2016 Armed Forces Bowl, Navy vs. Louisiana Tech : Date, time, location and everything to know

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This year’s Armed Forces Bowl is set for two days before Christmas in Fort Worth. It’ll be the 14th year of a game that’s brought us some fun moments before, including Houston’s raucous comeback against Pitt in 2014 and a few other dramatic games that have come down to the very final moments.

The game’s sponsor, fittingly, is Lockheed Martin, a major contractor that makes lots of things used by the U.S. armed forces. Patriotism is a sharp theme here; the game’s tagline is “Bowl for the Brave,” and the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl Military Affairs Committee gives out a “Great American Patriot” each year.

Bowl organizers get a service academy into this game when they can, but that doesn’t always work. Alas, Navy has a tie-in this year, and the other was earmarked off the top for a Big 12 team but with more flexibility.

Date and time: Dec. 23, 4:30 p.m.

TV channel: ESPN

Location: Fort Worth, Tex.

Stadium: Amon G. Carter Stadium

Last year’s score: Cal 55, Air Force 36

Last year’s attendance: 38,915

Teams with the most all-time appearances: Air Force, 5

Teams with the most all-time wins: Cal, 2

Navy (9-3, 7-1 in American Athletic)

After a 3-1 start, including a loss to Air Force, Navy wasn’t on too many people’s radars, but perhaps it should have been. That’s because the Midshipmen were the team to hand Houston its first upset of the season during Week 6 — ending the Coogs’ Playoff aspirations. Navy went on to lose just once more until the AAC Championship, to USF, but wins over Memphis, Tulsa and East Carolina allowed the Midshipmen to clinch the AAC West, booking them a trip to the title game.

Navy, being one of few schools in the country that still runs the triple option is, of course, led offensively on the ground. The rushing offense is hugely efficient, and the passing offense can be explosive when the Mids decide to air it out.

Although the Midshipmen lost 34-10 to Temple in the AAC’s championship game, 2016 was still a solid year for the Mids. Now, Navy has a chance to show how good it is on a bowl stage, as usual. Head coach Ken Niumatalolo, in his ninth season at Navy, has brought his team to a bowl game every year except for 2011. The Mids have gotten used to this.

Louisiana Tech (8-5, 6-2 in Conference USA)

Louisiana Tech head coach Skip Holtz has kept the good times rolling in Ruston, La. ever since he was hired as the Bulldogs’ head coach in 2013. After a 4-8 season in his first year, he led the Bulldogs’ to back-to-back bowl wins in 2014-15, and he’ll look for his third straight in 2016. The Bulldogs fell just short of taking the C-USA title this year, losing it to Western Kentucky.

Just one season after Florida transfer Jeff Driskel flourished under Louisiana Tech’s offense, the Bulldogs wasted no time in finding their next quarterback. Signal caller Ryan Higgins has thrown for over 3,500 yards and gone over 30 touchdowns, and Tech ended the regular season averaging an impressive 44 points per game.

The success Holtz has been able to have in just three short years means he could have the opportunity to earn a Power 5 head coaching job somewhere in the near future. We’ll just have to wait and see when and where that is, exactly.