Ross Pospisil News

Navy inside linebacker Ross Pospisil knocked the ball loose from Army fullback Kingsley Ehie and outside linebacker Craig Schaefer recovered and returned the fumble 21 yards to the Army 12-yard line.

The process of picking a college can be stressful for any high school senior, but it couldn't have been easier for Ross Pospisil.

Cameron Marshall has carried the American flag while leading Navy onto the field before every game this season.

No BCS glamour teams? No Heisman Trophy candidates? Nobody who'll be decked out in a pricey designer suit and jabbering into a cell phone when the TV cameras show him as a top pick in the next NFL draft? Not enough big-time atmosphere, not enough glitz - that's your problem with the Army-Navy game? If so, you're missing the whole point of the best ...

All eyes will be on Army's Trent Steelman and Navy's Ricky Dobbs at Lincoln Financial Field Saturday in Philadelphia.

Ricky Dobbs threw for one touchdown and ran one in to set a single-season record for a quarterback, as Navy took a 17-3 win over Army in the 110th edition of the battle between the military academies.

This is a great honor and a very well-deserved honor for Navy linebacker Ross Pospisil.

"It is reaction based off instincts," says Navy junior quarterback Ricky Dobbs, whose task will be to speed read Army's defense when the teams meet Saturday in Philadelphia.

Whenever he gets the chance, Army Coach Rich Ellerson watches the football teams from Navy and Georgia Tech on television. He does so partly because of his long-standing friendships with those teams' coaches, Ken Niumatalolo and Paul Johnson. But Ellerson is also curious: His team, like Niumatalolo's and Johnson's, employs the triple-option offense.

'We try to see what kind of answers people are coming up with [to defend it] along the way,' said Ellerson, who is in his first season as Army's head coach. 'We all have a little different spin on it, we all have different assets to play with. There is no doubt that if this is a family tree, the patriarch is Paul Johnson.'

Editor's Note: During Army-Navy week The Capital is profiling a selection of key seniors.

Which team's defense will do a better job of containing the other's option offense? Josh McNary, right, will help Army put up a better defensive effort against Navy this year.

Despite both being relatively green in their head coaching roles, Army's Rich Ellerson and Navy's Ken Niumatalolo share a friendship through football that's very old school.

For: Immediate Release Sent: December 4, 2009 Contact: Scott Strasemeier 293-8775 Pospisil and Haberer Named Company Commanders For Second Semester ANNAPOLIS, Md.

PHILADELPHIA -- For the players at Army and Navy, the first Thursday in December has usually been a time to put the finishing touches on their preparation for their annual rivalry game. But this year on the first Thursday in December, Army senior defensive tackle Victor Ugenyi wasn't at practice. He was at Lincoln Financial Field, answering questions from reporters and giving a short speech at the annual Army-Navy media luncheon.

The Army-Navy game, which had traditionally been played on the first Saturday in December, was moved back by a week to give it more exposure. The teams will meet on Dec. 12 in Philadelphia, with the game televised nationally on CBS. The last time the Army-Navy game was played this late was in 1931.

During a drill earlier this year at spring practice, Blake Carter made a mistake on a fairly routine play.

As part of his homecoming, Navy head football coach Ken Niumatalolo went on an emotional visit to this country's past.

Remember this guy? It's former New Hampshire quarterback Ricky Santos, who torched Rutgers for five touchdowns in an upset win over the Scarlet Knights in 2004 after Rutgers had beaten Michigan State.

Head coach Ken Niumatalolo is concerned about Navy suffering a letdown in the wake of its stunning upset of Notre Dame, which was ranked No.

Navy senior Ram Vela does not mind that he is often used to illustrate how the Midshipmen don't have the size of most college football teams. He refers to himself as 'the small outside linebacker,' and at 5 feet 9 and 193 pounds, he may be the smallest starting linebacker in division I-A.

'It's the truth, and you can't shy away from the truth,' said Vela, who will start the 27th game of his career Saturday, when the Midshipmen (7-3) host Delaware (6-3) in their home finale. 'At the same time, it's kind of like the story of my life -- people not expecting me to do things, kind of just defeating all odds. You definitely don't see too many Hispanics playing division I football, especially undersized ones.'

Captains Osei Asante and Ross Pospisil will lead the way as members of the senior class stride onto the field carrying bouquets of flowers and flanked by their parents or other loved ones on Saturday.