ANNAPOLIS -- On a day rain-soaked day ultimately suited for a sea dominance, the Naval Academy football team borrowed a page from the battleground playbook of the Infantry and secured a 13-10 win over Wake Forest. Too bad so few were there to see it.
Oh, ye of faint heart and thin skin, Annapolis, Maryland. Shame on you.
In one of the most exciting and rare of all football games played in Navy-Marine Corps Stadium in a long time, less than 5,000 fans were left witness to a heart-pounding 13-10 win by the Midshipmen over a gritty Wake Forest team in front of an announced total of 31,907 fans. Making the victory even more impressive is the fact Navy called upon a sophomore from California to make his first career start at quarterback. Kriss Proctor filled in admirably for senior signal caller Ricky Dobbs, injured with a strained knee cap/patella. But what ultimately led Navy to victory was a 64-play ground attack buttressed by fullback Vince Murray's 175 yards on 27 carries.
What was history-making was Navy ran 64 plays and every single one of them was a running play. Navy didn't attempt a single pass and still won the football game. When is the last time a major college game was won without attempting a pass?
However, most of the announced crowd found out about the game's particulars the same way you found my copy, by searching for it and reading it.
Unfortunately, the Navy fight song, raw emotions and the general excitement surrounding a college football game wasn't the only thing pounding. There was a driving rain storm which started coming down in the 2nd quarter. After halftime it was pouring in sheets, buckets and any other household metaphor you can think of. In most parts of the country, it's called 'football weather'. In Annapolis, it's apparently time to say goodbye. Sure the announced crowd was over 31,000 and that crowd was present for kickoff and the first 15 minutes of play, but when the rains came, the crowd -- save for the brigade of Midshipman and a few other hearty souls -- waved goodbye.
I say shame on you, Annapolis. Yes, I know there's swine flu and wet rain and all the other reasons not to stand by in a rain storm, but you have one of the greatest college football traditions in all of the country in your backyard. A Naval Academy home football game is a spectacle unlike no other, but the passion rarely approaches the rolling boil found in other college towns even on picture-perfect days. The Mids play in a quaint, eye-catching stadium but it's rarely filled to capacity. And the school annually plays three of the biggest games in the country with Air Force, Notre Dame -- the country's longest, continually-running inter-sectional rivalry -- and the storied, epic battle with Army.
Add a national championship, two Heisman trophy winners and a city most downtown chamber of commerce committees would kill for and you've got the makings of an incredible atmosphere for college football. But what should be an all-encompassing community rally feels more like a arts & crafts bazaar. What strikes me ironically about yesterday's mass exodus is Annapolis likes to fancy itself as the sailing capital of America. What headstrong sailor worth his or her salt do you know that would run and hide from the rain? Yeah, I don't know any like that, either.
In fact, The Capital newspaper in Annapolis, which probably owes half of yesterday's online hits totals and paper copy sales to those who had to read about the game after they left the stadium, might be the only entity without blame. The Capital covers the Mids better than any other Mid-Atlantic publication.
I admit I come by this passionate opinion honestly. I moved from Michigan. When it snows, we came bundled. When it rains, we came sheathed. When it blew, blustered and howled, we yelled, screamed and cheered louder. It's called football. My company was a a Michigan State University season-ticket holder. MSU plays a couple big games on the annual docket, too. Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan and Notre Dame. They sold-out Saturday night and they're just 4-4. Despite losses to Notre Dame, Central Michigan and Iowa in the final seconds, they'll still sell out their remaining home dates despite the four losses. The Spartans haven't won the Big Ten since 1990 and haven't been to the Rose Bowl since 1987 but Michigan State football is king of the hill in a town where Spartans' basketball and considerable more team success still runs from behind, although not by much.
Navy, by comparison, has won the Commander-In-Chief's trophy six straight years, have enjoyed nearly a decade of dominance over rivals Air Force and Army, have battled Notre Dame in some epic games during that time and nearly topped Ohio State this season in the Horseshoe, better known as the always-imposing Ohio Stadium. The Mids are trying to win eight games for the 7th-consecutive season and will go to a bowl for the 7th straight year with one more win. Needing just two wins in their final five games, it's all but a certainty.
Where's the love? Annapolis, shame on you for bailing on this team. They play their hearts out for you and you let a little rain stop you from being fans.
Regards...
~ T.C. Cameron authored two prep football books in metro Detroit before becoming a resident of Annapolis.
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