2019 Navy Football: Army (5-7) vs. Navy (9-2, 7-1 AAC)
When	Saturday, Dec. 14, 2019 | 3:00 pm (ET)
Location	Philadelphia, Pa. | Lincoln Financial Field
Television	CBS (Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson, Jamie Erdahl)
Live Video Stream	CBS
Listen	Navy Football Radio Network (Pete Medhurst, Joe Miller, Keith Mills, Scott Wykoff) WBAL 1090 AM / 101.5 FM (Baltimore) | WNAV 1430 AM, 99.9 FM (Annapolis) | WJXL 1010 AM, 92.5 FM (Jacksonville) | WXTG 102.1 FM / 1490 AM (Norfolk, Va.) | W270DA 101.9 FM (Norfolk, Va.) | WQBK 107.9 FM (Williamsburg / Yorktown, Va.) | KWFN 97.3 FM (San Diego, Calif.) | WFED 1500 AM | WFED 104.5 FM (Western Fairfax / Loudon, Va.) | WFED 820 AM, 94.3 FM (Frederick, Md.) | WBQH 1050 AM, 93.5 FM (Washington, DC / No. Virginia) | Sirius Ch. 83 / XM Ch. 83 / Internet Ch. 83
Live Stats	Navy Athletics
Game Notes	Navy | Army
Season Statistics	Navy | Army | AAC
Social Media	@NavyAthletics | @NavyFB | Facebook | Instagram

Setting the Stage
•    Army and No. 21 Navy will meet in the greatest rivalry in all of sports on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field (69,176) in Philadelphia for the 120th playing of America's Game, the Army-Navy Game presented by USAA. CBS Sports will televise the game nationally with Brad Nessler, Gary Danielson and Jamie Erdahl on the call, while Westwood One will have the national radio call with John Sadak, Ross Tucker and Amber Theoharris.
•     Navy last entered the Army-Navy game ranked in the top 25 in 2015 when the No. 21 Midshipmen defeated Army, 21-17.
•    If Navy can finish the year in the Associated Press Top 25, it would be just the third time in the last 56 years that Navy has finished the year in the AP Top 25 (18th in 2015, 24th in 2004). Navy did finish 17th in the now defunct UPI poll in 1978, but was unranked in the Associated Press Poll (was only top 20 back then).
•     This year marks the fourth time in the last five years that Navy has cracked the top 25 (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019), which also coincides with Navy joining the American Athletic Conference. Navy has been ranked for a total of 16 weeks over the last five years, prior to that Navy was ranked for ONE week (at the end of the 2004 season) the previous 35 years.
•    Navy leads the all-time series against Army, 60-52-7 (.534), including a 44-40-4 (.523) mark in Philadelphia and a 10-2 (.833) record at Lincoln Financial Field.
•    If Navy defeats Army, the Mids would win the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy for the 16th time in school history and for the 11th time in the last 17 years.
•    If Army defeats Navy, then Navy, Air Force and Army will share in the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy since the three teams would all be 1-1 against each other (Navy beat Air Force and Air Force beat Army) and the trophy would remain at West Point in this scenario because the rules state the previous winner retains the trophy if all three teams go 1-1 against each other. In the previous 47 years the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy has been on the line, only four times has there been a tie (1974 retained by Navy, 1976 retained by Navy, 1980 retained by Navy and 1993 retained by Air Force).
•     The Mids are 26-8 over the last 34 games against Service Academy rivals Army and Air Force.
•     Navy is 9-2 for the first time since 2016 when the Mids started 9-2 and won the AAC West before injuries hit and Navy lost its final three games to finish 9-5.
•     Navy is guaranteed two more games this season - Army and vs. Kansas State in the AutoZone Liberty Bowl (Dec. /31). If the Mids can win both games, they would tie the school record for wins in a season with 11 (2015).
•    Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo is in his 12th year at Navy, making him the longest-tenured coach in school history. With 96 career wins, he is the winningest coach in program history.
•     Niumatalolo's eight wins against Army are tied for the most in Army-Navy history alongside College Football Hall of Fame Coach Earl Blaik of Army, who was just 8-8-2 (.500) from 1941-58. A victory against Army would make Niumatalolo the winningest coach in the history of the Army-Navy Game.
•    Senior quarterback Malcolm Perry has rushed for 1,500 yards and 19 touchdowns, making him only the second player (Keenan Reynolds) in school history to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a single season three times. Perry is just 87 yards behind Napoleon McCallum for first on Navy's all-time single-season rushing list and 68 yards behind Will Worth for the single-season total offense record.
•    ESPN College Game Day will broadcast live from Philadelphia from 9:00 am-12 noon right outside of XFinity Live, which is across the street from Lincoln Financial Field. Rece Davis, Kirk Herbstreit, Desmond Howard, former Navy assistant coach Lee Corso and Maria Taylor will be on hand.
•    CBS Sports Network will air Inside College Football: Army-Navy March-On presented by USAA from 12-noon to 1:30 pm and Inside College Football: Army-Navy Tailgate presented by USAA from 1:30-2:30 pm with host Brent Stover and analysts Randy Cross, Houston Nutt and Kevin Carter live from Lincoln Financial Field
•     CBS Sports will air its studio show, College Football Today, at 2:30 pm with Adam Zucker, Brian Jones and Rick Neuheisel live inside Lincoln Financial Field.
•    The Navy Football Insider Special with Pete Medhurst, Joe Miller, Keith Mills and Scott Wykoff will get underway at 12:00 pm on WBAL Radio 1090 AM.   
•    The Navy Football Tailgate Show on WNAV Radio 1430 AM / 99.9 FM will air from 1:00-2:00 pm with Wylie Baker and Bill Lusby serving as the hosts.
•    The Navy Football Pregame Show with Pete Medhurst, Joe Miller, Keith Mills and Scott Wykoff will get underway at 2:00 pm on the Navy Radio Network followed by game action at 3:00 pm.
•    Following the contest, Medhurst, Miller, Mills and Wykoff will recap the day's events in a 30-minute postgame show.

Game Day Festivities
•    The march-on of the Brigade of Midshipmen will take place at 12:10 pm, followed by the march-on of the Corps of Cadets at 12:40 pm.
•    The Service Academy Exchange of Cadets and Midshipmen will take place at 2:47 pm.
•    Weather permitting, the Golden Knights and Leap Frogs will jump at 2:50 pm.
•    The National Anthem will take place at 3:03 pm.
•    The Navy flyover will take place at 3:07 pm, followed by the Army flyover at 3:07:45 pm.
•    Kickoff is set for 3:12 pm.
•    Following the game, the alma mater of the losing team will be played with both teams standing at attention, followed by the alma mater of the winning team. It is the greatest tradition in all of sports.

Commander-In-Chief's Trophy
• The Commander-In-Chief's Trophy is presented annually to the winner of the football competition among the three major service academies — Army, Navy and Air Force — and is named in honor of the President of the United States.
• Navy has won the trophy 10 of the last 16 years and has won 26 of the last 34 Service Academy games against Air Force and Army.
• Navy has won the trophy a total of 15 times in school history: 1973, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1981, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013 and 2015.
• When there is no clear-cut winner,  the trophy remains with the winner of the previous year's competition.  The last time that happened was 1993.
• The three-sided trophy stands two-and-a-half-feet tall and is engraved with the academy seals.  Reproductions of the three mascots — the Army West Point Mule, the Navy Goat and the Air Force Falcon — are ensconced on the respective sides of this bauble.  The trophy is sponsored by the West Point Association of Graduates, the Naval Academy Alumni Association and the Air Force Association of Graduates.
• The year in which the trophy is won is engraved on a plate gracing the respective academy's side of the trophy.

Scouting Army
•    Army enters the contest with a 5-7 record with wins over Rice (14-7), Texas at San Antonio (31-13), Morgan State (52-21), UMass (63-7) and VMI (47-6).
•    Army's losses have come at the hands of Michigan (24-21 OT), Tulane (42-33), Western Kentucky (17-8), Georgia State (28-21), San Jose State (34-29), Air Force (17-13) and Hawaii (52-31).
•    Army has been forced to play four quarterbacks at various times due to injury, but its leader is Kelvin Hopkins.  Hopkins has carried the ball 137 times for 706 yards and seven touchdowns, while completing 32 of his 75 pass attempts for 570 yards with four touchdowns and five interceptions.  
•    Army is third in the country in passing yards per completion (18.59).
•    Fullbacks Connor Slomka and Sandon McCoy back Hopkins in the run game. Slomka has carried the ball 142 times for 637 yards and eight touchdowns, while McCoy has carried the ball 124 times for 555 yards and 10 touchdowns.
•    As a team, Army is second in the nation in rushing yards per game (311.7), while the offensive line is allowing just three tackles for a loss per game which is the best in the country.
•    Camden Harrison is Army's leading receiver with 23 catches for 415 yards and three touchdowns, while Artice Hobbs has 10 catches for 297 yards and a touchdown.
•    Linebacker Cole Christiansen leads the Black Knights with an incredible 103 tackles (22nd nationally in tackles/gm), while Elijah Riley is an elite cornerback coming up with 74 tackles, four sacks, six pass breakups, three interceptions and three force fumbles (20th in the country).
•    The Army defense has come up with 10 fumble recoveries this year, which ranks 21st in the country, while the pass defense is giving up just 193.8 yards per game (18th in the country).
•    The Army offense is 20th in the country in third down conversions (.468) and 14th in fourth down conversions (.667).  Because of those two marks, it is 11th in time of possession (33:22).
•    The Black Knights rank 12th nationally in net punting (41.88 yards/punt) and 17th in punt return defense (3.75).

Under Armour and Navy Unveil 1960s Era Throwback Uniforms For Army-Navy Game
•    The 150th season of college football has excited fans across the country all season long and the action continues on Saturday with the greatest rivalry in all of sports, the Army-Navy Game presented by USAA.   
•     In their 120th meeting - stretching back to 1890 - the Army-Navy Game is a college football tradition like no other, so it is only right that Under Armour rise to the occasion and outfit such a historical powerhouse like Navy in uniforms that pay homage to the program's storied past.
•     This year's Army-Navy game will be one for the ages. The Midshipmen enter the game ranked #21 in the country and are looking for their 10th win of the season and to return the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy back to Annapolis. To help the team prepare for game day, Under Armour and Navy joined forces to create a uniform that channels the greatness of Navy's past legends.
•     With 139 years of college football history, there are few programs in the country who boast richer traditions than Navy, yet the 1960s era of Navy football in particular sticks out. From 1960-63, Navy posted a 30-12 record, went 4-0 against Army, was ranked as high as No. 2 in the country and played in both the Orange and Sugar Bowls. Navy produced two Heisman Trophy winners during that time with Joe Bellino winning the award in 1960 and Roger Staubach in 1963.
•     The uniforms they wore featured a traditional navy blue contrasted with brilliant gold accents, a brilliant look for some of the best teams in the nation during their respective seasons. This era provided the appropriate inspiration needed to outfit the current Midshipmen squad for Saturday's rivalry game.
•     The Midshipmen will sport throwback uniforms on game day that pay tribute to the Navy football greats of the 60s and their Heisman-winning ways. The uniform combination mimics the traditional navy blue base with golden shoulder stripes and pants, but features subtle differences to both modernize and pay homage to the greats. Notably, the helmets each Navy player will don is a nod to both Heisman winners of the early 1960s as the design takes a cue from the actual Heisman trophy Bellino and Staubach themselves hoisted.
•     A burnished coat of bronze paint wraps each helmet and lays beneath Navy's iconic anchor logo that serves as a call to the Naval Academy's roots at sea, while the two Heisman winner's uniform numbers are front and center. Each 'Heisman helmet' represents a manifestation of the on-field excellence of the Academy's forebears, as they attempt to steamroll an Army team and extend the dominance of Go Navy, Beat Army.

Most Improved Teams In FBS History
•     Navy has improved by 7.0 games in 2019 compared to 2018 with two games remaining. The Mids were 3-10 in 2018 and have put together a 9-2 record this fall.  
•     The 7.0 game improvement is the biggest improvement in the country.
•     The FBS record for biggest improvement from one year to the next is 8.5 games by Hawai'i in 1999.  
•     If Navy wins its final two games, it would finish with an eight game improvement, which would tie for the second-best improvement in FBS history.

Navy Headed Back To The Liberty Bowl For The First Time Since 1981
•    On Sunday it was announced that the #21 / #23 Navy Midshipmen (9-2) and the Kansas State Wildcats (8-4) have accepted invitations to play in the 61st AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Tuesday, Dec. 31 at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tenn.  Kickoff is set for 3:45 pm (ET), 2:45 pm local time and the game will be televised nationally by ESPN.
•     This marks Navy's 24th bowl appearance and the 15th in the last 17 years. Navy's only appearance in the Liberty Bowl came on Dec. 30, 1981, when the Mids lost a heartbreaker to Ohio State, 31-28. Navy running back Eddie Meyers was named the game's most valuable player in that contest.
•     Navy has won four of its last five bowl games and head coach Ken Niumatalolo's five bowl wins are the most in school history.
•     This will be the first meeting between Navy and Kansas State. The Mids last played a Big 12 team in the 2009 Texas Bowl when Navy rolled over current SEC member Missouri, 35-13.
•     The Wildcats finished the regular season with an 8-4 record, which included a 48-41 victory over Oklahoma (12-1). Kansas State also owns wins over Mississippi State, TCU, Kansas, Texas Tech and Iowa State. The Wildcats are averaging 30.7 points per game, while giving up just 21.5 per contest. Quarterback Skylar Thompson has passed for 2,191 yards and 12 touchdowns.
•     Navy fans can purchase tickets to attend the AutoZone Liberty Bowl or donate tickets right now at https://goo.gl/MP2D9H or by calling 1-800-US4-NAVY during business hours. Ticket prices are $95 and $85 and the only way to sit with the Navy contingents is to buy your tickets through the Navy ticket office. The $95 tickers are located in sections 101, 102, 106, 107, 108, 109, 131 and 132, while the $85 tickets are located in parts of sections 101 thru 108 and in section 132. Donated tickets are $50 and will be given to either midshipmen or enlisted personnel in the area.

Perry Named AAC Offensive Player Of The Year, Niumatalolo Named Coach Of The Year
•    Navy senior quarterback Malcolm Perry was named the 2019 American Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year, while head coach Ken Niumatalolo was named the AAC Coach of the Year by the league's head coaches.
•    Perry is the second player in program history to win the AAC offensive player of the year award, as Keenan Reynolds took home the award in 2015,. Meanwhile, Niumatalolo has been named the league's coach of the year three times in the last five years.
•    Senior guard David Forney and sophomore linebacker Diego Fagot join Perry on the first team, while junior offensive tackle Billy Honaker and junior striker Jacob Springer were named honorable mention all-league.
•     Perry has had one of the best years a Navy quarterback has had in school history, rushing for 1,500 yards and 19 touchdowns on 238 carries (6.3 ypc), while completing 43 of his 79 pass attempts for 1,207 yards and six touchdowns for a passing efficiency of 181.10. Perry needs 88 yards rushing in the final two games to surpass Napoleon McCallum for Navy's single-season rushing record and needs 69 yards to pass Will Worth for the school record for single-season total offense. Perry enters Saturday's Army-Navy game fifth in the country in rushing yards per game (136.4) and tied for fifth in rushing touchdowns. His nine 100-yard rushing games this year is a school record and if he rushes for more than 100 yards against Army, he will break the school record for consecutive 100-yard rushing games with nine (currently tied with Zach Abey).
•     Niumatalolo has led Navy to a 9-2 record and a 7-1 mark in the AAC West Division, which was good enough to share the West Division title with Memphis after being picked to finish fifth in the division by the league's head coaches. Navy has improved by seven games from last year, which is the biggest improvement in the country. He has led Navy to nine wins or more three times in the last five years, prior to that Navy won nine or more games six times in the previous 35 years. Niumatalolo, Navy's all-time winningest coach with 96 career wins, can lead Navy to a school-record tying 11 wins this year with a win over Army and a win in the bowl game (the Mids won 11 games in 2015 under his direction).  A win over Army would also make Niumatalolo the all-time winningest coach in the history of the Army-Navy game and give the Mids the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy for the 16th time in school history.
•     Forney and Honaker have led an offensive line that has paved the way for the nation's top rushing team, averaging what would be a school-record 360.8 yards per game (current record is 351.4 set in 2017). Navy hasn't led the nation in rushing since 2008, when it averaged 292.4 rushing yards per game. The Mids lead the nation in rushing by 49.1 yards per game over second-place Army. The Mids have been phenomenal in the red zone thanks to the offensive line as the Mids have scored on all 40 attempts whey they tried to score (took a knee once at the end of the game against Holy Cross), scoring 35 touchdowns and five field goals. Navy leads the country in red zone scoring percentage and in red zone touchdown percentage, scoring a touchdown 85 percent of the time.
•     Fagot has recorded a team-high 85 tackles, is tied for second in tackles for a loss with 8.5, has recorded 2.5 sacks, one interception, two pass breakups and a forced fumble for the nation's most improved defense. Navy has improved in almost every statistical category from 2018 to 2019.
•     Springer has had a breakout year for the Mids at the striker position, leading Navy in sacks (seven), tackles for a loss (13.5), forced fumbles (three) and quarterback hurries (seven).  Springer's seven sacks are tied for the sixth most in school history, while his 13.5 tackles for a loss are just 2.5 tackles for a loss out of the top 5. His three forced fumbles are tied for the 16th most in the country.