dame game was a bit crazy for Navy fans. Prior to Navy’s TV deals with HDNet and CSTV/CBS College Sports, the Notre Dame game was one of only a handful of chances that Navy fans across the country had to see the Mids play. Everyone would get all riled up telling each other that this would finally be the year that the losing streak to the Irish would end. National media outlets that usually paid no attention to Navy would swoop down on Annapolis and start asking questions about the streak and 1963 and Roger Staubach and every other recycled storyline you can think of. Nervous anticipation ran wild. Two years ago, the streak finally did end, mercifully. That just set up a new angle for last year. Can Navy do it again? Will Notre Dame get revenge? A different verse of the same song, for the most part. The same anxious buzz accompanied the week preceding the game.

This year, though, feels downright… normal. There’s no streak to talk about. The Irish won last year’s contest, so there’s no “revenge” on the line. There’s a bit more media attention on the Mids this week, but not overwhelmingly so– certainly not to the extent of years past. It’s not that Notre Dame isn’t a big game. It’s just that the hoopla that defined the rivalry for generations no longer applies, and that’s fine by me. As much as I enjoy the series with Notre Dame and recognize its importance to the Navy program, I’ve always sort of hated the week leading up to the game. It’s not that the media attention was bad, even if they just repeated the same theme year after year. Media exposure is a big reason why the Naval Academy schedules Notre Dame in the first place. No, I dreaded Notre Dame week each year because it always tends to bring out the worst in Navy fans.

TEMPLE 27, NAVY 24

Something that is frequently discussed among Navy fans– at least those of you unfortunate enough to have wandered onto this dark and confused slice of the internet– is the idea of a “complete game.” Navy has done a whole lot of winning over the last several years, but sometimes it seems as if one particular unit carried the others to victory. Perhaps the defense won the game in a low-scoring slugfest. Maybe the offense would win a shootout. Then again, there are games like Air Force last year where Navy’s special teams kicked four field goals and blocked two punts to lead the Mids to the win. Rare is the glorious afternoon where all three units play at the top of their respective games, making the Mids look as if they could give the Washington Redskins a run for their money. Those are the games we live for.

The corollary to that, of course, is that sometimes we’re going to see complete losses– games where something goes wrong in all three phases. Saturday’s 27-24 loss to Temple could be described in such a way. Not that you can’t point to good things on both sides of the ball. Vince Murray rushed for 115 yards. The defense finally forced a couple of turnovers. Special teams almost had a banner day, with Joe Buckley nailing his lone field goal attempt, David Wright scooping up a botched punt for a touchdown, and Craig Schaefer recovering a fumbled punt return to set up another Navy touchdown. But as they giveth, they also taketh away, and in the end the game that people remember will look a lot different from the picture painted by those superlatives.

APOLOGIES

The Temple recap is taking a while. It’s a long one.

Postgame Haiku, Vol. 27

Hey Ausiello,
Write another e-mail to
Graham Watson this week.