Game Notes: Army Opens Season at Duke

WEST POINT, N.Y. - The Black Knights travel to North Carolina to take on Duke under the lights on Friday night to open the 2018 season.

The contest will air live on ESPNU; the game can also be heard on the Army Sports Network through the TuneIn app or goarmywestpoint.com.

HOW TO FOLLOW
TELEVISION • ESPNU
RADIO • Army Sports Network
GAME NOTES • Army Notes • Duke Notes
LIVE STATS • GoDuke.com
TWITTER • @ArmyWP_Football

THE OPENING KICKOFF
• Army looks to win its fourth season opener under head coach Jeff Monken, who enters his fifth season at the helm of the Black Knights.
• The Black Knights are coming off a 10-win season for only the second time in program history and captured the Commander in Chief's Trophy for the first time since 1996.
• Army won its second straight bowl game with a thrilling 42-35 victory over San Diego State in the Armed Forces Bowl.
• Army is 97-28-3 in season openers as a program and Monken is 1-0 when the first game is away from Michie Stadium in his career as the Black Knights' head coach.
• The last season opener on the road was a 28-13 victory over Temple at Lincoln Financial Field in 2016.
• The Black Knights were the NCAA FBS rushing leader in 2017 with an average of 362.3 yards per game, but Army is replacing four of five starters from the offensive line.
• With the graduation of quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw, Army is losing its top rusher from a season ago with 1,742, which set the single-season service-academy record.

A SEASON TO REMEMBER
• Army is coming off its first 10-win season since 1996 and only the second in school history.
• The Black Knights brought home its first Commander in Chief's Trophy title since 1996 with the 14-13 victory over Navy and visited The White House in early May to celebrate.
• Army reached 10 wins with another dramatic victory in the Armed Forces Bowl against San Diego State. The Black Knights came from behind to beat the Aztecs in Fort Worth.

MONKEN ENTERS FIFTH YEAR
• Head coach Jeff Monken enters his fifth season at the helm of Army football and has a 24-26 record with 18 wins over the past two seasons.
• He is one of only two coaches to take Army to a pair of bowl games during his tenure, joining former coach Jim Young.
• For the success last season, Monken was named a finalist for the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award and the Eddie Robinson Award, both of which are for national coach of the year.

RUSHING ATTACK
• The Black Knights led FBS in rushing for the first time since 2012 as Army ran for 362.3 yards per game in 2017.
• Army returns most of the rushing attack from last season, but the biggest piece, Ahmad Bradshaw graduated from the Academy in August.
• Bradshaw set the single-season rushing record last year with 1,746 yards, including 265 yards against Air Force in the 21
• Army returns the entire fullback corps with Darnell Woolfolk and Andy Davidson leading the way. Woolfolk was second on the team in rushing in 2017 and had 14 rushing touchdowns, while Davidson was the team leader in touchdowns in 2016 with 12.

TEAM CAPTAINS
• The team captains for the 2017 season are Darnell Woolfolk, Bryce Holland and Cole Christiansen.
• Holland returns as the anchor of the offensive line, which is a young group.
• Woolfolk is the leading rushing from a year ago and heads a fullback group that has all of its fire power back.
• Cole Christiansen is the first junior captain since Jeremy Timpf in 2015 and is in the middle of the defense that returns eight starters from 2017.

ARMY-DUKE HISTORY
• This will be the 26th all-time meeting between Duke and Army.
• The series belongs to the Blue Devils at 13-11-1 with Army earning the win last season to get closer to evening the series.
• The series started back in 1944 and the first four games were played at the Polo Grounds in New York City.

ABOUT THE BLUE DEVILS
• Duke had an interesting 2017 with an up-and-down season and finished 7-6 overall and a 3-5 mark in ACC play.
• The Blue Devils won their first four games of 2017 and then dropped six consecutive contests before ending the year on a three-game winning streak, including the Quick Lane Bowl victory.
• Quarterback Daniel Jones is back for another season under center and has played in 25 career games. He threw for over 2,600 yards a season ago and has over 1,000 yards rushing in his career.
• The ground attack welcomes back two of its top three returners in Brittain Brown and Jones. Brown had 701 rushing yards and Jones finished with 518 on the year.
• Receivers T.J Rahming and Johnathan Lloyd are back for the Blue Devils with Rahmng returns as the leader with 795 yards through the air.
• The defense returns three of its top four tacklers from a season ago, with Joe Giles-Harris leading the way with 125 tackles in 2017.

Army West Point Athletics

Game Notes: Army Opens Season at Duke

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Ahmad Bradshaw

Cole Christiansen

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Bryce Holland

Darnell Woolfolk

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