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FOXBORO, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Before their clash in Foxboro next week, players and coaches from the Army Black Knights and Navy Midshipmen met with reporters at Gillette Stadium for Media Day on Wednesday.
The Army-Navy Game is one of the most storied rivalries in college football. The two teams from the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York and the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland first played against each other in 1890.
123 years later, the game will played for the first time ever at Gillette on Saturday, Dec. 9.
Speaking with WBZ NewsRadio, Navy head coach Brian Newberry said it's easy to understand why the Army-Navy Game is such a big deal.
"Just the energy, the pageantry, the pride [...] there’s nothing like it, there’s no college football game like it," Newberry said. "Just the pure effort and fight that both teams will play with on Saturday, there’s no game like that in the country."
Army head coach Jeff Monken was excited to play in the home of the Patriots.
"Just the history of this franchise and all the success they’ve had here in this stadium, what a great opportunity for our players to play where some legendary players and coaches have walked the sidelines and scored touchdowns," Monken told WBZ NewsRadio.
It will not be hard to figure out where Patriots head coach Bill Belichick's allegiances will lie next Saturday. Belichick's father Steve was a longtime coach and scout for Navy, with Belichick raised in Annapolis.
Newberry hoped Belichick's history with the team will rub off on them.
"Maybe just a little good luck," Newberry said. "He’s been awesome and I know how important the Naval Academy is to him, obviously, and [it] has a special place in his heart. We’re fired up and excited to be in this facility and I know he’s excited to have us here too."
"Well, he was raised wrong," Monken responded, garnering laughs from reporters. "Unfortunately his dad got a job at Navy, and he worked there a long time and Coach grew up there, but had his dad got a job at Army, I’m sure he’d be on the right side of the rivalry."
WBZ's Kim Tunnicliffe (@KimWBZ) reports.
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