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In the coming weeks of this great and unique season unofficially known as Bowl America, you will hear stories of lavish -- and NCAA-approved -- gifts for college football players and the men who coach them. You'll see images of exotic locales and team trips. You'll be inundated with hype.

Just not right now.

Suffice it to say the EagleBank Bowl is different. The participating teams know each other better than most cellmates, having already played twice in the past 14 months. The Wake Forest Demon Deacons weren't due to arrive in Washington until Wednesday. The Navy Midshipmen will arrive, leave, return, leave again and presumably return in time for Saturday's 11 a.m. kickoff at RFK Stadium.

And off we will go.

Save a trip to the U.S. Capitol and an event at the ESPN Zone, the Deacs won't see much of the city. They'll practice once in the area, play the game and be done with it.

The Midshipmen won't need much sightseeing, either. They're kind of familiar with the Pentagon and the various branches of government they're sworn to protect and defend.

The EagleBank, a start-up venture, set up both teams in downtown hotels. It offered Navy the opportunity to practice at a private high school in the area, but the Middies quickly realized it made more sense to stick to routine. So they're working out in Annapolis, Md., and staying downtown.

Among Wake's bowl-week activities this week was a night at the movies. In Winston-Salem.

It isn't the bowl's fault, really. A Dec. 20 date tends to interfere with those nuisances known as exams. It ruled out three ACC teams' participation in the game entirely, and Wake Forest, which didn't finish its academic load until last Saturday, needed some time to chill as well.

It's not the Orange Bowl, at which the Deacs arrived eight days in advance two Decembers ago. Asked if this feels like a bowl, Wake senior linebacker Chantz McClinic paused for a few seconds before saying, "Kinda. In a way."

But the teams aren't agitated; neither roster is burdened with pampered athletes. The Midshipmen get up before the sun and get yelled at for hours on end. The Deacons were, in many cases, overlooked in recruiting.

While he aspired to an ACC championship, Matt Robinson is OK with this. Wake's sixth-year defensive end didn't get in this racket for the handouts, typically portable DVD players and other gadgets, that bowls are allowed to dole out. When he messed up a shoulder before his first year at Wake and suffered a broken kneecap at the end of his fourth, he didn't work his way back so he could con NFL scouts into giving him a shot on special teams.

"I'd probably have needed about 10 more sacks," he admitted.

Before much of America has broken bread for lunch Saturday, Robinson will have called it a career.

In his time, ACC schools took on three new members and fired seven head coaches. He suffered one freak injury (a broken kneecap) and several conventional ones. Now he wants to coach the sport, and he's willing to start out just about anywhere somebody will have him.

If there's a Mr. EagleBank Bowl, he's it.

"At some point, you realize it ain't about you anymore," Robinson said. "When you start seeing the bigger picture of things, you look at how our coaches treat our players and how they treat their families. That's what I love to be around. It's not about how many sacks I get in a game. It's about the guys I'm around every day."

He'll leave the theme-park trips to others. You can bank on that.

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rob.daniels@ news-record.com