Navy Falls Short In AAC Title Game

Several conferences, including the Pac-12, Big 12 and Big Ten, do not have enough bowl-eligible teams to fill all their contracted spots.

Navy was the favorite entering the game, and there was even talk the Midshipmen could supplant unbeaten Western Michigan in the Cotton Bowl with a win over the Owls. They may be labeled as Group of 5 teams, but the AAC can play some serious football.

“We just had an absolutely great experience (at the 2010 game)”, he said. “They’re going to get downhill”, Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo said. “We’d have been thrilled with any bowl-we’re excited jsut to be back in a bowl-but this was our players’ first choice”.

We talk about chaos all the time in the college football world, but having to parse all of that, and perhaps having to put everything on hold for another week – that have been true chaos. We were dazed the whole game. Temple was the only AAC member to slow down the league’s most potent offense, beating USF 46-30 in Philadelphia just one week earlier. Worth and Gulley each suffered foot injuries on the Mids’ second play of the second quarter. But Navy doesn’t close the season until December 10 with its traditional game against Army. His favorite target on the day was Keith Kirkwood, who had five catches for 98 yards and a touchdown.

“I don’t want to be un-American”, one bowl official said, “but almost everyone in the bowl industry, quite frankly, is rooting against Navy”. “I know he can get behind a defense”.

Wake Forest will play in the twelfth bowl game in school history and first since 2011.

Despite Navy refusing to concede, the Temple defense took no quarter as the clock continued to wind down, first forcing yet another turnover-on-downs before senior DL Haason Reddick picked off Abey’s pass on the right sideline. Worth is the AAC’s fourth-leading rusher with 1,181 yards and leads the AAC with 25 touchdowns. “I run the second huddle and see the same looks we are going up against each week”. Sorry, I just had to type that again to make myself believe it. “You work so hard to get to this point, and then you can’t really play”.

A power rushing game created to chew up the clock and wear down opposing defenses. Temple, on the other hand, started off 3-3 but has won its last seven games.

A 42-yard field goal by Aaron Boumerhi with 10:17 left ended any hope of a Navy comeback.

“We just wanted to go out there and dominate each and every play”, Owls linebacker Sean Chandler said.

“They just played better”.

ATLANTA-The top-ranked Alabama (13-0, No. 1 CFP) unleashed all their weapons against the overmatched Gators, scoring off an interception and a blocked punt in the first half, snuffing out their last gasp with a goal-line stand, and wearing down Florida at the end with a dominant running game to post a 54-16 victory in the SEC championship on Saturday afternoon. The Midshipmen were in the mix to represent the second-tier conferences known as the Group of Five in the New Year’s bowl, but that distinction now in all probability falls to undefeated No. 17 Western Michigan, which beat OH on Friday in the Mid-American Conference championship game.