Boston College Athletics
Photo by: Kait Devir
Military Bowl Defines Postgame Tradition Of Unknowns
December 06, 2021 | Football, #ForBoston Files
BC has never played East Carolina, and that's exactly what bowls are about.
College football looks very different than it did 30 years ago. The landscape of the national game is booming in popularity in every nook and locale throughout the country, and the once-regional conglomerate of teams bound to independence are now massive conferences stretching across climates and time zones.
The concept of the postseason bowl game altered with those changes, and the opportunity to simply play an extra game against a non-conference opponent at a neutral site transformed into a full-blown experience for players, coaches and universities. The game is still the centerpiece, but the now-formalized Bowl Season sends teams to every inch of the country and, in some cases, into international waters to promote and deepen the student-athlete experience.
Over 40 bowls now exist, but at their heart, each game still falls back on its initial purpose to offer one more go-round for qualifying bowl teams. Players will still put on uniforms adorned with a strange patch and compete for a trophy at a neutral site stadium against an opponent that otherwise wouldn't appear on their schedule, and on December 27, Boston College will play East Carolina for the first time in program history at the Military Bowl in Annapolis, Maryland.
"I was really excited to get the call [for the bowl game]," BC head coach Jeff Hafley said. "It gives us an opportunity to get into an area where a lot of our football players are from, and I'll be excited to get them home around their families. It also gives us an opportunity to get into an area where we have a lot of recruits that we're currently recruiting, and we're going to continue to hit [the region] very hard. I also know that we have a lot of alumni and students from the area, and I'm excited for them to come out and support our players like they have all year. We're just really grateful for the opportunity."
The Military Bowl carried Atlantic Coast Conference tie-ins since its inception in 2008, but this is BC's first trip to the game originally known as the EagleBank Bowl. It was originally played at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium but moved to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on the campus of the Naval Academy eight years ago. Like a number of games, it was canceled a year ago because of COVID-19 but returned this year to its customary slot in the days after the Christmas holiday.
The game is the 29th all-time postseason bowl for the Eagles, who are 14-13 with one no-contest cancellation. It is also the 21st different game in program history and the third consecutive first appearance in a postseason game after playing in the First Responder Bowl and the Birmingham Bowl in 2018 and 2019, and it's BC's first game at a military academy stadium since a 2012 loss to Army at West Point. This is the Eagles' first trip to Navy since a 2001 win over the Middies as part of a four-year, home-and-home series with the academy.
"I think there's a huge honor," Hafley said of playing at the campus. "I've been to the Army-Navy Game, and a bunch of my cousins and uncles went to West Point. I played Navy back in the day when I was at Pitt, and the stadium is awesome. I'm excited to go back there. When I was in the NFL, we were playing [Washington], and we stayed at Annapolis. I went on a jog through the campus, and it's just inspiring being around the area. With the amount of respect that I have for everyone that attend [the academy], and for all those who serve in the Navy, I'm excited."
But the game is also an opportunity for two teams to play a football game against an opponent neither has ever seen. East Carolina is BC's second consecutive bowl opponent from the American Athletic Conference after playing Cincinnati in the Birmingham Bowl two years ago, but the Pirates will become the 152nd different school to play the Eagles in a football game after Missouri visited Chestnut Hill last season. They have never met before, and the only link through the AAC is through Temple, which played BC this year and is the last original Big East team in the league with spiritual roots to the conference.
"My familiarity with the [Northeast] is through my experiences at James Madison," ECU head coach Mike Houston said. "I have a good feel for the mindset of a team like Boston College from seeing them earlier in the year [during Temple preparations]. I respect the way they play, and I understand the hard-nosed mentality they're going to have. I think this is a great matchup for us and from the standpoint of someone you don't see very often or haven't seen before, it's certainly going to be a tremendous challenge."
It doesn't mean there aren't any links between the two teams. Former ECU head coach Steve Logan won nearly 70 games as the head coach of the Pirates before he became BC's offensive coordinator in 2007, and his system helped turn the Eagles into the No. 2 overall team in the nation with Matt Ryan under center. He was later considered as a possible replacement to head coach Jeff Jagodzinski two years later but ultimately chose to move to the NFL. He was on staff under Jim Tomsula in San Francisco in 2015, one year before Jeff Hafley arrived with Chip Kelly's coaching staff.
Other, looser connections include former ECU head coaches Ruffin McNeil, who is now a special assistant to the head coach at NC State, and Skip Holtz, whose offensive coordinator at UConn was Todd Fitch, a later coordinator for Boston College. Houston also traveled to New England with the Dukes as part of the Colonial Athletic Association and went 9-1 against various teams from the region, including both New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine.
Houston won a national championship with JMU in his first year in 2016 and returned to the title game one year later, and he owned a win over ECU before the Pirates named him head coach in 2019. Inheriting a team that went 3-9 over the three years prior to his arrival, he slowly built the team over the 2019 and 2020 seasons. After going 3-6 during the COVID-19 season last year, the Pirates rebounded from a 0-2 start to win four straight games in early November to clinch bowl eligibility. They lost to Cincinnati over Thanksgiving weekend but finished the year with a 5-3 record in the AAC that included a late-season win at Navy.
"I did a little research on them," Hafley said after the announcement. "Their quarterback has a ton of yards. I'm a defensive guy, so the first thing I look at is what kind of quarterback we're going to play, and he looks like he likes throwing the ball. He can chuck it, and they have a head coach who has done a heck of a job. It's a coach, a staff, and a team that I have tremendous respect for. Ever since we got selected, I've heard about how great the fan base is. I have a great appreciation for that in college football."
Boston College and East Carolina will play in the 2021 Military Bowl at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland, on December 27. The game will kick off at 2:30 p.m. with national television coverage on ESPN. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased through the Boston College athletics website.
The concept of the postseason bowl game altered with those changes, and the opportunity to simply play an extra game against a non-conference opponent at a neutral site transformed into a full-blown experience for players, coaches and universities. The game is still the centerpiece, but the now-formalized Bowl Season sends teams to every inch of the country and, in some cases, into international waters to promote and deepen the student-athlete experience.
Over 40 bowls now exist, but at their heart, each game still falls back on its initial purpose to offer one more go-round for qualifying bowl teams. Players will still put on uniforms adorned with a strange patch and compete for a trophy at a neutral site stadium against an opponent that otherwise wouldn't appear on their schedule, and on December 27, Boston College will play East Carolina for the first time in program history at the Military Bowl in Annapolis, Maryland.
"I was really excited to get the call [for the bowl game]," BC head coach Jeff Hafley said. "It gives us an opportunity to get into an area where a lot of our football players are from, and I'll be excited to get them home around their families. It also gives us an opportunity to get into an area where we have a lot of recruits that we're currently recruiting, and we're going to continue to hit [the region] very hard. I also know that we have a lot of alumni and students from the area, and I'm excited for them to come out and support our players like they have all year. We're just really grateful for the opportunity."
The Military Bowl carried Atlantic Coast Conference tie-ins since its inception in 2008, but this is BC's first trip to the game originally known as the EagleBank Bowl. It was originally played at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium but moved to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium on the campus of the Naval Academy eight years ago. Like a number of games, it was canceled a year ago because of COVID-19 but returned this year to its customary slot in the days after the Christmas holiday.
The game is the 29th all-time postseason bowl for the Eagles, who are 14-13 with one no-contest cancellation. It is also the 21st different game in program history and the third consecutive first appearance in a postseason game after playing in the First Responder Bowl and the Birmingham Bowl in 2018 and 2019, and it's BC's first game at a military academy stadium since a 2012 loss to Army at West Point. This is the Eagles' first trip to Navy since a 2001 win over the Middies as part of a four-year, home-and-home series with the academy.
"I think there's a huge honor," Hafley said of playing at the campus. "I've been to the Army-Navy Game, and a bunch of my cousins and uncles went to West Point. I played Navy back in the day when I was at Pitt, and the stadium is awesome. I'm excited to go back there. When I was in the NFL, we were playing [Washington], and we stayed at Annapolis. I went on a jog through the campus, and it's just inspiring being around the area. With the amount of respect that I have for everyone that attend [the academy], and for all those who serve in the Navy, I'm excited."
But the game is also an opportunity for two teams to play a football game against an opponent neither has ever seen. East Carolina is BC's second consecutive bowl opponent from the American Athletic Conference after playing Cincinnati in the Birmingham Bowl two years ago, but the Pirates will become the 152nd different school to play the Eagles in a football game after Missouri visited Chestnut Hill last season. They have never met before, and the only link through the AAC is through Temple, which played BC this year and is the last original Big East team in the league with spiritual roots to the conference.
"My familiarity with the [Northeast] is through my experiences at James Madison," ECU head coach Mike Houston said. "I have a good feel for the mindset of a team like Boston College from seeing them earlier in the year [during Temple preparations]. I respect the way they play, and I understand the hard-nosed mentality they're going to have. I think this is a great matchup for us and from the standpoint of someone you don't see very often or haven't seen before, it's certainly going to be a tremendous challenge."
It doesn't mean there aren't any links between the two teams. Former ECU head coach Steve Logan won nearly 70 games as the head coach of the Pirates before he became BC's offensive coordinator in 2007, and his system helped turn the Eagles into the No. 2 overall team in the nation with Matt Ryan under center. He was later considered as a possible replacement to head coach Jeff Jagodzinski two years later but ultimately chose to move to the NFL. He was on staff under Jim Tomsula in San Francisco in 2015, one year before Jeff Hafley arrived with Chip Kelly's coaching staff.
Other, looser connections include former ECU head coaches Ruffin McNeil, who is now a special assistant to the head coach at NC State, and Skip Holtz, whose offensive coordinator at UConn was Todd Fitch, a later coordinator for Boston College. Houston also traveled to New England with the Dukes as part of the Colonial Athletic Association and went 9-1 against various teams from the region, including both New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Maine.
Houston won a national championship with JMU in his first year in 2016 and returned to the title game one year later, and he owned a win over ECU before the Pirates named him head coach in 2019. Inheriting a team that went 3-9 over the three years prior to his arrival, he slowly built the team over the 2019 and 2020 seasons. After going 3-6 during the COVID-19 season last year, the Pirates rebounded from a 0-2 start to win four straight games in early November to clinch bowl eligibility. They lost to Cincinnati over Thanksgiving weekend but finished the year with a 5-3 record in the AAC that included a late-season win at Navy.
"I did a little research on them," Hafley said after the announcement. "Their quarterback has a ton of yards. I'm a defensive guy, so the first thing I look at is what kind of quarterback we're going to play, and he looks like he likes throwing the ball. He can chuck it, and they have a head coach who has done a heck of a job. It's a coach, a staff, and a team that I have tremendous respect for. Ever since we got selected, I've heard about how great the fan base is. I have a great appreciation for that in college football."
Boston College and East Carolina will play in the 2021 Military Bowl at the Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis, Maryland, on December 27. The game will kick off at 2:30 p.m. with national television coverage on ESPN. Tickets are on sale and can be purchased through the Boston College athletics website.
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