Army West Point
As we noted in our final GoBlackKnights.com MMQ of the Liberty Bowl, January is a month for looking back on the old year and looking forward to the new year. In this article, we will look back at some of the highlights of the Black Knights 2020 season. We’re not going to attempt to rank them, and we welcome additions to our list and additional comments as well.
Pulling together a 12 game Season during the Pandemic
As we all know, football season was a touch and go proposition from mid spring to the fall. Spring practice was cancelled at most schools, and the question of whether there would be a season at all lingered until late in the summer months.
Several conferences, including most FCS conferences cancelled or postponed their seasons. The Big Ten, Pac 12, MAC, and Mountain West conferences all cancelled their seasons initially, and then opted for an abbreviated season later in the fall. Other conferences limited their schedules to conference games only. At the start of September, Air Force had just two games on their 2020 schedule, and Calhoun and AF Academy allowed several players to take a leave of absence and sit out the season at home.
In the meantime, back at West Point, Superintendent Darryl Williams reaffirmed the importance of athletics in building leaders of character and encouraged the Athletic Director, Mike Buddie, to put together full schedules for all of Army West Point’s teams to the extent possible.
Nine games on Army West Point’s original football schedule were cancelled, including the highly anticipated home game against Oklahoma. West Point established protocols to screen all returning cadets and built a bubble to contain the COVID-19 pandemic that as raging in the surrounding New York area at the time. With the bubble in place, Athletic Buddie sent out invitations teams across the country to come play at West Point. Nine teams answered the call, including 3 FCS teams who wanted to add some fall games to their anticipated spring schedules.
By our count, only 11 teams managed to play a 12 game season this year, with 7 teams playing only 4 games and 2 teams getting in just 3. Alabama will be the only team to play 13 games.
Eight Home Wins
One of the fortuitous consequences of the schedule realignment is that 9 teams opted to come to West Point to play at Michie Stadium (although BYU ended up cancelling), and the Black Knights won all 8 of the games played in Michie to establish a record for home wins that is unlikely to ever be duplicated in a single season. Due to Covid restrictions, the Black Knights played in front of a much smaller crowd than normal, consisting almost entirely of the Corps of Cadets spread out around the stadium to optimize social distancing, a practice that we hope to see confined to the 2020 season. CBS carried all 8 games, normally on their CBS Sports Network, with the notable exception of the Navy game on the main CBS Network.
Winning the CiC Trophy in Back to Back Home Games
It’s never happened before, and it’s unlikely to ever happen again. Navy and Air Force both traveled to West Point to compete for the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy. To add to the unique situation, Air Force finagled their way out of a spot in the November schedule that would have required them to play Army the week following a tough game against Boise State. After canceling the trip in November, they negotiated a much more desirable time slot, the week following the Navy game.
That set the stage for another once-in-a-lifetime circumstance. Air Force crushed Navy in their regularly scheduled game in October, and Army shut out the Midshipmen in a home game scheduled on the Dec 12 date that would normally have been the last game of the FBS regular season. Instead of both teams traveling to the neutral game site in Philadelphia, the Brigade of Midshipmen traveled an extra 2 hours north to join the Corps of Cadets in the first Army Navy game played at West Point since 1943.
With Air Force and Army tied at 1-0 in the CiC race, the two teams met to decide the trophy on December 19. Almost certainly, it will be the last time that Army and Air Force play for the CiC trophy in the final game of the season for both teams.
The Goal Line Stand: Army-Navy Game
The one series of downs that Army fans are most likely to remember from this season was the goal line stand at the start of the third quarter of the Navy game. It’s likely to go down as one of the most memorable series in the storied competition between Army and Navy.
It was a contest dominated by the defenses of both teams, and Army was clinging to a slim 3-0 lead at the start of the second half. The Black Knight defense had kept Navy bottled up in their half of the field the entire game, but on the second play of the opening drive of the second half, Xavier Arline found a rare hole in the Black Knight defense and scampered 52 yards to the Army 2 yard line. Only a heroic effort by junior safety, Cedrick Cunningham brought Arline down before he crossed the goal line.
That left Navy just two yards away from a go-ahead touchdown with 4 chances to get the ball into the end zone. The only obstacle was that they had to get through the #1 ranked defense in the country to get to that score. On first down, Navy fullback Nelson Smith tried the middle but was stopped by a host of Army defenders led by Nick Stokes and Amadeo West. Smith got the call again on second down, but this time on a sweep to the left side, and middle linebacker Arik Smith dropped him for a 1-yard loss back to the Army 2. Arline kept on third down and nearly made it into the end zone before fellow middle linebacker Jon Rhattigan brought him down inches short. With 4th down and inches to go, Niumatalolo decided to go for the touchdown rather than the easier field goal and called on Smith to test the center of the defensive line once again. Smith was met by a host of Army defenders with West and Marquel Broughton getting the credit for the tackle. Had Niumatalolo opted for the field goal, he would most likely have avoided the shutout, but Monken would never have let him live it down.
Jon Rhattigan’s Cinderella Story
Hollywood loves a remake of the rags to riches Cinderella classic applied to sports. In addition to Cinderella Man, you have Rocky, and Rudy as examples. It’s unlikely that Hollywood will opt for another version of that popular theme, but if they did, Jon Rhattigan’s 2020 season would make a pretty good choice.
Before the 2020 season, Rhattigan’s football career was comparable to that of the movie boxer Rocky, as he toiled in obscurity with just 19 defensive snaps with no stats in one game in his sophomore season and only 2 defensive snaps in his junior season. He had managed to register 6 tackles on special teams in 2019, but only his teammates and friends would recognize his name in the conversation preceding the 2020 season.
Cole Christiansen (now with the NFL Chargers) graduated and Rhattigan rose to the top of the depth chart at WILL, but with no spring practice and limited exposure in pre-season camp, Rhattigan came into the season as an unknown. That quickly changed as Rhattigan led the team in tackles in early games and picked off a couple of passes with one going for a 55 yard defensive touchdown.
Pro Football Focus took notice and awarded him a rating of 86.6 for the season, ninth highest for all linebackers in the FBS, and named him to their All American Team. USA Today followed suit by naming Rhattigan to their All American Second Team, and the middle linebacker made the semi-finals for the Bednarik Award given to the best defensive player in college football.
Unfortunately, Rhattigan was one of those who missed the Liberty Bowl due to Covid, but he will have one more chance to showcase his skills at the collegiate level in the Hula Bowl.
Top Defense in the FBS
Nate Woody became the new defensive coordinator in 2020, and despite not having a spring practice to install his defense and no three-star defenders to work with, he finished the season with the #1 team in Total Defense. In addition to finishing the season ranked #1 in Total Defense the Black Knights finished:
Tied for #1 in Red Zone Defense
#2 in Scoring Defense (edged by Marshall)
#2 to West Virginia in Passing Yards Allowed.
#9 in Passes Intercepted
#7 in Defensive TDs
#18 in Rushing Defense
#25 in Team Passing Efficiency Defense
Six Quarterbacks played and Four Started in 2020
A challenging trivia question for future Army West Point fans will be to name the quarterbacks of the 2020 team that went 9-3 for the season. Actually, there was 6 total who played in 2020, and 4 of them started one or more games. If you want a more difficult challenge, try listing them in order of their appearance in the season.
One quarterback who didn’t make the 2020 list is the one who was expected to be the starter before the season started, Jabari Laws, who was injured in fall practice and sidelined for the entire season.
Christian Anderson was elevated to the starting spot for the opening game against Middle Tennessee State and played 50 of the 69 snaps in that game. Sophomore Jemel Jones was sent in for 17 snaps and sophomore Maurice Bellan got in 2 snaps in the one-sided contest to become the third quarterback to play in the 2020 season
Anderson started the second game against ULM, and once again he played 50 snaps, with Jones playing 17, Bellan another 2, and freshman Cade Ballard getting in one snap in the game to become the fourth quarterback of the season.
Anderson played 71 snaps against Cincinnati and also started the following game against Abilene Christian but was injured and replaced by Jemel Jones who had 50 snaps in the game. Bellan had 5 snaps, and freshman Christian Parrish came in for 2 snaps to become the fifth quarterback to play for Army in the season.
Jones became the second starter of the season against the Citadel playing 53 snaps with Bellan filling in for 8 snaps when Jones was injured in the game.
With Anderson and Jones both out for the UTSA game, it was Cade Ballard who became the third starting quarterback of the season, and Tyhier Tyler who became the 6th quarterback to play in the season. Tyler had been moved to slotback earlier in the year but was given a refresher course and a few simple plays to run in a tag team arrangement with Ballard.
Ballard made a second start against Mercer, with Tyler, Bellan, and Parrish all getting snaps in the game as well.
Anderson returned to start against Tulane with Tyler getting 14 snaps in reserve.
Tyler finally got his first career start against Georgia Southern becoming the fourth starting QB of the season for the Black Knights. Despite 3 turnovers in the first half, Monken stayed with Tyler for the entire game. Tyler finished the season with his third and fourth career starts against Navy and Air Force.
Exemplary Special Teams Play
As we have documented in several of our Monday Morning QB articles, special teams played a major role in the outcomes of several games.
Special teams coordinator, Sean Satrurnio was nominated for the Broyles Award given to the best assistant coach every year.
Punter Zach Harding was named to the watchlist for the Ray Guy Award given to the best punter in the nation, and Jeff Monken mentioned that he had recommended Harding for All American honors as well. Hardings 5 punts inside the 20-yard line were credited for keeping Navy bottled up in their end of the field almost the entire game.
The Black Knights finished the season ranked #1 in Blocked Kicks with 12 and junior Ryan Duran II tied for the top spot in individual Blocked Kicks with 3.
Freshman Tyrell Robinson has renewed Army fans’ interest in the kick return game, and many fans think it’s only a matter of time before he turns a kickoff or punt return into a TD.
The kicking game as a whole was solid. Senior Landon Salyers started the season doing all the place kicking for the Black Knights, but freshman Quinn Maretzki took over the FG and PAT role about halfway through the season, and impressed fans with his youthful reliability converting all his PATs and 4 of his 6 field goal attempts. Salyers continued to handle most of the kickoffs, with 56 of the 61 kickoffs this season.
Senior Leadership
The 2020 team had what Monken described as the best senior leadership he’s experienced coaching at West Point. We world saw an example of that in a video clip of co-captain Mike Johnson’s leadership at the Liberty Bowl. The clip went viral after comparisons were made in how he handled a potential dustup between a couple of young Black Knights and Mountaineers to the brawl that broke out between Mississippi State and Tulsa in the Armed Forces Bowl just a few hours earlier.
Other leadership examples were less public but easily inferred from the way that the team handled the challenges of the pandemic in battling their way to a 9-3 season record.
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