NCAA Football Navy

WASHINGTON -- You laugh. Kevin Harris will smile.

Go ahead, chuckle at the notion of a 34th bowl game, the EagleBank Bowl in Washington. Joke that college football needs another bowl like Joe Paterno needs another candle on his birthday cake, like Navy quarterback Kaipo-Noa needs another syllable, or anybody needs another appearance by David Hasselhoff

Go ahead, indulge your cynicism. It's easy. It's like picking on Matt Millen or the French. No one is going to disagree with you. Even NPR got into the act on the opening day of bowls, mocking the EagleBank Bowl in its own cranky "Get off my lawn, kids" way, should you put any stock in the opinions of an outlet with a higher percentage of 60-pluses in its audience than Oklahoma.

But just for a moment, take your cynicism and bury it deep enough that Indiana Jones couldn't find it.

This isn't the NFL, where cynicism is bred on a Terrell Owens' locker room stool, wearing a blinking red nose or Plaxico Burress turning his sweat pants into the Harper's Ferry arsenal.

This is college football, where teams like Wake Forest and Navy are each alloted 85 scholarships, of which the number that will ever make enough to afford one of Terrell Owens' earrings could comfortably fit in a Volkswagen Beetle with room left over for a Owens and Owens' ego.

So go ahead and make your jokes. But all Wake Forest's Kevin Harris can do is smile.

"It's been an unbelievable experience," said Harris, who started the year off the depth chart only to have his nationally televised moment in whatever sun peaked through the clouds at the EagleBank Bowl. "To see the Capitol and all the monuments was great. We were all excited. To have the chance to hang out together for a few more weeks ... we're a tight-knit group and that was great. But most of all, to be able to help give these seniors a win, because they bailed us out so many times, that was the best part."

Harris couldn't stop smiling. Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo, a granite-jawed man who might make the Washington Monument look like it was made out of Jell-O by comparison, had a hard time stopping his tears.

Why? Because whether you can admit it or not, these minor bowls aren't a blight on college football. They're the best part.

WASHINGTON -- Jim Grobe was always certain he could turn Wake Forest, a program that was barely a speed bump on Tobacco Road and little more than road kill on the national scene, into an ACC champion and an elite football program. So, as the coach sat next to the monument-sized trophy for winning the inaugural EagleBank Bowl in Washington, a grin began to form underneath his baseball cap as he admitted something he thought even he'd never thought he'd see.

"I never thought an eight-win season would be a disappointment at Wake Forest," Grobe said.

Congratulations coach, that's the price of building a program. And of being as good as the Demon Deacons were over the final three quarters in the come-from-behind 29-19 win over Navy.

If you needed a sign of just how far Wake Forest football has come under Grobe, who wrapped up his eighth season in Winston-Salem with his third consecutive bowl appearance and second straight bowl win, Saturday's win was the kind of blinking, neon announcement that might've fit in on the Las Vegas Strip.

Despite temperatures that seemed to rival the number of letters in Navy quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada's last name and an early 13-0 deficit, the Deacons won their eighth game for a third straight season, exactly three times as many eight-win seasons as the school had in the pre-Jim Grobe era.

And they did it in what is unmistakeably the Wake Forest way under Grobe.

FanHouse gathers around the TV to bring you insights from Bowl Season '08.

Wake Forest headed into the 2008 Eagle Bank Bowl -- the first and obviously most prestigious of all postseason college events -- heavily disappointed with their season. A late loss to N.C. State sealed their fate as a lower tier bowl team, but it was an earlier home loss to Navy that had really derailed their season.

Well, that and the fact that offensive coordinator Steed Lobotzke convinced Jim Grobe that running the ball 55 times against Miami would guarantee Wake a win. Fortunately, the EBB gave the Demon Deacons redemption on both counts as Wake downed the Midshipmen 29-19 in the first game of the bowl season.

Oddly enough, the score doesn't indicate two things very well: 1) Riley Skinner was perfect passing, going 11-11 for 166 yards passing and 2) the Deacs had to come back. Navy scored the first 13 points of the game and Wake looked horrible on both sides of the ball and, well, it looked like a repeat of earlier this year.

Skinner and Wake woke up at the end of the second half and with the help of Josh Adams' pair of short yardage touchdowns, came away with a fairly decisive victory.

The palm trees and Hawaiian shirts will have to wait. And the number of syllables in Navy quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada's last name is undoubtedly higher than the temperature at RFK Stadium.

But football is here.

FanHouse is live at the inaugural EagleBank Bowl in Washington, the opening bowl game of the season. Check back as we update every quarter with analysis from the unfortunately outdoor press box.

Of course, with Navy blasting a cannon for every score, that and the temperature offer up a fairly good illusion of what it might be like to go ice-fishing with Plaxico Burress.

Fourth Quarter

The Midshipmen played a heck of a game. But Riley Skinner was perfect. Kevin Harris wasn't far behind.

Skinner didn't miss a pass in the fourth quarter or the game, finishing 11-of-11 and four-of-four in the final quarter, connecting with Chip Brinkman for a 44-yard pass on the Deacons' game-winning 80-yard drive and Ben Wooster for the game-winning touchdown.

Turkey Legs to Go is FanHouse's complete travel guide for all of the 2008-2009 college bowl games. Here, we cover the Eagle Bank Bowl (Washington), which pits Wake Forest against Navy.

Overview / Matchup: The Navy Midshipmen are locked into what could be one of the more controversial bowl games of the 2008 season. Why, you ask? Well, because the ACC takes up the other slot in this game. Only one problem -- Maryland, who appeared to be the most obvious choice, has said they won't play in D.C. because of an exam conflict. Wake Forest, the next choice, accepted an offer to rematch against Navy, who shocked the Demon Deacons in Winston-Salem earlier this year.

Hotels:For luxury accommodation we recommend the Ritz-Carlton, Georgetown because it's in a great location for going out. There are lots of young people, which means a strong focus on college sports (area newspapers have actually run stories about the large number of Carolina graduates that populate Georgetown). But there are probably a dozen world-class hotels in DC, and plenty more luxury options. None of the hotels listed are close to the stadium, because South East DC is too jangly for most tourists. The Capital Hilton is a great midrange option and probably offers the best all-around value for bowl travelers. The National Mall and two different metro stops are within easy walking distance. Recently refurbished and just three blocks from the Capitol, the Best Western Capitol Skyline Hotel is the best bet for the budget-minded traveler.

Promise me this: Once in your life, please try to make it to a football game at one of our service academies. I can't promise you a great game, but I can promise a great experience. Yes, even if Army football is involved.

Army-Navy is one of the sport's oldest rivalries. It hasn't been much of a rivalry lately, though. Navy has had Army's number, winning nine of the last 10 games, including today's contest, which Navy won 34-0. The Black Knights of the Hudson have really hit the skids. The last time they won more than four games in a season was in 1996, when they went 10-2.

Navy dominated today's game, which was basically over after Navy's first possession. The Midshipmen controlled the line-play on both sides of the ball. Paul Johnson may have taken his system to Georgia Tech, but he left behind his top assistant, Ken Niumatalolo, who hasn't missed a beat. Navy's triple-option offense still works beautifully, with both Shun White and Eric Kettani going for well over 100 yards of rushing. The real story is the dominance of Navy's defense, which held Army to seven first downs and 150 yards.

Okay, that's not the real story.

Alright so the Irish didn't lose today, but they tried their darnedest to do so after leading Navy 27-7 late in the fourth quarter. How did they get from there, to here (27-21 victory with Navy stopped near the Irish end zone)? Lets take a walk on the wild side.

First of all, Notre Dame's "decided schematic advantage" didn't materialize until the second half when they realized Jimmy Clausen would remain an interception machine and it might be better to run the ball against an opponent line on average 40 pounds lighter than the Irish line. Clausen contributed to this decision with a pair of first-half picks and a boneheaded head-first scramble that knocked him out for one play near the end of the first half.

Once Notre Dame acknowledged force = mass x acceleration and accelerated its mass into the Navy defense, they pushed their 10-7 halftime lead to 27-7. Look no further than the 51-19 final rush/pass ratio. Easy breezy, right? Not so much.

You know this is a weak weekend for big games when the discussion centers around revenge -- USC planning to take things out on Stanford for last year, media generated pressure on Charlie Weis and Notre Dame to not lose to Navy, the fighting Neuheisals of UCLA going to Washington so everyone can rehash the mess he left the Huskies, and of course Steve Spurrier bringing his Gamecocks to the Swamp.

Look, here's how you know how weak the slate is. If you watched the ESPN promos for college football this week, they went with the generic -- simply promoting college football and excitement. There was no plugging the actual games, other than at the very end when they disclosed the primetime choice of BC-FSU or Oklahoma St.-Colorado. Wheeeeee.

Still there are some good potential games out there; BYU-Air Force, Cal-Oregon St., UNC-Maryland and Arizona-Oregon seem like the best of the crop today.

So, despite the poor sales job, stop by and chat. We'll be live-blogging around 12 PM EST.

He can't click his ruby red slippers together three times and wish himself back at LSU. However, after a trio of disciplinary incidents, he finds himself wearing a ruby red Jacksonville State uniform. Just our luck, his Gamecocks were on Thursday night's undercard against Georgia Tech.

Perilloux started but didn't achieve much against Tech, tossing two interceptions as his team was routed 41-14. For the night he did throw a pair of garbage time touchdowns, but averaged a mere 3.7 yards/attempt in going 22/37 for 136 yards. He also led the Gamecocks in rushing, reaching 67 yards on 18 carries (3.7 average). Ho hum.

On the opposite side of the field, Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson late of Navy made his debut, taking his crazy run attack with him to Atlanta. The Yellowjackets were impressive against the lower division defense in totaling 349 rush yards and 7.6 yards/attempt. Not bad, now let's see you try that against a D-I defense fellas.

When Army and Navy decided they should look to see what other cities and stadiums were interested in hosting the Army-Navy game, there was a good amount of interest Especially in Texas. The sticking point, though, was likely to be that the host city and stadium would also have to pay transportation costs for up to 8000 students from both schools. A prohibitive cost the further you get from an Atlantic or Mid-Atlantic state without some serious subsidies.

Sure enough, the Cotton Bowl has realized the folly of trying to bid for the game.

[State Fair of Texas president Errol] McKoy said the major hang-up was that the winning bidder had to pay for transporting the entire Naval Academy and West Point student bodies – about 8,000 students – to the game each year. McKoy estimated that cost at around $5 million and added that there was nothing in place to help offset those costs.

"It was a little bit too rich for us," McKoy said.

Cowboy Stadium in Arlington and the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio are still considering making bids. Unless the respective cities chip in to pay for transportation, reality should slap those organizations soon.

Philadelphia, East Rutherford, Baltimore and maybe Boston and Charlotte seem to make the most sense in keeping transportation costs within reason.