Comments on: Getting the Ugly

By: Quartermaster

Quartermaster — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 03:14:08 +0000

We always watch the Army-Navy game. My father was also Air Force. He almost never watched the AF Academy play.

By: virgil xenophon

virgil xenophon — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:03:21 +0000

MacArthur said it best, but unfortunately genetics has passed the service academies by. Pride and tradition dictate that they be competitive with the “big kids” (i.e., BCS schools) of college football, but size limiting requirements clash with the growing size of players and academic standards make this almost impossible. Bowing to reality all three have softened their schedules, but the felt necessity to continue to play national powers has unfortunately corrupted their recruiting and admissions process. This presents them with an almost insoluable dilemma: To continue to live the lie and continue an indefensible admissions process or admit they can no longer compete at the highest level.

I, for one, think the better part of valor is to admit that times have changed and play nothing but the Vanderbilts, VMIs and Tulanes of this world. They can’t play with the big kids as it is with any consistency even WITH a corrupt (and possibly illegal) admissions process–and they can distort the process only so far–to go any further would be so blatantly expose the current admissions practices for what they are as to cause a major firestorm. Better to give up the attempt rather than bring ultimate dishonor upon the armed forces. I don’t think the current fisade and status quo can be maintained for much longer.

If even “Pepsodent Paul” Deitzel, fresh off a 1958 national championship at LSU in his return to his alma mater in 1961 couldn’t ultimately bring back the magic even then when the performance gap was far smaller–as demonstrated by his leaving eventually for S. Carolina–what shot do the service academies have now? True enough, occasionally when the stars are aligned they make the big time as in Navy’s 1963 Cotton Bowl appearance with Roger Staubauch and Joe Bellino, but such things are becoming rare almost to the point of non-existence. Is it worth perverting the system and ruining the name and reputation of the academies on the off chance that someday in an unk future the stars will once again fall in alignment? Far better, I say, to play it straight and be satisfied with the good old college try. It won’t lessen the status of Army-Navy one whit.
A major scandal will….

By: Marine6

Marine6 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 19:59:55 +0000

And some of those Army guys are O-8. Ah well, you can’t win ‘em all.

By: xairboss

xairboss — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 15:02:17 +0000

I thoroughly enjoyed John Feinstein’s “A Civil War: Army Vs. Navy A Year Inside College Football’s Purest Rivalry.” It’s hard to beleive that it’s over 20 years old now. Some of the players then are probably 0-6s now.

By: Navig8r

Navig8r — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 13:58:52 +0000

I remember steaming in JAXOA one year during the game. CO told me (I was the Navigator, naturally) to find an anchorage as close as possible to the TV transmitter so we could pick up the game and pipe it on CCTV. Not so easy on a deep draft out of NORVA and nobody onboard who knew where the TV towers were in Jacksonville.

Army won, but we had a great steel beach barbeque for dinner after the game. Set the anchor watch overnight and holiday routine the next day. (And the CO was not a Boat School grad, either.)

By: Humble1310

Humble1310 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 07:21:49 +0000

I didn’t watch the game this year for the first time in 6 years.

I did, however, have ATC relay scores to me while I was out doing God’s Work (ASW).