“Three days until we beat Army, SIR!” 

Navy expects to beat Army.  It’s not just Go Navy, Beat Army.  Instead Annapolis cadets count down the days towards the Army game.  Not because it’s a goal, but because it’s expected.  It’s the logical conclusion to the football season. 

The all-time Army/Navy series record is a remarkably close 53-49-7.  Like a pendulum swinging back-and-forth, each Academy has had their time to shine.  These last ten-plus years have undoubtedly been Annapolis’ time.  They have won 10 of the last 12, but anyone that knows the full history of the series knows that eventually the pendulum will swing back in West Point’s favor.  Which means an Army win this weekend be the beginning of their return, or it could be just a blip on the radar.  But Navy cadets know what to do to blips on a radar.  They know to be ever vigilant, and they know they are going to win. 

Forbes declared the Naval Academy at Annapolis the 30^th best school in the country, which is pretty impressive when you see Notre Dame (50^th), Brown (72^nd), Berkeley (73^rd), UCLA (78^th) and Penn (83^rd).  But this is a Military Academy we’re talking about so the standards are a little different, and considering that West Point (1^st) and Air Force (7^th) were both higher, Annapolis has some catching up to do.  But then again, ask either of the other academies if they would trade places in the rankings if they could beat Navy in football and they’d think long and hard about it.

It’s not just an abstract ‘pride’ but an actual trophy that those other Academies are missing out on.  The Commander-in-Chief’s trophy goes to the Military Academy that beats the other two.  It’s obviously a big deal to every cadet in each of the schools, but recently one Academy has stood head-and-shoulders above the rest.  A Navy cadet will bring up their streak of C-I-C trophies faster than they can do a pull-up, which is probably faster than you or I could even say the words “pull-up.”  It’s seven-straight over Army, and thanks to a win earlier this year it’s also seven-years over Air Force, which means they’ve had the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy longer than we’ve been in Iraq, which might have been a better explanation for John Mccain’s (Navy class of ‘58) line about staying in Iraq for 100 years.

The caveat–the Iraq retort–would be dismissed as idiocy in any other rivalry, like blaming a losing streak on daylight savings time, but clearly this rivalry is different.  Iraq and Afghanistan matter more to these two schools than any others in the country.  Army says (and the data backs them up) that they have borne far more of the brunt of the Middle East than Navy has, and as a result it is harder for them to recruit football players.  The five-year post-graduation military-commitment pretty much rules out any football player which the slimmest hope of making it to the NFL–as Lt Caleb Campbell proved, even being drafted by the NFL can’t change that commitment to the government. 

While Army and Navy won’t admit that they lost those athletes long ago, I think we all realize that if Roger Staubach were a high schooler today there’s no way he chooses Annapolis.  But even among the remaining athletes, Army’s military commitment is much tougher to overcome than Navy’s…or so West Point claims.  In fact in the game a few years ago, Army’s football team came out wearing fatigue-uniforms, a not so subtle statement that they were the one true military academy, implying that Navy is just a bunch of dudes going on a cruise.  It’s a nice story, certainly a nice excuse for a long losing streak, but it doesn’t quite hold up to scrutiny.  Because contrary to popular belief, some Marines do go to school–and that school is Annapolis.  In fact Navy cadets stretch from control and precision (a nuclear-sub) to raw aggressiveness (the Marines) and across that entire spectrum is a danger that is indicative of true active duty. 

Yet, while they work under the same constraints that the other Academies deal with, Navy still puts out a good team every year.  This year’s might be better than most.  But what’s remarkable is not just the success despite the hurdles; it’s the timelessness of the success.  I don’t mean they’re successful every year- anyone that watched them play from 1983 to 2002 can attest to that.  That 20 year stretch saw them win a combined 68 games and go to just one bowl.  But the last 6 years have not only seen six-straight bowl games but also a record of 51-26.  And all of those wins came from a simple, old-school, offense: the triple-option.  While the “Wildcat” in the NFL is similar, Navy’s “Wishbone” isn’t some gimmick, it isn’t a trick-play, and it isn’t a fad.  College football actually sees a ton of variations of this offense even on tremendously successful teams (Urban Meyer and Florida seem to do okay with it), but all of those programs consider it as a good formation to pass out of.  Navy (along with Air Force) instead believes in the run-first, run-second, run-third plan of attack.  In fact only twice this year has Navy even attempted 10 passes in a game, and in a win over Wake Forrest they didn’t attempt a single pass.  Houston’s Case Keenum had more completions in one game (against UTEP) than Navy has had all season.  Navy is running a century-old offense and still succeeding.

They’ve beaten Notre Dame two out of the last three and earlier this year they gave BCS-bound Ohio State a run for their money, so you know they are for real, but all those wins don’t hide the fact that they play a one-game season.  Ask any cadet which game is the most important and the answer won’t surprise you but the depth of sincerity may: “It’s not the most important game, it’s the only important game.”  All the other stuff riding on the game (Army going for win #6 and bowl eligibility, Navy going for win #9 and true national respectability) matters little compared to the game itself. 

And there is a lot of that other stuff that goes into this game.  Presumably there are quite a few bets at the Pentagon during this time each year but beyond that each cadet represents the millions of soldiers- 99.9% of whom never went to these academies, but all of whom cheer for their branch.  In fact both Army and Navy intentionally schedule games in parts of the country where their enlisted men and women areL Army annually schedules games in Texas while Navy this year played in Hawaii and consistently takes a bowl game in San Diego.  They are scholars, warriors, and ambassadors, and every one of those titles requires a different skill set but a singular focus. 

A focus so concentrated that despite all the distractions, despite all the pressures, despite whatever happens in Saturday’s game, ask a Navy cadet this Sunday about next year’s game and you’re going to get only one answer:

“Three-hundred and sixty-five days until we beat Army, SIR!”