Navy and Pittsburgh heading to Military Bowl
The Navy football team has known for some time it would be participating in the Military Bowl. The Midshipmen, ranked 21st in the final College Football Playoff poll, just weren’t sure of the opponent until the official announcement came Sunday afternoon that they will be playing Pittsburgh Dec. 28 at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium.
It’s the first matchup between Navy and the Panthers since Oct. 25, 2013. The Midshipmen won that game, 24-21, on place kicker Nick Sloan’s 30-yard field goal as time expired in Annapolis. Quarterback Keenan Reynolds, then a sophomore, led Navy with 93 rushing yards and a touchdown and completed 8 of 18 passes for 105 yards and another touchdown.
Navy is going to a bowl game for the fourth consecutive year and has won its last two. It’s also the Midshipmen’s second appearance in the Military Bowl. They last played in the game in 2008, losing to Wake Forest, 29-19, when it was called the EagleBank Bowl and held at RFK Stadium.
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“We’re not only excited to be able to play a very good Pittsburgh team, and to be in this bowl is very appropriate for us being the Military Bowl, but also being able to play it in our own stadium is a trifecta for us,” Navy Coach Ken Niumatalolo said Sunday night in a conference call.
The Midshipmen (9-2) have one game left in the regular season against Army Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field. Navy is seeking to extend its series-record winning streak to 14 while also matching the program record for most victories in a season. Its only losses this year were to No. 8 Notre Dame and No. 18 Houston, which beat Temple, 28-13, Saturday to win the American Athletic Conference title.
Pittsburgh (8-4) closed the season losing three of five, including 29-24 to Miami in the finale Nov. 27.
The Panthers trailed 29-10 with 6 minutes 51 seconds to play but made it close thanks to quarterback Nate Peterman, who passed for a two-yard touchdown and ran for a five-yarder in the final minutes. The redshirt junior has thrown for 2,150 yards and 19 touchdowns with five interceptions this season.
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Navy and Pittsburgh shared one common opponent this year in the Fighting Irish. The Panthers fell to Notre Dame, 42-30, Nov. 7 in Pittsburgh. Peterson passed for 223 yards and one touchdown with an interception and rushed eight times for a team-high 60 yards.
This year’s Military Bowl offers an intriguing matchup between Navy’s second-ranked rushing offense averaging 330 per game against the Panthers’ 20th-ranked rushing defense allowing just 126 yards per game.
While Navy, particularly its seniors, is looking forward to playing one more game at home, Panthers fans took to Twitter to express their displeasure with the ACC for the bowl selection process sending Pittsburgh to what they consider a less appealing game than some of the conference’s other members such as North Carolina State or Louisville.
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Both those schools finished with worse records than Pittsburgh. The Wolfpack, in fact, were below .500 in the ACC Atlantic Division while Pittsburgh went 6-2 to finish second behind Coastal champion North Carolina.
The Wolfpack is headed to the Belk Bowl in Charlotte Dec. 30, and the Cardinals are playing in the Music City Bowl in Nashville on the same day.
“I haven’t looked at Twitter to see what [the players’] responses are,” Pittsburgh Coach Pat Narduzzi said. “You can’t please everybody, I can tell you that. Being in this coaching profession long enough, I’m excited to be able to go bowling. We’re extremely happy with it, and our kids will grow into being very happy. I can guarantee you that.”
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