I went to Army Football’s annual Black & Gold Game last night as a guest of my good friend and USMA ‘95 classmate Terry and, more specifically, his son Tex, a recruited tight end out of Gonzaga College High School in Washington, DC. Interesting and enjoyable experience. I came away thinking that Army looks as good as I can remember seeing them on offense at this point in the preseason, at least with their starters and first-line backups in the game. As expected, however, there’s a pretty big drop-off once the JV players hit the field. The Black Knights also need to find some answers at placekicker in the worst way possible.
I spent several days on the road in Albany for work this past week. I then drove straight down to West Point early yesterday afternoon. Got there a few minutes after noon and stopped by the Visitor’s Center to get my new 5-year Grad Pass. That took less than ten minutes total! It took me longer to walk from the parking lot, through the Gift Shop, and down the back stairs to security than it took to actually get my pass. Friends, the Academy has gotten their Grad Pass process down to an easy-to-manage science.
With pass in hand, I then drove straight onto Post for lunch at the Thayer Hotel.
TEAM GOLD WINS!
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) April 13, 2024
Gold comes from behind to take the Black & Gold Spring Game! #FridayKnightLights pic.twitter.com/YuFkBEA9Ot
Rockbound Highland Home
Going back to the Thayer at this point feels a little like going to my folks’ old country club back in my childhood hometown — if such a place had ever actually existed. Candidly, I’d have preferred to sit in Patton’s Tavern while waiting for Terry and Tex, but I got there too early in the afternoon. I therefore wound up in the formal dining room. They at least gave me a table away from everything and let me kill an hour and some change while I waited.
Welcome back to West Point to our honorary captains for tonight's Black & Gold Spring Game! #FridayKnightLights pic.twitter.com/7QaRD7yjOW
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) April 12, 2024
Terry and Tex arrived around two, and then my friend Jim (‘96) got there a few minutes after that. We hung out and tailgated, running into Brian Zickefoose (‘02), one of the team’s honorary captains, as he arrived for the game. We then headed down to do some of the recruiting stuff around 4 pm.
My favorite part of the afternoon was meeting some of the new parents who were just seeing West Point for the first time. So many of the moms were nervous about West Point and the Army generally. I told one mom, “You want to see your son stand on his own two feet. This is his chance to do exactly that.” I could see that those words went home. I saw her again right before we headed down to the game itself, and she looked like she’d fallen in love with West Point overall.
That was cool. Honestly heartwarming.
We also toured the Army Sports museum that’s inside the football center. Amazing place. We kind of take it for granted, but West Point has accumulated quite a huge collection of football and other sports trophies and assorted memorabilia over the years. We saw the three Heisman Trophies, “Red” Blaik’s bronzed shoes — the “tough shoes to fill” — the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, the team’s recent bowl victory trophies, and many, many more.
The Black & Gold Game
As far as the game itself was concerned, I came away feeling like Army has a starting quarterback and a back-up who could start and lead the team to victory.
Granted, QB Bryson Daily is a known quantity. We know he can make good decisions with the triple-option and run with power between the tackles. He took the Black team’s offense through a good-looking touchdown drive to open the scrimmage, and it looked like old school Army Football. It looked like Army Football even though Daily went 3/4 passing on that opening drive and finished with a good-looking touchdown pass over the middle to WR Noah Short.
Team Black takes the early lead!
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) April 12, 2024
Daily ➡️ Short! pic.twitter.com/PzlzY5bn7Z
Presumed backup QB Dewayne Coleman also looked very good yesterday. If he had to lead the offense starting tomorrow, I’d have absolutely no qualms about it.
Coleman played a little differently than Daily. They tended to run his plays out of the shotgun, and if he didn’t tend to run up the middle quite as much — at least not in this scrimmage, anyway — he still had excellent burst getting outside. He also threw the ball beautifully.
Candidly, Coleman might be the best pure passer on the team. He’s got both good arm strength and accuracy. If he had an incompletion last night, it was only because he had to get rid of the football to avoid a sack.
TOUCHDOWN TEAM GOLD!
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) April 12, 2024
Coleman connects with Benson III for 61 yards!
We’re tied up at 7-7. pic.twitter.com/XXy238v81C
TEAM BLACK TD!
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) April 12, 2024
Jake Rendina powers in for a yard out and Black leads 14-7. pic.twitter.com/vdLLG2hOqR
Army’s offense has also found a new weapon in the backfield in 5’11’’, 260 lbs. FB Jake Rendina. Rendina absolutely bulldozed guys last night. He looked utterly unstoppable on the Fullback Dive.
He looked like a literal cheat code out there.
Get excited. This kid is the real deal. Once they pair him with RB Kanye Udoh, they’re gonna really have something in the backfield.
Final note on offense: we saw them throw to the tight ends quite a bit last night. TE David Crossan didn’t play, but TE Will Montesi caught several balls and looked like a good pass catcher, generally. They split him wide quite a bit. We’ll see how that plays out once the actual season starts.
As we noted in the write-up leading into this game, it was difficult to gauge the defense last night. They rotated guys in and out, and we couldn’t really tell who was making repeated tackles nor playing good coverage down the field. Plus, the scrimmage mixed starters with back-ups and JV players. It was therefore hard to take more from any of this than just some individual highlights.
I will say, though, that the Black Knights still need to find some answers in the kicking game. They got consistently good kickoffs last night and mostly good performance on punts. However, they missed at least 75% of their field goals, some in situations that they really should’ve made. We couldn’t fault the missed 54-yarder right before halftime, but they doinked a short one later in the game and didn’t actually make their first field goal until late in the second half.
I’m excited about the season overall, but at least right now, it looks like the Black Knights might miss K Quinn Maretzki in the worst way starting this fall.
That could be a problem. I guess we’ll see.
#AsForLax: Beat Navy!
As a reminder, we’ve now got Army-Navy Lacrosse this afternoon starting at 1 pm on CBS Sports. If you’re headed to the game in-person, have fun! Looks like it’s gonna be beautiful out there.
The Women play down at Annapolis, starting at 4:15.
You heard the Superintendent!
— ArmyWestPoint Sports (@GoArmyWestPoint) April 11, 2024
The @ArmyWP_MLax ⚪️WHITEOUT⚪️ is going to be AWESOME!
See you at Michie Stadium on Saturday!
→ https://t.co/17GsKBApr7#GoArmy x #BeatNavy pic.twitter.com/u0UHx6E43C
Go Army! Beat Navy!!!
Cover image via @ArmyWP_Football.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.