Well friends, that sucked. 

If you’re wondering how I’m feeling after that game, I’m feeling like a guy who drove 500 miles round-trip to watch his favorite team get the shit kicked out of them on a national stage. As a life experience, I can’t recommend it. This was Head Coach Jeff Monken’s worst failure as Army’s football coach by a pretty wide margin. I mean, losing in 2021 was bad, but at least that game stayed competitive. Speaking personally, I did not dig this one at all. To add insult to injury, we then got word after the game that RB Kanye Udoh hit the Transfer Portal.

I mean, why the Hell not? Half the coaching staff spent their week trying to leave West Point, too. Udoh is just following on from what he sees in his leadership. I’d like to be mad, too, but how can we blame these guys for trying to follow the money?

That’s what we do in America in 2024.

When Army first joined the American Athletic Conference, no one thought the timing of the Army-Navy Game was gonna be a big deal. A few weeks ago, though, we started to realize that it might be, and as of late November, I personally had come around to the idea of moving America’s Game back to Thanksgiving Day.

I say this because Army’s season clearly culminated last week in the American Conference Championship. The team peaked last week, the Corps was the best they’ve ever been, and the Black Knights walked away from their best game of the season with their first ever conference championship.

Way cool.

I don’t care what anybody says, from where we’re sitting now, we can see that this was an ending. It maybe wasn’t the grand finale with the glorious send-off we’d hoped for, but as it happens, it was most certainly the ending we deserved. 

This week, almost as a coda, the Black Knights came out to play Navy, and it looked like they were stuck in the mud. Heisman Trophy candidate QB Bryson Daily couldn’t hit open receivers, normally reliable receivers couldn’t catch, the certified Joe Moore Award Winning Best Offensive Line in College Football couldn’t block anybody whatsoever, and the nation’s Top 10 scoring defense couldn’t keep anybody out of the end zone. Hell, even the Corps of Cadets seemed like a bunch of hung-over drunks out there. 

The Brigade came to participate in a football game. Army’s cadets all stood there like they’d never seen football before and didn’t know what to do with what they were watching.

Sure, there were reasons. Player parents told us that the team was tired. They’d already played twelve games, the last four without a break. By comparison, Navy played two games in the last four weeks. Add in the lack of prep time, and all the bullshit associated with winning national awards, doing national press, and just flat out being told unceasingly how great you are. Oh, by the way, your coach has spent the past week interviewing with North Carolina and West Virginia, your other coach actually already took a job with Central Michigan, and your most talented player has decided that he doesn’t want to be your brother anymore.

That’s a decent number of distractions. So yeah, this result was not, like, hard to see coming or anything.

Look, I’ve booted it in an Army uniform. I understand.

I got mono my firstie year, laboriously worked my way back over the latter half of my final season, actual swam really well in my last prelim race ever to qualify for the finals at the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships, and then lost focus as the afternoon wore on because, damn it, after that race, I knew that I could spend the rest of my life doing whatever the Hell I wanted. In that mindset, I swam arguably the worst swim of my entire career, threw my goggles in the trash immediately afterwards, and didn’t hit the pool again until my father died some twelve years later. 

So yeah. I do get it. I absolutely did this myself one time, and I know exactly what it feels like.

Reality is that one bad game doesn’t take away from a great season, even if that bad game is Army-Navy. Indeed, when I go to these games, seeing the actual football isn’t the best part. It’s not close to the best part. The best part is reconnecting with all of my classmates. I did that this weekend, and in fact, that is why I actually drove 500 miles this weekend. I told a radio interviewer yesterday that I’d gone to Army-Navy to reconnect with my place in the Long Gray Line. That was true when I said it, so it must remain true even in the midst of bitter disappointment after the fact.

Sure, there was football. I’m sad that my team didn’t win. But I got to see and spend time with my friends, and that matters, too. I also got to see my team win a championship, and booted Army-Navy Game or no, you can’t take that away from me. You can move the game to Thanksgiving Day, and I’d be on board with that, but as things stand now, Army is still your AAC Champ. There’s not anything that anyone can say to change that.

I’ll take it. After all, I was there for that one, too, and it was awesome.

Looking Forward

The Transfer Portal has murdered bowl season to the point that As For Football is cutting our picks league short. I don’t know how to tell you this, friends, but no one cares about bowls anymore. Marshall already pulled out of their Independence Bowl slot against Army because they had something like twenty-five players hit the portal, and if you’re asking my opinion, Army ought to pull out as well.

As we noted above, this team is cooked. Their season ended last week, and for me, I don’t need to pretend that it didn’t. They clearly don’t want to play football anymore, and as I said, I understand. Here’s a perfect excuse to send these guys on an early holiday. There is literally no good reason to keep them around.

For me, I’ve most assuredly had enough. 

It’s ski season. Find me on the slopes.

Cover image: The Class of ’95 posing for a picture at halftime of the 2024 Army-Navy Game.