Unbeaten Army Scores Early,Adapts to Top East Carolina 45-28
By John ChuhraCaMMVets Media
West Point, N.Y. – Undefeated Army (7-0, 6-0 in the American Athletic Conference) played three quarters of dominating football, faced a completely different opposing offense in the final stanza, adapted, and came away with a 45-28 win over the visiting East Carolina Pirates (3-4, 1-2) Saturday. It was the fourth straight game where the Black Knights have scored more than 40 points.
“I thought the first half our guys played really well,” Army Head Coach Jeff Monken said. “Defensively, certainly, we played well. Kept them off the scoreboard. They've got a really good football team. I think they're athletic and big and well-coached. So, at halftime going in there with a 24-0 lead was a little surprising because I think they've got a really good team.
“In the second half, they did a better job defending us. We weren't moving them as much or as effectively. When we hit the fourth quarter, we had a decent lead, and then they really started making some plays and put some pressure on us. The last touchdown for us was big to stretch that lead back out again, and it kind of put it to enough of a lead that they probably didn't have enough time to recover.”
The star of the day was Army Quarterback Bryson Daily, who scored five rushing touchdowns and passed for a sixth. That’s the most touchdowns one Army player was responsible for since Elmer Oliphant scored six touchdowns in 1916 (just a decade after the forward pass was legalized). Daily’s five rushing touchdowns also equaled the Army record for rushing touchdowns in one game.
On the season, Daily has now recorded 19 rushing touchdowns in 2024, taking the lead among the 133 NCAA Football Bowl Series teams from Ashton Jeanty, who has 17 for Boise State, which was idle this week. The 19 rushing touchdowns is a new single-season record for touchdowns scored by an Army player in one season and broke the previous standard of 17 held by three players – Carlton Jones (2004), Trent Steelman (2012) and Kelvin Hopkins Jr. (2018). Daily still has five more regular-season games to add to his record total.
Daily finished with a game-high 31 carries for 171 yards; he now has topped 100 yards rushing for the last six consecutive games (breaking the previous record of five set by Steelman in 2012). Through seven games, Daily has amassed 922 rushing yards on 138 carries (avg. of 6.68 yards per carry).
With the passing attack clearly the third option in Army’s triple-option strategy, the Senior signal caller still had his best game as a pass thrower against the Pirates. Daily completed 7 of 10 passes for 147 yards and one TD.
“Bryson Daily is a tough runner,” Monken said. “That kid just has a warrior spirit mentality with the way he plays. He doesn't look for a sideline, he looks to gain an extra yard. He's just getting better. He's getting more confident.
“Our offense is continuing to improve, so the guys around him, the supporting cast. I really think the offensive line is doing a great job. Give credit to the running backs. Kanye Udoh and Miles (Stewart) and Hayden Reed, Jake Rendina, Noah Short... those guys were all throwing some blocks for him.
“There's a lot of places [other schools where] running backs are wondering when they're going to get theirs carries. When are you going to give me the ball? Our guys don't care about that. They just want to win. If it means blocking for him and we win, that's all that matters to them. They're very unselfish, and they're doing a nice job. So really it's just a credit to everybody.
“He’s also doing a really good job in the passing game and putting the ball where our receivers can get it. That throw he had to Casey (Reynolds) down at the end, Casey made just a great catch, a one-handed catch in the middle of the field (for 41 yards that set up Army’s final TD), and there were some (ECU) guys around, but he put the ball in a great spot. I’m really impressed with that part of his game right now.”
After winning the coin toss and deferring possession to the second half, Army held the Pirates to a three-and-out and, after a punt, took control of the ball on its own 34. Daily wasted no time in establishing Army dominance. On the first play from scrimmage, he fired a rocket into the outstretched arms of Reynolds (who finished with three receptions for 85 yards) in the middle. Reynolds charged ahead for another 12 yards before being brought down on the East Carolina 29. Daily soon followed with a strike into the end zone where Miles Stewart pulled it in as he raced to the right corner. The early success continued Army’s streak of scoring a touchdown on its first possession of every game this year and Trey Gronotte made the score 7-0 Army with his unblemished 32nd consecutive Point After Touchdown kick and just 3:27 run off the clock.
“It was a surreal moment,” said Stewart, one of the unheralded slotbacks who usually toil away with uncredited blocks for others, but this time got to score his first collegiate touchdown. “You dream about that your whole life, but just being in a position doing your job for the team, I mean, that’s everything. It was called at the right time, and I just happened to be the guy in the position to receive the ball. It was a well-thrown ball, just like we drew it up. Sometimes you get thrown in the game, and you get in that moment, and you just got to execute your job.
“Everybody on this team will tell you it's a lot that goes into this offense. Blocking – any time Bryson scores, I feel like I score. Any time Kanye (Udoh, who rushed for 102 yards on 19 carries) scores, I feel like I score. So we always preach finish in the end zone, and you always want to finish in the end zone with your block. As long as the team is finishing in the end zone and we're winning games, everybody is bought in. So I think the culture is great, and we're all playing for our brothers.”
The Army offense continued to execute and followed with three drives that resulted in a field goal and two more touchdowns to give the hosts 17 more points.
The Black Knights defense held East Carolina in check throughout the first half. The Pirates ran no more than five plays in any of their first five drives and gained nine yards or fewer in four of them. ECU managed to finally find some traction in its last drive of the half, but after advancing 56 yards in eight plays, Army Cornerback Justin Weaver picked off a Katlin Houser pass to end the scoring threat on the Army 16 with just 52 seconds left before the break.
The pattern of the game continued in the third quarter, but in the final stanza the Pirates changed to a pass-oriented spread offense that put up three touchdowns.
“The fourth quarter, second half, they (ECU) did a great job,” Monken said. “They put some heat on us, made some plays. They made a great catch down in the goal line – or down in the end zone on our sideline, I should say, to keep his feet inbounds. They made some good plays. So I was glad to see our guys continue to battle and fight, and we had to at the end. It was probably good for us a little bit to be in a fight like that. We didn't have the starters in there. There were a lot of the younger guys in there playing. Not all of them – there were some plays that they hit on our first team guys.
“The thing that is scary for us is the teams that have really good skills like they do – a big offensive line that does a nice job protecting – sometimes they're going to find some seams and hit us on some plays. Hopefully, as I said, they're not (connecting on passes) over our head. At least if they catch it, we can tackle them if they're in front of us. It might be a big gain, but it's not a touchdown. We were able to do that even on some of the big plays. We were at least keeping them in front of us and tackling them and playing another down. I don't have a great answer for here's how we stop them. Just play our defense and bend, don't break.”
Army has a bye week next week and so will have 14 days to prepare for strong rival Air Force, which visits Michie Stadium on November 2 for a 12 noon start with a nationwide broadcast on CBS-TV.
(-CaMMVets-)
By John ChuhraCaMMVets Media
West Point, N.Y. – Undefeated Army (7-0, 6-0 in the American Athletic Conference) played three quarters of dominating football, faced a completely different opposing offense in the final stanza, adapted, and came away with a 45-28 win over the visiting East Carolina Pirates (3-4, 1-2) Saturday. It was the fourth straight game where the Black Knights have scored more than 40 points.
“I thought the first half our guys played really well,” Army Head Coach Jeff Monken said. “Defensively, certainly, we played well. Kept them off the scoreboard. They've got a really good football team. I think they're athletic and big and well-coached. So, at halftime going in there with a 24-0 lead was a little surprising because I think they've got a really good team.
“In the second half, they did a better job defending us. We weren't moving them as much or as effectively. When we hit the fourth quarter, we had a decent lead, and then they really started making some plays and put some pressure on us. The last touchdown for us was big to stretch that lead back out again, and it kind of put it to enough of a lead that they probably didn't have enough time to recover.”
The star of the day was Army Quarterback Bryson Daily, who scored five rushing touchdowns and passed for a sixth. That’s the most touchdowns one Army player was responsible for since Elmer Oliphant scored six touchdowns in 1916 (just a decade after the forward pass was legalized). Daily’s five rushing touchdowns also equaled the Army record for rushing touchdowns in one game.
On the season, Daily has now recorded 19 rushing touchdowns in 2024, taking the lead among the 133 NCAA Football Bowl Series teams from Ashton Jeanty, who has 17 for Boise State, which was idle this week. The 19 rushing touchdowns is a new single-season record for touchdowns scored by an Army player in one season and broke the previous standard of 17 held by three players – Carlton Jones (2004), Trent Steelman (2012) and Kelvin Hopkins Jr. (2018). Daily still has five more regular-season games to add to his record total.
Daily finished with a game-high 31 carries for 171 yards; he now has topped 100 yards rushing for the last six consecutive games (breaking the previous record of five set by Steelman in 2012). Through seven games, Daily has amassed 922 rushing yards on 138 carries (avg. of 6.68 yards per carry).
With the passing attack clearly the third option in Army’s triple-option strategy, the Senior signal caller still had his best game as a pass thrower against the Pirates. Daily completed 7 of 10 passes for 147 yards and one TD.
“Bryson Daily is a tough runner,” Monken said. “That kid just has a warrior spirit mentality with the way he plays. He doesn't look for a sideline, he looks to gain an extra yard. He's just getting better. He's getting more confident.
“Our offense is continuing to improve, so the guys around him, the supporting cast. I really think the offensive line is doing a great job. Give credit to the running backs. Kanye Udoh and Miles (Stewart) and Hayden Reed, Jake Rendina, Noah Short... those guys were all throwing some blocks for him.
“There's a lot of places [other schools where] running backs are wondering when they're going to get theirs carries. When are you going to give me the ball? Our guys don't care about that. They just want to win. If it means blocking for him and we win, that's all that matters to them. They're very unselfish, and they're doing a nice job. So really it's just a credit to everybody.
“He’s also doing a really good job in the passing game and putting the ball where our receivers can get it. That throw he had to Casey (Reynolds) down at the end, Casey made just a great catch, a one-handed catch in the middle of the field (for 41 yards that set up Army’s final TD), and there were some (ECU) guys around, but he put the ball in a great spot. I’m really impressed with that part of his game right now.”
After winning the coin toss and deferring possession to the second half, Army held the Pirates to a three-and-out and, after a punt, took control of the ball on its own 34. Daily wasted no time in establishing Army dominance. On the first play from scrimmage, he fired a rocket into the outstretched arms of Reynolds (who finished with three receptions for 85 yards) in the middle. Reynolds charged ahead for another 12 yards before being brought down on the East Carolina 29. Daily soon followed with a strike into the end zone where Miles Stewart pulled it in as he raced to the right corner. The early success continued Army’s streak of scoring a touchdown on its first possession of every game this year and Trey Gronotte made the score 7-0 Army with his unblemished 32nd consecutive Point After Touchdown kick and just 3:27 run off the clock.
“It was a surreal moment,” said Stewart, one of the unheralded slotbacks who usually toil away with uncredited blocks for others, but this time got to score his first collegiate touchdown. “You dream about that your whole life, but just being in a position doing your job for the team, I mean, that’s everything. It was called at the right time, and I just happened to be the guy in the position to receive the ball. It was a well-thrown ball, just like we drew it up. Sometimes you get thrown in the game, and you get in that moment, and you just got to execute your job.
“Everybody on this team will tell you it's a lot that goes into this offense. Blocking – any time Bryson scores, I feel like I score. Any time Kanye (Udoh, who rushed for 102 yards on 19 carries) scores, I feel like I score. So we always preach finish in the end zone, and you always want to finish in the end zone with your block. As long as the team is finishing in the end zone and we're winning games, everybody is bought in. So I think the culture is great, and we're all playing for our brothers.”
The Army offense continued to execute and followed with three drives that resulted in a field goal and two more touchdowns to give the hosts 17 more points.
The Black Knights defense held East Carolina in check throughout the first half. The Pirates ran no more than five plays in any of their first five drives and gained nine yards or fewer in four of them. ECU managed to finally find some traction in its last drive of the half, but after advancing 56 yards in eight plays, Army Cornerback Justin Weaver picked off a Katlin Houser pass to end the scoring threat on the Army 16 with just 52 seconds left before the break.
The pattern of the game continued in the third quarter, but in the final stanza the Pirates changed to a pass-oriented spread offense that put up three touchdowns.
“The fourth quarter, second half, they (ECU) did a great job,” Monken said. “They put some heat on us, made some plays. They made a great catch down in the goal line – or down in the end zone on our sideline, I should say, to keep his feet inbounds. They made some good plays. So I was glad to see our guys continue to battle and fight, and we had to at the end. It was probably good for us a little bit to be in a fight like that. We didn't have the starters in there. There were a lot of the younger guys in there playing. Not all of them – there were some plays that they hit on our first team guys.
“The thing that is scary for us is the teams that have really good skills like they do – a big offensive line that does a nice job protecting – sometimes they're going to find some seams and hit us on some plays. Hopefully, as I said, they're not (connecting on passes) over our head. At least if they catch it, we can tackle them if they're in front of us. It might be a big gain, but it's not a touchdown. We were able to do that even on some of the big plays. We were at least keeping them in front of us and tackling them and playing another down. I don't have a great answer for here's how we stop them. Just play our defense and bend, don't break.”
Army has a bye week next week and so will have 14 days to prepare for strong rival Air Force, which visits Michie Stadium on November 2 for a 12 noon start with a nationwide broadcast on CBS-TV.
(-CaMMVets-)