Barber Shop Talk

On Sunday December 28th I had the opportunity to talk with Mr. Tim Simmons about the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl.

Two of the nation’s top offensive teams with a Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl history will be facing each other for the second-time this season on a neutral field as the University of Houston will meet the United States Air Force Academy here on New Year’s Eve at Amon G. Carter Stadium.

Both teams will be seeking their first bowl win at Amon G. Carter Stadium December 31 as the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl will be aired live on ESPN starting at 11 a.m. (CST). An ESPN Regional Television (ERT) owned-and-operated event, the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl will match schools from Conference USA and the Mountain West Conference for the second-time after Utah defeated Tulsa 25-13 in the 2006 contest.

Air Force won the initial meeting this season between the two teams with a 31-28 victory over the Cougars as the September 13 game was moved from Houston to SMU’s Ford Stadium due to Hurricane Ike. The Falcons rushed for 380 yards in jumping to a 31-7 lead in the first-ever meeting between the two schools. Houston sophomore quarterback Case Keenum passed for three touchdowns in the final 20 minutes of the contest as the second-year starter from Abilene, Texas, accounted for all four scores and 437 total yards against Air Force (75 rushing and 362 passing).

For the second-straight year, the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl will feature a first year mentor as Kevin Sumlin replaced Art Briles as the 12th head coach in Houston history and the first African-American to lead the Cougar program. Sumlin was an assistant coach at Texas A&M (2001-2002) and Oklahoma (2003-2007) the previous seven seasons.

With a 7-5 record, Houston will be playing in its fifth bowl game in the last six seasons. Defeating both teams that competed in the 2008 Conference USA title game, the Cougars posted a 6-2 league mark. Houston opened C-USA play with a 41-24 win at East Carolina as Keenum passed for 401 yards and three touchdowns. In a 70-30 victory over Tulsa, Keenum passed for 402 yards and six touchdowns while rushing for one score against the Golden Hurricane.

Keenum out-performed Texas Tech’s Graham Harrell in 2008 to lead the nation in passing yardage as the Cougar connected on 375 of 554 passes for 4,993 yards and 43 touchdowns. Harrell completed more passes (406), but had only 4,747 passing yards and 41 touchdown passes. Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford (4,464 yards, 48 TDs) and Texas’s Colt McCoy 94,021, 32) trailed Keenum in passing yards this season.

With an 8-4 record, Air Force has now posted back-to-back winning records for the first-time since the 2002 and 2003 seasons. Three of the Falcon losses in 2008 were to schools (Utah, TCU and BYU) ranked among the top 25 teams on the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) standings. The fourth setback was to bowl bound Navy.

The Air Force resurgence is led by Coach Troy Calhoun, who replaced Fisher DeBerry as only the sixth coach in the 53-season history of Air Force football. A 1989 graduate of the Academy, Calhoun has now compiled a 17-8 record at Air Force in one-plus seasons as he has now matched DeBerry in leading the Falcons to bowl games in their first two seasons.

Meanwhile Lt. Col. Greg Gadson, who lost both legs to a bomb in Iraq and has served as an inspiration for the XLII Super Bowl champions, will be the featured speaker at 2008 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl Kickoff Luncheon presented by Armed Forces Insurances and the Omni Fort Worth Hotel here December 30 in the ballroom at the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Credited by Michael Strahan for the New York Giant’s turnaround when he accepted the 2008 ESPY Award for “Biggest Upset” in May, Lt. Col. Gadson was named an honorary captain and given a Super Bowl XLII ring. At the request of President George W. Bush, Lt. Col. Gadson was one of seven U.S. delegates in the 2008 Paralympics Games in Beijing (pictured to the right).

A member of the Second Battalion and 32nd Field Artillery, Lt. Col. Gadson follows Chad Hennings as a former service academy football player and military veteran to be the featured speaker at the 2008 Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl Kickoff Luncheon presented by Armed Forces Insurances and the Omni Fort Worth Hotel to honor the participating teams from the United States Air Force Academy and the University of Houston.

In closing the Fort Worth Dunbar community are very proud of Mr. Phillip Hunt. Hunt leads the league with 12 sacks and is third with 16.5 tackles for loss, numbers that earned him the C-USA Defensive Player of the Year award.Phillip has been select to play in the East West Shrine game on January 17. We are very proud of Phillip for staying focused on his college education at the University of Houston. We are praying that he will be drafted by the NFL.

Thanks for listening to this podcast. For more information about the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl log on to www.armedforcesbowl.com

Thanks Tim and staff for the interview and looking forward to Wednesday game on ESPN at 11am cst