00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 Armed Forces Bowl, not to be confused
00:06 with the Military Bowl.
00:07 Air Force beats the James Madison 34-24.
00:12 I tell you, this, first of all,
00:14 I will tell you, I bet James Madison,
00:16 but I went against one of my sister's mark
00:17 in these bowls, especially these goofy bowls.
00:20 I actually like looking for teams
00:24 that played lousy down the stretch as Air Force did.
00:28 You know, there was a point in time where Air Force
00:30 was undefeated and, you know, preaching
00:32 an undefeated season, not going to the championship,
00:35 but they were like really good,
00:37 but they played lousy, lost their last three
00:39 or four games down the stretch.
00:40 And, but I like looking for those teams
00:44 because the coach has a reason to motivate his players.
00:48 It's like, you know what?
00:49 We're supposed to be good.
00:50 We played lousy down the stretch.
00:51 We don't want to end the season on a sour note,
00:53 blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:54 And, but I thought James Madison,
00:57 I bought it to the Cinderella story of James Madison.
00:59 So Air Force wins, they, 34-24,
01:03 they finish up nine and four.
01:04 James Madison finishes up 11 and two.
01:06 Weren't even supposed to be in the bowl.
01:07 They weren't supposed to be allowed to be in the bowl,
01:09 but they didn't have enough bowl teams.
01:11 So they allowed James Madison and Jacksonville State,
01:13 for that matter, in the bowl.
01:14 Ran for 351 yards.
01:17 They passed for 45.
01:19 Emmanuel Mitchell, or Michael,
01:21 ran for 203 yards and two touchdowns.
01:25 That's, you talk about running over a team.
01:27 That's what Air Force did over James Madison.
01:30 - Yeah, it was another game with a line flip
01:31 that wanted no part of.
01:33 You know, anytime these service academies get into a bowl
01:38 and they run the triple option,
01:39 it presents a lot of problems for teams
01:41 because they don't prep for it.
01:43 They don't see it.
01:43 It's hard for them to catch up to it, right?
01:45 And even though they had plenty of time
01:47 to prepare for this, it's still,
01:48 on the field, it's a different world.
01:50 So the teams from the service academies
01:53 usually have a decided advantage in this spot.
01:56 But it was tough to step in front of James Madison.
01:58 It really was.
01:58 That was a team this year that really
02:00 surprised a lot of people and was playing really well.
02:03 And you kept waiting for them to have this downturn
02:07 where they'd come back to earth,
02:07 but they never did during the regular season.
02:09 And Air Force takes them out in the bowl game.
02:11 So, you know.
02:12 - Yeah, I bought into that.
02:16 I also thought it was just a Cinderella story,
02:19 maybe a chip on their shoulder
02:21 because they weren't supposed to be in the bowl game.
02:23 Which is just a dopey NCAA rule, right?
02:26 I mean, if the team is good enough to be in a bowl,
02:30 and this team was obviously,
02:31 in Jacksonville State as well,
02:32 but especially James Madison.
02:34 I mean, they were the best team in the Sun Belt.
02:37 No two ways about it.
02:38 So why would you punish the team by saying,
02:41 "No, you're not allowed.
02:42 "We're gonna make you wait three, four years."
02:45 I don't know what the logic is.
02:46 You know, there's certain things that you don't agree with,
02:48 but you understand the other side,
02:50 just don't like it.
02:51 I don't understand, Mark, the other side of that.
02:53 You're punishing a team that can be really good as they are
02:58 for what reason?
02:59 Well, you'd rather have a six and six,
03:01 dopey bowl team in there,
03:03 versus a team that was 11 and one?
03:06 I don't get that rule.
03:07 - I mean, it's the NCAA.
03:09 They're the biggest joke organization in all sports.
03:11 Do they ever really do anything?
03:12 Like, do they ever really do anything?
03:14 What do they do?
03:15 What exactly is their job?
03:16 They don't run the college football playoff.
03:18 They have no say over anything.
03:19 They actually don't enforce violations
03:21 when they actually happen.
03:21 So, you know, yeah, it's off the charts, nutso.
03:25 (upbeat music)
03:29 [MUSIC]
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