Non-Boston College Sentimentality: The Army-Navy Game Pick
By Joe Micik
The six-years-running editor of this website is a Boston College alumnus, but he has also been to the Army-Navy Game three times.
More from Football
- Offensive Coordinator Ryan Day Leaves Boston College Football
- Colton Lichtenberg Commits to Boston College Football; Shores Up Kicking Game
- Soaring to Glory Show, Jan. 21, 2015: We’re Back, Baby
- Cost of Attendance: You Know, Boston College Has a Point
- Boston College Recruiting: Football Offers Jeremy Larkin, Jayson Ademilola
Add that to at least a dozen trips to Michie Stadium, including the infamous one in 2012 that Boston College football fans will remember with disgust forever, and a few engagements at Alumni Stadium, and I have seen a lot of Army football games. Sadly, the only one I clearly remember the Black Knights winning was in 2012, though they did well in the meetings in the 1990s.
The Army-Navy Game therefore has some special meaning to me and my family, as we knew a cadet and have another close friend who is an officer in the Navy. Though the games have at times been quite lopsided, they are fun. For example — and I would imagine this tradition still exists — cadets and midshipmen produced “commercials” that aired all through the game on the jumbotrons. Fun was poked at the other academy and “Go (our team), beat (their team)” rang through the stadium.
Navy has won 12 games in a row in this series, and last year was a blowout at 34 to 7. The prior year, who could not help but feel badly for Army quarterback Trent Steelman when he watched his team fumble away the game in the red zone — despite the fact that he was the same guy who embarrassed the Eagles just a few months earlier.
Everybody (except Navy for the last decade or so) loves an underdog. In fact, the Midshipmen are 15-point favorites in this afternoon’s Army-Navy Game. That’s a bummer for Army, but stranger things have happened, like Jesse Ventura winning elective office.
As for picking this 2014 Army-Navy Game, the smart choice is for the streak to continue: we are taking Navy. Yet, in a show of respect for my college football past, let’s take Army +15 against the spread.