My daughter Emma and I made the trip out to West Point for the Army Spring Game Friday night.  In addition to Spring Football, we also saw a few of my classmates out there, so that we wound up having a terrific time despite a bit of rain.  And really, it was awesome seeing some football.

I will say, though, that the Friday night time slot isn’t super-convenient–at least for me.  I get that with Army Baseball playing at home, Mens’ and Womens’ Lacrosse playing Navy Saturday afternoon, and Sandhurst, there was way too much stuff happening this weekend to try to schedule the game at a different time.  Still, driving out to West Point required fighting New York-area rush hour traffic, and that’s never easy.  We wound up out-flanking the Tappan Zee Bridge, but even so, it still took us almost two hours to get all the way to Michie Stadium.

 

Game Notes

Army’s offensive squads generally looked better than they have in past scrimmages.  The defense tends to be ahead of the offense at this time of year, and especially with the style of offense that Army runs, putting the quarterbacks in red no-contact jerseys significantly degrades the team’s offensive effectiveness.  Starting quarterback Kelvin Hopkins was the only guy in red this particular Friday, but you could tell that it hurt him. They were calling him down every time a defender so much as laid a hand on him. Even so, we arrived just as SB Kell Walker took a pitch 80 yards for a touchdown for the Gold team.  That came about ten minutes into the first quarter, and from there, the game featured quite a bit of scoring. Throughout most of the game, two of Army’s younger quarterbacks, Tyhier Tyler and Jabari Laws, led their respective teams a series of mostly good-looking scoring drives.

The backup quarterback battle got the most attention coming into this game, but rising firstie FB Rashaad Bolton had probably the best game of any player on the field.  He started for the Black Team and looked absolutely terrific out there. Like a slightly faster, more powerful version of Calen Holt. I didn’t see him break off any long runs off the Fullback Dive, but he caught the ball well out of the backfield, ran a guy over on a 33-yard screen pass, and tied the game with the key catch at the end of regulation.  Nothing’s set in stone, of course, but I think Bolton played himself into the rotation this spring. I expect we’ll see him quite a bit in the coming season.

Turn it up ?#GoArmy pic.twitter.com/Xp2jbUjunY

— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) April 13, 2019

VIDEO: Jeff Monken comments on spirit of Black & Gold Game, quarterback Tyhier Tyler's' performance, Rashaad Bolton's emergence and more #ArmyFootball https://t.co/Qp5OqFSVFW

— Sal Interdonato (@salinterdonato) April 13, 2019

FB Connor Slomka started with Hopkins and Walker, but his night was pretty much done by the time we got to the stadium.  Mostly the Gold team ran with QB Jabari Laws and FB Cade Barnard. Barnard didn’t have any of the gaudy, attention-grabbing plays that we saw from Bolton, but he moved the ball consistently with the Dive, and it looked like he got stronger the more they fed him the ball.  He’d start with 2- or 3-yard runs, but as his drives wore on, he’d hi 3- or 4-yard runs, so that by the time his team got down into the Red Zone, he was breaking off 7- to 9-yard runs, moving the pile, and setting up or scoring touchdowns.

Bottom line, Army’s fullback rotation looks to be in good shape.  

 

Quarterback Battle: Black vs. Gold

For most of the scrimmage, we saw Tyler at quarterback and Bolton at fullback for Black against Laws at quarterback and Barnard at fullback for Gold.  There were some slotbacks and wide-receivers who made plays as well–or who were at least targeted on some throws, anyway–but with Army runs its offense, it was the quarterback/fullback combinations that stood out from the stands.

I talked quite a bit about Tyler on Twitter Friday night.  He played exceptionally well, scrambling for one touchdown and throwing for two more, and his Black team won this game in overtime as a result.  That’s not nothing in a game like this. All these Army players know that there’s no substitute for victory.

Tyler looks like a really good player.  He has truly exceptional speed and elusiveness coupled to a strong, accurate arm.  Think: Malcolm Perry but with the ability to complete passes downfield. Tyler’s not a big guy–Army’s website has him officially listed at 5’8”, 153 lbs.–and I’ve worried before about how he’d stand up to the pounding of a full Division 1 football season.  However, there’s no denying that he has the complete Division 1 quarterback’s skillset. I have to say, too, that I feel a little disingenuous knocking the guy for his size. We could make that particular critique about three-quarters of the Army Football Team and quite a few players (and former players) on any number of other Corps Squad rosters (including me personally).

https://twitter.com/xoxo_leeaahh/status/1116847773935177728?s=20

Tyhier Tyler 13-yard TD pass to Rashad Bolton with 14 seconds left. Bolton runs in 2-point conversion. Tie game 28-28 #ArmySpringGame #ArmyFootball pic.twitter.com/4hwWdgkUl0

— Sal Interdonato (@salinterdonato) April 13, 2019

Coming into Spring Football, I thought that Tyler would need to show out in order to see the field this fall.  He might’ve done that. Watching him Friday, he’s just too good an athlete to keep on the sidelines. I think the coaching staff has to find a way to get him involved.  His speed and escapability are potentially game-breaking.

With that said, though, a legitimate knock on Tyler is one that we see at times with Perry as well.  Both guys have a tendency to try to do everything a little too often. Admittedly, it’s a tough balance.  When Tyler escapes the initial pass rush, breaks contain, and goes for a long run, he’s a hero. When he escapes the initial pass rush, gets bottled up, and then takes a sack, he’s a goat.  He took at least one sack on Friday where he should have just thrown the ball away.

So okay, once is fine.  This would be a bad pattern, though.

QB Jabari Laws isn’t quite as fast or as accurate throwing the football, but he’s a little bigger and a little stronger running inside.  He also makes good decisions in the triple-option offense, and that’s key. It’s this skillset that made Ahmad Bradshaw so deadly in the triple-option.  One of the hardest things for a young quarterback to learn in this particular offense is when to let his teammates make plays. Laws has that. He distributed the ball well, leaned on his very capable fullback, and made good use of his slotbacks on option-pitches.  I don’t think it was a coincidence that Barnard had more Fullback Dive plays than Bolton, who was in with Tyler.

Jabari Laws 17-yard TD run #ArmySpringGame #ArmyFootball pic.twitter.com/Mo9RZEnRxw

— Sal Interdonato (@salinterdonato) April 13, 2019

 

Final Thoughts

It’s harder to evaluate defensive players in a game like this, especially from the sidelines.  I heard LB Jon Rhattigan’s name called a few times on tackles, probably because I was listening for it.  Anyway, it sounds like he might be in line to contribute next year, though he’s just one player that I happened to be watching for.

I also missed the fourth quarter, which was pretty exciting.  We left just as the rain started coming down for real–as the third quarter was ending.  The Black team was up by six at that point. So I missed Hopkins and Laws bringing Gold back to take the lead, only to have Tyler bring Black back again and re-tie the game.  A Bolton catch in the end zone sent the game into overtime. Black then won in overtime, and Tyler got interviewed by beat writer Sal Interdonato as the game’s hero. That was pretty cool.

 

So that’s it, and now Spring Football is over.  

Friends, it’s gonna be a long, hot summer without any kind of college football whatsoever.  We might have to try to do something about that.

Our team has voted and here are the 2019 team captains. #GoArmy pic.twitter.com/6exOoX7t1p

— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) April 14, 2019

So excited to see these passionate men lead @ArmyWP_Football! #LetsGetIt #BeatEveryone
? Danny Wild pic.twitter.com/v2R8psAc3L

— As For Football (@asforfootball) April 14, 2019

Go Army!  Beat Rice!!!