Friends, this season has seen a lot of firsts. We saw Army play in a conference for the first time since 2004. We saw the Black Knights play in — and host! — their first ever conference championship game. We saw the Army Team run the table in their new conference, earn their first ever ranking in the College Football Playoff poll, and stay ranked in the AP Poll for nine straight weeks for the first time since 1958.
We then saw Army win its first ever conference championship.
Forget the narrative. No one across the national football punditry expected this from the Black Knights. Most books set the Over/Under on Army’s win total at 6 or maybe 6.5 wins. Folks who don’t much watch Army mostly expected disaster because that’s what happened the last time they played in a conference. The punditry still doesn’t know what to make of Army at 11-1 with a new conference championship trophy in their trophy case.
The American Conference Championship
There we were, no shit. Fighting our way through urban rush hour traffic just north of New York City, driving from Coastal Connecticut to historic West Point, NY, for the American Conference Championship Game. The AAC had moved the championship from Saturday afternoon to Friday night in search of better TV ratings, and despite frigid forecast temperatures and the sheer Hell of rush hour in Westchester County, my wife and I had resolved to attend the game.
This was Army’s first-ever conference championship game. Traffic be damned. Elements be damned. We were going.
An accident on I-287 forced us off the interstate and onto the backroads north of Greenwich. We drove slowly up unmarked, barely-paved tracks in the early December twilight, crossed silently into New York, and worked our way around the baronial estates of Wall Street’s landed gentry. From there, we crept along twisting residential carriage roads, up onto town highways then onto parkways. Then back again. At last we wound up the goat trail, crossed the Bear Mountain Bridge, and arrived at last in Highland Falls. In total, our journey took a little over two hours. We arrived on post just after 6:00 pm.
The cold hit both of us like a blow when we got out of the car. We bundled methodically before trudging through the gloom over to A Lot, unsure what to expect.
We found a party in full swing. My buddy Jim had thrown a massive tailgate, complete with three separate fire pits and all the beer we could drink. And this was not the cheap stuff, either. Dude had a case of imported German dunkel (brown) lager alongside more kinds of bourbon and whiskey than I care to name.
Despite everything, we hit the stadium warm and happy — from the fire, from the booze, and from the company of our fellow West Pointers. I found my friend Terry inside easily enough. We both felt in high spirits, but I felt some disquiet, too. Terry and I both knew that Tulane had a good team. If things went south, we faced a long, cold, miserable night with little to offer in recompense should things not go our way.
That’s not what the numbers said we should expect, though. We knew that Tulane had given up a full yard/carry more on the ground than had UTSA over the full course of the season. Army had run on UTSA — with effort, but successfully for four full quarters — so at least in theory, we thought that they would be able to run on Tulane, too. Likewise, we knew that if the Black Knights could slow all-conference Green Wave RB Makhi Hughes, they could wrongfoot Tulane’s offense.
But “knowing” all that is one thing. Watching Army’s O-Line crease the Green Wave defense and impose their will, that’s an entirely different thing.
UNSTOPPABLE BRYSON DAILY#AmericanWay x @ArmyWP_Football pic.twitter.com/cwoa1gwWTc
— The American (@American_Conf) December 7, 2024
Thankfully, we could see from jump how things would go. Tulane moved the ball, but they never settled in. Army Head Coach Jeff Monken always says that Army is its own biggest opponent, that if Army doesn’t beat Army, its opponents will find it hard to beat Army as well. On this night, Tulane beat Tulane quite a bit. They made some plays, sure, but they also committed some incredibly untimely penalties, missed critical passes, succumbed to pressure in the pocket, and botched the snap on their initial field goal attempt. And while their running game looked good, it did not look good enough.
The opening sequence set the tone. Army’s defense stopped Tulane, and the botched a field goal meant that the Green Wave came away empty. The Black Knights offense took the field at their own 19 yard line and went to work. SB Noah Short ran for 17 yards, then FB Kanye Udoh went for 5 and then 6 yards right up the middle. From there, Army’s O-Line gashed the Green Wave all night long. The Black Knights posted every bit of 338 yards rushing on fully 6.1 yards/carry.
They never punted, and they barely passed. They ran the damn ball.
A memorable night at historic Michie Stadium 🏆👏🫡 pic.twitter.com/xJbHfirfxq
— ArmyWestPoint Sports (@GoArmyWestPoint) December 7, 2024
Game Notes & Numbers
QB Bryson Daily finished with 126 yards rushing and 4 rushing touchdowns on 25 carries (5.0 yards/carry). He threw exactly twice — and only once in an obvious passing situation — but completed both for a whopping 17 yards. Mostly, Army’s tight ends, wide receivers, and slotbacks blocked on the edges, setting up SB Noah Short to take his 8 carries for 50 yards on a bunch of Option Pitch plays and maybe one Rocket Toss. With that, Army broke down the Green Wave defense until FB Kanye Udoh started breaking free for long chunk runs up the middle. Udoh finished with 158 yards and a touchdown on just 20 carries (7.9 yards/carry). By the time he started running at will, the Green Wave was all but finished.
Army’s defense performed just as well. They did indeed slow Makhi Hughes, who got a few chunks but finished with just 66 total yards on 14 carries. As expected, Tulane’s offense couldn’t get on track without their running game. They scored on an explosive play at the end of the second quarter but went into the locker room down 21-7. They then — finally — put together a 16-play, 5-minute drive at the very end of the game, but it didn’t help much given that they started that drive down 35-7 with the clock running.
Given the traffic and the weather forecast, I can’t blame casual fans for not coming out for a frigid, unplanned Friday night contest. The very nature of the thing meant that every person in the stadium really cared passionately about Army Football. The crowd looked sparse, but we were loud. Really, all the people who normally scream at Army games showed; we just missed the folks who golf-clap.
As noted, the elements affected Tulane. They — stupidly — tried warming up before the game without their shirts in an ill-advised attempt to acclimate to cold weather. Psychologically, this will have reinforced the realness of the cold, and in real terms, it lowered their core body temperatures, making it harder than necessary to stay loose and warm through four full quarters of football. Body heat energy lost to shivering cannot be recovered without sleep and food, to say nothing of the added fatigue effects, all of which showed up on the field.
What can you do? Tulane had a chance to host this game and booted it with their home loss to Memphis. This isn’t the SEC. In the American Athletic Conference, wins and losses actually matter.
Army won all their games. They then hosted the Championship. They won that, too.
Looking Forward
We saw an intensely satisfying win this past Friday. The Army Team played its best game of the year in its biggest game of the year to date. The team looks to be peaking at exactly the right time.
They’ve got one more to achieve Army Football immortality.
As we’ve said all year, it doesn’t get easier from here. Navy played Tulane on November 16th. Army had a bye. The Mids then had a bye while Army played Notre Dame. Navy finished their regular season at East Carolina the Friday before Army beat UTSA. The Mids had yet another bye this past week while Army played for the AAC Championship.
The Black Knights have a better overall record and a much better record against common opponents, but the Mids have played in two less games in the space of a month. Army ran the ball with some effort against UTSA and ran very effectively against Tulane. Tulane gave up a little more than a yard/carry more than UTSA coming into this past week’s game. Navy gives up about ⅓ of a yard/carry more than Tulane. But the Mids have also had an extra week to study Army’s offense. Moreover, Army-Navy Games are always defensive-minded slugfests.
We say this every week, but it’s been true every week. The Black Knights’ toughest game lies ahead. They’ll need their very best stuff to get a win this weekend against a rested and ready Navy Football team.
But this is a game that Army can and should win. They need just one more to live in glory forever.
Go Army! Beat Navy!!!
Cover image via Army West Point Football on Facebook.
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