<p>
<p>Take Rutgers to cover easily.
</p>
<p>Well, not as "easily" as I thought, but still a cover.</p>
<p>Personally, although dd and I hated to see her (hopefully) future alma mater lose last night, there seem to be some real positives to take from it. Last year, the final score was 34-0, and the year turned out pretty well. Last night, the mids only allowed one additional touchdown to a Rutgers team that is MUCH more balanced in its attack, AND they scored 24 points, even while making many mistakes. All in all, solve those mistake problems, and the season looks pretty bright. </p>
<p>Go Navy, Beat Ball State!</p>
<p>Scarlet Knights left painful reminder with Midshipmen</p>
<p>
[quote]
Navy head coach Paul Johnson said Rutgers "beat us like a rented mule last year."</p>
<p>Navy quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada said the Scarlet Knights "came in here and did us dirty."...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>"EAST PISCATAWAY, N.J. - Navy threw away any shot at upsetting Rutgers last night - literally. Quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada tossed three interceptions, two that killed promising Navy drives and one that led directly to a Rutgers touchdown."</p>
<p>Overall it was a better showing than was expected. I can't believe my wife watched the whole game. She has never in our twenty years of marriage watched a football game. She was full of questions and was dissapointed at the lack of representation. It took our son going to USNA to get my wife to watch a game with me. Go Navy!</p>
<p>
[quote]
Navy coach Paul Johnson didn't let his quarterback, Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada, take all the blame after three interceptions made the difference in a 17-point loss at Rutgers on Friday night. Johnson questioned his own play-calling in a game that was closer than the score indicated.</p>
<p>Speaking of Kaheaku-Enhada's third-quarter interception in the end zone on a first-down pass, Johnson said: "We made a poor decision and probably a poor play call on my part. I know we can't execute them. I don't know why I call them."</p>
<p>The Midshipmen threw four interceptions all last season. Rutgers cashed in three Friday night for 17 points....
[/quote]
</p>
<p>
[quote]
Two games into the season with one win and one loss on the record, Navy head coach Paul Johnson has come to one undeniable conclusion.</p>
<p>"We've got to stop turning the ball over," Johnson said. "In order for us to be successful, we need to take care of the football."</p>
<p>Navy survived losing two fumbles in its 30-19 season-opening win over Temple. However, three interceptions proved costly in Friday night's 41-24 loss to 15th-ranked Rutgers....
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Reggie! Reggie!
Bill Wagner
Navy Sports Blog</p>
<p>I wrote a feature story on Navy senior slot back Reggie Campbell for Thursday¹s edition of The Capital.</p>
<p>There are only two quotes from Campbell in the entire article.</p>
<p>That is due largely to the fact Campbell is so humble, so quiet, so reserved that he simply refuses to speak about himself. It makes him uncomfortable.</p>
<p>However, I could have filled the entire story with quote after superlative quote from teammates and coaches praising Campbell. It says an awful lot about a man, much less a football player, when those who know you best have nothing but the highest praise.</p>
<p>From fellow slot back Shun White to quarterback Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada to center Antron Harper, the level of respect for Campbell as both a player and a person is remarkable. Ask any member of the Navy coaching staff about Campbell and they will gush about how the 5-foot-6 mighty mite is the absolute epitome of what a team is all about.</p>
<p>Campbell is Navy¹s secret weapon, a small package filled with spectacular ability. He has a huge heart and major talent, which is why the coaching staff uses Florida native in every conceivable way.</p>
<p>At this point of his career, Campbell is no longer just a slot back; he is a consummate and complete football player. There have been some terrific players at Navy during the six-year tenure of head coach Paul Johnson, but Campbell would have to rank right up at the top along with quarterback Craig Candeto, fullback Kyle Eckel, outside linebacker David Mahoney and a select few others.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Michael Carter knew his pupil loved running the option. </p>
<p>So, as the offensive coordinator of Kapolei High School, he was thrilled when he learned Kaipo-Noa Kaheaku-Enhada would attend Navy to run that offense under Paul Johnson, the coach of the Midshipmen....
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Booing military schools unacceptable
by Tom Luicci
Monday September 10, 2007, 4:00 PM</p>
<p>It's hard to be too critical of Rutgers fans with the way they have turned out in record numbers lately, but there is one reason to be: Whoever among them booed lustily when the Navy players came onto the field on Friday night should be sentenced to a week in Iraq.</p>
<p>The noise was clearly audible, and that's a shame. Booing college opponents is acceptable with three exceptions: Army, Navy and Air Force. Whatever your feelings are on the war, those are the men who will put their lives on the line for us after they finish college. If anything, they deserve a standing ovation whenever they take the field. Wanting to beat them is one thing; booing them is a disgrace.</p>
<p>^^^^ can't argue with that one! </p>
<p>Reminds me of the A-N games.... when everyone, regardless if they are in glue and gold or black and gold- are on their feet and applauding BOTH cadets and midshipmen as they march on!</p>
<p>
[quote]
The play came late in the game, when Rutgers expanded its lead over Navy to a comfortable level after a tight three quarters. </p>
<p>Navy's Reggie Campbell took the kickoff and ran full speed ahead up the middle with all the force his 168-pound body could generate. Campbell, almost always the smallest and fastest man on the field, hit a wall of XXXL-sized scarlet jerseys and was slammed to the ground at the bottom of the pile. He got up slowly, limping off. This gutsy kid, a slotback who already spent three quarters being chased and tackled by gangs of defensive linemen and linebackers, all weighing at least 100 pounds more than him, was then given a dose of Rutgers' student section class. </p>
<p>''You got f---ed up. You got f---ed up. You got f--ed-up," they chanted....
[/quote]
</p>
<p>
[quote]
Thanks everybody for writing. Amazing how I get so many responses off a football column but so few over the murders of three college students in Newark.</p>
<p>As a Rutgers grad and Navy veteran, who sits in Section 108, Row 2, Seats 17-21 (got it, Fatbill?) right next to the student section, I think I have a pretty good perspective on what happened the other night. At field level, the taunts were loud, bullying and classless. For a program that has been everybody's whipping boy for 150 years, SOME Rutgers fans sure have short memories....
[/quote]
</p>
<p>All over the NY airwaves today... and the news chanels.... rutgers coach offered apology to USNA for inappropraite fan behavior-</p>
<p>It's made it to Fox News - they just announced that it will be discussed this hour.</p>
<p>Wednesday, September 12, 2007; Page E02</p>
<p>Angered by some derisive and profanity-laced taunts leveled at the visiting Navy football team and its fans last week, Rutgers University officials sent an open letter to students yesterday calling for better behavior at upcoming games.</p>
<p>The letter from Athletic Director Robert Mulcahy and Greg Blimling, the university's vice president of student affairs, said the behavior exhibited by "a small group" of students at Friday night's game, won by Rutgers, 41-24, was "undignified, disrespectful and unacceptable."</p>
<p>The issue gained a wide airing when Mark DiIonno, a columnist for the Star-Ledger of Newark who is a Rutgers grad and Navy veteran, used his Tuesday column to condemn the students' "loutish" behavior. The Midshipmen
some of whom "may soon be among the young American men and women fighting and bleeding and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan," deserved better, DiIonno wrote.</p>
<p>"At the very least, you'd think the Rutgers students would have some appreciation for the effort the undersize Navy players put out," DiIonno wrote.</p>
<p>Rutgers President Richard McCormick sent a letter to Naval Academy officials, apologizing for the students' actions.</p>
<p>"No student-athlete should ever be subject to profane language directed at them from the crowd, and certainly not the young men of the Naval Academy who have made a commitment to serve our nation in a time of war," McCormick wrote.</p>
<p>-- From News Services</p>
<p>
[quote]
As time expired at the football game between Rutgers University and the U.S. Naval Academy last Friday, the Scarlet Knights improved their unbeaten record to 2-0. The excitement of the win was cut short yesterday, as reports surfaced concerning mistreatment of Navy players by Rutgers fans in the student section.</p>
<p>A column in the New Jersey section of yesterday's Star-Ledger detailed a slew of obscenities directed toward the Navy football team by Rutgers students.</p>
<p>Derogatory comments such as "F- you Navy," "You got f-ed up" and "You suck" emanated from the crowd, which resulted in discomfort for Navy players and fans, the columnist wrote....
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Embarrassed president, AD apologize for fans' crude conduct during Friday's game </p>
<p>By Tom Luicci, Star-Ledger Staff</p>
<p>Rutgers President Richard McCormick issued a formal apology yesterday to the U.S. Naval Academy for offensive cheers directed at the Navy football players during last Friday night's game at Rutgers Stadium.</p>
<p>In addition, Athletic Director Robert Mulcahy wrote an open letter to students, to be published in today's editions of the student newspaper, The Targum, calling the behavior "undignified, disrespectful and unacceptable." In his letter to Vice Admiral Jeffrey L. Fowler, superintendent of the Naval Academy, McCormick said he learned of the offensive chants only after the game. </p>
<p>"No student athlete should ever be subject to profane language directed at them from the crowd, and certainly not the young men of the Naval Academy who have made a commitment to serve our nation in a time of war," McCormick wrote. </p>
<p>Rutgers, which is 2-0 and ranked 13th nationally, defeated Navy, 41-24, in front of 43,514, the third largest crowd in stadium history. The game also was broadcast nationally on ESPN.</p>
<p>The Navy players were booed and taunted with vulgar cheers as they came onto the field at the start of both halves and again toward the end of the game.</p>
<p>Navy Athletic Director Chet Gladchuk said in a statement, "There has been communication between the Rutgers president and our superintendent, and between the two athletic directors, and as far as we're concerned the matter is closed and we are moving forward."</p>
<p>Rutgers and Navy are scheduled to play each year until at least 2014. Mulcahy said the obscenities and booing were done by a "small group of students." But the "vulgar chants," as he referred to them, were loud enough to cause considerable outrage from people at the game, with several dozen making complaints to the school.</p>
<p>"Some parents were so upset by the vulgar chants in the student section that they left the game with their children," Mulcahy wrote in his open letter, which was co-authored by Greg Blimling, vice president for student affairs.</p>
<p>Mulcahy said he and Blimling have set up meetings with student leaders over the next two weeks to address the matter, with the first of those scheduled for the end of this week. Rutgers is at home Saturday afternoon against Norfolk State. </p>
<p>Rutgers has sold out all eight of its home games this year and has added extra bleachers in the south end zone that seat 2,000 to 2,500 people, to keep pace with ticket demand.</p>
<p>"This is a problem nationally," Mulcahy said in an interview, referring to fan behavior. "I've talked to athletic directors across the country and ... we're not unique in that. That doesn't excuse it.</p>
<p>"People are going to boo. I don't have a problem with that -- except for the (service) academies. I do have a problem with the vulgarities and the obscenities and there's no excuse for that."</p>
<p>Head coach Greg Schiano said he didn't hear the chants -- "I've got two headsets on and I'm trying to coach a game" -- but received enough reports from "reputable people" to believe the situation occurred.</p>
<p>"In any of those situations, it's a couple of people who cross the line and they make a bad name for everyone," Schiano said after practice yesterday. "It shouldn't happen with anybody. It shouldn't happen with any opponent and then you throw on top of it (these are) the people who are going to defend our country and it's not something that should happen."</p>
<p>Schiano said he had not contacted Navy coach Paul Johnson, but that he and Johnson "are okay (with the situation)."</p>
<p>Mulcahy said he left a voice mail apology on the cell phone of Gladchuk Monday night and left another message yesterday with Gladchuk's secretary. Mulcahy said the incident will not cause a change in any stadium policy regarding fan behavior.</p>
<p>Big East Conference official John Paquette said the league would not intercede. It is up to individual schools to deal with fan behavior, he said.
"The thing I'm sorry about, No. 1, is that any opponent has to hear that type of stuff if it's true, which I suppose it is," Schiano said. "And No. 2, all of our fans now get a smear on them because a couple of people said the wrong thing."</p>
<p>
[quote]
The president of Rutgers University apologized Tuesday to Naval Academy Superintendent Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler after Rutgers University fans serenaded Navy football players and fans with profane jeers during much of a 41-24 win by the nationally ranked Scarlet Knights on Sept. 7.</p>
<p>Bill Squires, a 1975 Naval Academy graduate who serves as a Naval Academy recruiting coordinator in New Jersey, was at the game. He said he first heard the abuse in the second quarter when a section of about 60 drunken students began screaming at a small group of midshipmen who sat in an adjoining section....
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Taunting is wrong, no matter who the opponent is; Rutgers, be nice (Home News Tribune)</p>
<p>Taunting is wrong, no matter who the opponent is; Rutgers, be nice
Home News Tribune Online 09/13/07</p>
<p>One year after the Rutgers football program was the feel-great story of the
autumn, the behavior of some Rutgers' football fans was so frightful Friday
that the story was featured on the Drudge Report. That can't be good.</p>
<p>The story was that a few students taunted the visitors from Navy with
obscene chants. I wouldn't know. Our seats are in a section where grizzled
fans remain puzzled why Lehigh and Colgate are no longer on the schedule,
and still can't get used to this thing called the two-point conversion.</p>
<p>What made it so bad, the story goes, was because the opponent was Navy, and
don't you know someday soon Navy's linebackers will be fighting in Iraq and
Afghanistan. I'm figuring the Navy players are somewhat offended not by
the chants, but the suggestion they're feelings somehow matter more than
players from West Virginia and Syracuse.</p>
<p>According to this way of thinking, it's bad to bad-mouth sailors headed for
the Persian Gulf, but not quite as bad to taunt West Virginia's
student-athletes who someday will be selling Remingtons at Bass Pro Shops or
Syracuse grads who hope to manage the night shift at Panera's.</p>
<p>If Navy's players can't take it now, how are they going to react when the
enemy is not lobbing obscene taunts, but heat-seeking missiles? You know
what they'll call the Rutgers-Navy game in 2007? The good old days.</p>
<p>People, it's wrong and crude, no matter who the opponent. It's also another
signal that our culture especially our youth culture is so crude. The
kids get some of their cues, by the way, from adults making movies and
sitcoms who greenlight crude programming. Have you listened to the kids'
music, lately?</p>
<p>Rutgers was properly embarrassed by the behavior, with university President
Richard L. McCormick writing a letter of apology to his equivalent at the
Naval Academy, Vice Admiral Jeffrey L. Fowler.</p>
<p>But it's not just Rutgers. In a story in the Rutgers Daily Targum, one
student explained, "My dad's a professor at Bates College in Maine, and the
same stuff happens there, I mean, it's college."</p>
<p>The gold standard of creative behavior at sporting events is the work of the
Cameron Crazies at Duke University basketball games. Apparently the
university is so pleased with their behavior they give the students the best
seats, bumping big donors to the rear of Cameron Indoor Stadium, as if
students are more important than big donors.</p>
<p>ESPN.com listed 10 great Crazies' moments.</p>
<p>No. 5. The game after North Carolina's Steve Hale suffered a punctured lung,
the compassionate cry was "In-Hale, Ex-Hale." Rumor has it that even Hale
couldn't resist smiling.</p>
<p>No. 1. The ultimate in catnip over the years has been the unfortunate
visitor fresh off a confrontation with the legal system. Former Duke player,
now an ESPN personality, Jay Bilas, recalled how Adrian Branch of Maryland
had some problem off court. Bilas recalled, "As he was getting ready to
shoot a free throw, Duke students behind the basket all stood up and yelled,
"Freeze! Police!' Even the other guys on his team had to laugh."</p>
<p>The least original taunt is any use of the F-word.</p>
<p>You're better than that, Rutgers.</p>
<p>Rick Malwitz's column appears Sundays and Thursdays. His Tuesday Musings
blog appears at <a href="http://www.thnt.com%5B/url%5D">www.thnt.com</a>. <a href="mailto:Rmalwitz@thnt.com">Rmalwitz@thnt.com</a>, (732) 565-7291.</p>