Kicking Off

Steelman is ready to go.

The predictions are in. Also don't miss Phil Steele's own top 25 picks.

Plus a few Army Game previews:

Varsity

Free Press

ESPN


2009 college football is under way, enjoy the season.

Scheduling and Availability

NOTE:

CBS College Sports is highlighting the flaws of Army's media deal. My guess is that since EMU/Army is not a home game it's not on the CBS package deal. If you're relying on the internet for coverage try ESPN gamecast or ESPN play-by-play. Sorry if I got your hopes up with the links, it's tough to find any kind of coverage of Army football. AM1200 Detroit is EMU's broadcast of the event.



In July, Army inked a deal with CBS College Sports Network that will televise Army home games on their subscription college sports network. This places most Army games out of reach of traditional national coverage, unless you get Direct TV or Dish Network.

Here's the 2009 Army football schedule

9/05 @ Eastern Michigan 7:00 PM
9/12 Duke 12:00 PM *
9/19 Ball State 12:00 PM *
9/26 @ Iowa State TBA
10/03 Tulane 12:00 PM *
10/10 Vanderbilt 12:00 PM *
10/17 @ Temple 1:00 PM
10/23 Rutgers 8:00 PM ESPN2 ,ESPN 360
11/07 @ Air Force 3:30 PM *
11/14 Virginia Military Institute 12:00 PM *
11/21 @ North Texas 4:00 PM
12/12 vs. Navy 2:30 PM CBS

* game televised on CBS College Sports Network

Nationally televised games come against Rutgers (ESPN2) and Navy (CBS).

It's not the best deal, as the noon starts aren't ideal for travel from NYC and Army games, particularly the future games at Yankee Stadium are locked into CBS Sports Network's premium channel.

CBS College Sports Network has over 30 million subscribers and is available in 80 million homes in markets on cable and satellite systems across the country including:

Cablevision
Comcast
Cox
Insight
Time Warner
Verizon FIOS
DirecTV (channel 613)
DISH Network (channel 152)

CBS College Sports will also be streaming Army games online, and I'll try to post the best alternatives for viewing live online streams.

For me, that probably means I'll be spending a lot of time in sports bars, or at the very least trying to follow along on radio.

As part of the deal, Army adds Hudson Valley affiliates WALL (1340-AM), Middletown, N.Y. and WEOK (1390-AM), Poughkeepsie, N.Y., as vital components of the Army Sports Network this season. Both Radio Disney affiliates will air the weekly “This Week in Army Football” radio show, which originates from West Point’s Thayer Hotel, throughout the season, as well as the popular “Army Football Tailgate Show.” Both stations, along with West Point affiliate WKDT (89.3-FM), West Point, N.Y., will also carry game calls for Army hockey, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and lacrosse. Cumulus stations will also provide live remote broadcasts from selected Army athletic events throughout the year.

The catch is that those station sites won't necessarily be streaming radio coverage online. You're welcome to try these stations, but there's no promise of Army coverage.

GoArmy.com is offering live Army sports coverage online at $69.95/year or $9.95/month

Right now the GoArmy schedule lists only 7 football games : E. Michigan, Duke, Ball State, Tulane, Vanderbilt, Rutgers and VMI; so make sure to ask the right questions if you call for a subscription.

Check here before game time tomorrow and I'll post our most reliable options.

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Update:

As for radio the best option is Sirius Satelite Radio: Channel 091
Online you might try here or here for the game. There are a few other spots that might broadcast the game like here and here.


You can find internet video of the game right here.

In With the New

Varsity 845 has the scoop... Trent Steelman will be Army's starting QB.

Army coach Rich Ellerson named Steelman his starting quarterback for the season opener at Eastern Michigan.

When Steelman, who is 6 foot and 185 pounds, takes his first snap, he'll make West Point history. No freshman quarterback has started an Army opener in the modern era, since 1944.

"If we are, in fact, a triple-option football team, he's the best triple-option quarterback," Ellerson said Tuesday. "Our best guess and evaluation is if the quarterback's legs are going to be a big part of our run game and if we want a real operator out there, the guy that can make things happen is Trent."

That's good news for Steelman, and it's clear he's the man for the job, but you can probably expect to see Chip Bowden play depending on the situation. No matter how you slice it, this year will offer a lot of new trends for Army football, new option offense, new QB, new double eagle flex defense, all brought about by the new coach.

Ellerson's decision to go with the Freshman might present some growing pains in the first couple of years, but depending on how well Steelman progresses and goes forward it sets the future up nicely with some experienced talent under center.

Preseason Looks

Jim Henry at Fanhouse has a nice player spotlight on senior WR Ali Villanueva. I can't wait to see these guys play. It's a good look at another class cadet. Just imagine the 6'10 man in motion sealing off the edge for a pitch-out seven yards and a first down.

Head coach Rich Ellerson gets a favorable look in this review of Army's recent past.

One of the great venues in all of sports, 85 year old Michie Stadium, sitting on a bluff above the Hudson River, has not been home to a winning season since 1996.

That season, coach Bob Sutton's Black Knights went 10-2.

Since then, Army has taken every wrong turn imaginable. Every mistake compounded by the next one. The wrong coaches playing the wrong style against the wrong opponents.

It's an interesting perspective on the decline of West Point football, make sure to check that one out.

I'm hearing a lot of optimism, but how can't Army fans be optimistic? We're not asking for a championship or a conference title, across the board Army fans just want their team to compete - and beat Navy.
With the new schemes and new ideas, I'm looking forward to an exciting and fortuitous season.

Tomorrow I get my internet hookup, so I expect to put a lot more content on the site. Let me know if there's a link or story you want to see up here.

Army/Eastern Michigan Preview

I loved everything about Scout.com's great preview of Army and Eastern Michigan.
It's the first game preview as we draw closer to the season, and it's a good one. Writeups like these make it easy to forget the 13 year bowl drought. Get your reality check here as Army opens as a 5' point underdog, o/u 47'.

I like that the first preview is favorable, but I will remain objective and optimistic about what this team can achieve. I'll post other previews as they roll in (or as I get a chance.)

Fordham Steps Up

Fordham has finally gone back to granting football scholarships.This is great news for NYC college fans as Fordham tries to restore their reputation as the top NYC college football team. Ever since Pitt stole Fordham's mojo in 1938 & 1941 Fordham basically stopped trying to compete, but now with NCAA football growing as popular as ever and the only real threat to NYC supremacy being Rutgers, Fordham has stepped up to the plate.

Football has a rich and storied tradition at Fordham, dating back more than 125 years. While times have changed on the national landscape, football remains an important sport for our University. Fordham strives to compete at the highest level in the FCS division, and we are convinced that the provision of athletic scholarships in football is an important component in advancing this goal. We also wish to renew rivalries with past opponents, including Army and Villanova, while enhancing our schedule with other high profile opponents, such as Navy and the University of Connecticut.

Maybe I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself here, but to me this move isn't complete until we see Fordham battling the likes of Army or Rutgers at Yankee Stadium. If Fordham didn't de-emphasize football the Rams would probably be on similar footing as RU and the Army Black Knights. Filling actual talent scholarships and stiffening the schedule is an indicator that Fordham has decided to take it's football team seriously again.





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My move is complete and I'm in the new house. It was a wild cross-country trip, and I'm glad to be home, but I'm not online at the house yet. I will try to find airtime at a coffeehouse or something, but please bear with me until I get set up at home. I have only scratched the surface of where I want to go with this site and I'm realizing that posting from an iPhone isn't a very effective blogging method.