Army West Point Athletics
Feinstein's Findings: That was then. This is now.
October 14, 2018 | 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 2018 season. Feinstein's weekly report will be posted to GoArmyWestPoint.com following each battle on the gridiron.
Once upon a time, in the bad old days, watching Army's football team was a little bit like watching Romeo and Juliet: you knew the ending and you knew it was going to be unbearably sad.
There was the 0-13 disaster of 2003. There was the frigid Friday night in 2006 when Army turned the ball over on four-straight PLAYS in the second quarter against Air Force, en route to a humiliating 43-7 loss inside Michie Stadium. And there were those 14 consecutive losses to Navy.
That was then. This—fortunately—is now.
Which is why, when the Black Knights trailed a struggling San Jose State team 3-0 at the end of the first quarter on Saturday, there was no need to panic. Grind the teeth a little perhaps, but nowadays the feeling is: they'll figure it out; as opposed to that twisted knot feeling in the stomach of days gone by.
These are the good old days and Saturday was another example.
Beginning with the first play of the second quarter, a 41-yard touchdown strike from Kelvin Hopkins Jr. to Jordan Asberry. Army did to the Spartans what good teams ultimately do to bad ones: they wore them down, physically and mentally.
The final score in Levi Stadium, in front of a crowd that was announced at 15,627, was 52-3. It could have been worse. Coach Jeff Monken cleared his bench in the fourth quarter and the game ended with Army deep in San Jose State territory clearly trying to NOT score again before the clock mercifully ran out.
And so, the Black Knights are now 4-2, having gone 2-1 on their three-game road trip with the loss in overtime at then No. 5 Oklahoma. It's worth noting that Saturday's game was the first all season against a team with a losing record. Army's five previous opponents are a combined 25-8 after Saturday's games.
San Jose State is now 0-6. It isn't as if the Spartans don't have some talent—they do. That was evident when they took Hawai'i to five overtimes before losing and a week ago when they roared back from a 28-0 deficit to score 30 points in the third quarter and take the lead, before losing, 42-30.
The Spartans one and only real drive of the game pretty much summed up who they are as a football team.
The afternoon did not begin well for the Black Knights—to put it mildly. On their opening possession of the game, Hopkins ran left on a 2nd-and-10 option and was hit hard as he tried to turn upfield.
He went down—and didn't get up. This past summer, Monken joked that the real MVPs in Army's 10-3 season last fall were the athletic training staff because quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw never missed a snap because of injury in 13 games.
Out came the team of athletic trainers in Tim Kelly and Bob Daplyn along with others on the medical staff. Hopkins was helped up, then went back down. The staff's streak appeared to be in trouble.
Army punted after backup quarterback Luke Langdon failed to pick up a first down on a QB draw and San Jose State pieced together an impressive looking drive.
With starting quarterback Josh Love in street clothes, backup Montel Aaron—who had started one game earlier in the season—showed an accurate arm and some elusiveness. Twice, he completed passes that would have set the Spartans up inside the Army 10-yard line. Twice, the play was called back because of a lineman downfield—the second time there were TWO linemen downfield, the officials simply had to choose which one to officially penalize.
This is what losing teams do: they give their fans moments of hope before disaster inevitably strikes.
When the dust finally cleared, SJSU had held the ball for 6:37 and had settled for a 49-yard Bryce Crawford field goal and a 3-0 lead. That was the highlight for their small cadre of fans.
The highlight for the Black Knights, or at least the day's most important moment, may have come after the ensuing kickoff when Hopkins, apparently none the worse for wear, jogged into the huddle. The athletic training staff's streak lived.
Hopkins picked up a critical first down right away, breaking at least three tackles to turn a one-yard gain on 3rd-and-5 into a five-yard gain. From there, Army went the length of the field, the drive culminating on the first play of the second quarter with Hopkins' hookup with Asberry.
That made it 7-3 and, for all intents and purposes, the Black Knights never looked back. They ended the first half perfectly, driving the ball 57 yards to Hopkins' first (of three) rushing touchdown of the game, the score coming with just 12 seconds left.
That drive exemplified Army at its absolute best. Spartans' Coach Brett Brennan used all three of his timeouts hoping to get the ball back with enough time to perhaps put points on the board before halftime.
Army kept grinding the clock down—with Kell Walker getting more work than he has had for most of the season to date. After a SJSU timeout, it took only three plays for the Black Knights to score, with Hopkins finally going over from the one with those 12 measly seconds to go to make it 14-3, ensuring there would be no last gasp score by the designated home team.
The question at halftime was whether the Spartans could get a second wind and climb back into the game. Clearly, if Army could put together a drive to open the third quarter the odds of that happening would become considerably longer.
That's exactly what happened. The Black Knights held onto the ball for almost six minutes before Hopkins broke from the 3-4-5 yards-a-play script to sprint 24 yards for the touchdown that made it 21-3.
At that point, SJSU was done. It was apparent their defense wasn't going to stop Army anytime before Halloween and its offense collapsed completely.
On their next four possessions, the Spartans ran a total of nine plays: FOUR resulted in fumbles, all of which Army recovered. The four fumbles led to an Army field goal; a touchdown; a touchdown and finally a 52 yard James Nachtigal romp down the sideline that made the score 45-3.
Perhaps the most significant moment in all that havoc came after the first fumble when the Army offense actually failed to put the ball into the end zone. Senior John Abercrombie, who has been entrusted with the placekicking duties, came in to try the first field goal of his career—and nailed it from 33 yards.
Two years ago, Abercrombie was playing sprint football. Now, his emergence as a reliable kicker may play a key role for this team as it moves into the second half of the schedule.
Hopkins ended up with 99 yards on 18 carries. It seemed as if everyone in uniform—including Nachtigal—got to carry the ball at some point.
Monken alternated between Langdon and sophomore Cam Thomas at quarterback in the fourth quarter and Thomas racked up 74 yards and the game's final score on just seven carries.
When it was all said and done, the long flight home was a very happy one.
The Black Knights are now at the midway point of their schedule and play Miami of Ohio at Michie this coming Saturday before traveling to play Eastern Michigan in two weeks—the latter a team that came within inches of winning at Michie a year ago.
Both had impressive wins Saturday and both games will require the same kind of smart, efficient play that has been on display ever since the disappointing opener against Duke—a team that is now 5-1.
The win Saturday evened Monken's record at Army to 28-28. Of course that record is deceiving. The Black Knights were 6-18 his first two seasons. Since then, they're 22-10.
That was then. This is now. Now is a lot more fun.
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