Spirit spots. Flyovers. Hours of pregame pomp and circumstance. Analysis. Over-analysis. Twitter trash-talk. ESPN.

Come Saturday, all of the above gets stripped away and two football teams – one protecting a historic win streak, one under new management and hell-bent on an upset – will do battle in Baltimore for yearlong bragging rights in a century-plus-old rivalry.

Whether you're backing the Black Knights or the Mids, here's a seven-part primer on the big game.

1. The basics

  • Who: Army Black Knights (4-7) vs. Navy Midshipmen (6-5).
  • Where: M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore.
  • When: 3 p.m. (march-ons begin at 12:16 p.m., Navy first)
  • TV: CBS for the game, with ESPN's College GameDay airing live from Baltimore's Inner Harbor (9-11 a.m.) and CBS Sports Network airing the march-ons and other pregame coverage (12-2:30 p.m.). College Football Today kicks off the coverage on CBS proper at 2:30.
  • Radio: Sirius/XM (Army, Navy and Westwood One feeds) and American Forces Network.
  • Odds: Navy's favored by 15 points.

2. Rivalry 101

Saturday's game marks the 115th installment of the Army-Navy rivalry, which Navy leads 58-49-7. It'll be the fifth meeting in Baltimore, with the Charm City series tied at two wins apiece. Army hasn't won since 2001, the longest losing streak in rivalry history. Army's last win in Baltimore came in 1944, capping an undefeated season.

3. Coaches' corner

Navy's Ken Niumatalolo has never lost to Army (6-0) and has led the Mids to a postseason bowl game in all but one of his seven full seasons, including this year. Army's Jeff Monken enters his first Army-Navy game in the top job, but was on the Navy sideline as an assistant in the early 2000s, working alongside Niumatalolo under head coach Paul Johnson. Monken followed Johnson to Georgia Tech before taking the head job at Georgia Southern for the 2010 season. More about their relationship from the Washington Post here.

4. Cram session: Triple option

Both teams use variants of the option offense attack. Books have been written about the offense, but here's the over-simplified version:

  • Do not expect an air show. Despite its winning record, Navy ranks next to last in passing offense in top-tier college football, averaging 87.6 yards per game. The Mids beat out the Black Knights, whose 64.5 yards-per-game average is 125th out of 125 teams.
  • A successful option quarterback may have to use his arm on occasion, but he'll rely more on his legs and, especially, on his brain – reading defensive alignments and knowing where to go with the football. Army's Angel Santiago has started every game for Army this year and has one touchdown pass, and one interception, on the season against 10 rushing TDs. His stats are overshadowed by Navy's Keenan Reynolds, who has scored 20 rushing touchdowns this season to make it 61 for his career – an NCAA record.
  • While not every play goes up the middle, the threat of a successful fullback dive is critical to the offense's success. Both teams have experienced, workhorse backs to carry the load: Navy senior Noah Copeland is averaging 8.2 yards per carry this year, and Army senior Larry Dixon has more than 1,000 yards rushing and nine rushing TDs.

5. Shrine honorees and other standouts

For Army: Dixon will play in the East-West Shrine Game, an all-star contest for college seniors held Jan. 17 in St. Petersburg, Florida. He'll be joined by Navy safety Parrish Gaines, who has made 42 straight starts in the Mids' secondary and has a team-best three interceptions.

Other Black Knights to watch, aside from Dixon and Santiago: linebacker Jeremy Timpf (team-best 102 tackles), running back Terry Badgett (7.6 yards per carry), senior safety Geoff Bacon (a veteran leader still recovering from injury; his status remains in doubt).

Other Mids to watch, aside from Reynolds, Gaines and Copeland: linebacker Jordan Drake (team-best 85 tackles, two forced fumbles), fullback Chris Swain (574 yards rushing, third-best on the team), punter Pablo Beltran (averaging more than 44 yards per punt this year, less than a yard shy of a school record).

6. One last spirit spot

Pro: Kudos to the public affairs official who had the fortitude to say, "Secretary, we're going to film a piece that will suggest to the audience that you've just compromised a super-secret joint operation so you could eat a goat for lunch. Now, hear me out. ..."

Con: The late release (Thursday) may hurt the video's reach. It had less than 750 views as of Friday afternoon, compared with nearly 7,800 for Navy Secretary Ray Mabus' story-time saga and more than 20,000 for Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jon Greenert's yearly foray into silly hats.

Bonus: More spirit spots here, here and here.

7. Follow us on Army-Navy day

Visit our Army-Navy page for all the latest, see the social-media conversation here in real time, track Army Times and/or Navy Times on Facebook for game-day photo galleries and other coverage, and follow Military Times on Twitter for breaking bits of news, analysis and Army-Navy trivia from Baltimore.

About Kevin Lilley

Kevin Lilley is the features editor of Military Times.

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