Category: Army Black Knights

The best images from Army’s sixth win over Navy in eight years

Army stuffed Navy on fourth and goal to seal its sixth rivalry victory in the past eight years.

The Army Black Knights defeated the Navy Midshipmen 17-11 on Saturday to claim the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy as the best service academy football team in 2023.

Army, who had won five of the previous seven editions of the classic rivalry, dominated the first half. The Black Knights scored 10 points and held Navy scoreless, taking a multi-possession lead into the break. The Midshipmen put together one solid drive deep into Army territory early in the first half, but starting quarterback Xavier Arline forced a risky throw that ended up in the hands of Army defensive back Max DiDomenico for an interception.

Navy didn’t score any points until the opening minutes of the fourth quarter when they kicked a 37-yard field goal to make it a 10-3 game. Tai Lavatai, who replaced Arline at quarterback, did provide the Navy offense with a little more juice, as he threw for 179 yards on 26 attempts for the game.

Then, disaster struck. Lavatai was stripped in the pocket by Army linebacker Kalib Fortner, who recovered his own fumble and raced 44 yards back to the end zone to make it a 17-3 game with less than five minutes left.

Miraculously, however, Navy still made it a game. Lavatai marched his offense down the field, picking apart soft Army coverage for a 59-yard touchdown drive. After an Army punt, the Midshipmen had the ball with a chance to tie the game in the final two minutes.

Lavatai again picked up yardage in chunks as the Black Knights surrendered easy completions. Once the Midshipmen got into the red zone, however, Army stiffened. On Navy’s final goal-to-go sequence, they had two incompletions and a short throw down to the 2-yard line. The Midshipmen tried to run a quarterback sneak on the final play, but Army stopped them inches from the goal line to seal victory.

Here are the best images from Army’s rivalry victory.

Army set to join AAC as a football only member in 2024

Army joins Navy as football-only members of the AAC starting in 2024.

The American Athletic Conference (AAC) has found a replacement for the departing SMU Mustangs starting in 2024. The Army Black Knights will be joining the conference as football-only members beginning next season.

This will end a 19-year run as an Independent. The Black Knights were last part of a conference with Conference USA from 1998 to 2004. Army already holds a victory over a future conference foe this season. They defeated UTSA on Sept. 15, 37-29.

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East Carolina Temple
Florida Atlantic Tulane
Memphis Tulsa
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North Texas UTSA

Army is currently 2-5 with four straight losses to Syracuse, Boston College, Troy, and LSU.

According to the report from The Athletic, the annual Army-Navy game will remain a nonconference matchup played after the AAC title game. Since Navy is part of the AAC, if they were the top two teams in the conference, they would play in back-to-back weeks per ESPN’s Heather Dinich.

REPORT: Army rewards Jeff Monken with new extension

Army has rewarded head football coach Jeff Monken with an extension for a second time

Army has rewarded head coach Jeff Monken for the consistency that he has brought to the Black Knights football program.

According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Monken has received a new extension from Army that will keep him as the head coach in West Point through the 2027 season. The extension will raise his salary to over $2 million per year.

It’s the second contract extension for Monken during his time with the program. He also received one in 2019 that would keep him with the program through the 2024 season.

Since taking over the program in 2014, the Black Knights have gone from a struggling program to one of the better non-Power Five programs in the country. After going 6-18 in his first two seasons, the Black Knights have notched five eight-plus win seasons since 2016 while only suffering one losing season. During that stretch, Army has appeared in five bowl games and won four, including three Armed Forces Bowl appearances.

Most importantly to Army, Monken has led the program to five wins over rival Navy, with all five wins coming in their last seven matchups. Prior to Monken becoming the head coach in West Point, Navy had won 15 of 16 games, including 14 straight from 2002 through 2015. His overall record during his time with Army is 66-50.

The extension is a notable one, as Monken is a name that is commonly mentioned during coaching carousels for Group of Five and lower Power Five programs. Additionally, it has been discussed over the last several weeks that the American Athletic Conference could be targeting Army to join the conference in the near future. Since the program’s inception in 1891, Army has never been part of a conference, choosing to be Independent.

Beyond his time with the Black Knights, Monken was also head coach at Georgia Southern from 2010 through 2013 before the Eagles jumped to the FBS. During his four years in Statesboro, the Eagles had three seasons of 10 or more wins and made three NCAA Division I Semifinal game appearances.

Thanks in part to the program Monken had built in Statesboro, the Eagles won the Sun Belt Conference under then-head coach Willie Fritz in their first season at the FBS level in 2014.

So far in 2023, Army is 2-1 with back-to-back wins over Delaware State and UTSA. The Black Knights will now look towards trying to upset the Syracuse Orange this Saturday. Also remaining on their schedule this year is notable matchups against Boston College and LSU.

Best nonconference matchups of the 2023 college football season

The best 20 nonconference games of the 2023 season.

We are under 100 days to the college football season but who is counting anyway? Well, just about everyone is. Teams are gearing up to make a run at the College Football Playoffs and end Georgia’s run of dominance. The Bulldogs are 29-1 over the last two seasons where they won the title in both.

Can anyone step up and prevent them from joining the Minnesota Golden Gophers in college football immortality? Minnesota won three straight titles in the early to mid-1930s. A feat that has seems impossible to repeat, until now. Almost a century later, we could be witnessing history.

Before we get to the CFP, there is plenty more that needs to be addressed. Teams have fall camps, nonconference games, and the run to their respective conference championship games.

In their 100 storylines to follow, CBS Sports ranked the best 20 nonconference matchups of the 2023 college football season. Plenty of eyes will be on the likes of Alabama, Colorado, Texas, and Texas A&M, but who else should we be paying attention to ahead of conference play?

One notable matchup missing is the opening game of the season in Dublin, Ireland, where Notre Dame and Navy are set to meet on the gridiron. That game was among our must-see games in each week of the 2023 college football season.

Check out the list from CBS Sports: