Navy freshman quarterback Malcolm Perry was wearing his dress whites and enjoying the Midshipmen's game against Fordham with his classmates in the stands Saturday at Annapolis, Md.
Perry had been sick most of the week, but he was able to play in the junior varsity game the day before. The coaches, however, were confident with starting quarterback Tago Smith and backup Will Worth in the lineup. So, they held Perry out, allowing him to march to the stadium with the traditional "Brigade of the Midshipmen."
Everything changed when Smith went down with a knee injury in the second quarter.
The coaches decided to pull Perry from the stands, got him suited up and he was ready to play against the Rams. Perry made his debut with 38 seconds left in the third quarter and later put together a 90-yard-drive in the fourth quarter that led to a 23-yard field goal in the 52-16 victory.
"I was just watching the game and Tago went down," said Perry, who ran for 32 yards on seven carries but did not attempt a pass. "The coaches got me out of the stands and got me dressed. It felt good. Playing the JV game the prior day helped a lot. It was a good experience."
Navy Coach Ken Niumatalolo said was impressed with Perry's performance under the difficult circumstances.
"It's not the scenario you want," Niumatalolo said. "But we had to do what we had to do."
Too soon?
ESPN's Brent Musburger, who worked the Clemson-Auburn game on the SEC Network on Saturday, had a lot to say about Louisville Coach Bobby Petrino, who led the Cardinals to a 70-14 victory over UNC-Charlotte on Thursday.
"Beware Petrino after a few years. Man can flat-out coach," Musburger said. "When he gets off his motorcycle he's good."
Petrino, a former Arkansas coach, is in his third season as head coach of the Cardinals and his second stint at the school.
His coaching career took a wrong turn in 2012 when he was fired by the Razorbacks over a sex scandal involving a former staff member, which came to light after Petrino was involved in a motorcycle crash with the staffer also on the bike.
Where's the beef?
The Oakland Athletics held a bobblehead night for former slugger Jose Canseco on Saturday in honor of his 1988 MVP season, when he hit 42 home runs and had 124 RBI.
"It's pretty good, it's pretty accurate," Canseco told Janie McCauley of the Associated Press, although he did have one concern.
"It looks like the pre-Steroid-era bobblehead, though," said Canseco, who admitted taking steroids during most of his career. "It's got me kind of skinny. If it would have been the Steroid-era it would have me more beefed up. It looks more like the '86 bobblehead.
"If you weren't doing chemicals back then you weren't in. You were an outcast. You were an anomaly. You weren't part of the game."
Talking about his ceremonial first pitch before the game, the Juiced author took to Twitter: "Went with the knuckle. It danced."
Sports quiz
Jose Canseco and his twin brother, Ozzie, both played for the Oakland Athletics, but only for one season. What year was it?
Answer
The played together in 1990, Ozzie's only season with the club. Jose was the A's from 1985-1992 and 1997.
Sports on 09/05/2016