With a mostly pro-Navy crowd on hand, the Midshipmen came out onto the field to a roaring ovation. As for the Utah Utes, well, they took a bit longer to come out than was expected, probably due to an inspirational speech being given to them by Rick Majerus or Alex Smith. The Utes eventually made it out onto the field, just in time for opening kick off. The Midshipmen won the coin toss and elected to receive the opening kick off as the two teams set to go head to head for the first time ever.

Midshipmen returner Reggie Campbell electrified the crowd with an outstanding 49 yard return and the Midshipmen settled into their wishbone offense at midfield. Campbell continued his good start by picking up a key third down on the opening drive. Navy proceeded to stall the drive as quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada’s pass was batted down at the line of scrimmage. Due to the impossibility of spelling his name out every single time, I’m going to cut my first corner of the night and call him Kaipo Kaheaku.

On the fourth down play, Navy fumbled the punt snap and turned it over to Utah at the Midshipmen 44. Butterfingers!

On the following Utah drive, quarterback Alex Smith Brian Johnson threw an interception to Navy linebacker Ross Pospisil. It was Pospisil’s first career interception that wasn’t enemy communication.

Read the rest of this entry »

5:04 P.M. We were just informed by the announcer in the press box that kickoff will be precisely at 6:12 PM. That means we have just over an hour left before kickoff and there are probably no more than 2,000 people in the stadium. Good start.

5:07 P.M. The TV’s in the press box change from the Duke-Pittsburgh basketball game to the NFL Network and a game that no one in this press box wants to watch. The good news? Qualcomm Stadium gets NFL Network and my apartment still does not.

5:08 P.M. The guy about 15 seats over is hosting a radio show from the press box. He is quite audible from halfway across the press box, making him a media favorite. Right now he appears to be trying to give away some sort of prize based off a trivia questions. The callers are o-for.

5:12 P.M. We are officially one hour away from kickoff and still there are not many fans here. Apparently one person in the press box does care about tonights Steelers-Rams game, Sonny has Steven Jackson in one of his fantasy leagues and has a vested interest in the game.

5:14 P.M. Here come the Navy Midshipmen, making the blue and gold uniforms look much better than Notre Dame did, probably because their team isn’t a disgrace to their school. Read the rest of this entry »