UNSTOPPABLE FORCES
Army and Navy Eye Championship Glory in Unprecedented Season
By KEVIN M c NAMARA
Reaching six wins and earning a Bowl Season spot is usually cause for extended celebration for both the Army Black Knights and Navy Midshipmen in most college football seasons.
The 2024 season, however, has been anything but normal at both West Point and Annapolis. Exhilarating, undefeated starts into mid-October set both service academies on a path not only into Bowl Season but also firmly in the mix for a championship in the American Athletic Conference and even into the College Football Playoff conversation. It’s been heady stuff, and deservedly captured the hearts of fans everywhere.
“The football programs at each of our military academies represent all that is right with the game of college football,” said Bowl Season executive director Nick Carparelli.
“It is a big deal for any school to qualify for a bowl game and contend for a birth in the College Football Playoff. But for Army and Navy to be in this discussion should make us all proud.”
“ The football programs at each of our military academies represent all that is right with the game of college football.”
– NICK CARPARELLI Bowl Season Executive Director
Army, led for the 11th season by head coach Jeff Monken, has enjoyed bowl success of late.
The Black Knights beat Missouri in the 2021 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, 24-22, and just fell short in the 2020 AutoZone Liberty Bowl, losing to West Virginia, 24-21. The Cadets are 4-1 in
Bowl Season with Monken as head coach. But after running out to a perfect 6-0 start behind the trickery and running of quarterback Bryson Daily, plus a stout defense, Army secured its Bowl Season credentials for the earliest time ever.
“It’s special and it’s certainly an accomplishment we don’t take lightly,” Monken said, “but we have more important things to concern ourselves with, much bigger goals than being bowl eligible. Whatever bowl we qualify for is a fantastic accomplishment. I’ve had three teams in the Armed Forces Bowl and what a great experience that has been for all of us down in Fort Worth. But our goals change every week, right? We’ll see what happens.”
said. “We want to be significant in the landscape of college football and be in the (playoff) conversation. We’re not getting any rewards five or six games in.”
It’s impossible to think about either Army or Navy (or both!) in the national discussion without a quick history lesson. When the Knights (No. 23) and Middies (25th) both entered the Associated Press poll together in mid-October, it marked the first time the two academies were Top 25 teams at the same time since 1960. That was the season that Navy’s star halfback, Joe Bellino, won the Heisman Trophy.
The same dynamic has unfolded a few hundred miles down the Atlantic coast in Annapolis. Navy coach Brian Newberry spent his first three seasons in Annapolis as the defensive coordinator, working alongside the school’s all-time winningest coach, Ken Niumatalolo. Newberry was elevated to the head job at the end of the 2022 season, and in two seasons he’s opened up the attack and is enjoying the best offensive start in Navy’s history. The Midshipmen scored at least 38 points in this year’s opening four games for the first time in 144 seasons of football, thanks in large part to the option-based offensive mind of coordinator Drew Conic, and the legs and arm of quarterback Blake Horvath.
“It’s certainly an accomplishment we don’t take lightly, but we have bigger goals than being bowl eligible. Our goals change every week.”
– JEFF MONKEN Army Head Coach
You have to stretch all the way back to the fall of 1945 to find the last time Army and Navy both began the same season undefeated for at least the opening five games. World War II had ended that September and the academies were stocked with talent. Led by legendary coach Red Blaik and the incomparable running back duo of Heisman winners Doc Blanchard (in 1945) and Glenn Davis (’46), Army beat Navy, 32-13, to finish 9-0 and win its second consecutive national championship. Navy (7-1-1) finished third in the polls.
The 1958 season, Blaik’s finale, would mark the final unbeaten (8-0-1) season for Army who turned down overtures from the bowls that season and for decades. The academy’s first bowl trip didn’t come until the 1984 Cherry Bowl. It now owns a 7-3 all-time record in the bowls.
“We’re off to a good start and proud of what we’ve done but we have a lot of work left to do,” Newberry
Navy lost to Texas in the 1964 Cotton Bowl behind Heisman-winning quarterback Roger Staubach and would win 11 games twice during Niumatalolo’s
tenure. The Middies are 12-12 in a bowl history that stretches back to the 1924 Rose Bowl.
Now 100 seasons later the service academies are rolling. How are they doing it? Coaching and, of course, great dedication and talent from some of our country’s finest student-athletes. Newberry told The Athletic that he’s had an eye on Cronic’s offensive mind for several years and “I wanted to be unique and different. Nobody in the country is running this offense and I knew that following Drew throughout his career.”
At Army, Monken knew he had a special quarterback talent in Daily but felt the team passed out of the shotgun too often in 2023. Daily did not run the option offense as a prep star in Abernathy, Tex., but has paired with running backs like Kanye Udoh and Noah Short to give Army the top rushing attack in the country.
an attractive bowl game. That’s big for us. It’s a great reward for your players and program. It would be a big deal.”
The uniqueness of the ArmyNavy game set for Dec. 14 creates a delicious wrinkle that the entire college football world will have no choice but to watch. With Army now in its first season in the AAC, it’s possible that the Black Knights and Midshipmen (Navy) match up in the AAC Championship game on Dec. 6. The CFP matchups and Bowl Season schedule will be released Dec. 8.
“To win the conference title and the CIC trophy, those are our big goals. If you accomplish those, you’re going to play in an attractive bowl game. That’s a great reward for the players and the program.”
– BRIAN NEWBERRY Navy Head Coach
Setting goals is a paramount focus at places like Army, Navy and the Air Force Academy. Those three programs compete on a daily basis on and off the practice field but this year it’s impossible not to think about goals that football programs everywhere dream about. That’s what winning can do.
“To win the (American) conference title, to win the CIC (Commander-in-Chief’s) trophy, those are our big goals,” said Navy’s Newberry. “Obviously if you’re able to accomplish those two then you’re going to play in
The CFP decided last spring that the committee will not take the regular season Army-Navy game into account when it releases its final standings and the playoff field. The quick turnaround for first-round games on Dec. 20-21 in a 12-team bracket necessitates proper planning for transportation, housing, tickets and other game essentials. So it remains a possibility Army and Navy could play in The American title game, perhaps with a CFP berth on the line, then play again the next week as scheduled.
“Everybody associated with college football would be lying if you’re not aiming for as many wins and as high-profile a bowl as possible,” Monken said. “That’s what the sport entails, those are everyone’s goals. But we know that it’s a fantastic experience regardless of what bowl it is. It’s a neat challenge to attack.”
