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BELL HELICOPTER ARMED FORCES BOWL: NAVY v MIDDLE TENNESSEE STATEDecember 27, 2013Brandon McCoyBrant RinglerFORT WORTH, TEXAS THE MODERATOR: My name is Tim Simmons, and for most of you, I'm kind of transitioning over to the Heart of Dallas Bowl, but working the press conference today with Brant Ringler and Dominic Clark. Brant Ringler, what Armed Forces Bowl is this for you? BRANT RINGLER: It's my 10th, but it's obviously the 11th year of the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl. THE MODERATOR: Just an opening comment. Obviously, you've had some changes. It was supposed to be Navy versus the Mountain West, but Navy versus Conference USA and Middle Tennessee. BRANT RINGLER: Yeah, we were fortunate to be able to make a switch. It was kind of a domino effect. I don't know if everybody knows the story of when the switch occurred over in Hawaii with Oregon State going into that game, that moved Conference USA out, and thus Conference USA had a floating team. Who that team was was still to be determined. When we were able to get North Texas into the Heart of Dallas game, the floating team in the Big Ten did not qualify over there. So it was going to be a Conference USA versus a Conference USA match‑up, and thus we had to move Mountain West Conference to that bowl game, and the Conference USA‑Middle Tennessee ended up being the team to be in the Armed Forces Bowl, which we're very excited about. It's a perfect match‑up, two 8‑4 teams, two teams on the rise, great programs. Coaches have them on winning streaks currently. You look at their stats and they're very evenly matched. Obviously, in the rankings they're side by side. You're going to see a lot of running, probably, from Navy with their bread and butter. Great quarterback with Keenan Reynolds and the records he set this year. You look at Middle Tennessee and they've been decimated by injuries on their running game, which they led the conference in rushing, but they have a great quarterback as well. So they're going to be a little more throwing, but I think it's going to be great for our game to see a little bit of everything. And that's just the football game. You look at all of the stuff that we have going on in the game and around the game to honor our Armed Forces, it's going to be a pretty special year. We have $100,000 check presentation, a $300,000 check presentation. We've got a home giveaway. We have a Great American Patriot Award recipient, Admiral William McRaven and that is just the tip of the iceberg. You'll see all this on Monday as it plays out. But we're very excited for everything around this game. For the fans in the stands, we know half the stadium will be active duty and veteran members. Through our corporate partner program, we've added the biggest response ever from active duty and veterans to attain tickets. We have over 13,000 tickets for veteran members and active duty to be at the game. We're excited about that as well, and expect it to be a great game. THE MODERATOR: I guess this is a trifecta for you. Now you've had all three service academies play in a bowl game. Probably the only bowl that's ever had all three service academies. A special honor for that, right? BRANT RINGLER: We are the first bowl ever to have all three academies play in a bowl game, the same bowl. You and Dominic did a lot of research on trying to figure out if any other bowl has ever done that. I think what's even more special about it, we've only been the Armed Forces Bowl for eight years, and we've had the opportunity to have all three academies play in our game. So it's a special moment for us, and we look forward to a great game. THE MODERATOR: So Army is scheduled next year if bowl eligible. Navy will be coming back, and Air Force might be in there with the Mountain West? BRANT RINGLER: Yeah, the next six years the schedule is pretty special the way we've set it up. Next year we have Army versus the American Athletic Conference, following year we have the Mountain West Conference versus the Big Ten. That gives us access to Air Force, possibly. And the following year we have an agreement in place with Navy to come back here and then the cycle continues the next three years with those academies as well. So obviously it's a good fit for our themeing of what we do. We've been fortunate that six of the last seven games we've had an academy team in our game. THE MODERATOR: Obviously, you've played double duty this year. You're probably one of the few bowl directors that has two bowl games in a two‑day period. BRANT RINGLER: Yeah, that's double duty for sure. There is no way this could be done completely by me. My entire staff has been phenomenal taking on the added responsibility. We're excited about the opportunity over in Dallas as well with North Texas and UNLV playing in the historic Cotton Bowl Stadium. It's just a great‑‑ our staff, I've got to really commend them. They've been phenomenal to work with, and they've taken on this responsibility to put on two great bowl games for four deserving teams. THE MODERATOR: With ESPN, how many bowls do they have now that they manage? Is it nine? BRANT RINGLER: It's nine. THE MODERATOR: How does that figure in with the new playoff format coming up in the coming years? BRANT RINGLER: Well, most of you know the bowl system continues to grow. There will probably be 39 bowls next year, six or seven teams left out this year. There is still a demand. There is still programming for television. The conferences that are in the new bowl games next year, the Mid‑American Conference, CUSA, Sun Belt, they all have the needs to fulfill and no one wants to be left out. Ask Middle Tennessee last year when they went 8‑4 and get left out and snubbed. That's not a good feeling. Those players deserve to go somewhere. THE MODERATOR: Any other thoughts about Dallas next year being the bowl headquarters of the world with four bowls being here or three bowls and a playoff game. BRANT RINGLER: North Texas is the bowl headquarter of the world. Not specifically Dallas, but Fort Worth is tried and true here, so we'll continue to try to have a bowl game here. THE MODERATOR: Right now we have a special honor. A couple years ago we initiated with the Football Writers Association of America, the Armed Forces Merit Award. And last year the winner was Nate Boyer, a long snapper from the University of Texas. Obviously, Nate couldn't come up here. We had to go down to Austin last year to present the award. But this year our winner is from North Texas, Brandon McCoy. Brandon, if you could come up. Brandon is the second recipient. We had nine nominees this year. We also had Steven Rhodes from Middle Tennessee who was nominated for the award. He's just a freshman. I think obviously a lot of folks know his story coming through the NCAA system and so forth. So, Brant, maybe a few words about the Armed Forces Merit Award and our honoree this year, Brandon McCoy from North Texas. BRANT RINGLER: If you guys have read the story on this gentleman, it's quite phenomenal where he's come from. You look at his history, and everything that he's gone through to get where he is today, the Armed Forces, particularly Army, helped set his path in life, gave him the structure he needed to get back on track. Gave him an opportunity to have success in life. When he came back from the Army, he was able to join North Texas, be a great part of the football team there and the success that they're having. He's got a great family that's here with us today. Great supportive parents that went through everything that he was going through. I'll let him tell you a little bit more about that. We couldn't be more excited to have Brandon as our second recipient of the Armed Forces Merit Award. THE MODERATOR: Brandon, we presented the award and announced the award on Veterans Day November 11 as the recipient, and we were up in North Texas. We were trying to figure out where he was going to be. And Brant was trying to figure out a way to get to Hawaii to present it; is that true? BRANT RINGLER: Yeah, we were trying to get North Texas in that game. THE MODERATOR: Well, we're delighted to have him here today. Brandon, a few comments one about receiving the award, and two, about playing football in five days, four days over in Dallas. It's a great honor for North Texas. BRANDON McCOY: First and foremost, I want to thank God. I wouldn't be where I'm at today if it wasn't for him. He really changed my life. Playing in the next couple days here is just great. Getting this award, I'm just really excited, but I'm really humble at the same time. I've got to thank my head coach, Dan McCarney, he's the head of our success and why we're here. And I have to thank the University of North Texas, and thank my beautiful family, my wife, my children. I'm just really humbled and excited to get this award and to play my very last game, so thank you all so much. THE MODERATOR: Tell us a little about your preparation for the bowl game. Obviously, you're a senior. You played four years at North Texas. I noticed you're wearing red today. Isn't that the enemy's color? BRANDON McCOY: I'm still in my Christmas spirit with the red. THE MODERATOR: Just talk a little about the team and where you're going for the game. BRANDON McCOY: January 1 we'll be playing UNLV, Heart of Dallas Bowl. Basically we've been having no days off. We've been 11 straight days before the day before Christmas. We've just been preparing really, really hard. Every day, not missing a beat. This is a really important game for North Texas. We haven't been in a bowl in like ten years. Dan McCarney's just turned the program around, and he has all the guys excited and motivated to win the game on the 1st. THE MODERATOR: What about playing in your home backyard. I know you have a sister at TCU. She's a golfer. I hear you're a better golfer though? BRANDON McCOY: She'll give it to me pretty good. She shoots in the 70s. THE MODERATOR: How special is it to be playing here during the holidays in North Texas? Lot of folks coming from Denton? BRANDON McCOY: Oh, man, we really wanted to go to that Hawaii Bowl because it's Hawaii. But all the seniors, most of our seniors are from the DFW complex, so even though Hawaii sounds great, we wanted to have our last game where all our fans and all our family could come and support us. We have tons of fans that are coming, and for it to be my senior year right here, I mean, it's literally 30 minutes from where I grew up. So all my family will be there. We couldn't ask for nothing better. We wanted to be in the Heart of Dallas Bowl. THE MODERATOR: 28 years old, where do you go from here? Have you graduated yet or close? BRANDON McCOY: I graduated last May. I'm in graduate school right now. I graduated last May with my degree in Kinesiology and criminal justice. After the first, we'll give it a hard go to get to the NFL. Really looking forward to that training after the first. So if that doesn't work out, then I've got to go get the 9:00 to 5:00 and take care of the family. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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