5 Things on a Friday: @ Duke

We’ve got a game tonight.  You may say that it’s not a big game, but Duke Head Football Coach David Cutcliffe and his players would probably not agree with you.

Duke HC David Cutcliffe says the practice after last season’s loss to Army might have been the best practice of his career. Says he slept well that night pic.twitter.com/MqSNav902m

— Jeff Jones (@JeffJonesSports) July 18, 2018

You think these guys don’t want it?  They circled this one on the calendar before last season even ended.

1. Luke Voit giving Yankees surprising jolt with bat, enthusiasm (ESPN)

Voit's two-run homer in the second inning Sunday gave the Yankees an early lead and some necessary firepower in yet another victory. After having just five home runs through his first 143 career at-bats entering this weekend, he homered three times in 10 at-bats over the past three days.

"It's like Christmas morning," Voit said of being dialed in at the plate.

With a sweep of the Orioles, the Yankees have sliced deeply into the Boston Red Sox's once-massive lead in the American League East. With the help of the Tampa Bay Rays' weekend sweep of Boston, the Yankees have gone from being 10½ games out of first place on Aug. 16 to just six games back 10 days later.

Voit is, of course, the older brother of former Army Football defensive captain Jon Voit.  He’s also been a much-needed burst of energy with more than half the team’s biggest contributors on the DL.

2. Odell Beckham talks fame on LeBron James' 'The Shop:' 'I really feel like a zoo animal' (Yahoo Sports)

I really feel like a zoo animal. Like that’s where life’s gone for me. You know, you used to take your kids to the zoo, and we used to be like, you know, I want to see the lions or let’s go see the lions. And you go out there, and the lions are laid out. You know what I mean? And it’s like, why aren’t they doing lion stuff, you know what I mean? Like I’ve got people who call out, Odell! Dance! Like, I’m a show punk, a show monkey or something. Like I’m a puppet, you know what I mean? And it’s like to me, that doesn’t feel good, but it’s like, damn, that’s what life became.

You guys think this is weird, right?  But have you ever had a total stranger come up to you and be all, “Oh!  You’re Danno E. Cabeza!  I read your blog.  How are your kids?”

It is a deeply weird experience.

3. Hawaii season-opening upset has Navy on high alert (Capital Gazette)

[Hawaii Quarterback Cole] McDonald completed 26 of 37 passes for 418 yards and three touchdowns and also rushed for 96 yards and two more scores. The 6-foot-4, 205-pound redshirt sophomore was on fire from the outset as the Rainbow Warriors took a commanding 37-7 lead with 3:35 remaining in the third quarter.

There are a bunch of good games this weekend.  This one starts at nearly midnight on Saturday, but it suddenly looks to have a lot of sizzle.  

Granted, I expect the Mids to play better than Colorado State did, especially in terms of controlling time-of-possession, but…  Navy is not exactly known for its blistering, shutdown defense.  This ought to be a close game.

4. Future schedules: LSU added to 2023 slate (Army Football Insider)

Army has sought out one game per season against a nationally-recognized program, scheduling games at Michigan (2019), Oklahoma (2020), at Wisconsin (2021), at Tennessee (2022) and now the program’s first trip to Death Valley in Baton Rogue.

🚨 BIG GAME ALERT 🚨

We'll meet @LSUfootball at Tiger Stadium in 2023. #GoArmy pic.twitter.com/0HJKrlTBNw

— Army WP Football (@ArmyWP_Football) August 28, 2018

I’m trying to imagine how I’d have felt if we’d swum against Stanford back when I was a cadet.  I mean, that’s an opportunity, right?  But we’d have gotten smoked.

I think Army’s got a chance at Tennessee in 2022, though.

5. Some Fun Stuff Is Planned For The Duke-Army Game (Duke Basketball Report)

Duke football opens this Friday and hosts Army and it’s going to be fun: there’s going to be a fly-over featuring CJ-6’s and Yak-52’s in formation. If those don’t sound familiar, well, a while back West Point grads might have been fighting them: the Nanchang CJ-6 was a PLA trainer from the ‘60s and theYakovlev Yak-52 was a Soviet trainer from the ‘70s.

Finally, an opponent who’ll be all, “Fuck patriotism!  If Army is America’s team, then we’re gonna have a Communist flyover!  How do you like that?”

I like it quite a bit.  It would’ve sent my father into a screaming, frothing rage.

Honestly, it’s too bad Dad’s not here for this.  To see him yelling at the TV…  I’m getting a little misty-eyed just thinking about it.  He would’ve disowned Duke Sports for all time after a stunt like this.  I mean, he was a bit of a Georgia Tech fan anyway, but this would’ve been the absolute last of last straws.

* * *

Kind of a disappointing close to the week thus far.  I watched Wake Forest at Tulane last night and thought the Green Wave had a chance.  But Jonathan Banks's receivers can't catch cold, so Tulane kept punting in plus territory in the early going.  Eventually Wake's freshman quarterback got hot, and the Deacons wound up winning a close, very ugly game in overtime.

Also wrote some football poetry this week.  The biggest challenge was not being cynical about the game but trying to catch the heroic, NFL Films version of it instead.  I liked how the piece came out, so--per usual--it spoke to no one.  My friend who's an Army chaplain is literally the only person who read it, and even then, he more lauded the effort of writing it than the piece itself.  

Alas, that's always the way.  I write something that I like, and people scratch their heads.  I write something that somebody else suggested in a way that seems basically obvious, and folks go freaking crazy.  I think it's because when I write something I'm less involved with emotionally, I spend most of my time thinking about the mechanics of the craft.

Anyway, I'll never understand people.

That’s all I’ve got.  Army Football tonight!!!

Go Army!  Beat Duke!!!