The No. 25th ranked Navy football team (9-3) will take on Louisiana Tech (8-5) in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl on Friday, Dec. 23 at Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, Texas. Kickoff is set for 4:30 PM (ET), 3:30 PM (CT) and will be televised nationally by ESPN. The game will match two teams that played in their respective conference championship games.
Tickets for the game are available now at: https://goo.gl/Jkr4sv
Tickets prices are $30 (End Zone General Admission), $50 (Upper Level Sideline), $60 (Lower Level Goal Line) and $75 (Lower Level Sideline). Donated tickets for midshipmen and enlisted personnel and their families are $60.
“We are very excited to return to Fort Worth, Texas for the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl against a great opponent in Louisiana Tech,” said Niumatalolo. “We have a lot of fans in the great state of Texas and we hope they all come out on Dec. 23 to support the team. Right now, our only focus is on Army, but we are excited to be going to a bowl game for the 13th time in the last 14 years.”
“We are thrilled to announce that the United States Naval Academy and Louisiana Tech University will be playing in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl this year,” said the executive director of the Armed Forces Bowl, Brant Ringler. “Obviously, to have a service academy playing in the game for the eighth time in the past 10 years is outstanding, and to attract a team with such a strong regional presence in Louisiana Tech is a real coup. This will be an exciting matchup and we are looking forward to welcoming fans of both schools to Fort Worth.”
Navy (9-3, 7-1 American) reached as high as 19th in the College Football Playoff ranking. The Midshipmen earned a spot in the American Athletic Conference championship game Saturday, where the Mids dropped a 34-10 decision to Temple. The team’s signature win came against then-No. 6 Houston, 46-40, and also beat bowl bound Memphis (42-28) and Tulsa (42-40).
In his ninth year directing the Midshipmen, American Athletic Conference Coach of the Year Ken Niumatalolo is the program’s all-time winningest coach with a 77-40 (.658) record. This season, the team ranks third nationally in rushing yards per game (327.5) and 18th in scoring offense (39.1).
Navy, making its 13th bowl appearance in the past 14 years, is 10-10-1 in 21 all-time bowl games. This will mark the Mids’ second trip to the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl. In 2013, Navy defeated Middle Tennessee, 24-6.
Louisiana Tech (8-5, 6-2 Conference USA) claimed the West Division of C-USA to earn a spot in the league title game against Western Kentucky, where the Bulldogs fell, 58-44, on Saturday. The Bulldogs had a seven-game winning streak during the year, which included a 55-52 victory over WKU.
LA Tech features a prolific offense that ranks third in the NCAA in passing yards (359.8), fifth in scoring offense (44.0) and eighth in total offense (516.1). Skip Holtz is in his fourth season at Louisiana Tech, where he owns a 30-22 (.577) record, and has led the Bulldogs to its third straight bowl game.
Louisiana Tech, which has wins at the 2014 Zaxby’s Heart of Dallas Bowl and the 2015 New Orleans Bowl, is 4-3-1 in bowl games all time. This will be the team’s first-ever appearance at the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl.
This year’s game will again be televised nationally on ESPN and also will be aired in both English and Spanish on the Armed Forces Bowl Radio Network.
This will be the third meeting all-time between the two schools. The Mids defeated Louisiana Tech, 32-14, in Annapolis in 2009 and won, 37-23, in Ruston in 2010.
Navy has won three-straight bowl games for the first time in school history, which is tied for the fourth longest streak in the country.
