Navy Midshipmen 10-2 (7-1 AAC) vs Kansas State Wildcats 8-4 (5-4 Big Twelve)
Tuesday, DEC. 31
3:45 PM ET / 2:45 PM CT
Memphis, Tennessee
Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium

ESPN
Play-by-Play .....................................................Roy Philpott
Analyst.............................................................Kelly Stouffer
Sideline............................................................ Lauren Sisler

Navy Radio Network
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 (Washington, DC)
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. 84 / XM Ch. 84 / Internet Ch. 84
Play-by-Play .................................................Pete Medhurst
Analyst................................................................... Joe Miller
Sideline.................................................................Keith Mills
Studio ............................................................... Scott Wykoff

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SETTING THE STAGE
• Kansas State and No. 21 Navy will meet in the 61st AutoZone Liberty Bowl on Tuesday, Dec. 31 at Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis, Tenn (56,862). Kickoff is set for 3:45 pm (ET), 2:45 pm local time and the game will be televised nationally by ESPN with Roy Philpott, Kelly Stouffer and Lauren Sisler on the call. ESPN Radio has the national radio rights with Bill Roth, Dustin Fox and
Taylor Davis on the call.
• Navy fans can purchase tickets to attend the AutoZone Liberty Bowl or donate tickets now at NavySports.com or by calling 1-800-US4-NAVY during business hours. ticket prices are $95 and $85. Donated tickets are $50 and will be given to either midshipmen or enlisted personnel in the area.
• This is just the second Liberty Bowl appearance for the Mids and the first since 1981, when Navy lost to Ohio State, 31-28, despite 117 yards rushing by Liberty Bowl MVP Eddie Meyers.
• The AutoZone Liberty Bowl marks Navy’s 24th bowl appearance and the 15th in the last 17 years.
• 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.
• 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 achieved the feat (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 (only top 20 at the time).
• This year marks the fourth time in the last five years 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.
• This year marks just the fifth time in school history Navy has won 10 or more games in a season. The Mids also won 10 in 1905, 2004, 2009 and a school-record 11 in 2015. Navy can tie that record with a win over Kansas State.
• Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo is in his 12th year at Navy, making him the longest-tenured coach in school history. With 97 career wins, he is the winningest coach in program history.
• Senior quarterback Malcolm Perry has rushed for 1,804 yards and 21 touchdowns, making him Navy’s all-time singleseason rushing leader, while his 2,831 yards of total offense has him holding Navy’s single-season total offense crown, as well.
• Perry is coming off an incredible performance against Army where he rushed for 304 yards and two touchdowns on 29 carries in Navy’s 31-7 victory. His 304 yards rushing is the most in the history of the Army-Navy game, while his 606 career rushing yards and career 9.3 yards per carry against the Black Knights are also Army-Navy game records.
• Perry needs 117 yards rushing to set the FBS record for rushing yards by a quarterback in a single-season (Jordan Lynch of Northern Illinois, 1,920 yards in 2013, who took 14 games to do it). Perry’s 150.3 rushing yards per game would be the FBS record for a quarterback. The current record is held by Lynch in 2013 (137.1).
• Navy is leading the nation in rushing, averaging a school-record 363.7 yards per game. Navy leads by 66.5 rushing yards per game over its next closest competitior. The 363.7 rushing yards per game is the 25th-best rushing average in FBS history and the most since Army averaged 369.8 rushing yards per game in 2012.

Scouting Kansas State
• Kansas State enters the AutoZone Liberty Bowl with an 8-4 record and is the only team in the country that beat one of the four College Football Playoff teams. The Wildcats defeated Oklahoma, 48-41, in Manhattan on Oct. 26.
• Kansas State also owns wins over Nicholls State (49-14), Bowling Green (52-0), Mississippi State (31-24), TCU (24-17), Kansas (38-10), Texas Tech (30-27) and Iowa State (27-17).
• The Wildcats’ four losses have come at the hands of Oklahoma State (26-13), Baylor (31-12), Texas (27-24) and West Virginia (24-20).
• Quarterback Skylar Thompson has thrown for 2,191 yards and 12 touchdowns with just five interceptions.
• Thompson is also Kansas State’s second-leading rusher with 402 yards and 10 touchdowns. James Gilbert leads the rushing attack with 698 yards and six touchdowns.
• Dalton Schoen is the Wildcats’ leading receiver with 35 catches for 567 yards and four touchdowns, while Phillip Brooks has caught 26 passes for 253 yards and one touchdown.
• The defense is led by Denzel Goolsby, who has 56 tackles, while Elijah Sullivan has added 54 stops.
• Some notable NCAA team rankings for Kansas State include: third down defense (1st, .259), kickoff returns (1st, 29.81), red zone offense (2nd, .960), time of possession (3rd, 34:16), fourth down defense (8th, .333), fewest interceptions thrown (12th, five), first downs allowed (14th, 205) and turnovers lost (16th, 13).
• Some notable NCAA individual rankings for Kansas State include: kickoff returns for a touchdown by Joshua Youngblood (1st, 3) and Malik Knowles (10th, 1), field goal percentage by Blake Lynch (7th, .900), punting by Devin Anctill (16th, 45.0) and field goals per game by Blake Lynch (22nd, 1.50).

Get em Navy

Let's go Middies!

Go Mids! AAC needs a good bowl win against a P5!

Go Navy!

Kick ass Navy!

Go Navy!!!

I am at the Memphis Children’s Museum with my nephews and I see many parents - kids in tow - wearing Navy gear.

it's supposed to be 52 and sunny at kickoff...perfect football weather for the Liberty Bowl.

(12-29-2019 04:34 PM)Tiger1983 Wrote:  I am at the Memphis Children’s Museum with my nephews and I see many parents - kids in tow - wearing Navy gear.

Good to hear! I haven't heard ticket sales numbers updates, but I'm confident we'll show.
I'll be watching at Mom's house, but donated for midshipmen/service members.

Interesting how Navy has used the AAC to enhance its football profile. The complete opposite of what happened with Army and C-USA at the turn of the century

(12-29-2019 07:35 PM)ColumbusCard Wrote:  Interesting how Navy has used the AAC to enhance its football profile. The complete opposite of what happened with Army and C-USA at the turn of the century

My first post here four and a half years ago was on the inutility of comparing Army's CUSA experience with Navy coming into the AAC.

https://csnbbs.com/thread-742138.html
https://thebirddogblog.com/2015/06/10/wh...-american/

tl;dr Navy in Jan '12 was already in a COMPLETELY different state as a program from what Army was when they joined CUSA. We continued to improve from '12 til our inaugural season, and we're continuing on an upward trend (with last year's poor performance an anomaly).