Post by Yash on Nov 8, 2007 22:23:00 GMT -6
So this is a pretty long article, but well worth the read. As a die hard notre dame fan, even I had to agree with Feinsteins article. Notre Dames 21 army all americans to Navy's 0, Notre Dames elite recruits to Navy's Undersized, but over achievers. I had a lot of times where I wanted to say "Yeah, but" until I realized, he was right, there is no excuses this year. Navy won, fair and square, no one to blame but the hard working midshipmen. Enough of me rambling, enjoy the article, its worth it.
Miracle On Turf (Washington Post)
Miracle on Turf
By John Feinstein
Monday, November 5, 2007; Page A19
When the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the seemingly unbeatable
Soviet Union in Lake Placid in 1980 en route to the gold medal, it was
hailed as the most stunning upset in sports history.
It may be difficult for an outsider to understand, but the Navy football
team's 46-44 triple-overtime victory over Notre Dame on Saturday may
rank, at the very least, a close second to that storied miracle on ice.
This was a miracle on turf. Notre Dame had beaten Navy 43 straight
times, dating back to 1963 when Roger Staubach was Navy's quarterback
and officers in the military made salaries comparable to those of
players in the National Football League.
It was before Vietnam, before Iraq, before any high school athlete who
had any notion that he could play in the NFL someday ran screaming from
the room at the thought of attending a college with a five-year
post-graduate military commitment. It was, in short, a very different
world.
Skeptics will point out that this is a bad (now 1-8) Notre Dame team. It
doesn't matter. Every Notre Dame team should dominate Navy on the
football field. At one point during the game, NBC -- also known as the
Notre Dame Broadcasting Co. because it pays the school millions of
dollars a year to televise all its home games -- did a promo for a high
school All-Star game it televises in January. Only the country's
top-rated high school seniors are invited to play.
"Twenty-one of the current Irish players have played in that game in
past years," NBC play-by-play announcer Tom Hammond said.
That would be exactly 21 more than are currently playing at Navy. Or, as
Hammond's partner Pat Haden pointed out: "With all due respect, Navy
doesn't get to recruit blue-chip football players."
Just blue-chip people.
Navy's first touchdown on Saturday was scored by Zerbin Singleton, an
aerospace engineering major with a 3.14 grade point average who hopes to
be an astronaut. As an 11-year-old, Singleton watched as a bounty hunter
shot and arrested his mother. He was accepted at the Naval Academy as a
high school senior, but he could not report for plebe summer after he
was injured when a car he was in was hit by a drunk driver. He tried to
join the football team at Georgia Tech but was told, "Don't waste our
time, kid, you're too small." He re-applied to Navy, was accepted, then
had to deal with the suicide of his father during his freshman year.
Of course at 5-foot-8 and 174 pounds, Singleton is bigger than Reggie
Campbell, the 5-foot-6-inch, 168-pound offensive captain who scored the
winning points on Saturday.
Notre Dame has every advantage a football power can possibly have: an
80,000-seat stadium; its own TV network; arguably the greatest tradition
in college football history ("win one for the Gipper," Knute Rockne,
Touchdown Jesus, the fight song); more money than it knows what to do
with; and a great academic reputation.
What does Navy sell to recruits? The chance to play against Notre Dame.
Or maybe it's the chance to wake up at 6 o'clock every morning; the
chance to be screamed at by upperclassmen; the chance to lose your
weekend liberty for carrying a book-bag improperly or for being 30
seconds late to class.
Not to mention the chance to get shot at when you graduate.
The players Coach Paul Johnson recruits are frequently like Campbell and
Singleton: too small for big-time programs like Notre Dame to bother
with; tough kids who love a challenge and love proving they can do
things that "can't" be done.
Like beating Notre Dame in Notre Dame Stadium.
The best description I ever heard of what it is like to play football at
Navy, Army and Air Force came from Fred Goldsmith, who coached at Air
Force:
"At a civilian school the hardest part of a football player's day is
football practice," he said. "At an academy, the easiest part of a
football player's day is football practice."
Navy can't possibly beat Notre Dame. Except on Saturday a group of
youngsters who were too small or too slow (or both) to play big-time
college football did just that.
With all due respect to Notre Dame and all its blue-chip players, Navy's
celebration should be our celebration.
John Feinstein is the author of "A Civil War: A Year Inside Army vs.
Navy, College Football's Purest Rivalry." He has been a commentator for
the Navy football radio network for 11 years.
Miracle On Turf (Washington Post)
Miracle on Turf
By John Feinstein
Monday, November 5, 2007; Page A19
When the U.S. Olympic hockey team defeated the seemingly unbeatable
Soviet Union in Lake Placid in 1980 en route to the gold medal, it was
hailed as the most stunning upset in sports history.
It may be difficult for an outsider to understand, but the Navy football
team's 46-44 triple-overtime victory over Notre Dame on Saturday may
rank, at the very least, a close second to that storied miracle on ice.
This was a miracle on turf. Notre Dame had beaten Navy 43 straight
times, dating back to 1963 when Roger Staubach was Navy's quarterback
and officers in the military made salaries comparable to those of
players in the National Football League.
It was before Vietnam, before Iraq, before any high school athlete who
had any notion that he could play in the NFL someday ran screaming from
the room at the thought of attending a college with a five-year
post-graduate military commitment. It was, in short, a very different
world.
Skeptics will point out that this is a bad (now 1-8) Notre Dame team. It
doesn't matter. Every Notre Dame team should dominate Navy on the
football field. At one point during the game, NBC -- also known as the
Notre Dame Broadcasting Co. because it pays the school millions of
dollars a year to televise all its home games -- did a promo for a high
school All-Star game it televises in January. Only the country's
top-rated high school seniors are invited to play.
"Twenty-one of the current Irish players have played in that game in
past years," NBC play-by-play announcer Tom Hammond said.
That would be exactly 21 more than are currently playing at Navy. Or, as
Hammond's partner Pat Haden pointed out: "With all due respect, Navy
doesn't get to recruit blue-chip football players."
Just blue-chip people.
Navy's first touchdown on Saturday was scored by Zerbin Singleton, an
aerospace engineering major with a 3.14 grade point average who hopes to
be an astronaut. As an 11-year-old, Singleton watched as a bounty hunter
shot and arrested his mother. He was accepted at the Naval Academy as a
high school senior, but he could not report for plebe summer after he
was injured when a car he was in was hit by a drunk driver. He tried to
join the football team at Georgia Tech but was told, "Don't waste our
time, kid, you're too small." He re-applied to Navy, was accepted, then
had to deal with the suicide of his father during his freshman year.
Of course at 5-foot-8 and 174 pounds, Singleton is bigger than Reggie
Campbell, the 5-foot-6-inch, 168-pound offensive captain who scored the
winning points on Saturday.
Notre Dame has every advantage a football power can possibly have: an
80,000-seat stadium; its own TV network; arguably the greatest tradition
in college football history ("win one for the Gipper," Knute Rockne,
Touchdown Jesus, the fight song); more money than it knows what to do
with; and a great academic reputation.
What does Navy sell to recruits? The chance to play against Notre Dame.
Or maybe it's the chance to wake up at 6 o'clock every morning; the
chance to be screamed at by upperclassmen; the chance to lose your
weekend liberty for carrying a book-bag improperly or for being 30
seconds late to class.
Not to mention the chance to get shot at when you graduate.
The players Coach Paul Johnson recruits are frequently like Campbell and
Singleton: too small for big-time programs like Notre Dame to bother
with; tough kids who love a challenge and love proving they can do
things that "can't" be done.
Like beating Notre Dame in Notre Dame Stadium.
The best description I ever heard of what it is like to play football at
Navy, Army and Air Force came from Fred Goldsmith, who coached at Air
Force:
"At a civilian school the hardest part of a football player's day is
football practice," he said. "At an academy, the easiest part of a
football player's day is football practice."
Navy can't possibly beat Notre Dame. Except on Saturday a group of
youngsters who were too small or too slow (or both) to play big-time
college football did just that.
With all due respect to Notre Dame and all its blue-chip players, Navy's
celebration should be our celebration.
John Feinstein is the author of "A Civil War: A Year Inside Army vs.
Navy, College Football's Purest Rivalry." He has been a commentator for
the Navy football radio network for 11 years.
