Army Targets Independence Bowl Win Over Louisiana Tech Saturday
By John ChuhranCaMMVets Media
Shreveport, LA – For the Army Black Knights, Saturday night’s Independence Bowl represents more than a Bowl game victory. It represents a chance to get rid of the sting of defeat.
Two weeks ago, Army (11-2) was confident, riding high and looking forward to perhaps finishing with a 13-1 record that would be unprecedented for a team from West Point; a 12th win on Saturday would still break the record for wins in a season by Army. But those hopes for 13 wins were shattered with an unexpected 31-13 defeat to arch-rival Navy in a game where the Midshipmen out played the Black Knights from opening kickoff to the final gun. It was a painful loss because the game against Navy is always the most important game of the year – more so this year because the loss meant that the Black Knights lost possession of the Commander-In-Chiefs Trophy for 2025 as well as a chance to have lunch at the White House and meet President Trump.
“I think anytime you get your butt whipped,” said Army Head Coach Jeff Monken, “you want to get back out there and prove that that's not who we are now – that's who we were on Saturday. We’ve got one more opportunity to play a game and for our seniors to play and to finish out a season. It's been a good season – we've won a lot of games. It's not a great season – beating those guys (from Navy) last Saturday would’ve made it a great season, but this would certainly be a great win for us if we can get it to finish the season. We're going to have to earn it against a very athletic team and very good team – well coached and playing at home. There's going to be some challenges for us.”
While the two weeks to prepare for the Independence Bowl (set for 9 PM on Saturday, December 28 on ESPN TV) would normally be enough time for Army to get healthy and regroup, the cadets found themselves having to deal with the unexpected departure of sophomore running back Kanye Udoh (second on the team with 1,117 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns), who is transferring to Arizona State, and Assistant Coaches Matt Drinkall, who has accepted the Head Coach position at Central Michigan, and Sean Cronin and Jacob Riedel, who are joining his staff.
An added challenge is the fact that Army will be facing a new opponent; Louisiana Tech (5-7) accepted a late invitation after original opponent Marshall (10-3), winner of the Sun Belt Conference, withdrew its acceptance following the departure of its head coach to become the head coach at Southern Mississippi. More than two dozen players withdrew from Marshall to follow him.
Though Louisiana Tech had an inconsistent season, the Bulldogs have the top defense in Conference USA, holding opponents to 301.9 yards per game. Army led the American Athletic Conference in allowing 304.1 yards per game.
Linebacker Zach Zimos leads the Bulldogs with 74 tackles, six tackles for loss and one sack. Andon Thomas tops the Black Knights defenders (95 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks).
Louisiana Tech began to turn its season around after starting quarterback Jack Turner went down with an injury in the second game of the year. Redshirt freshman Evan Bullock came on in replacement, and in 11 games he completed 183 passes for 1,935 yards (best completion percentage in the conference), 14 touchdowns with just two interceptions. His favorite target is WR Tru Edwards who leads C-USA with 76 receptions for 894 yards and six touchdowns
By John ChuhranCaMMVets Media
Shreveport, LA – For the Army Black Knights, Saturday night’s Independence Bowl represents more than a Bowl game victory. It represents a chance to get rid of the sting of defeat.
Two weeks ago, Army (11-2) was confident, riding high and looking forward to perhaps finishing with a 13-1 record that would be unprecedented for a team from West Point; a 12th win on Saturday would still break the record for wins in a season by Army. But those hopes for 13 wins were shattered with an unexpected 31-13 defeat to arch-rival Navy in a game where the Midshipmen out played the Black Knights from opening kickoff to the final gun. It was a painful loss because the game against Navy is always the most important game of the year – more so this year because the loss meant that the Black Knights lost possession of the Commander-In-Chiefs Trophy for 2025 as well as a chance to have lunch at the White House and meet President Trump.
“I think anytime you get your butt whipped,” said Army Head Coach Jeff Monken, “you want to get back out there and prove that that's not who we are now – that's who we were on Saturday. We’ve got one more opportunity to play a game and for our seniors to play and to finish out a season. It's been a good season – we've won a lot of games. It's not a great season – beating those guys (from Navy) last Saturday would’ve made it a great season, but this would certainly be a great win for us if we can get it to finish the season. We're going to have to earn it against a very athletic team and very good team – well coached and playing at home. There's going to be some challenges for us.”
While the two weeks to prepare for the Independence Bowl (set for 9 PM on Saturday, December 28 on ESPN TV) would normally be enough time for Army to get healthy and regroup, the cadets found themselves having to deal with the unexpected departure of sophomore running back Kanye Udoh (second on the team with 1,117 rushing yards and 10 rushing touchdowns), who is transferring to Arizona State, and Assistant Coaches Matt Drinkall, who has accepted the Head Coach position at Central Michigan, and Sean Cronin and Jacob Riedel, who are joining his staff.
An added challenge is the fact that Army will be facing a new opponent; Louisiana Tech (5-7) accepted a late invitation after original opponent Marshall (10-3), winner of the Sun Belt Conference, withdrew its acceptance following the departure of its head coach to become the head coach at Southern Mississippi. More than two dozen players withdrew from Marshall to follow him.
Though Louisiana Tech had an inconsistent season, the Bulldogs have the top defense in Conference USA, holding opponents to 301.9 yards per game. Army led the American Athletic Conference in allowing 304.1 yards per game.
Linebacker Zach Zimos leads the Bulldogs with 74 tackles, six tackles for loss and one sack. Andon Thomas tops the Black Knights defenders (95 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks).
Louisiana Tech began to turn its season around after starting quarterback Jack Turner went down with an injury in the second game of the year. Redshirt freshman Evan Bullock came on in replacement, and in 11 games he completed 183 passes for 1,935 yards (best completion percentage in the conference), 14 touchdowns with just two interceptions. His favorite target is WR Tru Edwards who leads C-USA with 76 receptions for 894 yards and six touchdowns
“They are a very athletic football team and that's apparent,” Monken said. “They're good on defense. They lost some really close games. I'm really impressed with their personnel. I think (Head Coach) Sonny (Cumbie) is a really good football coach and they're playing at home and a lot of them grew up there in Louisiana.
“There is some uncertainty there as to what they're going to do on offense if coach Cumbie's going to call the plays, if coach Franklin – the new offensive coordinator – is going to call the plays. We don't know, so we have two different systems, two different game plans essentially to try to prepare for. That makes it challenging, especially with the short amount of time that we have to get ready.”Though losing Udoh deprives Army of its second-most effective offensive weapon behind quarterback Bryson Daily (who has already set Army single season records for most rushing yards (1,532) and most rushing TD (29)), Monken is confident that the Black Knights have the roster depth with running backs Tyrell Robinson, Noah Short, Jake Rendina and Carson Smith to put up points in Louisiana.
“We certainly wish Kanye (Udoh) well and we're disappointed to lose him,” Monken said. “He's a good player, but he's also a really good young man. I really like him, (and) his parents and have enjoyed having him here in the program. We have other guys and we will adjust. I’m sure we will continue to do the things we do on offense. We don’t intend to change and be different schematically because of a change in a player.
“I think Louisiana Tech is a very athletic, a talented football team but there is some uncertainty there as to what they're going to do on offense. We don’t know if coach Cumbie's going to call the plays, if coach Franklin – the new offensive coordinator – is going to call the plays. We just don't know, so we have two different systems, two different game plans essentially to try to prepare for. That makes it challenging, especially with the short amount of time that we have to get ready.
“We certainly could keep practicing through Christmas, but we're going to give the guys a few days off to go and be with their families. Then we'll reconvene down in Shreveport on Christmas Eve, but that doesn't give us a lot of time so we're kind of in a guessing game right now. We know we've got to prepare for talented, fast athletes, and that's a challenge in itself.”
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“I think Louisiana Tech is a very athletic, a talented football team but there is some uncertainty there as to what they're going to do on offense. We don’t know if coach Cumbie's going to call the plays, if coach Franklin – the new offensive coordinator – is going to call the plays. We just don't know, so we have two different systems, two different game plans essentially to try to prepare for. That makes it challenging, especially with the short amount of time that we have to get ready.
“We certainly could keep practicing through Christmas, but we're going to give the guys a few days off to go and be with their families. Then we'll reconvene down in Shreveport on Christmas Eve, but that doesn't give us a lot of time so we're kind of in a guessing game right now. We know we've got to prepare for talented, fast athletes, and that's a challenge in itself.”
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