Army Football is back at Michie Stadium tomorrow, and for once, we’re expecting truly excellent weather.
No more ponchos!
Even better, the Black Knights aren’t facing a would-be bowl team out of the ACC or a potential winner of either the Sun Belt or the mighty SEC. Instead, the Black Knights of the Hudson face the UMass Minutemen, and if that match-up still offers its fair share of challenges, it’s also one that our guys ought to win.
Army Football to join the @American_Conf in 2024.
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 25, 2023
#GoArmy x #AmericanFB pic.twitter.com/n8ll5iPtVp
Top 3 Keys to Victory
Hold Onto the Football
Army has played its way through a long, crazy season so far in 2023. Things haven’t always gone the Black Knights’ way for a variety of reasons, but turnovers have been the most obvious concern, especially fumbles in plus territory. Army is currently 127th in college football in terms of turnover margin at an uncomfortable -9 on the season. This team has lost a whopping 9 fumbles this year and thrown another 8 interceptions.
The only team in the nation to turn the ball over more is Akron.
By comparison, the Black Knights’ defense has themselves generated a respectable 4 forced fumbles alongside 4 interceptions. Meanwhile, in their only game this season without a turnover, Army beat American Conference contender UTSA on the road in convincing fashion.
So yeah. There’s plenty to worry about this season, but an easy place to start moving in a more positive direction is to stop putting the ball on the ground. If Army can do that, they’ll at least give themselves a chance in every game remaining on their schedule.
Spy Taisun Phommachanh
UMass QB Taisun Phommachanh is a decent passer, but he’s a deadly running threat. If he gets going, it’ll open up an impressive Minutemen power read-option running game of exactly the kind that has given Army fits all season long.
Remember the Boston College game? It’s like that.
The good news is that Phommachanh is prone to holding the ball and taking sacks. In fact, he’s taken *18* sacks this season in just 5 games’ worth of action. Friends, that is an unbelievably bad statistic. Phommachanh has also thrown 3 interceptions against just 3 touchdown passes.
Army will need to come after Phommachanh while keeping him contained in the pocket, forcing him to either hit the turf or deliver the football off-schedule — and hopefully into the waiting hands of the Army secondary. What they can’t do is let the guy break containment, extend plays, and start running all over the place. That way lies chaos. This is a guy who can absolutely make things happen in unsettled situations.
Move those chains 👉
— UMass Football (@UMassFootball) October 7, 2023
Phommachanh 🤝 Simpson for 24-yards#Flagship 🚩 pic.twitter.com/fBvTlHLk7I
Dominate the Line of Scrimmage
UMass’s defense has given up more than 223.4 rushing yards/game this season on damned-near 5 yards/carry. At the same time, as we just noted, their offense has allowed a TON of sacks. In fact, they’ve given up every bit of 25 sacks to 4 different quarterbacks through their first 8 games.
That’s an average of more than 3 sacks/game!
Bottom line, Army needs to dominate the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. They need to stop the Minutemen rushing attack and get after their quarterback on defense, and they need to establish their own power running attack and hold onto the football on offense. The Black Knights made that work for the most part against UTSA, and they got it going through the first half at Syracuse. Alas, they’ve struggled ever since. But UMass as a team is not as big nor as fast as any of those other teams. In fact, it’s unclear that any of Army’s future opponents will be that big, fast, or talented.
The turnaround needs to start now, and it needs to start along the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball. Army needs to fight and win in the trenches.
Rookie Kanye Udoh has hit the ground running in the Black and Gold with back-to-back games with over 100 yards rushing, including last week at LSU.#GoArmy pic.twitter.com/DxPTADtjlr
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 26, 2023
Go Army! Beat UMass!!!
Cover image: Army vs. UMass at Michie Stadium in West Point, N.Y., Nov, 09, 2019. (U.S. Army Photo by CDT Andy Vu).
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