GBK’s Top Ten Memories from 2016 Army Football Campaign (#2)
This is the time of the year when everyone reviews the events of the past season; and GoBlackKnights.com honors the custom with our top 10 memories from 2016. In our first eight articles we came up with the following:
#10 Josh Jackson lost after spring practice
#9 Big win over UTEP gains Top 25 votes
#8 Army’s CiC hopes dashed by Air Force upset
#7 Andrew King named Defender of Nation
#6 Defensive Coordinator Ray Bateman nominated for Broyles award
#5 Temple toppled in season opener
#4 Army heads to ACC territory and takes down Wake Forest
#3 Heart of Dallas Bowl - Getting there and Winning
Which brings us to our second-to-last memory on our list for the season:
Number 2: The End of the Streak
Beat Navy! It’s one of the first phrases that a new cadet learns, ranking right up there with Yes Sir, No Sir and No Excuse Sir. The Army battle cry applies to every varsity sport in which the two service academies face each other; but above all, it’s a call to arms for the last football game in the regular season.
Army-Navy is America’s game. There are bigger regional rivalries, and from the end of August until Championship Weekend the focus of most college football fans is on the Top 25, and which four teams will end up in the playoffs; but for one week in December, the eyes of the country turn to the one rivalry that stirs the national pride of football fans across the entire country and reaches to isolated military posts throughout the world.
West Point and Annapolis turn out just a little more than 1,000 graduates each year, but the game is always played in one of the larger stadiums in the country, and it’s always a sellout. The game is usually played in Philadelphia, a halfway point between West Point and Annapolis, but this year Baltimore was host, and cities across the country would love to host the game. We recently read that 10 cities are engaged in discussions with Army and Navy to host future games. It’s a game that is often recommended to be on every sports fans bucket list if they haven’t been to one already.
Graduates who couldn’t tell you either team’s record begin seeking and selling tickets on websites weeks shortly after they become available. Class websites are a popular place to buy and sell, so that they can sit with classmates for the big game of the year.
Those who can’t get to the game gather in living rooms across the world to watch on TV, and shortly after this year’s game, CBS Sports' announced that their broadcast scored its highest rating in 22 years up 10% from last year. Altogether 7.1 million people across the world tuned in to see Army beat Navy for the first time in 15 years.
Underdogs as Usual
Army fans have become accustomed to being the underdogs in the competition in recent years, and this year was no exception. Navy was supposed to be in a rebuilding year after losing 10 starters from their offense to graduation, including the legendary Keenan Reynolds who quarterbacked Navy to 4 straight wins and garnered enough admirers to finish 5th in the Heisman voting.
But the Navy offense barely missed a beat this season, as they rolled over the West Division of the American Conference highlighted by a 46-40 win over Houston, a team that was ranked 6th in the country at the time. They earned a birth in the AAC championship game and rose to 19th in College Football Playoff Committee rankings the week before they played Temple for the championship. Temple rolled to an easy win over Navy and put their star quarterback, Will Worth on the injured list in the process. The loss dropped Navy out of any consideration for a spot in the Cotton Bowl but the CFP committee still listed them 25th in their rankings a week before their game with Army.
The more astute Army football fans and the Army team and coaches knew better than to place too much credence in the ratings. In their heart of hearts, the Army faithful believed that this would be the year, and so it was. Some experts were asking whether Army would be able to score enough points, but perhaps they should have been asking that question about Navy. The game would pit one of the best defenses in the country against a Navy team accustomed to putting 40 or more points on the scoreboard, while surrendering nearly as many to their opponents. Navy would be facing a good defense that was very familiar with their triple option.
A Typical Battle to the End
It’s common for many fans to let the Ws and Ls tell the whole story; so it’s understandable that most fans believe that Navy was the overwhelmingly dominant team all those 14 years. Yes, there were games in which that was the case, but in recent years, the game has usually been decided in the final quarter… often in the final minute or two, and this year’s game ran true to form.
Army jumped out to an early 14-0 lead and appeared in control at halftime, but two fumbles and 10 unanswered Navy points in the third quarter put Navy back in the game and no doubt had a lot of Army fans mumbling “Here we go again.” The Army defense, which had played an outstanding game, experienced a temporary lapse in the fourth quarter that allowed Navy to take their first and only lead of the game at 17-14.
What happened next brought to life the words of one of Army’s oldest fight songs, Sons of Slum and Gravy. It’s fallen out of favor in recent years, but the opening lyrics to that song were never more applicable than on that afternoon of December 10th.
Sons of slum and gravy, will you let the Navy take from us a victory?….HELL NO!
We doubt that junior quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw and his band of brothers were singing that fight song or even humming the tune, but that’s what they must have been thinking as they drove 80 yards in 6 minutes and 42 seconds, with the cadets in the stands urging them on. Bradshaw ran the ball into the end zone from 9 yards out to give Army the lead at 21-17 with 6 minutes left on the clock and the fans went wild.
Now it was up to the #5 defense in the country to take up the challenge of the ‘Sons of slum and gravy,’ and linebackers/co-captains Jeremy Timpf and Andrew King wouldn’t want it any other way. It was their last chance to beat Navy, and they were not about to let the game slip away as they rallied their troops to stop a final comeback attempt by the Midshipmen. Three plays later, Navy was 4 yards short of a first down, and Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo had to decide whether to go for it on fourth or punt the ball back to Army and hope for another of those big breaks that had kept the streak going for 14 years. Niumatalolo decided not to challenge the Army defense, and sent in the punt team with 4 minutes and 7 seconds left on the clock.
Under normal circumstances, holding the ball for 4 minutes is not a huge challenge for a triple option offense, but Army Navy is never normal circumstances, and the Bradshaw Bunch was faced with the challenge of getting 2 first downs to run out the clock. It was a virtual certainty that Navy would see no passes, as the running backs went to work. Fullback Andrew Davidson plunged for two short yards to start the drive. Slotback Tyler Campbell turned the corner on the next play to move the chains and Army had that initial first down with one more to go.
Time was running low for Navy, but Niumatalolo still clung to visions of pulling out another win, and after an 8 yard pickup by fullback Darnell Woolfolk, Navy stopped Davidson a yard short of the needed first down, and Niumatalolo called a timeout to preserve the 1:49 left on the clock.
On the next play, the Army offensive line surged forward to give Bradshaw that final first down they needed, and it was all over but for lining up in the victory formation and taking the knee three times. The 14 year drought was ended.
The Aftermath
As the final seconds ticked off the clock, the entire Corps of Cadets broke traditional military discipline and poured onto the field to celebrate with the players. They paused briefly to allow Navy to sing their alma mater first, and then had to gather up enough members of the spirit band to lead the Corps in singing second for the first time in 15-years.
All season long we have talked about perspective transformations, and this game was the culmination of that transformation. Beat Navy is no longer a plea for better things to come, and we’ve learned that the phrase can be interpreted in the past tense as well as the future imperative.
Note: Stay tuned for our No.1 selection tomorrow (31st).
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