FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Everywhere you look, college football keeps evolving.
NIL deals and booster collectives that have added another complicated layer to recruiting. A transfer portal and NCAA rules that have eased the move of players from one program to another but made it harder for fans to keep up with who’s who. A playoff that will soon go from four teams to 12, though one season too late to satisfy supporters of the snubbed.
It’s a whole new world, but for a taste of the old school, there’s always the second Saturday in December and the final game of the regular season: Army versus Navy — or Navy versus Army, depending on one’s loyalties.
As change swirls around them, the nation’s two oldest service academies will again line up their triple-option offenses for a day full of pageantry, tradition and a deeply rooted respect that comes with one of the sport’s fiercest rivalries. It will be the 124th meeting between the teams, with Army (5-6) hoping to follow up last month’s upset of Air Force and beat Navy (5-6) to secure the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.
“It wouldn’t matter if we hadn’t won a game this year. This is going to be a big game,” Army coach Jeff Monken said at a welcome event last week at Gillette Stadium, the site of this year’s showdown.
“Just the pride of winning this game, there’s nothing like this game,” said Monken, who has led the Black Knights to five wins over Navy in the past seven years. “It doesn’t matter what the record is. Wouldn’t matter what we’ve done all this year. This is a huge football game for us. One we desperately want to win.”
Navy coach Brian Newberry doesn’t need to be reminded. He was the defensive coordinator when head coach Ken Niumatalolo — the winningest coach in program history, with a 10-5 record against Army — was fired last December, the day after the Midshipmen’s 20-17 double-overtime loss in Philadelphia. The reason: a 4-10 record against Army and Air Force his last seven years, and a resulting slump in the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy competition dating to 2019.
“There’s no love lost during the week of this game. But there’s certainly an amount of respect on both sides,” Newberry said. “I love the way they do things. They’re a gritty, tough football program, and they’re building leaders over there. They’re going to be officers, just like we are. And so it’s going to be a dogfight. But nothing but respect for Army, for the players and their staff.”
The CIC Trophy is awarded to the service academy with the best record in their head-to-head games in a given season.
With a victory Saturday, Army would have the trophy outright for the first time since 2020, having won 23-3 on Nov. 4 against Air Force — which was 8-0 and ranked 17th at the time — despite coming in as an 18 1/2-point underdog. (It was the start of a four-game skid for Air Force, which, unlike Army and Navy, will play in the postseason, taking on James Madison in the Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 23 in Fort Worth, Texas.)
The Midshipmen lost 17-6 to Air Force on Oct. 21, so a Navy win on Saturday would create a three-way tie for the trophy. If so, 2022 champion Air Force would retain possession.
AP photo by Terrance Williams / Navy quarterback Braxton Woodson (5) is hit by Air Force linebacker Alec Mock as he attempts to pass on Oct. 21 in Annapolis, Md. The season wraps up for Navy and rival Army on Saturday when they meet at Gillette Stadium, the home of the NFL’s New England Patriots, in Foxborough, Mass.The Army-Navy game is being played at the home of the NFL’s New England Patriots for the first time, and there’s no pretending the hosts are neutral.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick grew up in Annapolis, where his father was an assistant coach at Navy for 34 years. The elder Belichick’s library of books on football strategy and history are now the Belichick Collection that are housed in a lounge at the Naval Academy.
The Patriots have a rare in-season weekend off because of Thursday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, which New England won 21-18. Newberry said there are plans to have Belichick talk to his players after a team meal Friday. Patriots long snapper Joe Cardona, a Navy graduate who is still active in the reserves, stopped by last week’s welcome event before practice to greet the players.
“I’ve been very fortunate to play in a lot of big games here in New England,” said Cardona, a two-time Super Bowl champion. “But, realistically, all of them pale in comparison to those Army-Navy games.”
It’s not just the first game at Gillette but the first Army-Navy game in Massachusetts, where George Washington first took command of the Continental Army during the American Revolution, and activities at historic sites around the Boston area were planned in conjunction.
Cadets and Midshipmen will compete in the Patriot Games, including events such as tug of war and a relay race, from Boston Common and Faneuil Hall to Minute Man National Park near Lexington, which commemorates the first battle of the Revolutionary War.
A fan festival at the stadium started Thursday and continues through Saturday and will include demonstrations and military equipment. The 3 p.m. game will be preceded by the traditional March On of the Brigade of Midshipmen, followed by the Corps of Cadets.
Army’s gold uniform will feature patches and helmet decals to honor the “Dogface Soldiers” of the 3rd Infantry Division. During the opening phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom, the 3rd Infantry mounted the longest and most rapid armored advance since the World War II.
“In adopting their mottos, symbols, and ethos on the field of friendly strife, we seek to emulate their application of these characteristics to defeat our rivals,” the school said in a release.
Navy will honor the U.S. Submarine Force, its families and supporting personnel. As a nod to its nickname, “The Silent Service,” the uniforms will be a dark navy blue with white letters in a font designed to convey the markings on a submarine’s hull.