Army Football last played under the Michie Stadium lights on August 30th, 2019. That game saw Army win 14-7 against the Rice Owls. The Black Knights led two classic 9+ minute, 90+ yard, 16+ play drives in that game. However, that was pretty much it for the offense that day. Army got the “W” — barely — but fans came away concerned. This wasn’t the dominating performance Army fans had become accustomed to with the vaunted 2017 and 2018 rushing offenses.
Exactly five years to the day after that season opener, Army will take the field against Lehigh in another Friday Night Lights matchup. This time, offensive expectations are unclear — at least to the fans. Last year, in an attempt to mitigate the effects of blocking rule changes, Army hired new Offensive Coordinator (OC) Drew Thatcher. He brought Nebraska-Kearney’s Gun-Option to the Banks of the Hudson. By the end of the season, however, Army had begun to pivot back towards the under-center flexbone.
New-new OC Cody Worley received the nod this offseason. But no one outside the program knows quite how that will translate to the overall offense. On one hand, Worley called the one game from under-center last year against Coastal Carolina. On the other, Army’s offensive line size has gotten way bigger than it once was. It still resembles last year’s edition more than those from the flexbone years. This writer’s best guess is that we’ll see a blocking scheme closer to last year’s as well with a option/reading scheme closer to 2018.
Lehigh Mountain Hawks
Second-year Head Coach Kevin Cahill leads the Mountain Hawks in 2024. Coach Cahill has spent all but four of his years coaching in the Northeast. In his first year, Lehigh went 2-9, though three of those losses came by a field goal or less. This year, he looks to lead Lehigh to their first winning season since 2017.
Offense
Lehigh’s starting quarterback from last year, Brayton Silbor, injured his leg at the end of last season and hasn’t returned to the roster. Former backup QB Dante Perri assumed the starting role for the rivalry tilt against Lafayette, and if social media is any indication, we should see Perri start on Friday night.
RB Luke Yoder returns for his sophomore campaign after accounting for about half of all rushing attempts and yards a year ago. Keep your eyes peeled on #6 as he’s likely the Mountain Hawks’ biggest playmaker.
Lehigh lost last year’s top wide receiver to graduation, but they return the next three receivers and their top tight end, so they’re far from inexperienced on the perimeter. Junior WR Geoffrey Jamiel has a knack for finding the endzone, raking in four touchdown catches last year.
Coach Cahill presented a balanced attack on offense last year, 304 rushes and 369 passing attempts. Traditionally, this style of offense gives Army trouble. The Black Knights should see a healthy dose of screens, short slants, and spread-out rushes. If all else fails, expect the quarterback to take off and run it himself.
Army ranked 121/134 in returning production on defense coming into this season. This relatively inexperienced crew will now go against the kind of scheme with which they’ve historically struggled in Week 1. By no means should Lehigh be able to move on them all day, but this should still serve as a good litmus test for where this defense sits going into conference play.
Defense
Seven of the eight leading tacklers return for what is now an experienced Mountain Hawks defense. The experience should help, but they’ll need to improve tremendously from last year. In 2023, this crew gave up 430 yards per game, among the worst in Division I.
For every Army opponent, there’s always a question of how much time the opponent’s defensive staff will spend preparing for the triple option. An experienced roster and ample preseason preparation time combined with a somewhat unknown identity for the Army offense screams, “Trap game!” But Lehigh has four extremely winnable games on their schedule in the four weeks immediately after they play Army. We think they’ll focus on those games rather spending a ton of precious practice time preparing for whatever version of the triple-option Army rolls out there this Friday.
Special Teams
Junior PK Nick Garrido is back this year. He went 23/24 on points-after last season and 5/8 on field goals. His longest make came from 41 though, so if he’s the starter, Lehigh will have to be into the red zone before they feel good about trying for three.
Last year’s punter graduated, so we’ll have to wait to see who they’ll trot out on 4th downs. Whoever it is, we hope they’ll get plenty of practice.
Army’s junior punter Cooper Allan returns this year. There are a few other options at punter, though, and Coach Monken has said that the battle for the starting spot will go right down to the kickoff. We’ll see who gets the nod to start the season. PKs Quinn Maretski and Cole Talley graduated, so kickoffs, field goals, and extra points should all come from new faces this year.
Takeaways
Let’s be frank: Lehigh was a 2-9 FCS team last year. This should be an easy win.
However. If it isn’t an easy win, it also won’t be the first time that the Cardiac Cadets have shaved years off of our lives. The defense will hopefully knock off some rust and build confidence for a group that has athleticism but hasn’t made a lot of collective starts. Seeing the offense for the first time should answer a lot of questions. Moreover, despite the uncertainty of what exactly it might look like, Army has a core of senior players that can implement that offense successfully.
The start of a new season never gets old for @CoachJeffMonken.
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) August 26, 2024
Monday's full press conference ⤵️https://t.co/bBsvUaSB64 pic.twitter.com/verhGuqTTO
Follow the Game
Coverage starts at 6 PM ET on the CBS Sports Network. You can also download the Varsity Network app to hear Rich DeMarco make the radio call.
As always, follow the usual suspects on X, (f.k.a. Twitter) for pre-game updates and in-game analysis — @asforfootball, @BrigadeReview, @DannoECabeza, and @RobRobi00389452.
Go Army! Beat Lehigh!!!
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