- Don't Miss:
- Class of 2012 |
- PATIO SEASON |
- Homecoming |
- Jack Quinn's |
- ELITCH TICKETS |
- REAL ESTATE GUIDE |
- LIVE TRAFFIC
Navy’s Niumatalolo might want to drop Air Force from football schedule
February 2nd, 2012, 2:10 pm · 19 Comments · posted by david ramsey
Now that Navy is joining the Big East (scheduled arrival 2015), football coach Ken Niumatalolo might want to drop Air Force from the schedule.
“I’d rather keep Army and Notre Dame and not worry about the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy,” Niumatalolo told ESPN. “We’re in a conference now. So we need to try to win a conference championship.” (Niumatalolo was talking about Navy’s plans if the Midshipmen play a nine-game Big East schedule. It’s unclear if the Big East will have an eight-game or nine-game schedule when Navy arrives in 2015.)
First off, Ken, I don’t think you need to worry about winning a Big East title. A 4-4 (or 5-4 in a 9-game schedule) conference finish will be a superb year for the Midshipmen. Navy is not destined to win a Big East title. Not going to happen.
Second, Ken, it’s interesting to see how you react when you find yourself in the same situation Air Force coaches have been in for decades. Now that you’re preparing to leave the comfort and safety and exceedingly easy schedules of your life as an independent, you’re open to ending your rivalry with Air Force.
Air Force has beaten Navy two straight times. This is one of college football’s most intense, most entertaining rivalries. Army-Navy is all about yesterday. Air Force-Navy is all about today.
Niumatalolo wants to keep playing Army. This makes sense. Navy pounds Army every year. It’s an easy win.
Welcome to reality, Ken. Life as an indy is easy. Life in a conference will bring tough challenges to your life and to the lives of Navy fans everywhere.
Drop Air Force from the schedule?
Bad idea.
Reader Comments
Comments are encouraged, but you must follow our User Agreement.- Keep it civil and stay on topic.
- No profanity, vulgarity, racial slurs or personal attacks.
- People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked.
19 Comments
Leave a Reply
- Advertising Info
- Place An Ad
- Today's Ads
- Place an Announcement
- Interactive
- About Us
- Contact Us
- Facebook Comments FAQ
- Contact the Newsroom
- Advertise
- Gazette Speakers' Bureau
- Work For Us
- Copyright and Reprint Information
- Subscriber Services
- Subscriber Services
- Manage Print Subscription
- Pay Your Bill Online
- Vacation Stop
- Archives
- Newspaper Ads
- Buy Our Photos
- Single Copy Locations
- Online News Environment
- The Street
- Green Edition
- E-Newsletters/ Alerts
- RSS Feeds
- Mobile
- Article Map
- AP Terms & Conditions
The Army-Navy game is all that matters.
Westpoint79 – Your statement was true.
30 years ago.
Coach Niumatalolo’s comments at both the Big East intro presser and here recently have just been bizarre.
graduating players who go on to serve as career coaches or PE instructors
David, in 2015 Navy will have three out-of-conference games locked in every season. If Coach Niumatalolo wanted to drop one of those three to make the schedule more manageable he would drop Notre Dame. But he’s not. He’d rather drop the game that brings the least benefit to his program — Air Force.
Army-Navy will ALWAYS matter. Starting playing football in 1890 before the Wright Brothers could even get off the ground, they have played 82 years in a row since 1930. Its Air Force that is the Johnny-Come-Lately.
Are you sure that there will BE an Air Force Academy 50 years from now? Seems like there are plenty of questions about just what the Air Force is supposed to be tomorrow. Cybergeeks?
Well said Dave Hughes.
Air Force replaces satellites and ?????
It appears Navy may be following the lead of their hoops team refusing to play AF after the 05-06 season. Navy will find positives this year with a 3-18 record and no victories in the treacherous, punishing Patriot League.
There is another point that Ramsey’s comment set off. Well, one good reason Army – West Point’s team has been 2d rate for a number of years – its called the side effects of fighting two protracted wars – Iraq and Afghanistan – which have consumed huge amounts of effort by West Point to prepare its Army graduates for immediate service in them. during such periods intercollegiate sports takes a back seat to everything else.
And it was clear that many a well qualified applicant – seeing that after his sport (football or others) and graduation, he was going off to a nasty war. Not a great prospect for a kid who wants to play football more than anything else.
But times change. I entered West Point in 1946 after the war was just over. And watched Army football AND a couple of guys named Blanchard and Davis both Heisman Trophy Winners. And I was there watching Army play Notre Dame to a 0-0 tie at the Polo Grounds in New York.
All four of my years there 46-50 Navy never beat Army.
Then I was immediately after graduation in a year of heavy Korean War combat and football didn’t seem very important then.
Winning teams attract – up to a point – applicants for all Service Academies. But the Academies do not exist for the purpose of winning sports teams or to raise money for the college as many others do.
CBS analyst Beano Cook (who’s been around for a zillion years) said two interesting things after the AF Navy game this year. First, Army and Navy are rivals but they both HATE Air Force. Then he said he never thought he’d live to see the day when a service academy player got flagged for taunting. Wonder what’s going on at Navy. Maybe its for the best that they no longer play.
Army-Navy, your’re not good. Stop blaming wars, the President and your quarterbacks. Navy, get used to 3 win seasons. Once your future conference bretheren, both decent and mediocre (big east) play you a couple of years they’ll own you. Coach Ken’s offense is becoming all too predictable! Army, your birthchild, Air Force, has put you in the nursing home! You are now irrelevant and not worth mentioning. Calhoun will soon restore order in the ranks – AF1, Navy2 Army3. 18-12-6 CIC
Coach N has finally gotten a taste of what it’s like to lose to another Service Academy, and he has not reacted well to it. First, look at both he and his players in the aftermath of last season’s game . . . making excuses, blaming the refs, etc. Coach Calhoun’s teams lost a number of close games to Navy due to gut-wrenching mistakes … how did he react? How did his team react? Now the shoe is on the other foot, and how is Coach N reacting? Seems to me he’s looking for an excuse to to tuck tail and run.
Army/Navy is an awesome rivalry, but one wonders how Coach N will handle an eventual, inevitable loss to them . . . by calling off that rivalry too?
I have all the respect in the world for all 3 Service Academy teams. They represent everything that’s right about college athletics. (Contrast this with teams like CC Hockey that serve no greater purpose than to offer scholarships to foreign players, send an occasional anonymous player to the NHL minor leagues, and give loudmouth fans an excuse to get their drink on … yes, CCFan, that was for you … still smarting from the loss to AF I see
As for the Service Academies, we are all ultimately serving the same higher purpose, and inter-service games ought to be a national celebration of that, regardless of who wins. Coach Calhoun gets this, but I’m not sure that Coach N does.
Fascinating…the coach forgot why he’s there. He thinks it is REALLY just about football. hopefully, the Chairman will tell the USNA Superintendent, who will instruct the AD, who will direct the coach, and we’ll hear no more of this stupidity.
With all the changes in conference affiliations over the last 2 years, there is a ton of time here for even Navy to change their minds and never even become members of the Big East in 2015.
For a service academy coach to prefer Notre Dame over Air Force is bizarre! Coach Ken didn’t mind playing AF when he was winning every year and talking almost as much trash as his players.
Seeya in October Mids!
Classmate John Buckley has nailed it. Service Academies are not here to win conferences and trophies; they develop leaders. Sports are one of many great ways to do that.
As Doolies (freshmen) we were required to memorize, among a slew of other stuff: “On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days and other fields will bear the fruits of victory.” — (General Douglas MacArthur)
Who’s not to say that a future General Hap Arnold might meet a future Admiral Chester Nimitz as they shake hands at the 50 yard line?
Dave – I’m real disappointed in your article – you took what Coach N said way out of context. And – you again harp on your tired arguments on being an independant vs. being in a conference. Coach N was making comments on if the Big East went to 9 conference games, and whether Navy would be able to continue to play Army, Air FOrce and ND each year – he talked about what his druthers would be from a program/recruiting standpoint – and he said playing ND means more to the program/recruting than playing AIr Force…now – can anyone really argue that?
As far as rivalaries – if you went to an Academy – especially to either Army or Navy, you would understand just what it means to play one another. Air Force is a rivalry to both Navy and Army – but nothing like Army is to Navy. At either Army or Navy, cadets and mids think Beat Army or Beat Navy every day – that’s just the way it is…and has been for over a hundred years.
Air Force is not Army-Navy and never will be.
Colorado Springs is never said in the same breathe as West Point or Annapolis.
Ed . . . spoken like someone who is not a graduate of any of the 3. I poke fun at my squid friends, but ultimately, they are my brothers, and they are at least bright enough (most of them) to know the difference between “breathe” and “breath”.
Navy Coach, “Open Mouth, Insert Foot”. Commander In Chief Trophy competition will long outlive current Service Academy Coaches.