Navy head coach Brian Newberry is very familiar with his team’s bowl opponent, as the Midshipmen (9-3) get set for a matchup with the Oklahoma Sooners (6-6).
Newberry, who led the Midshipmen to their first bowl game since 2019 in his second season, is a native of Oklahoma City and went to high school at Westmoore, just a stone’s throw from Norman. There, in the confines of Oklahoma Memorial Stadium, Newberry knows that “Boomer Sooner” is played repeatedly throughout a game.
The Sooners and Midshipmen will square off against one another in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, which is set to be played at Amon G. Carter Stadium, home of the TCU Horned Frogs. The Dallas-Fort Worth area is chock-full of Oklahoma alum, and with Navy traveling all the way from Annapolis, Maryland, it will be a de facto road game for Newberry’s squad.
So, to prepare his team for the noise – and likely out of a bit of nostalgia of his own – Newberry has been playing the OU fight song at practice this week.
Oklahoma will enter the game as a field-goal favorite over Navy, and with the shape that OU’s roster is in ahead of the matchup, it could be a game that sends the Sooners into the offseason with a final record below .500.
On Thursday, Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables told media that his team would have a total of 56 scholarship players available for the game.
Of those 56 scholarship players, just 24 of them are on the offensive side of the ball – and 12 of those players are freshmen. A dozen of the scholarship players available on the defensive side of the ball are freshmen, too.
It’s no wonder why the Sooners went from nine-point favorites to just field goal favorites in the days leading up to the game.
Oklahoma (6-6) and Navy (9-3) are set for an 11:00 a.m. kickoff on Friday, December 27 in Fort Worth, TX.
