Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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GAME PREVIEW: ARMY 34 NOV. 23, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED one of the best seasons in West Point of all time. But you still have to win the games, and that's exactly what the Black Knights have done, largely on the arm and legs of Daily, who has made sure Army has not won a game this season by fewer than 11 points. Before beating UNT by that margin, the lowest total was 17. "It's just an absolute testament to this offense," Daily said of holding Ar- my's new record for rushing scores in a single season. "Coach [Cody] Worley, the O-line, guys like Miles [Stewart] blocking outside … I'm extremely lucky to be in the position I am. It's just a tes- tament to the whole offense." QUITE A CHALLENGE Navy's Blake Horvath is having a record-setting season, too, and Notre Dame derailed that for a week. Met- rics and betting lines suggest the same thing will happen to Daily and the Black Knights in The Bronx. Football games aren't played via talk shows and the written word, though. In this case, they're played on a field laid out in the middle of a baseball sta- dium. Is Army supposed to beat Notre Dame? No. Monken said Army does not have one single advantage over Notre Dame — not even scouting what Navy's triple-option offense did or didn't do against the Fighting Irish a few weeks ago. "I don't know if it would make a dif- ference if every team they played so far ran the triple option — we still wouldn't have an advantage," Monken said. "They are way more athletic, bigger, faster, skilled. This is a great football team we're playing in Notre Dame. A very talented football team." Could the upset still happen? Yes. Of course. Any given Saturday. It's only happened eight times in 51 meetings between these two before, and if there was ever a time for the ninth this sure seems like a ripe spot for it. "It's going to be a tremendous chal- lenge," Monken said. "We know that. We can only do what we can do, and that's try to get our guys to play very fundamentally sound football and play their assignments well and compete re- ally hard and control the things we're capable of controlling." ✦ 1. Bryson Daily Is Actually 'Him' Army has 3,779 yards of total offense this sea- son. Senior quarterback Bryson Daily is respon- sible for 1,706 of them. Nearly half. And that's with missing an entire game due to injury. He's already got Army's single-season rush- ing touchdown record to his name with 21 and counting to go along with 1,062 rushing yards on 6.1 yards per carry, and he's been dangerous with his arm when asked to throw the ball. Daily has completed 29 of 51 throws for 644 yards with 7 touchdowns and 1 interception. On Nov. 13, Daily was named a Walter Camp Player of the Year semifinalist along with 19 other players from around the country, including Notre Dame safety Xavier Watts. Daily's name was placed among those of the very best in the sport with good reason. That's what he's been for the better part of his fourth season at West Point. Only eight quarterbacks made that Walter Camp cut, and Daily was one of them. That's unusual for a signal-caller from a service acad- emy in this era. Daily means everything to this Army team. "That's who we are as an offense," head coach Jeff Monken said. "It's who we've been and what he's done for us." 2. Army Likes To Get Off To A Hot Start The Black Knights have scored on all nine of their opening drives this season. Eight of those possessions have resulted in touchdowns. The only one that didn't was when quarter- back Bryson Daily missed a game with an injury against Air Force. Army settled for a field goal in an eventual 20-3 victory over its service acad- emy rival that afternoon. These aren't just any scoring drives to begin games. These are life-suckers for the opponent, with a few exceptions. Here's a rundown of them: • 9 plays, 80 yards, 4:55, TD • 8 plays, 82 yards, 4:57, TD • 5 plays, 70 yards, 2:52, TD • 3 plays, 86 yards, 1:32, TD • 3 plays, 42 yards, 1:28, TD • 1 play, 32 yards, 0:10, TD • 5 plays, 66 yards, 3:27, TD • 11 plays, 57 yards, 6:13, FG • 9 plays, 48 yards, 5:47, TD The average Army opening drive has spanned 6 plays and 62.6 yards, and has taken roughly three and a half minutes off the clock. If the Irish can get a three-and-out or only give up one first down, it would be a huge win for the Notre Dame defense. 3. Getting It Done Defensively There aren't many defenses in college foot- ball that allow fewer points than Notre Dame. Through Week 11, Army had one of the two that can make that claim. The Black Knights ranked No. 1 nationally in scoring defense at that time with 10.3 points allowed per game. That's one of the biggest differences between Army and Navy this season, in a year in which it seems like there are so many similarities be- tween the two — Notre Dame needs to be pre- pared for a better defense against this service academy than the one the Irish faced at MetLife Stadium in October. — Tyler Horka Three Things To Know About Army Junior linebacker Kalib Fortner is a key part of the nation's No. 1 scoring defense, which was holding opponents to just 10.3 points per game this season. PHOTO COURTESY ARMY ATHLETICS