Feinstein's Findings: On to Phase Three

Offensive Line and Ballard vs. Mercer 2020

Photo by: Danny Wild-USA TODAY Sports

Feinstein's Findings: On to Phase Three

October 25, 2020 | Football

By: John Feinstein

On to phase three.
            Phase one of the 2020 football season was to have a football season. After Army athletic director Mike Buddie gave him free reign to schedule anyone he could find, Army senior associate director Bob Beretta took care of that, building a 12-game schedule from the ashes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
            Phase two began on September 5^th, when Middle Tennessee State came to Michie Stadium. Playing in front of the Corps of Cadets and the ghosts of Blanchard and Davis; Blaik and Thayer—all of them social-distancing—the Black Knights crushed the Blue Raiders 42-0 and life on post had something approaching normalcy: September and football had both arrived.
            Since then, Army's had one game cancelled—Brigham Young--and has lost once—at  Cincinnati, which is now 4-0 and ranked No. 9 with a bullet after trouncing previously-unbeaten SMU on Saturday.
            Saturday's 49-3 rout of Mercer, also in front of the corps and the ghosts inside Michie, pushed Army's phase two record to 6-1. It also wrapped up a bowl bid for Coach Jeff Monken's team for the fourth time in five years. The Black Knights will travel to Shreveport to play in the Independence Bowl—their first appearance in that game since a dramatic 32-29 loss to Auburn in 1996.
            Army became the first team to accept a bowl bid in college football's strangest season. How strange? Consider this: Army's opponent in Shreveport will be a to-be-named Pac-12 team that has NOT YET PLAYED A GAME. The conference, after cancelling its season in August said, 'never mind,' last month and will begin play in two weeks. Army will play its eighth game of the season on the same weekend that its bowl opponent will play its first.
            Wait, there's more news from the Year of Covid-19. On Friday, the two schools announced that the Army-Navy game will take place as planned on December 12^th, but will be played at Michie, not at Philadelphia's Lincoln Financial Field. The reason for this is simple: By playing at West Point the entire corps and the entire brigade of midshipmen (and the ghosts) will be able to attend.
            Lincoln Financial Field, in south Philadelphia, is governed by Pennsylvania's regulations, which currently would not allow for almost 9,000 future Army and Navy officers to see the game. And Navy-Marine Corps Stadium is about a mile outside the gates of the Naval Academy and governed by state laws in Maryland—thus, the same problem.
            That leaves Michie. "We looked at just about every possible venue between Baltimore and here," Buddie said Saturday. "This was the best place to ensure that the brigade and the corps could be at the game."
            This will be first time since 1943 that the game will be played at a home venue. Army hosted the game then, a year after Navy hosted during World War 2. For details of those two games, one should contact Army radio color man Dean Darling, who undoubtedly worked the games in both years.
            So, that was the news of the weekend: Army-Navy at Michie and the Black Knights heading to Shreveport as part of a deal that could—in theory—send Army to the Independence Bowl again in 2022 and 2024 if it is bowl eligible those years.
            There was also a football game, the finale of phase two. Mercer was the last of Army's three FCS opponents in phase two—the others being Abilene Christian and the Citadel. It was the game against the Citadel that was undoubtedly on everyone's mind all week. Like Mercer, the Citadel is in the Southern Conference and played a limited four game schedule this fall with the Southern having pushed conference play back until spring.
            And yet, the Bulldogs came in to Michie and scared the heck out of the Black Knights. Their defense stopped Army almost cold—153 rushing yards on 50 carries for 3.1 yards-per-carry—and a late interception made the score 14-9, before Army managed to run out the clock and hang on.
            Mercer had only played one of its three fall games when it arrived at West Point and had lost respectably, 34-28, to a Jacksonville State team that had become the first FCS team to beat an FBS team (Florida International) on Friday night.
            You can bet Monken and his coaches repeated the word 'Citadel,' almost non-stop throughout the week.
            For just under seven minutes, it appeared they had plenty of reason to be nervous.
            Mercer has a new coach this season, Drew Cronic, who has had remarkable success at the NAIA and Division-2 levels, going 47-7 in five seasons. Cronic's team runs all sorts of strange-looking sets and even has strange names for its players. What Army would call a slotback is a "joker," in Cronic's system. Often, the entire offensive line will move and reset (legally) prior to the snap. And, they have a fullback in Tyray Devezin, who would fit right in with Army's fullbacks. He's 5-foot-8 (maybe) and 230 pounds (easily) and moves defenders backwards often.
            For one series and six minutes and 52 seconds, all the bells and whistles worked for Mercer. Taking the opening kickoff, the Bears converted three third-downs and, in a drive that would have made Monken and offensive coordinator Brent Davis proud, they moved the ball 60 yards in 12 plays to a first down at the Army 15.
            But this is an Army defense that gives up points very grudgingly. After Saturday, the Black Knights have given up 82 points in seven games, an average of 11.8 points per game. Soon after Devezin had rumbled to the 15 for the fourth first down of the drive, the defense dug in: Quarterback Harrison Frost overthrew a well-covered receiver in the end zone; Fred Davis lost three yards and then Frost found speedster Deondre Johnson on a screen that was completely blown up for a loss of one. Kicker Caleb Dowden nailed a 36-yard field goal and Mercer led 3-0 with 8:08 left in the first quarter.
            And then, Army became Army—on both sides of the ball and on special teams.
            The kids shared the quarterback position again: Cade Ballard and Tyhier Tyler, who had both played so well at Texas-San Antonio, were both very good again, splitting time—often on the same possession—throughout the game.
            Army's only completed pass against UTSA had been a Ballard-to-Camden Harrison 53-yarder that set up THE crucial touchdown of the game. Against Mercer, Ballard again completed one pass, this one coming on the Black Knights' first series. After Jakobi Buchanan had picked up a first down on fourth-and-one from the Army 45, Ballard rolled right, waited for fellow freshman Tyrell Robinson to come open behind the Mercer defense and threw a strike that Robinson grabbed and was long gone, down the right sideline for the touchdown that brought about the game's first and last lead change: Army-7, Mercer-3 with 4:34 to go in the first.
            Two plays into Mercer's next series, Frost made the first of his big mistakes on the day, throwing behind his receiver to Cam Jones, who reached backwards to make the interception at the Mercer 39. This time it took Army 11 plays to get into the end zone. Buchanan converted two more fourth downs and Sandon McCoy, who has made short touchdown runs into an art, scored from the one to make it 14-3.
            After an exchange of punts—that included Army's worst offensive series of the day a three-and-out in which the team went backwards—Mercer's Grant Goupil lined up to punt from his own 48. Goupil had already had five punts blocked in his career. This time, he had no chance. Clearly, Army's coaches had seen something on tape because they lined up two speed guys: Jones and wide receiver Reikan Donaldson in the 'A,' gap—between the center and a guard. Jones was picked up by Goupil's protector; Donaldson was not. He raced through untouched and blocked the ball cleanly—and emphatically.
            Army took over on the Mercer 38. Two plays later, after a holding penalty on McCoy pushed the ball back 10 yards, Davis went into his bag of tricks and called a reverse—for Donaldson. He raced around the left side for 29 yards to the 16. From there, four straight inside runs—the last, naturally, by McCoy from the one—pushed the lead to 21-3.
            Donaldson is a perfect example of the depth this team has that it hasn't had in the past. He's gotten playing time at wide receiver because Harrison missed the first five games and because star freshman Isaiah Alston has been out the last several weeks. He's caught a touchdown pass and has made plays when given the chance.
            Army actually had a chance to go up 24-3 after Jon Rhattigan intercepted Frost in the final seconds and returned the ball 50-yards to the Mercer 22. But Landon Salyers hooked a 39-yard field goal attempt left at the buzzer—his first miss of the season—and it remained 21-3 at the break.
            If anyone had any thoughts about Mercer making it a game in the second half, they vanished quickly. Robinson—who is going to break a kick-return for a touchdown before the season's over—took the opening kick to the 45 and then 15 yards was tacked on because of a face mask. Starting at the Mercer 40, the Black Knights needed eight plays to get into the end zone again. This time, Cade Barnard, who saw some playing time at fullback with Anthony Adkins out, went the last three yards to make it 28-3.
            After a Mercer three-and-out, the offense again made it look easy, going 59 yards in nine plays, the drive highlighted by a 30-yard Tyler run off the left side. McCoy scored his third touchdown of the day—eighth of the season—from the one (of course) to make it 35-3. McCoy from the one is more automatic than an extra point.
            Two plays later, Frost threw his third and final interception of the day. On this one, Jabari Moore jumped the route on a short out-pass, reading the three-step drop all the way. He was untouched en-route to his second touchdown of the season (the first on the opening series against Cincinnati, when he deflected a pitch, picked it up and scored) to make it 42-3.
            After that, everyone played. Freshman Christian Parrish took a few snaps at quarterback. Then Maurice Bellan came in—that's six Army quarterbacks who have taken snaps this season if you're scoring at home—and led a victory march that went 91-yards, took up 10:03 on the clock and lasted 17 plays. Bellan completed Army's second pass of the day—for 10 yards on third-and-ten to sophomore Cole Caterbone. Then freshman Tyson Riley carried TEN times for 67 yards—not bad for a FIFTH STRING fullback.
            But the highlight was senior Jordan Blackman, who had NEVER carried the ball in his career before Saturday. He'd played in one game last season and two this season, but never touched the ball. He picked up 13-yards on the first carry of his career and then, on third-and-goal from the Mercer six, he took a pitch, swept left, picked through a couple of tacklers and scored!
            The Army bench reacted as if he had just scored at the buzzer to beat Navy, a tribute to Blackman's work ethic and his popularity with his teammates. They carried him off the field, some chanting, "Rudy!"
            Actually, that was unfair to Blackman. He's a real football player who made a real football play. No one needs to fictionalize his story.
            And so, phase two ended with smiles all around and lots of pretty numbers.
            Now, comes phase three, beginning a week from Saturday when Air Force comes to Michie. The Falcons crushed Navy in their opener three weeks ago, then lost to San Jose State Saturday. They'll play Boise State this week before traveling east to try to win the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy for the first time since 2016.
            Army will very much want to stop the Falcons in their tracks and put itself in position to win the trophy it won in 2017 and 2018.
            After Air Force come tough outs at Tulane and against Georgia Southern. Phase three will not be easy.
            But for now, with a week off, Monken, his coaches and his players can bask in the successes of phase one and phase two. They've earned it.