GoBlackKnights.com had the opportunity to catch up with

former Army quarterback Ronnie McAda, who led the Black Knights to their last

Commander in Chief's trophy and bowl birth in 1996.  As a leader on the only 10

win team in Army history, we wanted to get his thoughts on his games against

Navy and some thoughts on this year's team.

Rob O'Sullivan:  Going back to the '95 game, and the

'99 yard drive.  Can you talk a little about the team and that moment, what it

meant to come down the field and beat Navy in the closing seconds of a game?

Ronnie McAda:  As far as the team goes, the one good

thing about that team is that we were senior driven.  I was a junior at the

time, but we had a really good group of seniors.  The one thing we learned that

year is that we could compete, and that we could win.  There were a lot of games

during that season where we would get close, and we weren't used to winning, and

we couldn't get over that hump.  Notre Dame, Washington, we had Air Force down

14-0 at Air Force, and then we blew that one.  I think we ended up losing that

year to five teams that went to bowl games.  The good thing about that season is

it taught us what we needed to do, what the next step was to be able to take it

a step further and finish the games.  We didn't finish those games, that was our

problem.  But that drive, at the end of the year, kind of solidified our whole

season, because we did finish the game.  Going 99 yards when Navy is up six,

they have an opportunity to kick a field goal and make it nine points, they

decide to go for it, they don't get it and all of the sudden you've got the ball

deep in your own space and the first thought is to get the ball to a point where

we can punt and give our punter some room so we can force the field position. 

Things just started happening.  To be honest with you, it was a really weird

series, a lot it at the time I didn't even remember the series.  You get so into

that one play, that you don't even realize what's happening or what you're

doing.  That fourth and 24, going back and watching it, that miraculous play

being able to get that first down, but during the moment of the game, it was

just another play. 

Rob O'Sullivan:  You took a sack right before that

play, did you just walk into the huddle after that like it was just another

play?

Ronnie McAda:  Yeah, it really was.  That's what was

weird about that whole series.  Looking back on it now and watching the drive,

you will sit there and say that was a great play, we needed that first down.  If

he didn't get that block, we don't get that first down, and don't keep the

chains moving, etc.  During the drive, we didn't think like that.  It was just –

ok, we have to run another play, we need to get some yardage on this play.  And

when it came down to that 4^th and 24, I remember coming into the

huddle and looking at the offensive line, saying "give me some time, just give

me some time".  And there wasn't any panic on anybody's face.  Nobody said if we

don't complete this, the game is over.  It was calm, and it wasn't until after

we had completed the pass and John Graves started walking back towards me,

that's when it hit me that we're going to win this game.  This game is ours. 

And the emotion came right over me right then.  Up until then, that whole drive,

it was almost like a dream.

Rob O'Sullivan:  Going into your senior year in 1996,

you guys won the commander in chief's trophy, you went to a bowl game, played an

incredible 4^th quarter against Auburn.  Can you just talk a little

about what it was like winning the CIC and going to a bowl?

Ronnie McAda:  The one thing I have to say about my

senior year is that we went in with a lot of confidence, and we didn't have that

in the beginning of the 1995 season.  We expected to win every game.  There

wasn't a game on our schedule that we didn't expect to win.  We expected to beat

Syracuse even though we didn't beat Syracuse, we expected to win the Commander

In Chief's trophy, we expected to beat Navy, that was our mentality.  Again, a

good group of seniors.  We had learned from the previous class, and we had a

good group of solid seniors that focused on that particular game each week

instead of looking at the entire season.  Starting off the way we did, we were

down 14-0 against Ohio in our first game, and having to come back and really

take control of that game and pretty much blowing them out, that set the tone

for the whole season.  Beating at Air Force during a night game at Michie

Stadium, that was awesome.  The comeback against Navy, being down 21-3, I

remember a defensive lineman coming to the sidelines with his head down because

Navy had just scored again and we were down 21-3, I grabbed him and made him

look at me and said we are not losing this game.  Period.  We are not losing

this game.  Just the mentality of the seniors, we were not going to go out and

lose to Navy in our senior year after all we had been through that season and

the season before.  And Navy had a great season that year as well, and those

seniors wanted it just as bad as we do.  As a matter of fact, I talk to Ben Fay

all the time, the quarterback of Navy, and Clint Bruce – I just got off the

phone with Clint Bruce a little while ago – we still talk about that.  How that

game came down to one or two plays here, or inches there, they dropped a pass in

the end zone.  Just a phenomenal game.  That game, again, and I don't know why

it was always the Army – Navy game, but it was always like playing in a dream. 

It wasn't until the game was over, reality did not hit.  When the game was over,

then reality hit.

Rob O'Sullivan:  At the end of that one, raising the

Commander in Chief's trophy and heading to a bowl game, it had to be awesome.

Ronnie McAda:  Awesome feeling to know that we were

the first Army team ever to win 10 games in a season, we won the Commander in

Chief's trophy, we completed the largest comeback in Army-Navy history, a lot of

things other than that game, and just to be a part of it was amazing.  Then

having the opportunity to play in the Independence Bowl, that was a goal, a

desire, a dream for all of us to play in a bowl game.  We knew that going 9-2

with a loss to Navy, we might not get an invite to a bowl game, and that was not

going to sit well.  That was a pretty amazing ending to a fun career at Army.

Rob O'Sullivan:  It had to be tough not coming out

victorious, but the fury you guys put together at the end of the Independence

Bowl was phenomenal.

Ronnie McAda:  The best fourth quarter we ever played,

by far.

Rob O'Sullivan:  What is your greatest memory as an

Army Football player?

Ronnie McAda:  The Army-Navy games, by far, are set

way apart from anything else.  We had some guys, their favorite time was beating

Air Force their senior year.  But I don't know what it was about the Army-Navy

game, I love those games.  The passion, the desire on both sides of the field,

you just don't get that anywhere else.  I've never played any other game, ever,

that I felt that way.  I loved every single one that I played in, and I was

fortunate enough to start and play in three of them.  My memories always go back

there.  We beat Boston College 49-7, and I always joke that it was Matt

Hasselback's team back then, and we beat them.  So that's fun to talk about. 

And then playing Notre Dame and having an opportunity to beat Notre Dame at

Giants Stadium, and listening to Lou Holtz through the wall on the other side

telling his team that we shouldn't even be on the same field with them before

the game, those are good memories.  But the Army-Navy game by far, those have to

be the greatest memories for me, but they were always my best games as well.

Rob O'Sullivan:  Well they say that good players get

up for the biggest games.

Ronnie McAda:  I remember , I learned from the first

game against Navy my sophomore year, because in that game, my legs felt like

spaghetti the entire first half of that game.  I think I was so nervous and so

hyped up for that first Army-Navy game, I could never get my legs underneath me

until the second half, so I learned from that my next two years.

Rob O'Sullivan:  Have you followed Army at all

recently, do you still follow the team.

Ronnie McAda:  Sure, I follow them, probably not as

much as I would like to, but any time they are on TV I will watch it or record

it.  I try to make a game here and there when I can, but yeah, I keep up with

it.  I haven't been particularly excited about it that last few years.

Rob O'Sullivan:  This year the defense has been pretty

strong, and they have gone back to the option offense.  They have a couple of

good backs there.  Are you going to watch the game this weekend?

Ronnie McAda:  I will actually have to record it.  My

seven year old son is playing in a football tournament on Saturday.

Rob O'Sullivan:  Is he a quarterback?

Ronnie McAda:  He is.

Rob O'Sullivan:  You go back 10 years ago, and people

would look at the glory days of Army football being the 40s and 50s, but now

people yearn to have your season back.  '96 is the thing that everyone really

talks about.  Is there anything that you see in terms of how the team is moving

that makes you think the team is going to get back there?

Ronnie McAda:  I'll be honest with you, I have always

said this after they went to that passing style of offense after (former Army

Head Coach Bob) Sutton left, Army will never have the days that they had back in

'96 or back in the 80s running that style of offense.  So now that they are

starting to go back to the option, then yes, I can definitely see an opportunity

to do that.  They are still a long ways away from that, or even the teams from

the 1980s that went to all those bowl games.  The coaching staff still has a lot

to learn.  This coaching staff really knew nothing about the option.  They had

to go teach themselves and learn everything.  I think over the next couple of

years they will get better at it.  Navy and Air Force have shown that that's the

style of offense that can allow the academies to compete at that level.  It's

funny, you go to Georgia Tech now, and I've become a Georgia Tech fan because of

Paul Johnson and him being from Navy, and having the success he had there, then

running that same offense at Georgia Tech and doing well there, beating Georgia,

that's huge.  You show that you can compete against those types of teams,

running a certain style of offense and keeping your defense off the field.  If

they want to create new glory days, they need to go to some sort of ball control

offense which is the option to do that.   And I am glad to see that they are at

least starting to do that.