Full-circle moment for Navy coach Brian Newberry against Oklahoma in Armed Forces Bowl

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Navy coach Brian Newberry grew up only a few miles from the University of Oklahoma campus, and the first college game he attended as a kid was to watch the Sooners.

His parents still live in his childhood home in Moore, Oklahoma.

Now in his first bowl game as a head coach, Newberry is trying to beat the Sooners. The Midshipmen (9-3) play them in the Armed Forces Bowl on Friday.

“Kind of a full-circle deal. It's pretty neat,” said Newberry, who was then asked the rooting interest of his extended family of OU fans. “Blood runs a little deeper than that.”

Navy has the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy after an impressive 31-13 win over Army in Newberry's second season as head coach, after four as defensive coordinator.

“He’s had a fantastic career, and he’s a winner," Oklahoma coach Brent Venables said of Newberry. “It’s a familiar face for a lot of people around here.”

Oklahoma (6-6) wraps up its first season in the Southeastern Conference with a 26th consecutive bowl appearance — the only longer active streak is Georgia's 28. The Sooners have to win to avoid their second losing record in Venables’ first three seasons. They won a national championship and a record 14 Big 12 titles during 23 consecutive winning seasons before that.

Navy is looking to win 10 games for only the sixth time in school history.

“That’d be huge for us when we talk about our legacy that we want to leave behind,” senior linebacker Colin Ramos said.

Or as Newberry noted, “They want to go out the right way.”

Michael Hawkins started three games at quarterback in the middle of the season, and now is back in that role for the bowl game. He was the first Oklahoma true freshman to win on the road in his first career start, at Auburn on Sept. 28.

Jackson Arnold was back as the Sooners starter the last five regular-season games, but the sophomore is now headed to Auburn after being among about two dozen Oklahoma players to go into the transfer portal. Hawkins' only action in that span was in a lopsided win over FCS team Maine on Nov. 2.

“Mike’s looked good, and we love where he’s at and the progress that he has made," Venables said.

Seventh-year college player Casey Thompson is among the backup quarterbacks. He has 62 career touchdowns (52 passing and 10 rushing) in four years at Texas, then one each at Nebraska and FAU. He has played in only one game without throwing a pass for Oklahoma, where his father and brother played quarterback.

Oklahoma's first time in the Armed Forces Bowl isn't its first game in TCU's home stadium.

The Sooners last played there in 2022, a 55-24 loss to TCU, the eventual national runner-up. Then-Oklahoma quarterback Dillon Gabriel was knocked out of the game in the second quarter when hit in the head while sliding by TCU linebacker Jamoi Hodge, who was ejected for targeting.

That was Venables' first year as Oklahoma's head coach, a 6-7 season that ended with a bowl loss to Florida State.

The triple-option Midshipmen average 249.3 yards rushing per game, their most since a school-record 360.5 in 2019.

“It levels the playing field, especially with a team like Oklahoma, who they're never going to see the triple option in the SEC," Navy quarterback Blake Horvath said. “They're not recruiting guys in the SEC to run the triple option.”

Navy does do more than run the ball. Horvath has 1,095 yards and 15 touchdowns rushing, but his 1,261 yards passing are the most by a Midshipman QB since 2016. He's thrown 13 TDs.

In the only previous meeting between the teams, Navy won 10-0 at Oklahoma in October 1965.

Newberry played at Baylor from 1992-96, his last season being the first of the Big 12 Conference, so he has a lot of friends in Texas.

The coach said 30 Navy players are from the Lone Star State, one of his top recruiting spots.

“To get a chance to go back and play in a bowl game and get some exposure down there is really big,” Newberry said.

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FILE - Oklahoma quarterback Michael Hawkins Jr. (9) throws a pass during the first half of an NCAA college football game against Auburn, Sept. 28, 2024, in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Butch Dill, File)

FILE - Navy quarterback Blake Horvath (11) in action during the second half of an NCAA college football game against Charlotte, Oct. 19, 2024, in Annapolis, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass, File)

FILE - Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables, center, and his team walk shoulder to shoulder during pregame warm-ups before a NCAA college football game against Tulane, Sept. 14, 2024, in Norman, Okla. (AP Photo/Alonzo Adams, File)

FILE - Navy head coach Brian Newberry in the first half of an NCAA college football game, Oct. 5, 2024, at Air Force Academy, Colo. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski File)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s opposition-controlled National Assembly voted Friday to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo despite vehement protests by governing party lawmakers, further deepening the country’s political crisis set off by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s stunning imposition of martial law and ensuing impeachment.

Han’s impeachment means he will be stripped of the powers and duties of the president until the Constitutional Court decides whether to dismiss or reinstate him. The court is already reviewing whether to uphold Yoon's earlier impeachment. The impeachments of the country’s top two officials worsen its political turmoil, deepen its economic uncertainty and hurt its international image.

The single-chamber National Assembly passed Han’s impeachment motion with a 192-0 vote. Lawmakers with the governing People Power Party boycotted the vote and gathered around the podium where assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik was seated and shouted that the vote was “invalid” and demanded Woo's resignation. No violence or injuries were reported.

The PPP lawmakers protested after Woo called for a vote on Han’s impeachment motion after announcing its passage required a simple majority in the 300-memer assembly, not a two-thirds majority as claimed by the PPP. Most South Korean officials can be impeached by the National Assembly with a simple majority vote, but a president’s impeachment needs the support of two-thirds. There are no specific laws on the impeachment of an acting president.

Han’s powers will be officially suspended when copies of his impeachment document are delivered to him and the Constitutional Court. The deputy prime minister and finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, will take over.

Han, who was appointed prime minister by Yoon, became acting president after Yoon, a conservative, was impeached by the National Assembly about two weeks ago over his short-lived Dec. 3 imposition of martial law. Han quickly clashed with the main liberal opposition Democratic Party as he pushed back against opposition-led efforts to fill three vacant seats on the Constitutional Court, establish an independent investigation into Yoon’s martial law decree and legislate pro-farmer bills.

At the heart of the fighting is the Democratic Party’s demand that Han approve the assembly's nominations of three new Constitutional Court justices to restore its full nine-member bench ahead of its ruling on Yoon’s impeachment. That’s a politically sensitive issue because a court decision to dismiss Yoon as president needs support from at least six justices, and adding more justices will likely increase the prospects for Yoon’s ouster. Yoon’s political allies in the governing People Power Party oppose the appointment of the three justices, saying Han shouldn’t exercise the presidential authority to make the appointments while Yoon has yet to be formally removed from office.

On Thursday, Han said he wouldn’t appoint the justices without bipartisan consent. The Democratic Party, which holds a majority in the assembly, submitted an impeachment motion against Han and passed bills calling for the appointment of three justices.

South Korean investigative agencies are probing whether Yoon committed rebellion and abuse of power with his marital law decree. His defense minister, police chief and several other senior military commanders have already been arrested over the deployment of troops and police officers to the National Assembly, which prompted a dramatic standoff that ended when lawmakers managed to enter the chamber and voted unanimously to overrule Yoon’s decree.

South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, top, speaks as lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party protest during a plenary session for the impeachment motion against the country's acting President Han Duck-soo at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party protest to South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, top left, during a plenary session for the impeachment motion against South Korean acting President Han Duck-soo at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party protest to South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, top center, during a plenary session for the impeachment motion against South Korean acting President Han Duck-soo at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

South Korean acting President Han Duck-soo speaks at the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (Choi Jae-koo/Yonhap via AP)