Army West Point Athletics
Photo by: Danny Wild-USA TODAY Sports
Feinstein's Findings: Grinding Out the Win
October 11, 2020 | Football
Let us begin today with a couple of wise sayings from coaches—one currently doing excellent work; the other an immortal.
Jeff Monken, Army's football coach, likes to say this before his team faces an opponent most people believe it should beat: "I'm concerned anytime we play, regardless of who we're playing."
Dean Smith, who won 879 games as North Carolina's basketball coach and is on the sport's coaching Mount Rushmore, liked to remind his players that, "The other team gives scholarships too."
The truth in both Monken's and Smith's words were on display for three long hours Saturday afternoon inside Michie Stadium. Monken's concerns about facing Citadel, a team that runs an option offense almost identical to Army's, were so real that it wasn't until the final seconds finally bled off the clock that he and his players could breathe a deep sigh of relief after escaping with a 14-9 victory.
From beginning to end, the Bulldogs made it crystal clear that they had very much earned their scholarships and had made the trip north with every intention of pulling a memorable upset.
"They were great," Monken said when it was over. "Their defense outplayed our offense all day."
Fortunately, the same was true of Army's defense, which allowed Citadel very little room to maneuver. In fact, Citadel's two scoring drives—to a first quarter field goal and a late fourth quarter touchdown—went for 28 yards and two yards.
Army won the game because it managed to piece together two touchdown drives: one in the second quarter that was built—remarkably—on three PASS completions; the second in the third quarter that was the only time all day one felt as if it was watching an Army offense: 14 rushes that covered 62 yards and included two converted fourth downs.
Beyond that, Citadel's defense, as Monken pointed out, seemed to be ready for everything the Black Knights threw in its direction. The Bulldogs defense got consistent penetration on play after play. Army was without senior fullback Sandon McCoy, but one might have thought his absence wouldn't make that much difference given that fullback is the team's deepest position.
But Jakobi Buchanan, Cade Barnard and Anthony Adkins carried the ball a combined 18 times for just 52 yards. Thirteen of those yards came on a critical run by Buchanan on Army's last run-out-the-clock drive of the game.
In all, the Black Knights ran the ball 50 times for 153 yards, an average of 3.1 yard per carry. This from a team that came into the game averaging 351 yards on the ground for four games for an average of six yards per carry.
Army had won three previous games at Michie by the combined score of 134-30. There was little reason to believe another glorious fall Saturday would be much different than the three that had come before. Citadel is a solid FCS program but, in this strangest of years, was playing its fourth game in a four-game fall schedule. Because the Southern Conference elected to not play football until next spring, the Bulldogs scheduled four games in the hope of playing seven come the first few months of 2021.
They had lost at South Florida, a mediocre FBS team; been crushed at No. 1 ranked Clemson—certainly no surprise; and then had lost badly to Eastern Kentucky, 37-14, a week ago. That game, more than the first two, seemed to indicate that this wasn't one Citadel's stronger teams. Five years ago, under current East Carolina Coach Mike Houston, the Bulldogs had gone 10-2 and reached the second round of the FCS playoffs. A year later, with current coach Brent Thompson taking over for Houston, they matched that mark: 10-2 and another first round win in the NCAA playoffs. Since then, they'd fallen back to playing .500 ball or close to it.
There was also history between the two schools, none of it recent. In 1991 and 1992, the Citadel had come into Michie Stadium and won. In 1994, it took a late field goal for Army to finally get a win, 25-24. The teams hadn't played since and there were no plans for that to change until the pandemic hit and both schools found themselves scrambling for games.
Neither was all that eager for the matchup. Monken and Thompson are good friends and the two staffs often get together to compare notes on how to run and how to defense the triple-option. They had done so this spring, never thinking they'd be playing one another in October.
Right from the beginning, it was apparent the Citadel hadn't made the trip north just to be fodder for another easy Army victory. The Bulldogs pulled off a perfect onside kick on the opening kickoff, only to have it undermined when quarterback Tanner Rainey threw a perfect pass into the arms of Army's Marquel Broughton on his team's second play from scrimmage, turning the ball over so quickly that the Corps of Cadets, once again the only fans allowed in the stadium, could not have been blamed for wondering what the heck was going on.
But instead of asserting its superiority in the manner in which a heavy favorite would hope to do, Army's offense quickly went three-and-out. That began a punting battle that Citadel won, thanks in large part to what has become a familiar Army 2020 bugaboo—penalties.
First, the Citadel's Matt Campbell got off a booming 53-yard punt that Jaylen Robinson fumbled at the 13-yard-line, picked up and was tackled almost instantly. Bad field position got worse after a block-in-the-back penalty moved the ball to the seven. Then, the offense went three-and-out—again, picking up just two yards. Zach Harding got off a 46-yarder and the defense got another stop. But Campbell's next punt was downed on the one.
Aided by an offsides penalty, Army finally managed to pick up a first down on a five-yard run by Jemel Jones, moving the ball to the 12. But a false start turned third-and-seven into third-and-12 and Jones threw incomplete to Robinson.
This time Harding's punt carried to midfield. On first down, Cooper Wallace gashed the defense for 22-yards. From there, the defense held and Citadel's freshman kicker Colby Kintner came in to make a 39-yard-field goal on the last play of the first quarter.
Citadel-3, Army-0. Wow.
The Black Knights finally managed some offense on their next series, but Citadel held on a fourth-and-three from the 25, swarming Robinson on a pitch play for no gain. The series began with a pitch to Robinson and ended on a pitch to Robinson. What was remarkable about both plays was the Bulldogs had so much penetration and read the plays so well that the ball was almost knocked down or picked off before it even reached Robinson. Only a facemask penalty kept the first from being a disaster.
Army finally pieced together a touchdown drive late in the second quarter using a rarely seen weapon: the pass. On a third-and-nine from the 22, Jones found tight end Chris Cameron for a 25-yard-gain to the 47. For Cameron, a junior, it was the first catch of his varsity career. Jones then found sophomore Reikan Donaldson twice—first for 10-yards and then for a 29-yard touchdown. On the previous series, Jones had missed a wide-open Donaldson on what would have been a certain touchdown. This time, Donaldson was well defended, but Jones threw the ball to Donaldson's right and he was able to spin away and make the catch at the goal line. The two catches doubled his career total.
It stayed 7-3 through halftime, although it took a good deal of Black Knights' luck to get to the break with that score intact. Rainey quickly found Raleigh Webb on a flawless 50-yard throw that put the Citadel in business at the Army 29. But Rainey's next throw was as bad as the previous one had been superb—throwing behind his receiver, allowing Cedrick Cunningham Jr. to pick it off.
Jones promptly returned the favor with an equally poor pass that was intercepted by Andy Davis at the Army 41. After penalties on both sides, the half ended with Kintner's 47-yard field goal hitting the inside of the right upright and bouncing forward, keeping the score the same.
The first two series of the third quarter ultimately decided the game. Since Rainey had completed more passes to Army (2) than to Citadel (1) Thompson decided to go with sophomore Jaylan Adams to start the second half. Adams got his team into field goal range but this time Kintner's 47-yarder was blocked by Andre Carter II.
That was when the Black Knights put together their one true 'Army,' drive of the game—Jones, breaking tackles to pick up one fourth down; Barnard bulldozing straight ahead for two yards to pick up the other. Jones then scored from five-yards-out and, after taking more than seven minutes off the clock, Army led 14-3.
It should have been over. It wasn't.
Army stopped a Citadel drive with five minutes to go thanks to back-to-back sacks by Arik Smith, who was superb all day, taking part in 11 tackles. All the Black Knights really needed to do was keep the ball on the ground and try to run the clock down. Even a three-and-out and a Harding punt would have given the ball to the Bulldogs deep in their own territory down two scores with time running out.
But the coaches tried to get cute—and it backfired. Trying to pass on first down, Jones took a 13-yard sack. Then, on third-and-20, trying to throw a screen pass, Jones instead threw the ball to the Citadel's Jay Smith. The 6-1, 270-pound lineman rumbled to the one-yard-line and fumbled. As Jones, who had peeled back to try to help on the tackle, tried to dive on it, he rolled his ankle and came up hobbling.
Citadel recovered at the two and Darique Hampton scored with 3:21 left to make it 14-9. Then, Thompson and staff made a stunning mistake, sending the kicking team in for a meaningless extra point. By the time Thompson realized he had to go for two to cut the margin to a field goal, he had to waste a time out. To makes matters worse—better for Army—the two-point conversion failed.
Still, the Black Knights needed to run the clock out and Maurice Bellan, who had never run a truly meaningful play from scrimmage, had to take over at quarterback. They got to start from the 35 because Campbell's semi-attempt at an onside kick went out-of-bounds. On second down, Buchanan rumbled 13-yards for a critical first down. Bellan took it from there, running five times for 24 yards including a clinching seven-yard run on fourth-and-six from the Citadel 35 with 19 seconds left.
Game over. At last.
Citadel deserves all the credit in the world for coming so close to a stunning upset. Army now travels to play a much-improved Texas-San Antonio team next week. UTSA was 4-8 a year ago including a 31-13 loss to Army. It has a new coach, Jeff Traylor, and is 3-2 after losing very competitively--27-20--to 15th-ranked Brigham Young on Saturday.
As of this moment, there is no way to know who will start at quarterback for Army next week: Will Christian Anderson be back after sitting out Saturday? What about Jones? Or will it be Bellan?
Stay tuned. One thing is for sure: Monken shouldn't have any trouble convincing his players that they need to be concerned about next week's opponent—or any opponent—from here on in.
Jeff Monken, Army's football coach, likes to say this before his team faces an opponent most people believe it should beat: "I'm concerned anytime we play, regardless of who we're playing."
Dean Smith, who won 879 games as North Carolina's basketball coach and is on the sport's coaching Mount Rushmore, liked to remind his players that, "The other team gives scholarships too."
The truth in both Monken's and Smith's words were on display for three long hours Saturday afternoon inside Michie Stadium. Monken's concerns about facing Citadel, a team that runs an option offense almost identical to Army's, were so real that it wasn't until the final seconds finally bled off the clock that he and his players could breathe a deep sigh of relief after escaping with a 14-9 victory.
From beginning to end, the Bulldogs made it crystal clear that they had very much earned their scholarships and had made the trip north with every intention of pulling a memorable upset.
"They were great," Monken said when it was over. "Their defense outplayed our offense all day."
Fortunately, the same was true of Army's defense, which allowed Citadel very little room to maneuver. In fact, Citadel's two scoring drives—to a first quarter field goal and a late fourth quarter touchdown—went for 28 yards and two yards.
Army won the game because it managed to piece together two touchdown drives: one in the second quarter that was built—remarkably—on three PASS completions; the second in the third quarter that was the only time all day one felt as if it was watching an Army offense: 14 rushes that covered 62 yards and included two converted fourth downs.
Beyond that, Citadel's defense, as Monken pointed out, seemed to be ready for everything the Black Knights threw in its direction. The Bulldogs defense got consistent penetration on play after play. Army was without senior fullback Sandon McCoy, but one might have thought his absence wouldn't make that much difference given that fullback is the team's deepest position.
But Jakobi Buchanan, Cade Barnard and Anthony Adkins carried the ball a combined 18 times for just 52 yards. Thirteen of those yards came on a critical run by Buchanan on Army's last run-out-the-clock drive of the game.
In all, the Black Knights ran the ball 50 times for 153 yards, an average of 3.1 yard per carry. This from a team that came into the game averaging 351 yards on the ground for four games for an average of six yards per carry.
Army had won three previous games at Michie by the combined score of 134-30. There was little reason to believe another glorious fall Saturday would be much different than the three that had come before. Citadel is a solid FCS program but, in this strangest of years, was playing its fourth game in a four-game fall schedule. Because the Southern Conference elected to not play football until next spring, the Bulldogs scheduled four games in the hope of playing seven come the first few months of 2021.
They had lost at South Florida, a mediocre FBS team; been crushed at No. 1 ranked Clemson—certainly no surprise; and then had lost badly to Eastern Kentucky, 37-14, a week ago. That game, more than the first two, seemed to indicate that this wasn't one Citadel's stronger teams. Five years ago, under current East Carolina Coach Mike Houston, the Bulldogs had gone 10-2 and reached the second round of the FCS playoffs. A year later, with current coach Brent Thompson taking over for Houston, they matched that mark: 10-2 and another first round win in the NCAA playoffs. Since then, they'd fallen back to playing .500 ball or close to it.
There was also history between the two schools, none of it recent. In 1991 and 1992, the Citadel had come into Michie Stadium and won. In 1994, it took a late field goal for Army to finally get a win, 25-24. The teams hadn't played since and there were no plans for that to change until the pandemic hit and both schools found themselves scrambling for games.
Neither was all that eager for the matchup. Monken and Thompson are good friends and the two staffs often get together to compare notes on how to run and how to defense the triple-option. They had done so this spring, never thinking they'd be playing one another in October.
Right from the beginning, it was apparent the Citadel hadn't made the trip north just to be fodder for another easy Army victory. The Bulldogs pulled off a perfect onside kick on the opening kickoff, only to have it undermined when quarterback Tanner Rainey threw a perfect pass into the arms of Army's Marquel Broughton on his team's second play from scrimmage, turning the ball over so quickly that the Corps of Cadets, once again the only fans allowed in the stadium, could not have been blamed for wondering what the heck was going on.
But instead of asserting its superiority in the manner in which a heavy favorite would hope to do, Army's offense quickly went three-and-out. That began a punting battle that Citadel won, thanks in large part to what has become a familiar Army 2020 bugaboo—penalties.
First, the Citadel's Matt Campbell got off a booming 53-yard punt that Jaylen Robinson fumbled at the 13-yard-line, picked up and was tackled almost instantly. Bad field position got worse after a block-in-the-back penalty moved the ball to the seven. Then, the offense went three-and-out—again, picking up just two yards. Zach Harding got off a 46-yarder and the defense got another stop. But Campbell's next punt was downed on the one.
Aided by an offsides penalty, Army finally managed to pick up a first down on a five-yard run by Jemel Jones, moving the ball to the 12. But a false start turned third-and-seven into third-and-12 and Jones threw incomplete to Robinson.
This time Harding's punt carried to midfield. On first down, Cooper Wallace gashed the defense for 22-yards. From there, the defense held and Citadel's freshman kicker Colby Kintner came in to make a 39-yard-field goal on the last play of the first quarter.
Citadel-3, Army-0. Wow.
The Black Knights finally managed some offense on their next series, but Citadel held on a fourth-and-three from the 25, swarming Robinson on a pitch play for no gain. The series began with a pitch to Robinson and ended on a pitch to Robinson. What was remarkable about both plays was the Bulldogs had so much penetration and read the plays so well that the ball was almost knocked down or picked off before it even reached Robinson. Only a facemask penalty kept the first from being a disaster.
Army finally pieced together a touchdown drive late in the second quarter using a rarely seen weapon: the pass. On a third-and-nine from the 22, Jones found tight end Chris Cameron for a 25-yard-gain to the 47. For Cameron, a junior, it was the first catch of his varsity career. Jones then found sophomore Reikan Donaldson twice—first for 10-yards and then for a 29-yard touchdown. On the previous series, Jones had missed a wide-open Donaldson on what would have been a certain touchdown. This time, Donaldson was well defended, but Jones threw the ball to Donaldson's right and he was able to spin away and make the catch at the goal line. The two catches doubled his career total.
It stayed 7-3 through halftime, although it took a good deal of Black Knights' luck to get to the break with that score intact. Rainey quickly found Raleigh Webb on a flawless 50-yard throw that put the Citadel in business at the Army 29. But Rainey's next throw was as bad as the previous one had been superb—throwing behind his receiver, allowing Cedrick Cunningham Jr. to pick it off.
Jones promptly returned the favor with an equally poor pass that was intercepted by Andy Davis at the Army 41. After penalties on both sides, the half ended with Kintner's 47-yard field goal hitting the inside of the right upright and bouncing forward, keeping the score the same.
The first two series of the third quarter ultimately decided the game. Since Rainey had completed more passes to Army (2) than to Citadel (1) Thompson decided to go with sophomore Jaylan Adams to start the second half. Adams got his team into field goal range but this time Kintner's 47-yarder was blocked by Andre Carter II.
That was when the Black Knights put together their one true 'Army,' drive of the game—Jones, breaking tackles to pick up one fourth down; Barnard bulldozing straight ahead for two yards to pick up the other. Jones then scored from five-yards-out and, after taking more than seven minutes off the clock, Army led 14-3.
It should have been over. It wasn't.
Army stopped a Citadel drive with five minutes to go thanks to back-to-back sacks by Arik Smith, who was superb all day, taking part in 11 tackles. All the Black Knights really needed to do was keep the ball on the ground and try to run the clock down. Even a three-and-out and a Harding punt would have given the ball to the Bulldogs deep in their own territory down two scores with time running out.
But the coaches tried to get cute—and it backfired. Trying to pass on first down, Jones took a 13-yard sack. Then, on third-and-20, trying to throw a screen pass, Jones instead threw the ball to the Citadel's Jay Smith. The 6-1, 270-pound lineman rumbled to the one-yard-line and fumbled. As Jones, who had peeled back to try to help on the tackle, tried to dive on it, he rolled his ankle and came up hobbling.
Citadel recovered at the two and Darique Hampton scored with 3:21 left to make it 14-9. Then, Thompson and staff made a stunning mistake, sending the kicking team in for a meaningless extra point. By the time Thompson realized he had to go for two to cut the margin to a field goal, he had to waste a time out. To makes matters worse—better for Army—the two-point conversion failed.
Still, the Black Knights needed to run the clock out and Maurice Bellan, who had never run a truly meaningful play from scrimmage, had to take over at quarterback. They got to start from the 35 because Campbell's semi-attempt at an onside kick went out-of-bounds. On second down, Buchanan rumbled 13-yards for a critical first down. Bellan took it from there, running five times for 24 yards including a clinching seven-yard run on fourth-and-six from the Citadel 35 with 19 seconds left.
Game over. At last.
Citadel deserves all the credit in the world for coming so close to a stunning upset. Army now travels to play a much-improved Texas-San Antonio team next week. UTSA was 4-8 a year ago including a 31-13 loss to Army. It has a new coach, Jeff Traylor, and is 3-2 after losing very competitively--27-20--to 15th-ranked Brigham Young on Saturday.
As of this moment, there is no way to know who will start at quarterback for Army next week: Will Christian Anderson be back after sitting out Saturday? What about Jones? Or will it be Bellan?
Stay tuned. One thing is for sure: Monken shouldn't have any trouble convincing his players that they need to be concerned about next week's opponent—or any opponent—from here on in.
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