Forget the transfer portal. Forget the NIL. Forget general managers and collectives. Welcome to the last bastion of Division I amateur football: Army versus Navy.
And this year, it’s not just a feel-good exercise in American nationalism, patriotism, military might and crew-cut throwback football. Both teams are actually good.
With their collection of undersized, overlooked and overachieving one- and two-stars, the No. 22 Black Knights (11-1) and Midshipmen (8-3) enter with their best combined record since 1996.
While the rest of Division I goes dark, Army and Navy have the stage to themselves as they play for the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy, Saturday at 3 p.m. in Landover, Md.
This will not have the look of a modern big-time college football game. There won’t be any sack dances or gun-brandishing. No step-overs or throat slashes. No flag planting or bench-clearing donnybrooks, excused because the game is a “heated rivalry.”
And don’t expect to see a touchdown pass on the final play of a rout, with the winning coach lecturing post-game that his “threes and fours” should get to play football too.
No, these Mids and Black Knights play hard and they play nice. And then after the final gun, they’ll stand together at attention for each other’s alma mater. Oorah.
How good are the teams? Both were undefeated and had visions of reaching the College Football Playoff before getting reality-checked by Notre Dame.
On Oct. 26, the Irish trampled the Midshipmen 51-14. Then four weeks later, they did the same to the Black Knights, 49-14.
Before those romps, Army and Navy were ranked simultaneously for the first time since 1960.
It was so long ago that Navy’s Joe Bellino—who played running back, defensive back, and returned kickoffs and punts—found out that he had won the Heisman Trophy when he was summoned from his electrical engineering class.
Sixty-four years later, “scholar-athlete” is still no joke at West Point and Annapolis.
And the discipline instilled in the Black Knights and the Midshipmen is evident on the field. This year Army has committed a Division I-best five turnovers. Before getting derailed by Notre Dame, Navy went five straight games without surrendering a turnover.
The run-heavy offenses of both teams are propelled by their quick-study quarterbacks. Army’s Bryson Daily has rushed for 1,480 yards and 29 touchdowns.
Navy’s Blake Horvath has carried for 895 yards and 13 touchdowns. He also presents more of a passing threat than Midshipmen triple-option quarterbacks of the past, throwing for 1,154 yards and 11 touchdowns.
After emerging as the starter early last year, Horvath suffered an injury and was sidelined as Navy came up just short against Army in a 17-11 defeat in Foxboro.
The Black Knights made a goal-line stand as they stopped the Mids at the 1-yard line on their final possession.
Last-minute heroics is how many of the recent games between the teams have been decided. In 2022 in Philadelphia, Army won in double overtime 20-17. The year before in the Meadowlands, Navy captured a 17-13 victory.
While the teams typically enter their clash with gaudy offensive numbers, their games against each other have come to be defensive struggles.
This year, while the Black Knights average 32.1 points per game and the Midshipmen put up 30.6 per game, the oddsmakers have set the over/under at a mere 39.
If that sounds low, consider this: The last time the teams scored more than 39 points was in 2013, when Navy thrashed Army 34-7.
The Black Knights and Midshipmen know each other and their mirror offensive tactics so well that they realize the best way to defend each other is to play assignment football.
And no teams carry out orders as precisely as Army and Navy, especially when they meet in their storied rivalry game.
