Full Court Press

The Black Knights are poised to wrap up spring ball with the Black and Gold game on Saturday and the team holding its last spring practices.

Sal Interdonato again has the scoop. -Which is amazing considering he covers H.S. sports runs 2 blogs and covers the Army beat all at the same time... that's what I meant with the title of this post - FULL COURT PRESS


Sal rapid fired the posts on his Black Knight blog.

He's got late spring practice notes

He has news of a possible matchup against Stanford.



He's got news on a possible 2010 Armed Forces Bowl deal.

Considering the debacle put forth by the MAC refs at the Army-Temple game I'm going to suggest that it's a probably better to avoiding dealing with the bowls that the MAC takes part in.

It would be a tough game, and it has been a pretty high-scoring event since its inception.

With that said just look at some of the teams that have taken part in the Armed Forces Bowl...

Boise State, TCU, Cincinnati, Utah, Tulsa, Houston, Kansas, California, Marshall

Think about where those teams were when they played in that bowl...

...take a look at what those teams accomplished since then.

Except for Cal and Marshall every team has achieved a 10 win season since they took part in that bowl and Cal has flirted with the 10 win number as recently as last year, going 8-5 and 9-4 in the last two years. The game is on Dec. 31st, so it comes with plenty of late practice time. The Armed Forces Bowl always brings tough competition, and it's played in Fort Worth, Texas, which makes it a good venue for Army. If Army gets this bowl deal in place it could set up as both a good, tough, tough postseason game as well as a springboard for Army football program. I'd love to see that deal get made.


Sal's got a look at Saturday's Spring Game format, and it will be Offense vs. Defense


Plus this Varsity 845U piece about moving the cadets' football seats.

I guess a bunch of season ticket holders got pissed about losing their seats. You know what? They'll get over it.

So your grandfather bought your season tickets in 1946? Well, Army hasn't won a title since 1946, maybe it's time to change it up.

Another guy seated in the section next to where the cadets will move complained,

"The cadets stand on the bleachers. They can get pretty loud. ... It's more of a social thing than watching football," he said of his decision to move."

...

"I wish they would have kept the cadets where they were. ... It's pretty shaky thinking that making them move to the opponent's side is going to win them football games."

Well if your section were as loud as the corps of cadets to begin with, USMA w0uldn't have to worry about moving the students in front of the cameras. We get it, you want to be able to sit with the friends you made over the years at Michie Stadium, that's why they're allowing you to select your seat. I don't know if the move will directly win games for the team, but it will absolutely make for a more hostile environment for opponents to play in.

Static on the Radio

Just spent the last half hour trying to find a link to radio stations that are airing Coach Ellerson's Spring Game interview. It's a little bit troubling to find not one single stream to an Army flagship station, so perhaps this is the annual post where I air out my frustrations with Army's media carriers.

Maybe I'll give the stations a call and ask them what is up with their dial-up.
If you live in the region, radio coverage is the easiest and arguably the most enjoyable media platform on which to follow Army football. Here on the left coast, I am usually left starving for a decent radio feed. It's one thing when I'm scrambling around the internets 25 minutes before kickoff looking for the opponent's flagship radio online stream, but the total lack of internet radio for Army events is starting to bite at me. It's fine on game days where I can link Tulane's or Eastern Michigan's stream, but for spring events and offseason interviews online radio coverage would go a long way to keeping the program on the mind of the college football consumer.

It's great that Army has CBSCollege to air the home games... that has really turned out to be a nice media deal, but CBSC doesn't cover Ellerson's press events and I doubt they will air the spring game- so it's common sense to seek a home for that content. Radio, particularly an online radio stream, would fill that role pretty well.
I'll avoid ripping CBS College Sports Network, because the more I watch that network the more I like it - and their Army coverage is pretty solid - but the online radio availability is something that should be a no-brainer.

For whatever reason I have Sal Interdonato's Twitter buried on the Radio page along with a bunch of radio links that don't work, so instead of bitching for an entire post I'll post the best of Sal's Tweets for lack of anything else to do. If you're looking for a capsule breakdown of the offseason so far, that is a good place to look.

Lions offer former Army safety Caleb Campbell a contract. Will DOD grant Campbell's an early release? Stay tuned.
6:16 PM Mar 11th

Great for Campbell, I'm happy for him - I really am. Let me just lay it out here that I am a college football fan and I don't really get into pro football. I graduated from Pitt and the Panthers are my absolute favorite sports team- I like college football enough that pro football is kind of like my come-down day after NCAA Saturday. Along with that comes a stipulation that I don't follow players past their college football careers. NFL just isn't my thing, but I do hope Caleb Campbell makes the cut and has a long successful career. I can't promise that I will follow his progress, but I wish him the best.

Army spring football game 1 p.m. March 27.
3:18 PM Mar 9th

Lest we forget. This piece of news is what spurred this very post which details the need for active internet streams for Army football coverage.

Army spring football player to watch: Marquis Morris, a defensive back who played on the sprint football team in the fall.
6:50 AM Feb 20th

News and notes, straight from the field of play.

Army fullback Jared Hassin is the real deal. One observation: He looks like a Navy fullback. He may be better. We shall see.
12:40 PM Feb 18th

I just love this kind of info from a beat writer... Sal's there to watch the whole practice and he can see who's competing and who stands out. Just one more reason to be pumped up about the 2010 season.



One last bit is a poll over at Phil Steele's site...

Who do you want to see on this year's Armed Forces Regional Cover?

Navy's Ricky Dobbs is well beyond the field with 62.5% of the votes as of this post. I have no idea whether it will be the poll of the week over there or what, but get there and vote if you would rather see somebody else in the Phil Steele Cover. Me?.. I voted for Steve Anderson.