For college football fans removed from the specific world of the service academies, the reality of seeing a rematch in the Heart of Dallas Bowl or any bowl is a letdown.
It would be one thing if — to use an example — Wisconsin had beaten Penn State and Colorado had beaten Washington, thereby making Michigan the No. 3 seed in the College Football Playoff against No. 2 Ohio State. Once in a very great while, a bowl rematch can be appealing.
Most of the time, though — and certainly in non-New Year’s Six bowls — the idea doesn’t carry much romance or sizzle.
For the team which won the regular season game, a bowl rematch is also unwelcome. The North Texas team which will play in the Heart of Dallas Bowl probably wishes it could face another opponent.
Yet, with all of those things having been said, one team is always happy to get a bowl rematch when the scenario comes along: the losing team.
The Army Black Knights, fresh off the conquest of Navy which has made their season, get a Christmas gift as a reward for their streak-snapping achievement in Baltimore on December 10: a chance to not only get revenge, but to correct what is clearly their worst performance of 2016. Army can very definitely tie up loose ends in the venerable Cotton Bowl stadium next week — it’s a way to lend a sweet and satisfying completeness to the best season of Army football since 1996 (yes, better than 2010 because of the win over Navy).
One might be hesitant to say that Army’s worst game of the season came against North Texas.
The Black Knights were blown out by Notre Dame. Their offense couldn’t do much of anything against Duke. They allowed the fourth quarter to get away from them at Buffalo. Air Force solidly outplayed them in West Point.
Yet…
Notre Dame was an extremely talented team; it was merely an underachieving team, too. That can’t be held against Army.
The Duke game was played in Hurricane Matthew, not a fair gauge at all of Army’s offense or its overall football acumen. (The defense, moreover, played well on that day.)
The Buffalo game was played in the shadow of the sadness cast over the program by the death of Brandon Jackson. It represented a highly irregular circumstance which (hopefully and probably) won’t be replicated anytime soon.
Air Force did lose to New Mexico earlier this season — in the very same Cotton Bowl stadium where the Heart of Dallas Bowl will be played — but the Lobos rallied to win nine games this season. Speaking of nine wins, Air Force rebounded to win that many games in the regular season (and will probably win No. 10 in the Arizona Bowl against South Alabama) after falling to UNM, Wyoming and Hawaii. Air Force didn’t look like a very good team in mid-October, but after 12 games, it’s clear Army lost to a solid opponent, one which beat Boise State and captured the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.
Only the Buffalo game comes somewhat close; the North Texas disaster — coming at home, being a blowout, following an easy romp over Lafayette of the FCS at a later point in the season — was Army’s worst display of football this season.
Seven turnovers. Nine penalties. Army threw 21 passes — when that happens, the result can’t be good. Defensive backs slipped when trying to make interceptions they should have made. It was a Murphy’s Law afternoon at Michie Stadium.
It is easy — and not even wrong — to say that Army will play better next week in Dallas. Yet, the awareness that it will be statistically improbable to do worse, combined with the possibility of a post-Navy victory-fog hangover, gives Jeff Monken a great occasion to tell his team about the consistency a next-level team possesses.
Army has crossed a threshold this season, but the 2010 joyride — also capped with a bowl win in the Dallas metropolitan area — was not followed by another successful season in 2011.
This game is about revenge, yes, and about tying up loose ends. The third part: Next week’s game is also a time for Army to build habits — good habits — which persist into (and through) 2017.
That’s the Heart of the matter in this Dallas bowl.
