Big Kicks Equal Big Success for Navy
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
For making the winning field goal as time expired against Duke on Saturday, Navy senior place kicker Joey Bullen was given an extra 20 minutes of sleep each morning this week by his company officer.
When Bullen made the winning field goal against Air Force in 2005, the prizes were a little bigger; among them was a signed picture from the Secretary of the Navy.
Former Navy place kicker Geoff Blumenfeld, who made the winning field goal against Air Force in 2004, recalled waking up the next morning and being served breakfast in bed by a midshipman in a full dress uniform.
Games between the Midshipmen (2-2) and Air Force (3-1) always have a lot at stake, and Saturday's game at 1 p.m. at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium won't be any different.
The game is sold out; that includes around 500 Air Force cadets who will attend. Many of them will participate in a march-on with the Brigade of Midshipmen before the game.
"It's a fun time of year," Navy Coach Paul Johnson said. "It's a big game."
The winner will have a leg up in the race for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy, given to the winner of a round-robin competition among Air Force, Army and Navy.
Navy has won the trophy each of the past four years. The trophy currently is in Navy's locker room.
"It's heavily guarded," senior fullback Adam Ballard said. "Last year I think someone ran off with it or something."
Ballard and Bullen are two of the recent standouts in the series. Ballard was named the most valuable player of a 24-17 victory last year; he had 27 carries for 134 yards. Bullen made a 46-yard field goal -- still his career long -- with 0.4 of a second left in a 27-24 victory over the Falcons in 2005.
Those games have been marked by hard hits and some on-field trash talking.
"The Army game for us is more like a friendly competition," Ballard said. "For some reason, there's something else between us and Air Force. It's more of a love-hate game than love-love."
