Brian Newberry dreamt of playing college football because of the Oklahoma Sooners.
Newberry has been the head football coach at Navy for two seasons. It was announced Sunday that his Midshipmen will play OU in the Armed Forces Bowl on Dec. 27 in Fort Worth, Texas. Shortly after the news, Newberry talked with the media on a video conference.
"I'm stoked," Newberry said. "I think this is awesome. Obviously all of our energy and attention is on Army right now getting ready for this, but couldn't ask for a better bowl selection and a better opponent."
Newberry was born and raised in Oklahoma, graduating from Westmoore High School before playing at Baylor. But that goal of wanting to play football in college would have never existed if not for his home state Sooners.
It was in 1985 when Newberry first remembers attending a college football game, and it was at Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. The Sooners thumped Colorado 31-0 on their way to an 11-1 record and winning a national championship under Barry Switzer that season.
But Newberry was hooked on the sport and on the Sooners. Even almost 40 years later, Newberry still remembers the details of the day and that team.
"Growing up in Oklahoma, always a huge Sooners fan growing up," Newberry said. "My first college football game was an Oklahoma game -- 1985, Barry Switzer's the head coach, Jamelle Holieway's the quarterback, running the triple option, saw them play against Colorado, Brian Bosworth was playing and went on to win a national championship that year.
"That was when I decided I wanted to play college football, going to that first game there, so grew up a big-time Sooners fan. It's great to be playing a storied program like Oklahoma."
Newberry has never donned an OU logo outside of his fandom. He was a defensive back at Baylor before moving up the coaching ranks at smaller programs before becoming Navy's defensive coordinator in 2019 then the head coach before last season.
In his first season leading the Midshipmen, they went 5-7 before improving to 8-3 so far this year. Navy still has to play Army on Saturday before focusing on its bowl matchup with the Sooners.
But even though Newberry has never played or coached for the Sooners, you can't take the Oklahoma out of an Oklahoman.
"I keep up," Newberry said. "I mean, not extremely closely, but obviously I still root for the Sooners. My parents, my sister, my brother live there in Oklahoma City, and so a big Sooner family. I had a niece who graduated there this past spring.
"So I do, I keep up with them and follow them, but maybe not as close as I would if they were a team that was in our conference or something like that."