Need to get your football fix on all things Army, Navy and Air Force.
This is Yards and Stripes Service Academy Football. Now Here are your hosts,
Price Atkinson, Steve Carney and Mike love All. We have lipped off
on the twenty twenty three college football season. Here on Yards and Stripes,
your home for Service Academy Football. I am Price Atkinson and he is Steve
Carney, and we have a lot to do this week on episode two as
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week, and Steve, we do have lift off of As I just mentioned,
Week zero, Navy took center stage this coming weekend. It will be
Army and Air Force with their opening games is they will open the season on
Saturday. In Week one, however, it was the Naval Academy going to
Dublin, Ireland over the weekend to face the number thirteen Notre Dame fighting Irish
and forty two to three. All I can say is probably four words,
Steve, bigger, stronger, faster, better. Yeah, that's that's pretty
succinctly sums up what we saw in Dublin. Certainly hope that the midshipman and
coach Brad Newberry were able to get a Guinness while they were there. They
certainly needed when afterwards to kind of dull the pain that Notre Dame put them
through for sixty minutes on the football fields. And you know, I wish
I could say that something went right for Navy in this game, but if
you saw, if you watched the game, even even for a couple of
minutes, you saw that there was not much that went the way of the
midshipman because Notre Dame showed why they are one of the top fifteen football teams
in the country right now. And I certainly think that with how they played,
you know, they're gonna get a lot of think. I think that
this is now the start of Oh my god, here we go. Marcus
Freeman has got this thing turned around for the Fighting Irish, and they're gonna
get a lot of talk on national media. You know, the college football
national media is going to start looking at Notre Dame and the way that they
handled Navy. And yes, Navy is not a better team than than Notre
Dame, They're not even close to being on the same level as the Fighting
Irish, but the way that they handled them by nearly keeping them off the
scoreboard completely for the entire contest, they're certainly gonna get a lot of uh
concentration and a lot of focus is going to go towards the Fighting Irish,
and you know that's that's what happens. Yeah, Notre Dame was just a
different animal with Sam Hartman behind that offensive line that just pushed Navy around all
night long int Aviva Stadium there in Dublin. And you know, look,
Irish had the ball five times and they scored, you know, five touchdowns.
They were never there was never in doubt. And Sam Hartman was great
on third Dawn last year when he was at Wake Forest, and is just
as good or was just as good on Saturday night they're in Dublin. But
you know, I hate to be I'm never a prisoner of the moment guy,
and I'm not going to be in this case. But I don't I
don't think Navy is as bad is you know, everything played out on that
field on Saturday night in Dublin. I don't think Navies is bad, and
I don't think Notre Dame is maybe as good is what we saw. I
think Notre Dame is very good. They might be one of the best Notre
Dame teams. Scott Strassmeyer, former boss mine at the Naval Academy in the
sports information office. You know, I saw him tweet now he thought that
was one of the best Notre Dame teams he's seen that they have played in
twenty years. And well, I could agree with that. I don't know
if Notre Dame is going to be a college football playoff national championship contender.
I certainly think they could push possibly for a playoff spot. But are they
as good as what we saw where there's nothing that they could do wrong?
I mean they could run it, they could pass it, they did anything
and everything they wanted to behind an offensive line that was just flat out outstanding,
which I did not expect to see Nabe get pushed around quite that bad,
especially with Navy's defensive line all returning, maybe having so much back on
the defensive side the football. But nonetheless, here we are forty two three.
They owned it. Yeah, they certainly did. And we talked about
this last week that Navy needed to get pressure on Sam Hartman in order to
try and get him off the field. That was the That was the big
thing for me was can Navy keep Sam Hartman standing over there on the sideline
with his helmet off, watching the watching the midshipment offense go down the field.
And if they could do that, they were going to have themselves a
chance to try and to stay in this game up. Neither of us thought
that that Navy was going to win the game. There was really no chance
of that happening, But the fact was that they could keep it at least
within three touchdowns if they were able to be able to move the ball at
at at at a grind out pace, and they needed to grind it out
to try and stay within the twenty point twenty and a half point point spread,
and they weren't able to do that because we said, Sam Hartman gets
on the field, that fighting Irish offense was going to take chunks of yards
at a time. We certainly saw that, and unfortunately they also saw the
the Navy offensive line get taken advantage of by the Notre Dame defense, and
so they weren't able to They weren't able to push back on offense at all.
And when you do that, you end up going three and out and
all of a sudden, now it's time for the fighting Irish offense to take
more chunks of yards. Yea, And Notre Dame was not gonna call it
a perfect effort, but I mean they only had one penalty for ten yards.
They only had seven third down Steve. I mean they only faced third
down seven times in the game, including one fourth down, and they were
five or seven on third down. You know, they converted their one fourth
down attempt where they ran for almost two hundred through for two fifty. I
mean, I think the running success rate if you follow that statistic, which
I can show how dominant team is. I think they were over sixty five
percent in that category. So there was nothing that Notre Dame did wrong,
or I should say maybe that Navy could force Notre Dame to do wrong,
you know, in the football game en route to the forty two to three
win in this season opener. And we'll give out our game ball here in
a second, as we're going to move on from Navy Notre Dame, as
Navy will be off this weekend before they return home against Wagner for their home
opener on Saturday, November the ninth, but we will feature Air Force and
Army Stephen this week. Is they are on tap. We you know,
obviously Navy was the toast of the episode last week, but it's going to
be a lot of Air Force and Army coming up here in just a little
bit. But let's go ahead and give out the game ball. We've got
to look long and we got to look hard. But if you do,
anybody that watched the game, anybody that looks at the box score, I
think you can look and probably look at one two directions and it's pretty easy.
I'll let you fire first, my man. Yeah, I unfortunately have
to give my my game ball to Sam Hartman. You know, nineteen of
twenty three, two hundred and fifty one yards and four touchdowns. Uh,
you know, he made it look easy against Navy, and so unfortunately there
there really wasn't much that the midshipman did that allowed me to say, Okay,
that team certainly deserves something with a game ball. You look at it.
The Middies were just two point six yards per rush. Of course they're
known for being a rushing team. Just one hundred and sixty nine total yards
on offense. They were out penalized. I think that, you know,
you look at everything that Navy did. Unfortunately, I can't give a game
ball to anybody on the midshipment side. It's got to go to some Harman.
Yeah, I'm gonna go with the Navy. Excuse me. The Notre
Dame offensive line, Steve Because, led by Joe Alt, arguably one of
the maybe the best returning offensive linemen in college football, and then certainly that's
up for debate, but six eight offensive tackle Joe Alt leading the way they
push Navy around all night long. I mean, as I mentioned rushing for
one hundred and ninety one yards, and Notre Dame has got a stable backs.
But I guess behind that offensive line, you give it to most any
of them and they can go for you know, and even six yards to
carry and two touchdowns as they did carrying the ball thirty two times. So
Sam Hartman, I think his jersey probably he could walk. I think he
could probably walk right into a pub straight from the field and look like he
was pristine because he didn't seem like he was touched all night in the football
game. He probably could have pulled up a you know, a pint of
guinness toast to the Notre Dame fans at a pub next door and not missed
a beat. They would ask, well, what section were you sitting in,
you know, because that jersey did probably didn't have a grass stain on
it. Stephen, But I'll go with the Notre Dame offensive line with my
game ball. All right, let's take a quick break here, because when
we come back, we're going to talk about Air Force in Army. We're
going to start looking ahead to their matchups this weekend. We've got our Travis
Mannion Foundation on a roll segment. We got our picks coming up at the
end. We'll do all that coming up here on this episode of Yards and
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once again our Price, Steve and Mike. I appreciate it. Everybody downloading,
listening, subscribing what you can do here with Yards and Stripes every single
week on Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, wherever it is you listen to your podcast
as we are your home for Service Academy Football, and we are also your
home especially for Air Force and Army. This week is they are both kicking
off the season. As I'm with my man Steve Carney, I'm Price Atkinson
continuing on here in air Force. Let's start with Air Force, Steve,
because they're going to be first up on Saturday. They're hosting the Robert Morris
Colonials at Falcon Stadium, which is being renovated. Right now one pm Eastern
Standard time kickoff eleven am local Mountain time. This one is going to be
on Altitude Sports Parents Weekend for the first meeting between these two schools, Bobby
MO and Air Force. Bobby Mo coming out of the Big South, they
were oh in eleven last year, you know, air Force twenty six and
oh steve all time against FCS opponents in all twenty six of those meetings coming
at Falcon Stadium, and air Force has won sixteen straight season openers, third
longest streak in the country, behind only Ohio State in Alabama. I'm sorry,
man, I don't We don't have a line over under anything on this
game, at least that I've seen. But you know why we no reason?
You know, I don't have a line on this game. Price It's
not just the fact that Robert Morris is an FCS team and they don't usually
give out lines for FBS versus FCS. There isn't a line big enough for
anybody to take Robert Morris in this game. You mentioned there, and they
were oh and eleven last year. They are four and twenty since the start
of the twenty twenty season, and last year year they averaged just nine point
nine points per game in the FCS. This is a bad, bad,
bad team that that that is coming to Colorado's springs. Uh this year.
I mean, you look at it. Poor poor Bernard Clark, their head
coach. He is in his sixth theories thirteen and thirty four. Uh.
He actually had a seven and five finished in twenty nineteen, that was his
second year. But then since then, like I said, four and twenty
that is Jeff Scott like here uh in Tampa Bay. Uh we we we
know about four and twenty teams with the University of South Florida, and usually
that doesn't allow you to keep your job. So but this being an FCS
club going up against a team like air Force, yeah, this is this
is ugly. This is what I like to call bowling shoe ugly. Yeah,
this game is not going to be pretty. Let's talk a little bit
more about air Force because there's no question which way this game is going to
go. But you know, the Falcons they won, you know, double
digit games again last season for the third straight full season. You know that,
you know, whip Baylor in the Bowl game and obviously won the Commander
in Chief Trophy beating both Army and Navy last year. But probably a team
that's going to lean the Falcons this year on its defense, because last year,
you know, it was the Brad Roberts Haze Daniels show, including though
a defense that led the nation in total yards allowed last year just two hundred
and fifty four point four. But nonetheless, Brad Roberts, that senior fullback,
he was the nation's leading Russia was seventeen hundred and twenty eight yards,
one of the best to ever carry the football in Colorado Springs. And then
how's he Daniels at quarterback. Both are gone, So it's going to be
a team that's led by the defense side of the ball, where you likely
you're going to have ten of the eleven starting positions featuring guys that have starting
experience before. Three of the four top tacklers are back. Eleven of the
top fifteen. You know, as I mentioned, they led the nation in
yards allowed at just two hundred and fifty four. They were third in scoring
defense at thirteen point four, which is I think a really impressive number when
you take into consideration they play in the Mountain West against some really high powered
offenses. You know, when they were second opponents first down allowed last year,
which is one hundred and sixty eight. And how about this in their
last two games San Diego State and Baylor their last two games of the season
last year, winn to combine oh for twenty one on third down. I
think it's going to be a team, especially early, that leans on a
defense. Before we talk about replacing Roberts and Huzzy Daniels. Yeah, and
the other The third person that is no longer with the team is their star
offensive tackle Average Smally. He's from Tampa. No longer on the team.
He was, he left the only the only thing I saw was back in
May they he departed the team that he is no longer on the team.
He can't transfer. He's a junior, so there's no volunteer transfer there.
But he is no longer with the football program. And so he was arguably
going to be a first team Mountain West offensive lineman. Uh this year's second
team last year, and they're gonna lose so they lose him as well.
So that's a third big piece on offense and part of the reason why I
think that they're going to rely even more on the defense. You mentioned something
a lot of the guys that are back, of course, Uh, you
look at the one one guy that's gone is of course Vince Sanford. But
I really do think that the linebacking corps in Colorado springs with with air Force.
They're so good, they're big, they can move. I really do
think that that's gonna be big for them, especially uh you know, the
lines not it's not over. It's not to be a big sized lineman.
You know, they don't recruit big lineman at air Force on either side of
the ball. But I but I certainly think that the linebacking corps is going
to be so key, especially early, making sure that they're able to keep
the points, the point totals down. On offense, They're going to be
able to get pressure on quarterbacks, and I really do think that it's going
to be really, really key on the linebackers early. Yeah, I agree
with you one hundred percent. There on the offensive side of the football,
Steve, you know clearly Daniels and Roberts are gone. We know that Troy
Calhoun is never one to tip his hand. If there's anybody that plays it
closer than close to the vest, it's Troy Calhoun, the Falcon's head coach.
And I think we found that out last year when we talked to him
on this show. Yeah, I haven't interviewed him many many times. You
know over the years. You know he is not one to give anything away
and he's not going to give it away with who is starting quarterback is going
to be. But what we do know is I think it will be one
of the three between Jensen Jones, Zach Larier and Ben Britain in contention.
You know, as far as Brad Roberts, I think it's going to be
a probably a replacement by committee to start the year. But senior John Lee
Eldridge had two and seventy six yards rushing last year where he could play,
you know, with the slot at slash, tailback or fullback. I think
he got several other guys that you know, Jalen Johnson, Dane Kinneman that
you know, there's going to be a multitude of guys until you can find
who that replacement is. But you've got an abundance of options and air force
has been known. I mean we know that Troy Cannon, especially early and
especially against the team that you're probably going to have a game in doubt at
halftime, you're going to be able to play basically everybody that's dressed out,
and you might even are pulling you know, running backs and quarterbacks out of
the stands if you need a few snaps within five minutes of the four in
you know, the game ending in the fourth quarter. State. Yeah,
absolutely. I think that there are going to be times, especially this early
in the season, that if you and I were in the stands at Falcons
Stadium, that Troy Calhoun may pull one of us down to try and get
some snaps at fullback. Because I think it's gonna be that. It's gonna
be that sort of Hey, I'm gonna play, I'm gonna try and play
everybody. Uh, you know, you've got a team in Robert Morris that's
really very bad and is going to struggle here. And I think that this
is going to be a perfect you know, having having spring football and having
training camp is all well and good. You know, when you're going up
against guys that are wearing the same color helmet, you know, you can
at least see, you can at least determine. Okay, these are the
guys that I think are going to be good, And these are the guys
that I think are going to be Scout team, guys, this is going
to be the game when you've got someone else with a different colored helmet and
with an RMU on the side of that helmet, you're gonna be able to
find out. Okay, these are the guys that I'm going to make sure
that when a game is on the line late, They're the ones that I'm
going to have to be sure that these are the guys that I'm gonna want
to give the football too. Yeah. Absolutely, for those scoring at home,
well, just real quickly, on the offensive line, you've got to
one thing that always helps you when you're breaking in a new quarterback is to
have a veteran center and Thorpe Pagley along who was named to the watch list
for the Lombardi and the Outland Trophy. And then you also have an offensive
guard back along with three other guys that you know at least split time and
drew some spot starts here there last year on the offensive line. But you
know, for those scoring at home, Steve preseason, Mountain West Pole,
I think air Force getting a lot of respect this year is well they should,
but is it too much respect, especially when you're having to replace a
lot you know of on the offensive side of the ball. Air Force picked
to finish second in the Mountain West behind Boise State. Boise State getting twenty
eight first place votes, followed by Air Force with two of the first place
votes, Fresno State third or five first place votes in San Diego State with
one first place vote. Mountain West is scrapping divisions. They're going, you
know, like a lot of these leagues have done, so you're going to
take the two best. You're not playing the divisions anymore. It'll be the
two best teams to finish in the regular season that square off for the conference
championship. So I think a lot of respect for the Falcons being picked second
this year in the preseason Bowl, especially from a team that when they had
Hazee Daniels and Brad Roberts last year, they did within them on West championship.
They didn't even get into the title game last year. So I think
that's that's a lot of respect, and I think it's well deserved. But
I think that now the pressure is on. Now you've got to perform,
all right, Robert Morris at Air Force Saturday, one pm Eastern Standard Time
on Altitude Sports. All right, let's get to the Army Black Night,
Steve, because the Black Nights. They are opening up the season on the
road at the Warhawks at ul Monroe, Louisiana, Monroe a seven pm Eastern
Standard time kickoff. It's going to be a whiteout at Malone's Stadium. On
the NFL Network, Army giving ten points over under last I check forty seven
and a half. Let's talk about Army at a high level. We touched
on him last week, but a new quarterback, Bryson Daily, he's going
to be taking the snaps in this new shotgun style option offense. Meredith was
hurt. Senior Alex Meredith who was hurt. He was battling for the starting
job and preseason suffered a season ending knee injury as he was battling with Bryson
Daily. Now Daily, the six foot junior from Abernathy, Texas, he
will be the starter under center. You've got Dwayne Coleman listed as the number
two, and then freshman lay Robinson is going to be third on the Army
depth chart at quarterback. And it's all about the quarterback, especially at Army,
pulling the strings. You know. He Daily played five games last year,
including his first career touchdown a sixty four yard run against U. L.
Monroe. But this is going to be a little bit different. Obviously,
new look offense with a new quarterback. Army has been blessed with several
guys, you know, over the last few years with a ton of experience.
That's not going to be the case this year, but you do have
a lot of experience around him, maybe at a fullback in a running back
spot that is the deepest position on the offensive side of the ball. Yeah.
We talked about last week about the new the new look offense for Navy.
The new look offense for Army, I think could be even more interesting
with Drew Thatcher coming on as offensive coordinator. Of course, Thatcher was at
my favorite Division two program, University of Nebraska Carney, So I think that
having the shotgun style option offense, I think this is going to be very
interesting. Hearing reports from UH from their scrimmage that took place a couple of
weeks ago, UH the first couple of series they came out three wide.
They they were coming out three wide with a tight end and a single running
back UH and and trying to throw the football, which I think is going
to be very interesting. They have one of the most I think, maybe
the most interesting wide receiver to come out of a triple option style offense since
Calvin Johnson. In Isaiah Alston, he is really really impressive. And from
the reports that I've gotten, he was Moss and guys in spring camp,
he was Moss and guys in uh, in the in the scrimmage that took
place. I really think that you know, if they get anywhere close to
the end zone and went by anywhere clause I'm talking within thirty yards of the
end zone, don't be surprised to see the Black Knights take a shot early,
uh, and just put the ball up there, let Austin run under
it. And because he's like six foot four, uh, you know,
six three or six four, he's a lot bigger than a lot of the
defensive backs that he's going to see this year. And I could see him
outside of you know, the game against LSU that we'll talk about later on
in the season. Uh, you know, going up and taking the ball
away from defensive backs and getting army touchdowns that they're not going to have to
grind out. M Yeah, Jeff munkin the army head coach. You know,
pretty frustrated, you know, after the last couple of seasons when they
you know, basically the NC doublea eliminated cut blocking. Whether that's you know,
directly indicative to that Army record of six and six last year, we
don't know, but what he What we do know is it's going to have
a new look to this Black Night offense this year, I think, largely
predicated by you know, some of the offensive struggles last year, but also
some of the rule changes as well as it's going to look different this year.
What they've done, what Army's done, is basically going to the shotgun.
They've combined the B backs, you know, with the A backs.
The B backs were traditionally what was known as the fullback. Jakobe Buchanan and
Tyson Riley both back to standouts at that position, ton of experience, but
then you throw them in with Hayden Reid and mark ll Johnson and Jarelle Dixon,
and then you know Miles Stewart and you got a freshman Kanye Udo,
and then we're not even talking about Tyroll Robinson just yet. He's not going
to be ready for the opener. That dynamic running back last year who hurt
his knee season ending ACL injury against wake Forrest in October. He's not going
to be ready for the season opener. Boy, he was electric when he
played last year. Three touchdowns all of forty two yards or more in Armies
first five games before they lost him. That's another dynamic athlete you have in
the offensive backfield. It's going to be very, very deep, at least
for this new look offense. On defense, you know inside linebacker Leo Loewen,
he's going to leave the charge. And I think Army's one of those
teams that has been fairly underrated defensively in the past few seasons. It's always
the offense at an academy, especially triple option. But we will see what
this Army offense looks like as they will kick off Steve at seven pm against
Louis M. Monroe on the NFL Network Saturday night. Yeah, it should
be a fun one, that is for sure. All Right, Army finishing
six and six last year. Can they do better? We will see as
they are going to get underway. We are underway here on Yards and Stripeshire
Home for Service Academy Football. We got some picks to do for this weekend's
games. We got our Travis Mannion Foundation Honorable segment coming up where honor a
fallen hero that has given the ultimate sacrifice. You can find out more about
the Travis Mannion Foundation online at Travis Mannion dot org. We'll do that when
we come back here on Argent Stripes. Steve Karney, I'm Pryce Akinson here
on yarg and Stripes. In two thousand and seven, Marine First Lieutenant Travis
Mannion was killed in Iraq after saving his wooded teammates. Travis's legacy lives on
through the words he spoke before his final deployment. If not me, then
who words that today fuel the spirit of Travis Mannion Foundation and through TMF these
words can live in You two show the world what you're made of. Because
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at Travismanion dot org. As we continue on in this episode of the yardg
and Stripes, you know we've come to that point where we want to remember
a fallen hero won the his gimmon, the ultimate sacrifice for our nation,
for our Freedoms and our Travis Manion Foundation Honor Roll segment, and in this
week's TMF Honroll, We're gonna remember Russell E. Madden, United States Army.
He was a member of the one hundred and third Airborne Brigade Combat Team
when Army Specialists Madden died in a rocket propelled grenade attack on his convoy in
Afghanistan during Operation and Enduring Freedom. He was just twenty nine years old.
Specialist Madden was a native of Dayton, Kentucky. Graduated from Bellevue High School,
where he was a standout athlete in football. He loved sports, animals,
and music. He played running back, linebacker, kicker, and punt
returner until he graduated in two thousand. The Bellevue High School football team went
twenty two and three in his last two years at the school. He also
wanted to be on the front lines helping his fellow soldiers fight the war.
He was on his first tour of duty as a lead gunner for the convoy
escorts and always said he was never going to leave one of his battle buddies
and had a heart of gold. Specialist Madden was a young man who was
focused on getting his life to be the best he could be. He was
a good father, a good husband, a good son, and a good
brother. His legacy is that he was selfish and his humility as the character
trait used to describe him through TMF quote, he was someone very unselfish end
quotes at his high school football coach Charlie Coleman, to be your high school
quarterback and willing to give up that position to go play another position to make
the team better. That's how I remember Russell Madden end quote. He focused
on other things while putting himself on the back burner and showing people that they
were part of something bigger than themselves. His pride shoulder as a soldier should
translate into a sense of pride for all of us. Sergeant Madden Specialist Maddens
survived by his wife Michelle, his son Parker, his stepson Jared, his
mom and dad, and many many friends there back in Kentucky. So we
take the time to honor and remember folks like Russell Madden who gave that ultimate
sacrifice for our freedoms. And you can check out more online that Travismanion dot
org as their nine to eleven Heroes runs are coming up in communities across the
country. You can sign up to ruck, run, walk, whatever it
is to honor a fallen hero that you know or somebody in from your community
and acquaintance. These are happening again all across America during the month of September.
Again. You can find one in a community near you at Travismanion dot
org. Travis Manion Foundations Nine to eleven Heroes Run five K race series unites
communities across the country and around the world to honor the sacrifices of September eleventh
and the war since. Join your community this September and register to run,
walk, or rock by visiting nine to eleven Heroes Run dot org. The
latest with Navy, Army and Air Force on Yards and Stripes Service Academy Football.
All right, closing up shop here on this episode of Yards and Stripes
or Home for Service Academy Football, and we want to thank the Travis Manion
Foundation again for their support this season. Check them out online at Travismanion dot
org. You can find out ways that you can support TMF. They've got
The nine to eleven Heroes Run are happening nationwide in a community near you.
You can run, walk, rut whatever it is you want to do to
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the legacy of service of those that have given the ultimate sacrifice. Again online
Travismanion dot Org. All right, Stephen, a few news and notes to
pass along with your friend. The Air Force Academy. They announcing some new
uniforms. Alternate uniforms. Boy, those are the those are favorites of the
academies as they showdown usually with new you know threads for every service Academy matchup.
Well, the Air Force Academy is going to where these new uniforms that
are going to pay tribute to the Doolittle Raiders in their game against the Naval
Academy on October the twenty feet. These will honor the participants in the air
attack on Japan during World War Two. It's it's scarnered some you know,
mostly positive reactions, especially with those chrome dome helmets. A little bit of
negative, but these things are sharp and the pictures they showed online with the
Air Force Academy and making the announcement the all white, white top, white
bottoms, but those chrome helmets again honoring the do Little Raiders, the group
of eighty pilots led by Lieutenant Colonel James Doolittle himself at bomb targets in Tokyo
and other military locations in Japan on April the eighteenth, nineteen forty two,
as a response to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor more than four months earlier.
Steve Color me a fan. I think they are sharp. Yeah,
they are as as the kids like to say fire. They're fantastic looking uniforms.
You mentioned the chrome helmets with the Beach twenty five bomber on the side
in silhouette, and I really do like them. I think they're really really
sharp looking. And I'm I agree with you that there are times when you
know, the shiny helmets don't do a whole lot, uh for for a
uniform. You know, sometimes it's nice to have the Matt colored uniform,
the Matt uniform, the Matt helmet to go with your uniform. I especially
like the Matt black look when it comes to uniforms. But these chrome helmets,
especially if you know what to be twenty five looks like and how shiny
and and you know how chromed out those were. You have to you have
to respect, you know, the look, And I think they look fantastic.
Yeah, I'm with you. I mean they're they're the simpleness of the
all white, the white top and the white pants. I like that,
and then the chrome on top. That simple is usually a winner for me.
All right. A couple other news around for the Air Force Cademy Blue
and Silver Club tickets sold out for this sea season's it's a yup, it's
a patch works. Yeah. When you win a ten games, double digit
wins three out of the last four seasons, you're bound to put butts in
the seats. And that's what Troy Calhoun's program is doing as they are renovating
the east side of Falcon Stadium. Schedule to be done next season, but
looking for another special year there in Colorado Springs a place that I love going
to watch a college football game. Senior safety Trade Taylor second team All Mountain
West Conference selection a year ago. He's been named to the Negursky the Jim
Thorpe watch list, as well as the Chuck bed Nerrick Award watch list.
Also to the Reese's Senior Bowl, prestigious All Star Game at the end of
the season. So he has been littering a lot of the preseason watch list.
Speaking a preseason watch list Army team captain and inside linebacker Leo Loewen.
He's nominated for the Campbell Trophy, which is the nation's top football scholar athlete.
He's also on the Big Nerrick Award watch lists. If you remember,
he had a career high sixteen tackles in that Army Navy game last season when
he was named the Army Navy Game Player of the Game voted on by the
Philadelphia Sports Writers Association, and then Austin Hill Army defensive lineman named to the
Werfel Trophy watch list. That's for community service and not to be outdone.
The Naval Academy senior quarterback Ty Lavati coming back from that knee injury, and
also junior defensive back to Shaun Peel. They are have been named to the
watch list for the twenty twenty three Comeback Player of the Year awards. So
a lot of Academy players on preseason watch list. Stephen, Yeah, it's
it's good to see, you know, being being on some of those uh,
some of those Trophy watch List, the Thorpe, the Beneric uh,
those are those are fantastic groups to be a part of. And of course
the Campbell Trophy for Community service that I would think that should go to a
Service Academy Football member every single year, if you, if you ask me,
even though uh you'll you'll see that get get spread the love gets spread
around. But there should always be Service Academy Football members on the Campbell watch
List to peel the layers back a little bit for your listeners. Typically most
of these watch list comes down to the Sports Information director for football filling out
a form uh and then usually being signed off by the coaching staff that's sent
in and then sometimes they have committees. Sometimes they just take all the nominees
and put them on the preseason lists. So I filled out several forms of
those in the past. All right, So it's cool. It's cool to
get it's cool to get the look behind the scenes, because I never would
have known that that some watch lists aren't being you know, they just that
they just throw all the all the sheets in a pile. I figured that
at least they would have an intern or somebody going through going okay, I
get that when I get that one, I get that one. Let me
take a look at that one. No, not on that one. Uh
what Alabama Alabama communities are No, no, no, you know, some
are a little bit more extensive than other. Some have voting committees where you
can vote on like player of the Week and stuff like that. I think
the four Award is one of those. Uh one I've been on the selection
committee for. I believe that one's based out of Tallahassee. I think,
you know, some are just different, you know. And what's the offensive
line? When the Colt Kublick, that's uh, that's a fairly for the
in depth. No, it's not Lombardi. It's for the young Oh god,
the block. No, it's not a it's for the best offensive line
collection valet. What is it called Michigan's That's what it sounds like. But
it's not. It's I can't remember. I'm not going to belabor the point
now. I can't remember the name of it, but it's it's basically almost
a three man committee and they're looking at statistics every week, and they're looking
at, you know, the way players great and stuff like that. So
that one's a little bit more extensive, especially when you're talking about a full
unit versus like one player. All right, time to get down to the
picks. Two games again, we've mentioned the Naval Academy off. They will
return home for their home opener on Saturday, September night against Wagner their Navy
Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, but getting the weekend off as they got back from
Dublin. But the first game this weekend. Steve Robert Morris at Air Forces
mentioned a little bit earlier. Air Force is one of the best in the
country, a streak right now, sixteenth straight. You know openers that they've
won, only trailing Ohio State and Alabama never lost to an FCS opponent,
especially there in Falcon Stadium. It's gonna be a lot to a little when
it comes to a pick in this one. I don't know how bad the
spread will be. I'm gonna just say something to the tune of like sixty
two to three. Yeah, I t I tend to As I said,
there's no current line for or as we're recording this for Air Force and Robert
Morris, and normally you won't see a line because it's FBS versus FCS and
really, there's no line that's big enough for a smart better to take Robert
Morris, and no and no betting house anywhere is going to make a line
big enough for someone to take Robert Morris. This is going to be ugly.
As I said, bowling shoe ugly. Sixty two to three sounds right.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was fifty six nothing. Uh, you
know, I think it would be very, very difficult for Robert Morris to
even get on the scoreboard. This is going to be uh now, what
seventeen home openers in a row for the Falcons. It's it's not even going
to be close. Like, anybody that's worried about Robert Morris needs to have
their head examined. Yeah. I's mentioned that Bobby Moe waszer and eleven last
year. They've got sixteen starters back, eight on defense. But how they're
going to even keep with the Falcons? There? One of their big one
of their big I mean, one of their big acquisitions this year in the
transfer portal is a guy that played at Robert Morris for three years, transferred
out to Lakawana College and now he is back for another year at Robert Morris.
I mean, if if a big acquisition is a guy that you got
rid of last year, you can't you can't be any good folks. Those
are the only kind of nuggets you get here on Yards and Stripes from Steve
Carney. How about delivering forty right there with that Bobby Moe nugget again,
the first ever meeting between the two schools. Eleven am Local time, one
pm Eastern on Altitude Sports Network, Robert Morris at Air Force. All Right,
the Black Nights hitting the road. It's gonna be a white out at
Malone Stadium. Is they're going to take on Louisiana Monroe the Warhawks on NFL
Network seven pm Eastern Standard time, Standard time for this one. The fighting
Terry Bowdens with led by Defensive Corps nator Vick Coney, a couple of guys
that, yeah, I've certainly got a little bit of history with from their
time you know here at Clemson. Terry Balden most recently was on Dabos Sweeney
staff several years ago as an analyst before he got the job at UL Monroe.
They've got eleven starters back, four on offense, five on defense.
Is this will be third season four Terry Bowden overhauling a roster sty with forty
five scholarship newcomers, twenty six on defense, nineteen on offense. The Warhawks
are one of four in Cuba FBS programs they have added forty or more scholarship
newcomers for the upcoming season. That would tell you that their personnel last year
on that four and eighteen didn't get the job done. Now you look at
what they were able to do, and they won four games last year at
Malone Stadium. One was against Nichols, which I believe is of an FC
is an FCS club then of course, uh they beat Louisiana Lafayette in the
Battle on the Bayoux, so they beat La La or as they now just
call it, Louisiana and Texas State, so they do not. I mean,
they've got handled pretty well against the big teams in the Sun Belt Conference,
whether you're looking at Troy, who they lost on the road, they
lost at South Alabama, and they lost at home to Coastal Carolina, And
I think that army is better than at least two of those three teams.
I don't know about Coastal, but I certainly think that they You know that,
I think that Army shouldn't have a big problem moving the football, especially
if they come if they come out like they did in their in their scrimmage
three wide, I think that Terry Bowden's jaw is gonna hit the floor.
So it's gonna it's gonna hit the it's gonna get the turf at Malone's State,
I'm like, oh my god, what in the world is this.
I think that this is going to be a very, very big day and
I think could be a very could be the the coming out party for Isaiah
Alston. I would think that, uh this, this should be fun.
I don't think I believe the spread now, is is it ten or ten
and a half? I think that I think that's gonna be tough, uh
to to cover. Uh mostly because I think that the total is going to
be so low. Right now, the total is at forty seven. I
would take the under on that one all day. But I think that,
you know, if you look at I think this is gonna be twenty twenty
four, twenty four fourteen maybe, uh So, I think I think it's
gonna be tough for the Black Nights to cover. I think that they win
this game. But I don't think they cover. Yeah, I'm with you.
I like Army like you know, twenty six to twenty something like that.
You know, graduate student Jia Wright is going to be the starting quarterback
for the first time for ULM. He's the only guy with any he's the
only guy with any any experience in this offense exactly. But he does have
a big time super senior, Tyrone Howell, who led the team in receptions,
touchdowns, receiving guards, basically every receiving category last year, was a
preseason All Sun Belt second team selection by the media and head coaches, and
you know, that's that's a weapon that they're going to have on the outside.
But you know, even with it being Drew Thatcher's first game, this
new look shotgun kind of style, you know, offensive option, We're going
to find out a whole lot more what this offense really looks and feels like
on Saturday. But even with that being said, you know, you know,
there's going to be some growing pains, especially with you know, getting
calls in and you know, a new quarterback under center. There's just going
to be a few growing pains here. So I don't think the Army is
going to run away with this one by any means. I do think they're
going to go down. I think I think that it'll be a lesson.
I'll think it'll be a single digit win, but I think it'll be an
Army win. Nonetheless, I'll just say twenty six to twenty. Yeah,
I'll go twenty four fourteen. All right, there you have it. We've
got picks in, We've got you ready for both the games. This weekend,
we took a look back on Navy and Notre Dame, and then for
the first time this season, we'll have all three teams in action the following
weekend, and so we will talk all about that on next week's episode of
Arch and Stripes, your Home for Service Academy Football. Steven appreciated my man
stay safe in the meantime down there with the hurricane coming through. All thoughts
and prayers to you guys, and you know, everybody in the state of
Florida along the South Carolina coast. Is it start making its way up,
Yeah, it's gonna It's definitely a hunker down time for those of us here
in the Sunshine State. But we're not going anywhere, and we're expecting a
little bit of as we like to call it here in Florida, reign with
the name here you go. Don't forget another episode next week Yards and Stripes,
Apple Podcasts, Spreaker, wherever it is you listen to your podcast.
We'll do it again. In the meantime, Have a safe, blessed,
and enjoyable Labor Day weekend with football wall to wall starting on Thursday night all
the way through Monday. Enjoy the weekend. We'll talk to you next week.
Join us again next time for Yards and Stripes Service Academy Football. To
get more on all things Service Academy Football, like Yards and Stripes on Facebook
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Who, Google, and wherever you get your podcasts. M HM