RAMSEY: Count on this: Air Force-Navy will deliver great game

Few things in life are certain, but you can count on this:

Air Force and Navy deliver superb football theater, full of malice and entertaining violence.

On Saturday, one of college football’s premier rivalries resumes in Annapolis. In the past eight seasons, 44 points have separated the Falcons and the Midshipmen. Each game has been intense. Each game has been close.

This one looks no different. Air Force flies to Maryland as a slight underdog. The Falcons are wounded, both physically and mentally. They will be missing five injured starters on defense, and egos remain fragile after a woeful effort against TCU.

Doesn’t matter. The game should be close. It always is.

Last season Air Force ended Navy’s seven-year hold on the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy with a 14-6 win at Falcon Stadium. The Falcons are cautiously optimistic, at best, as they prepare to defend the trophy.

Offensive tackle Jason Kons has studied the series history. He knows the Midshipmen are suffering through a one-game losing streak to the Falcons. He also knows Navy has won 16 of its past 17 games against Air Force and Army.

“It’s the first time we’re going back when we have the trophy, and they have to take it back from us,” Kons said, meaning the first time since a trip to Annapolis in 2003. “When you’re on top, you have to work harder to keep what you’ve earned.”

For two decades, Air Force employed Navy as its personal punching bag. The Falcons defeated the Midshipmen 18 of 20 times from 1982 to 2001 while winning 15 of 20 Commander-in-Chief’s titles.

Then Paul Johnson arrived at Navy.

Johnson installed an option offense and, more importantly, a new attitude. The Midshipmen ran a slight variation of Air Force’s offense, but ran it with more precision. Navy swiped the mental edge from the Falcons.

Navy had lost 30 of 33 games from 2000-2002 as it bumbled around as the nation’s worst football program. The moment when everything changed might surprise you.

On Oct. 6, 2002, Air Force pounded Navy, 48-7, at Falcon Stadium. This was Johnson’s first season at Navy, and he commanded his players to take a long look at the scoreboard, wanting them to feel the full brunt of humiliation.

His tactic worked. On that moment, the rivalry transformed from comically lopsided to intensely competitive.

If you’re interested in the past and tradition and pomp, Army and Navy remains the premier service-academy rivalry.

If you’re interested in today, and in competitive football, Air Force and Navy ranks as the premier rivalry, and it’s not even close. Navy has tripled Army’s point total (312-101) since 2002. Army and Navy once delivered genuine football drama, but that was a long time ago.

Air Force and Navy provides strong football in the present, always the most important tense. I can’t guarantee a close game Saturday.

I can only almost guarantee it.

Quarterback Tim Jefferson smiled as he thought of the fierce contest in his near future.

“It’s going to fun. I know that much for sure,” he said, adding he will be surprised if the game fails to be extremely close.

“We know each other so well. They know what we do. We know what they do. It’s just a war of attrition and whoever wins is going to make the least mistakes.”

Don’t make the mistake of missing this game.