Though Army enters a novel era with its new membership in the American Athletic Conference (AAC), the Black Knights have great familiarity with many of their new conference-mates. In fact, the Black Knights have earned iconic wins against several of their AAC foes. That makes this the perfect time to relive Army’s best wins against each AAC school.
Charlotte: Army has no prior meetings with the 49ers.
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East Carolina: Army is 0-8 all-time against East Carolina.
Army has lost all eight games to the Pirates, a fellow Conference USA member during Army’s seven ill-fated seasons in that league. Alas, the Black Knights have done no better than just getting to the doorstep of beating those dastardly Pirates. Three of the eight meetings finished with one-score losses.
Florida Atlantic: Army has no prior meetings with the Owls.
The Owls may be strangers to Army, but they are no strangers to service academy football. Florida Atlantic has played Navy and Air Force four times combined, going 1-1 against Navy in 2012 and 2017 and against Air Force in 2018 and 2021.
Memphis: 1985, 49-7 win at Michie Stadium.
Memphis is another former Conference USA counterpart. In five previous meetings, Army’s only victory came in their 1985 Peach Bowl season. The Black Knights ran for an astonishing 476 yards against the Tigers. Army quarterback Rob Healy ran for 143 yards and converted two of his three completions into touchdowns.
Navy: 1944, #1 Army defeats #2 Navy 23-7; 1945, #1 Army defeats #2 Navy 32-13.
The 1944 and 1945 games represent the peak period of service academy football, a time when the Black Knights of the Hudson and the Midshipmen ruled the college football world. Both of the games noted above were coined “The Game of the Century” due to the then-coincidental occurrence of the Associated Press #1 playing the poll’s #2 team.
In both years, Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, Doc Blanchard (inside) and Glenn Davis (outside), respectively, cemented their legacies. In 1944, Davis and Blanchard combined for 176 of Army’s 237 total yards in a 23-7 win at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. The following year, Blanchard and Davis combined for five touchdowns in Army’s 32-13 rout of the Midshipmen.
Both wins solidified Army’s case for the national championship. The 1944 win was so influential that it caused Douglas MacArthur to call a momentary halt in operations to celebrate the victory. You can read more about that in Randy Roberts’ sensational book A Team for America.
North Texas: 2016 Heart of Dallas Bowl, 38-31 win; 1996, 27-10 win at Texas Stadium.
Naturally, current Army fans will gravitate towards the 2016 Heart of Dallas Bowl as marking the most memorable of the Black Knights’ five wins over North Texas and for good reason. Army avenged a 35-18 loss from earlier in the year in which they turned the ball over seven times. Moreover, the Black Knights set a Cotton Bowl Stadium record in this win with 481 rushing yards. The game went to overtime before the Black Knights pulled out the win in a 38-31 thriller.
The 1996 game deserves some mention here, too, since the Dallas Cowboys’ former home, Texas Stadium, hosted the game. Army ran for 331 yards in a 27-10 win over the Mean Green. The Black Knights went 10-2 that year and finished with an appearance in the Independence Bowl. The rest is history.
Rice: 1958, 14-7 win at Rice.
The Black Knights are no strangers to the Owls, with nine meetings between these two teams, the third most of any AAC team not named Navy. This year’s game will break a 4-4-1 tie between the schools.
Army’s inaugural meeting with Rice produced Pete Dawkins’ Heisman moment in 1958. #3 Army’s national title hopes hung in the balance in a hard-fought 7-7 tie when Dawkins caught a pass on the run and took it 64 yards to paydirt to give the Black Knights a 14-7 lead with just 52 seconds remaining. The Black Knights held on and kept their national championship hopes alive. For an excellent study on the 1958 Black Knights team, check out When Saturday Mattered Most by Mark Beech.
South Florida: 2004, 42-35 win at South Florida.
There was only one choice here. Army and South Florida are currently deadlocked at a 1-1 series tie.
The 2004 game saw Army’s Carlton Jones produce one of the greatest rushing performances in program history, with 225 yards and five touchdowns on just 18 carries. The Black Knights overcame a 21-7 deficit to give Head Coach Bobby Ross arguably his most memorable win. A year later, South Florida fled for the Big East, making the win even more special.
Temple: 2017, 31-28 win at Michie Stadium.
Army has played Temple the second-most times out of Army’s non-Navy AAC cohorts, with 14 meetings between the two. Army fans can go one of two directions when choosing the program’s best win over Temple.
It’s either the 2016 or 2017 game.
In 2016, Army opened the season on the road and absolutely overwhelmed a Temple that would go on to BEAT NAVY and win the American Conference Championship that year. This win marked QB Ahmad Bradshaw’s breakout performance and the turning point of Head Coach Jeff Monken’s tenure at Army.
However, that game lacked the flair and excitement of the 2017 game. After a Ryquell Armstead touchdown put Temple ahead with 98 seconds left, 2017 backup QB Kelvin Hopkins drove Army 79 yards down the field, completing the drive with a 16-yard touchdown pass to WR Jermaine Adams with one second left, forcing overtime. Hopkins’ 67 yards on that drive accounted for 18% of Army’s passing output for the entire season that year. His five completions were 25% of the entire team’s total.
Army’s won when Temple’s kicker missed a field goal in the game’s second overtime. The win marked a major step along Army’s road to a 10-3 record and a win in the 2017 Armed Forces Bowl.
Tulane: 2007, 20-17 win at Michie Stadium.
Despite 23 meetings with Tulane, including nine wins, Army’s best win against the Green Wave was an easy pick. Little-known backup QB Kevin Dunn cemented his legacy in Army lore, leading the Black Knights 80 yards in 29 seconds and throwing a 36-yard Hail Mary to WR Mike Wright to send the game to overtime. Before that drive, Dunn had only attempted one pass in the entirety of his collegiate career, against VMI in 2006. Dunn’s Hail Mary was one of only 16 completions in that same career. In overtime, a Tulane missed field goal, which paved the way for an improbable Army victory.
1-11 Army’s improbable 14-10 upset over an 8-5 Tulane team that won the 2002 Hawaii Bowl is an honorable mention in this series.
Tulsa: Army is 0-1 all-time against Tulsa.
The Black Knights and Golden Hurricane may have only met once, but that one — back in 2007 — made some memories. Army QB Carson Williams threw for 328 yards, good for the fourth-highest single-game total in Black Knights’ history and the last individual 300-yard game by an Army quarterback to date (though QBs Tyhier Tyler and Cade Ballard along with SB/WR Tyrell Robinson combined for 304 yards against UTSA in 2022).
Jeremy Trimble had the third-most receiving yards in a single game in this one with 169 yards. Still, these performances were not enough for Army as the Black Knights fell 49-39 to the Golden Hurricane.
UAB: Army is 0-5 against the Blazers
Just like East Carolina, Army had horrible luck against UAB in their time in Conference USA. The Black Knights have two one-score losses against the Blazers, including a 2004 20-14 loss to a UAB team that played in that year’s Hawaii Bowl and featured future Atlanta Falcons great Roddy White.
UTSA: 2023, Army beats UTSA 37-29 at the AlamoDome
Army formed quite the quasi-rivalry with UTSA during its independent years. The Black Knights have won three out of four meetings against the Roadrunners, all occurring since 2019. The Black Knights are one of the few Group of Five teams with a winning record against Jeff Traylor.
The best win was a 37-29 thriller over the Roadrunners in front of a Friday night ESPN audience. Bryson Daily and Hayden Reed both exceeded the century mark on the ground, while the Black Knights added 188 yards through the air (including a 55-yard completion by Markel Johnson).
In retrospect, the win was a significant upset since UTSA finished 8-4 and a game away from appearing in the AAC Championship Game, while Army finished 6-6.
As Army enters this new era, here’s hoping this trip down memory lane helped give some familiarity. Some of Army’s greatest moments on the gridiron came against their future conference mates.
Go Army! Beat Lehigh!!!
Cover image via Flickr: West Point – The U.S. Military Academy: Army vs. Temple at Michie Stadium, Oct. 21, 2017. (U.S. Army photo by Cadet Caleb Kifer).
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