Football Fields and Battlefields by Jeff Miller

Football Fields and Battlefields by Jeff Miller

Author:Jeff Miller
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781510730427
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2018-10-01T16:00:00+00:00


Chapter Nine

“I WOULD GO INTO BATTLE

WITH ANY ONE OF THEM”

The off week between the loss at Hawaii and the December 6 date in Philadelphia against the Naval Academy provided for speculation regarding Army’s head coaching vacancy. Maryland offensive coordinator Charlie Taaffe, a West Point assistant and coordinator during the 1980s, publicly expressed interest in the position. The off week also meant promotional appearances in Philadelphia for the upcoming game, one of the high points of the city’s sporting year. Hence the marketing slogan “Philly Loves Army-Navy.” The game was first played there in 1899, at Franklin Field on the UPenn campus, and has primarily been played in the city ever since. Ryan Kent and Clint Woody accompanied John Mumford to a luncheon and media session. Among the Navy players in attendance was senior linebacker Eddie Carthan. He admitted to hoping to make sure Army completed a winless season. Carthen knew the feeling since he was a sophomore on the 2001 Navy team that lost to Army 26–17 to finish 0–10. Another Midshipman on hand was quarterback Craig Candeto, who said, “If you don’t feel for them, you’re not human.” Midshipmen coach Paul Johnson abided by a time-honored tradition and said of his winless foe: “They scare the fool out of me.” Mumford assured there was no “give-up” in his team. At a subsequent media event, he was asked if his players were thinking about the prospect of finishing 0–13. He said they “are doing it internally because the guys are being bombarded.”

On the Tuesday before the game, another West Point tradition in advance of the Navy game was upheld. Special game captains were named and added to the season-long selections of Kent and Woody. They were Brian Hill, Aaron Alexander, and Greg Washington. The five captains joined their Navy counterparts for a lunch that week at the Pentagon.

Gene Palka Jr.—a 2002 West Point graduate, a former Army offensive lineman, and son of the football mentor—sent a hand-written letter of encouragement from his deployment in Iraq addressed to the football staff. The note cited how he benefitted as an officer from playing Army football and closed: “Please tell them that we believe in them and they are playing for so much more than themselves or the corps.” The letter was posted outside the team’s locker room.

With one game left to play in his final West Point season, Woody had caught more than three passes in a game only once that year. He had all of 24 receptions to show for the season. Nothing on the weekly stat sheet accounted for all the blocks he’d thrown game after game. The four years of Army football had resulted in five victories and 41 defeats. At the annual West Point bonfire before the Navy game, one of Woody’s instructors approached him. “Sorry that the season didn’t work out better,” the lieutenant colonel said. “Back when you made that catch against BC, it looked like big things might happen.”

Another name entered the Army coaching search during the off weekend.



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