Army West Point Athletics
Saturday, September 4
Atlanta, Ga.
12:00 p.m. ET
Army West Point
at
Georgia State
Army Prepares for Season Debut at Georgia State
September 02, 2021 | Football
WEST POINT, N.Y. - The Army West Point football team will open up the 2021 season with a 12 p.m. game at Georgia State on Saturday, Sept. 4 at Center Parc Stadium.
The Black Knights, who are 4-1 in their past five season openers, will take on the Panthers on ESPNU with Clay Matvick, Rocky Boiman and Tiffany Blackmon on the call. The radio call will be found across 25 stations in nine different states via the Army Sports Network. Additionally, the call can be heard for free via the newly-launched Varsity App, developed by Learfield.
HOW TO FOLLOW
TELEVISION • ESPNU
RADIO • Army Sports Network
GAME NOTES • Army Notes • Georgia State Notes
LIVE STATS • GoArmyWestPoint.com
TWITTER • @ArmyWP_Football
THE OPENING KICKOFF
MONKEN ENTERS EIGHTH YEAR
SERIES HISTORY
ABOUT THE PANTHERS
For ticket information, please call 1-877-TIX-ARMY, email odiaticketoffice@westpoint.edu, or visit www.armygameday.com.
FOLLOW ALONG
For complete coverage of Army West Point football, follow the Black Knights on Twitter and Instagram at @ArmyWP_Football and online at www.goarmywestpoint.com.
The Black Knights, who are 4-1 in their past five season openers, will take on the Panthers on ESPNU with Clay Matvick, Rocky Boiman and Tiffany Blackmon on the call. The radio call will be found across 25 stations in nine different states via the Army Sports Network. Additionally, the call can be heard for free via the newly-launched Varsity App, developed by Learfield.
HOW TO FOLLOW
TELEVISION • ESPNU
RADIO • Army Sports Network
GAME NOTES • Army Notes • Georgia State Notes
LIVE STATS • GoArmyWestPoint.com
TWITTER • @ArmyWP_Football
THE OPENING KICKOFF
- The Black Knights enter the season after posting a dominant 9-3 mark in 2020, which included a perfect 8-0 effort at Michie Stadium.
- Heading into this year, Army is receiving votes in both the USA Today Coaches Poll and the Associated Press Poll.
- The Cadets finished the 2020 campaign with the nation's top-ranked defense.
- Since Monken joined the team in 2014, Army has ranked in the Top 5 twice (2016, 2020), an accomplishment that has not been achieved in over 20 years.
- This season marks the first time in six years that the Black Knights have had a junior captain and the second time in the Monken era. This year's captainship includes DL Nolan Cockrill, DB Cedrick Cunningham Jr., LB Arik Smith and DB Marquel Broughton.
MONKEN ENTERS EIGHTH YEAR
- Head Coach Jeff Monken enters his eighth year at the helm for the Black Knights and owns a 49-39 career record with the Cadets.
- Monken aims to become the first Black Knights head coach to open the season with a victory for three consecutive seasons since 2000.
- In his tenure, the Monken-led team has dominated Academy series matchups with four wins over Air Force and four wins over Navy.
- His most recent efforts included returning the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy to West Point after defeating both Navy and Air Force at Michie Stadium.
SERIES HISTORY
- Saturday's game will be only the second matchup in the history between the two programs.
- The first battle was in 2019, with Georgia State earning a 28-21 victory on its home field.
- Army led through the end of the third quarter, but the Panthers' fourth-quarter effort led to an eventual victory that found only a 35-yard total offense differential between the two teams.
ABOUT THE PANTHERS
- Georgia State returns all 11 offensive starters for this season, including 97.6 perfect of its offensive yardage from last year.
- The Panthers averaged a school-record 33.3 points per game in 2020 and return every player that scored a point.
- With 35 sacks in 2020, Georgia State checked in at seventh in FBS Football. The team recorded 21 over its final five games of the year.
- Both wide receiver Sam Pinckney, who scored a pair of touchdowns during the 2019 victory over Army, and tight end Aubrey Payne, who added one, return to this year's Panther squad.
- Georgia State placed 10 players onto the Preseason All-Sun Belt Team.
For ticket information, please call 1-877-TIX-ARMY, email odiaticketoffice@westpoint.edu, or visit www.armygameday.com.
FOLLOW ALONG
For complete coverage of Army West Point football, follow the Black Knights on Twitter and Instagram at @ArmyWP_Football and online at www.goarmywestpoint.com.
Players Mentioned
DB
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DL
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DB
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LB
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