Army West Point Athletics
Black Knight Blog - Monday, Oct. 18
October 18, 2010 | General
A pleasant Monday afternoon to everyone. Brian Gunning with you to start the week.
I want to start off by sending our office's thoughts and well wishes to Rutgers' Eric LeGrand. For those of you haven't heard yet, Eric suffered a serious spinal injury while covering a kickoff in last Saturday's game against Army. For the latest update from Rutgers, you can go to the Scarlet Knights' website, www.scarletknights.com. You can also send a messge to Eric and his family by clicking here. I know the entire Army Football family is rooting for Eric and his family. While it was a tough loss for the Black Knights on Saturday, when something like this happens, it definitely puts things in perspective.
It's a little different vibe on a Monday with no football game this week. Usually at this time I'm scrambling to finish up our football game notes and getting everything squared for Coach Ellerson's Tuesday press conference.
Sine I won't be posting a full set of game notes this week, here are a few nuggets to tide you football fans over until next week ...
• Army boasts one of the top rushing offenses in the nation. The Black Knights are eighth in the country with a 276.43 yards-per-game average. Army has run for at least 235 yards in each of its first seven games, including two games of more than 300 yards (309 at Eastern Michigan; 312 at Tulane). The Black Knights need just 65 rushing yards to become the 39th Army team to rush for 2,000 yards in a season. Sophomore FB Jared Hassin has posted back-to-back 100-yard games and leads the team with 511 yards (73.0/game).
• The Black Knights added two rushing scores to its season total versus Rutgers. Army has 24 rushing scores this season, its best showing since the 1999 season. The Black Knights are on pace to score 30-or-more rushing touchdowns in a season for the first time since the 1996 squad posted 33 touchdowns on the ground.
• The Army offense had its six-game streak of scoring at least 24 points stopped in its loss at Rutgers. Army is averaging 30.6 points per game through the first seven outings. The Black Knights have not averaged 20 points per game since 2006 and have not posted 30.0 points per contest for a season since 1985. Army’s 214 points has already topped it season scoring totals in 2007 (203), 2008 (177) and 2009 (184).
• Defensively, Army is coming off an Academy record-setting peformance with eight sacks at Rutgers. The Black Knights pushed their season total to 20 quarterback takedowns, which is just four shy of the Army team record set in 1999.
• Army held Rutgers to -1 yard rushing. The Black Knights have kept four of their seven opponents to less than 100 rushing yards and five of the seven foes to less than 115 yards. Army is 28th in the nation, allowing 117.0 rushing yards per game.
• Despite a -1 turnover margin at Rutgers, the Black Knights lead the nation with an average turnover margin of +1.57. Army is the only team in the nation that has not thrown an interception.
VMI is next up on the docket on Oct. 30. The game has been designated as Military Appreciation Day. With only two games remaining at Michie Stadium, the VMI contest might be your best chance at seeing the Black Knights in person. Air Force comes to town on Nov. 6, but the limited seats that are left are going fast, and I wouldn't be surprised if they were completely gone later this week. Click here for ticket information.
Speaking of Military Appreciation Day, our television partner, CBS College Sports Network has a whole week of programming planned leading up to the VMI game. On that day, CBSC will broadcast the Army game at noon, the Navy vs. Duke game at 3:30 p.m. and the Air Force vs. Utah game at 7:30 p.m. In addition to the service academy smorgasboard, CBSC has produced a 30-minute documentary on each team called Inside Service Academy Football. You can catch a sneak peek of the episode featuring West Point by clicking here. The full 30-minute special debuts on Thursday, Oct. 28 at 8:30 p.m.
Another question I've gotten quite a bit recently is about Army's bowl aspirations. First things first, the Black Knights need to win two more games to even enter the discussion. If that happens, we have a secondary agreement with the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl. The game is usually played in Fort Worth, Texas, but because of TCU's stadium renovations, this year's game will be played in Dallas at SMU.
The secondary agreement means that if the Mountain West Conference or Conference USA, the two leagues with a primary arrangement with the bowl game, don't qualify enough teams to fill their spot in the game, than Army has the first chance to replace them.
In the future, Army's postseason hopes will be more defined. Starting in 2011, Army has primary tie-ins with a bowl game in each of the next three seasons. If bowl eligible, the Black Knights will participate in the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in 2011, the Eagle Bank Bowl in 2012 and Poinsettia Bowl in 2013. The primary tie-ins means that six wins prior to Army's annual clash with Navy sends the Black Knights bowling regardless of what anyone else does.
While there is no football game this week, it's hardly an off week. Zach Spiker's men's basketball team started practice last Friday and are in the midst of their preseason preparations. Zach and I will be heading off to Patriot League media day a week from Thursday where the preseason poll and preseason all-league players will be announced. Keep checking the web site for periodic updates from practice. The 2010-11 media guide should also be posted in the next couple of weeks.
That about does it for me today. Back to the Monday grind.
GO ARMY!!
