1500 miles, 23 hours on the road, 2 shredded tires, way too many podcasts, and more calories at McDonald’s than I’d like to admit. All the things I went through to get back to the east coast for Thanksgiving and for my first game at Michie since graduation.
I gauged interest from my extended family and friends because I figured some of them might want to join. I didn’t expect to get enough interest to where I had to call the Army Ticket Office for a group rate!
So of course that meant we had to have a tailgate.
We're hosting the @American_Conf Championship Game at Michie Stadium!
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 30, 2024
Tickets are On Sale Now!
In addition to being my first game back since graduation, I was excited to bring my wife and two young kids to their first home game. One of my kids is old enough to at least get excited about it. And let me tell you, there’s not many cooler things than getting to see your little one’s face light up at the prospect of going to an Army Football game.
Getting to the game wasn’t too painful. Traffic through Stony Lonesome gate stayed reasonable throughout the day. We made it to our seats in the northwest corner in time to see Army drive down the field methodically before finding an open receiver in SB Tyrell Robinson to go up 7-0. After that drive, we felt that UTSA’s rushing defense had come as tough as advertised, considering it took three 4th down attempts for Army to score.
After UTSA scored quickly on the next drive, we realized that we were in for a close one. Over Army’s five remaining drives in the first half, they scored 6 points via the leg of K Trey Gronotte, but they struggled to get those points. The Black Knights averaged just over 30 yards per drive and 3.7 yards/carry.
This happened because the UTSA backs were playing at a Tulsa-like depth. Against the Golden Hurricane, Army consistently beat the defense over the top. And while the Black Knights did pass in this game as well, the team either wasn’t effective enough with it to back the Roadrunners’ secondary up, or UTSA decided to just live with it and stay tight against the run. Notably, Army went just 3/8 passing on those drives for all of 77 yards. That’s not terrible, but neither did it force the Roadrunners to soften up their defense against the running game.
For the 4️⃣th time under @CoachJeffMonken, we've finished the regular season unbeaten at Michie Stadium. pic.twitter.com/w65SpvI5Pq
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) December 1, 2024
Another thing became clear over the rest of the first half. The UTSA offense wasn’t nearly as potent when Army stifled their running game effectively. UTSA averaged 4.1 yards/carry on 11 carries through the first half. If you take away the two quarterback scrambles outside of their offensive structure, that average comes down to just 11 yards on 9 carries. That kind of run stoppage gave Army’s safeties a lot more freedom on the back end.
UTSA QB Owen McCown has improved a lot over the season, but he didn’t have quite the zip we expected. Combining some rainbow passing attempts with unchecked Army safeties kept the Roadrunners’ passing attack at bay and led to two second half interceptions. These obviously proved decisive.
This was the first back-and-forth game Army has played all year. They actually had a second half point deficit for more than 10 minutes. And although their passing game got slightly more effective in the second half, UTSA never loosened up their stingy rushing defense. So Army had to “brute force” their offense to pull off this win.
The Black Knights did that in impressive fashion.
With the game on the line, Casey Larkin and the defense stepped up 😤 pic.twitter.com/zXfuVyOfaX
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 30, 2024
Although Daily gets MVP this game, K Trey Gronotte gets an honorable mention. He did miss his first field goal, but hit his other three. He had a decisive 11 points this week. I will say that I didn’t love the decision to send him out for a 47 yard attempt rather than punting to pin the Roadrunners deep, but what can you do?
That’s a nitpicking disagreement. The decision yesterday that made absolutely no sense was UTSA going for it on 4th and 1 on its own 16 WITH A LEAD. That has down on the road in Wisconsin vibes, not playing a conference foe with a lead vibes.
Army put this game away late with a pair of Bryson Daily touchdowns and the aforementioned game-sealing interception. That’s 8 in a row at home for those counting. It’s also an 8-0 record in the American Conference and the right to host the conference championship game this Friday night.
Is there anyone still dying to be an independent?
After the game, my crew — plus Danno — headed up to the tailgate. Somehow, between a firepit and a space heater, we stayed warm enough to enjoy some cold beer and some bratwurst. We took a few hours to enjoy the win before heading back down to the Garden State to watch the evening college football slate.
The American Football Championship is SET🏆
— The American (@American_Conf) November 30, 2024
🏈 @GreenWaveFB vs @ArmyWP_Football
🏟️ Michie Stadium – West Point, New York
🗓️ Friday, December 6
🕗 8 pm ET
📺 ABC#AmericanWay x #AmericanFB pic.twitter.com/DuaU3smC8u
Michie continues to be a great place to enjoy college football. That certainly hasn’t changed in the last six years. I imagine it’s even more family friendly when it’s 60⁰ out rather than 35⁰, but again, what can you do?
I very much look forward to bringing everyone back.
Go Army! Beat Tulane!!!
Cover image via @ArmyWP_Football.
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