Army West Point Athletics
Feinstein's Findings: Back on Track
October 01, 2017 | Football
New York Times bestselling author, John Feinstein, is back for another season with the Black Knights and will report in after each football game during the 2017 season. The weekly report will be posted to GoArmyWestPoint.com following each battle on the gridiron.
Three hours before kickoff on Saturday, Jeff Monken stood in the Army training room with his arms folded, talking about playing a UTEP team Army had beaten 66-14 a year ago.
"They've seen the option now," he said. "They had no idea how to defense it last year. They'll be better against it today, I'm sure. They're better than their record."
To be fair, UTEP couldn't possibly be worse than its 0-4 record, but Monken's concern was understandable. His team was coming off a brutal loss at Tulane and couldn't afford to come into the game thinking about last season's rout in El Paso.
Monken's words hung in the air during most of the first quarter, although for most of that time, it was tough to judge UTEP's defense since Army's offense only had the ball for three plays.
"They're doing an Army on Army," said Dean Darling, who has done color on the Army radio network for so long that he often talks fondly about Cadet Dennis Michie's playmaking ability.
It was an ominous start on a slate gray late afternoon, the 3:30 kickoff breaking with what has become the tradition of noon starts in the stadium named for Darling's old pal, Cadet Michie.
On Army's first possession, offensive coordinator Brent Davis, dialed up a first down, first play-of-the-game pass, the equivalent of a lunar eclipse, especially this fall, given that the Black Knights had completed four passes coming into the game.
The call was perfect and Ahmad Bradshaw lofted arguably his best pass of the season in the direction of slotback Jordan Asberry. But Asberry didn't get his hands up to receive the ball, letting it fall to his waist level. By the time it got there, he was being hit by a closing UTEP defender and he dropped the ball.
Two plays later, Army had to punt.
That's when UTEP began to do an Army on Army. The Miners went 81-yards in 15 plays, eating up 8:03 on the clock. Most of the work was done by a back named Quardraiz Wadley, who came into the game having picked up 77 yards on the season. In fact, in four one-sided losses, UTEP had rushed for a total of 251 yards. You wouldn't have known it by the Wadley ran over defenders, capping the drive on a one-yard run with 1:13 left in the quarter for a 7-0 lead.
It was the first time all season UTEP had held a lead. Monken's pre-game words grew louder.
Finally given the ball again, the Army offense began to click. Andy Davidson cut off right guard and went 32 yards to tie the score at 7-7 early in the second quarter.
Then, as bad teams will often do, UTEP made a critical error. The Miners quickly began another drive, their huge offensive line gashing holes for Wadley and backup running back Kevin Dove. They received an assist from referee Jeff Flanagan who called Alex Aukerman for a seriously questionable roughing the passer penalty when Aukerman ran into quarterback Zach Greenlee just after he released a throw-it-away pass. Aukerman would have needed some kind of magical breaking system to avoid hitting Greenlee.
Regardless, there was UTEP with a first down at the Army 37 and the clock ticking. For some reason, the UTEP coaches decided to get fancy when their offense was looking unstoppable with straight ahead runs. The dialed up a trick play, Greenlee pitching to Walter Dawn, who turned and tried to throw the ball backwards across the field back to Greenlee. His throw was short and Greenlee could do nothing more than fall on what was a fumble.
The play lost 11 yards. UTEP's momentum was gone. Two plays later it had to punt and the Black Knights offense, now firmly in control, promptly marched 93 yards, the drive capped by Calen Holt's first career touchdown on a 19-yard pitch from Bradshaw.
There was still some tension left because UTEP was able to piece together another impressive-looking march to tie the score at 14-14 just before halftime.
In El Paso, Army had led 24-0 at the break. "They'll play better today for sure…"
They had, but there were 30 minutes left. While the six Hall-of-Fame honorees were being introduced during the break, Army defensive coordinator Jay Bateman and his coaches were making some halftime adjustments.
Players and coaches will tell you that the notion of "halftime adjustments," is often highly overrated. There's only so much you can do in a few minutes and if the other team's better than you then you can make 100 adjustments and it won't matter.
But the Army coaches seem to have a knack for figuring some things out midway through the game. Three weeks ago against Buffalo, the Black Knights trailed 17-7 at halftime. The defense pitched a second half shutout and Army rallied to win in the fourth quarter. Even last week against Tulane, Army dominated both sides of the ball for the first 25 minutes of the second half only to have all of it go for naught when the Green Wave pieced together their torturous final drive.
Saturday was more of the same. The defense that had looked so troubled for most of 30 minutes produced the following in the second half: three-and-out; six-and-out (even with an interception wiped out by a holding penalty); eight plays and a stop on fourth down and three-and-out. UTEP had produced 177 yards in offense the first half. The second half it netted 35 yards.
Now that's making adjustments.
Of course the offense more than held its own too. The first three possessions of the half produced long drives and touchdowns, including a (gasp!) touchdown pass: Bradshaw finding a wide-open Asberry for a 42-yard score that made it 28-14. Connor Slomka's 13-yard run capped a 91-yard drive early in the fourth and everyone could breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Bullet dodged. Monken's pre-game words thankfully moot.
With Darnell Woolfolk probably still a couple of weeks from playing, Davidson rushed for 100 yards and got ample help from Slomka and Holt. Fullback is clearly Army's deepest position. Bradshaw ran for 93 yards on just 11 carries but also THREW for 80—even with the drop on his first pass of the day—an important and encouraging sign. James Nachtigal made 11 tackles and Aukerman was all over the field (again) and the defense, still banged up in the backfield, did itself proud in the second half.
And so, September ends 3-2 which, not so long ago would have been looked at as worthy of a TV documentary. Now, the thinking is, 'should have been 4-1.' The next three weeks will tell us a lot about this season even though the two biggest games won't come until November and December—as always.
Army has to travel to Rice next week, the sort of game that is very winnable, but, like Tulane, lose-able if the Black Knights fail to bring their 'A,' game. Then Eastern Michigan and Temple come to Michie. EMU has improved greatly since it last came to the banks of the Hudson in 2013 and Temple may not be as good as the team Army beat a year ago, but it is still very talented.
So, three toss-up games to come before the Black Knights finally get a bye week before going to Air Force. That's the way Army football is these days: no game is a lock (Ohio State and FCS opponents being the outliers) either way. Which is a long way from the dark days of the not-too-distant past.
The sun never really came out on Saturday. Except metaphorically in the final 30 minutes.
Three hours before kickoff on Saturday, Jeff Monken stood in the Army training room with his arms folded, talking about playing a UTEP team Army had beaten 66-14 a year ago.
"They've seen the option now," he said. "They had no idea how to defense it last year. They'll be better against it today, I'm sure. They're better than their record."
To be fair, UTEP couldn't possibly be worse than its 0-4 record, but Monken's concern was understandable. His team was coming off a brutal loss at Tulane and couldn't afford to come into the game thinking about last season's rout in El Paso.
Monken's words hung in the air during most of the first quarter, although for most of that time, it was tough to judge UTEP's defense since Army's offense only had the ball for three plays.
"They're doing an Army on Army," said Dean Darling, who has done color on the Army radio network for so long that he often talks fondly about Cadet Dennis Michie's playmaking ability.
It was an ominous start on a slate gray late afternoon, the 3:30 kickoff breaking with what has become the tradition of noon starts in the stadium named for Darling's old pal, Cadet Michie.
On Army's first possession, offensive coordinator Brent Davis, dialed up a first down, first play-of-the-game pass, the equivalent of a lunar eclipse, especially this fall, given that the Black Knights had completed four passes coming into the game.
The call was perfect and Ahmad Bradshaw lofted arguably his best pass of the season in the direction of slotback Jordan Asberry. But Asberry didn't get his hands up to receive the ball, letting it fall to his waist level. By the time it got there, he was being hit by a closing UTEP defender and he dropped the ball.
Two plays later, Army had to punt.
That's when UTEP began to do an Army on Army. The Miners went 81-yards in 15 plays, eating up 8:03 on the clock. Most of the work was done by a back named Quardraiz Wadley, who came into the game having picked up 77 yards on the season. In fact, in four one-sided losses, UTEP had rushed for a total of 251 yards. You wouldn't have known it by the Wadley ran over defenders, capping the drive on a one-yard run with 1:13 left in the quarter for a 7-0 lead.
It was the first time all season UTEP had held a lead. Monken's pre-game words grew louder.
Finally given the ball again, the Army offense began to click. Andy Davidson cut off right guard and went 32 yards to tie the score at 7-7 early in the second quarter.
Then, as bad teams will often do, UTEP made a critical error. The Miners quickly began another drive, their huge offensive line gashing holes for Wadley and backup running back Kevin Dove. They received an assist from referee Jeff Flanagan who called Alex Aukerman for a seriously questionable roughing the passer penalty when Aukerman ran into quarterback Zach Greenlee just after he released a throw-it-away pass. Aukerman would have needed some kind of magical breaking system to avoid hitting Greenlee.
Regardless, there was UTEP with a first down at the Army 37 and the clock ticking. For some reason, the UTEP coaches decided to get fancy when their offense was looking unstoppable with straight ahead runs. The dialed up a trick play, Greenlee pitching to Walter Dawn, who turned and tried to throw the ball backwards across the field back to Greenlee. His throw was short and Greenlee could do nothing more than fall on what was a fumble.
The play lost 11 yards. UTEP's momentum was gone. Two plays later it had to punt and the Black Knights offense, now firmly in control, promptly marched 93 yards, the drive capped by Calen Holt's first career touchdown on a 19-yard pitch from Bradshaw.
There was still some tension left because UTEP was able to piece together another impressive-looking march to tie the score at 14-14 just before halftime.
In El Paso, Army had led 24-0 at the break. "They'll play better today for sure…"
They had, but there were 30 minutes left. While the six Hall-of-Fame honorees were being introduced during the break, Army defensive coordinator Jay Bateman and his coaches were making some halftime adjustments.
Players and coaches will tell you that the notion of "halftime adjustments," is often highly overrated. There's only so much you can do in a few minutes and if the other team's better than you then you can make 100 adjustments and it won't matter.
But the Army coaches seem to have a knack for figuring some things out midway through the game. Three weeks ago against Buffalo, the Black Knights trailed 17-7 at halftime. The defense pitched a second half shutout and Army rallied to win in the fourth quarter. Even last week against Tulane, Army dominated both sides of the ball for the first 25 minutes of the second half only to have all of it go for naught when the Green Wave pieced together their torturous final drive.
Saturday was more of the same. The defense that had looked so troubled for most of 30 minutes produced the following in the second half: three-and-out; six-and-out (even with an interception wiped out by a holding penalty); eight plays and a stop on fourth down and three-and-out. UTEP had produced 177 yards in offense the first half. The second half it netted 35 yards.
Now that's making adjustments.
Of course the offense more than held its own too. The first three possessions of the half produced long drives and touchdowns, including a (gasp!) touchdown pass: Bradshaw finding a wide-open Asberry for a 42-yard score that made it 28-14. Connor Slomka's 13-yard run capped a 91-yard drive early in the fourth and everyone could breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Bullet dodged. Monken's pre-game words thankfully moot.
With Darnell Woolfolk probably still a couple of weeks from playing, Davidson rushed for 100 yards and got ample help from Slomka and Holt. Fullback is clearly Army's deepest position. Bradshaw ran for 93 yards on just 11 carries but also THREW for 80—even with the drop on his first pass of the day—an important and encouraging sign. James Nachtigal made 11 tackles and Aukerman was all over the field (again) and the defense, still banged up in the backfield, did itself proud in the second half.
And so, September ends 3-2 which, not so long ago would have been looked at as worthy of a TV documentary. Now, the thinking is, 'should have been 4-1.' The next three weeks will tell us a lot about this season even though the two biggest games won't come until November and December—as always.
Army has to travel to Rice next week, the sort of game that is very winnable, but, like Tulane, lose-able if the Black Knights fail to bring their 'A,' game. Then Eastern Michigan and Temple come to Michie. EMU has improved greatly since it last came to the banks of the Hudson in 2013 and Temple may not be as good as the team Army beat a year ago, but it is still very talented.
So, three toss-up games to come before the Black Knights finally get a bye week before going to Air Force. That's the way Army football is these days: no game is a lock (Ohio State and FCS opponents being the outliers) either way. Which is a long way from the dark days of the not-too-distant past.
The sun never really came out on Saturday. Except metaphorically in the final 30 minutes.
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