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Army West Point Senior Quarterback & Co-Captain Ahmad Bradshaw is currently 9th in the nation in rushing with 1,472 for a Black Knights’ offense that leads the country in rushing with an impressive 368.1 yards per game.

But lets face it ... most fans expect a quarterback to pass the ball, at least reasonably well. Rivals.com and other agencies that rate quarterbacks normally list them as one of two types. A Pro Style Quarterback is one that passes the ball well, but is not necessarily a threat running the ball. Tom Brady and Hall of Famer Dan Marino fit the pro-style model. The second type is one that’s come into fashion more in recent years, the Dual Threat Quarterback, which applies to a quarterback who can run when necessary as well as pass the ball. Michael Vick, Cam Newton and Russell Wilson are well known NFL quarterbacks who fit the description. Before Vick made it popular, NFL teams were loathe to let their quarterbacks run the ball often for fear that they would succumb to injuries. The NFL doesn’t have room for a quarterback whose primary threat is running with the ball. Old timers may remember Paul Horning, who won the Heisman Trophy as a quarterback but was switched to halfback by the Green Bay Packers.

With the NFL bias toward rating the passing talents of quarterbacks, it’s not altogether surprising that Army’s quarterback, Ahmad Bradshaw, has gone relatively unnoticed by national media. He threatens opponents with his legs rather than with his passing arm. In the recent game against North Texas, Bradshaw broke the all-time season rushing record at Army West Point (with one regular season game to go against Navy), remarkable feat at a program whose most famous football players are all running backs, Heisman Trophy winners Glenn Davis, Doc Blanchard, and Pete Dawkins.

Bradshaw was recruited by former Army head coach Rich Ellerson, and he attended the United States Military Academy Prep School in 2013 and started at quarterback in the Ellerson version of the triple option. Current Black Knights’ head coach Jeff Monken replaced Ellerson at the end of that season, and Bradshaw chose to stay the course and entered West Point in 2014, but he did not play varsity football as a freshman.

“As a freshman being behind AJ and Angel, they taught me so much that I did not know at the prep school,” stated the 5-foot-11, 205 Bradshaw. “But one thing I wanted to learn in college that I didn’t learn in high school was about defenses. So my freshman year, I was trying to learn why we called certain plays versus other plays. In doing that, I guess I got a little ahead of myself {laughing} because I fully didn’t understand the plays themselves. So, AJ kind of help me by figuring out first, what this play is and what everyone is doing. So those first two years, I was learning what to do and why we do it. So my sophomore year I got the starting spot and I was focusing on getting other guys up to speed.”

Army fans who watched Bradshaw make his debut in the 2015 spring football game came away unimpressed with his passing ability and were unable to evaluate his running skills while playing in a no contact red jersey. He entered the 2015 season in close competition with senior quarterback AJ Schurr who was generally acknowledged as the better passer of the two. Bradshaw got the starting assignment in the opening game against Fordham and completed 6 of 14 passes with 2 TDs and 1 Interception, while earning his first 100 yard rushing game with 143 yards in a preview of what was to come. He completed 1 of 3 attempts against UConn the following week for 5 yards, but had his second straight 100 yard game with 129 yards. Bradshaw’s passing improved somewhat after that, and he finished the season with 23 completions in 48 attempts for a total of 429 yards with 5 passing touchdowns and 2 Interceptions for an efficiency rating of 149.05. Bradshaw rushed for 468 yards in 130 attempts, and finished the year looking like a dual threat. He and Schurr both missed the final two games of the season against Rutgers and Navy, providing Chris Carter with an opportunity to debut at quarterback.

With Schurr departing due to graduation, Carter and Bradshaw found themselves competing for the starting job at quarterback in the spring of 2015, and Army fans debated as to which of the two should end up with the starting job. It was widely acknowledged that Carter was the better passer of the two, while Bradshaw was seen as the better runner.

When the 2016 season started, it was Bradshaw at the helm, but Carter was brought in to lead the team one series in every game.

The product of Chicago took GoBlackKnights.com back to 2016, where the team had a quality record/season, as it was capped off by the huge win that Bradshaw lead over Navy.

So, how much did the 2016 campaign and win over Navy mean to his maturation as a player and going into your senior season?

“It meant a lot to me last year and all the guys on the team,” Bradshaw explained. “I was able to see myself and my teammates grow from running around here like chickens with our heads cut off as freshmen and not knowing what to do to then seeing guys calm in the huddle, people understanding what we are about to do, guys anticipating the next call, these two plays next and I come to the huddle and to see that growth was very motivating for me knowing that the work we put in actually paid off.”

That season Bradshaw completed 40 of 91 passing attempts for 703 yards with 4 passing touchdowns and 9 interceptions, which dropped his efficiency rating to 103.58, a matter of some concern to the Army coaching staff. Bradshaw had a better season rushing with 826 yards in 185 attempts. More importantly, he solidified his hold on the starting job by leading the final drive against Navy that put Army ahead 21-17, earning the Black Knights’ first win in 15 years over the Midshipmen in 15 years.

Offensive coordinator Brent Davis made it one of his goals in the 2017 spring training session to improve on Bradshaw’s passing efficiency rating. Fans were well aware that Monken did not have much interest in passing the ball unless the defense stacked the deck against the run, but everyone agreed that Bradshaw would need to pass the ball more efficiently if the Army offense were to succeed in 2017.

Davis was quick to speak to the intangibles that make Bradshaw who he is as football player at Army West Point.

“First and foremost, he’s a competitive guy and hates to lose and I think that is a great trait in a quarterback,” Davis told GBK. “His competitive fire is evident to those around him and that is a huge quality that he has.”

“Also, I think that he is a great teammate and he’s always worried about the people around him and trying to help them, more so than worry about himself.”

“And as I said, as a quarterback, that’s an outstanding trait to have because as I said before, a lot of times you are responsible for making sure everyone else in the right place and doing the right thing,” Davis added. “He’s able to do that and at the same time, take care of the job that he has.”

“He’s like a coach on the field. He really understands the game, he knows our offense in and out, he knows basically what every position does, he does a great job of during the game after a series or two, we usually give him a couple of things to look for that may help us get in the right play and he does an outstanding job of getting that done.”

Over the past two football seasons, the talented signal caller’s fan base has surely grown and rightfully so. However, there no greater fan, as well as teammate than Bradshaw’s mother, Kizzy Collins.

“Oh man, my mother has always been my No. 1 fan in everything that I have done,” Bradshaw readily admitted. “Growing up she worked at the Chicago Tribune, went to school at night and I rarely saw her rest {quiet chuckle} ... that’s kind of weird to say. And then in her free time she would be at my games. I was like, this lady is always on the move. She’s an amazing woman and I don’t know how she does it or how she did it. She never missed a game and always gave me everything I wanted, although we didn’t have much growing up ... I never felt like I needed anything or that I wasn’t as fortunate as some other people. She always found a way to give everything my friends had, even though I know we didn’t have it like that growing up. But, she always made a way and she means everything to me.”

"One of the reasons that I came to West Point was that I knew this school would put me in a position to one day be able to take care of my mother. That’s my biggest reason for coming here. I could have went to a school at home or any regular school and would have been fine with taking care of myself. But I wanted to be able to put myself in a position to give my mother what she gave me, if not more."

“It has just been me and him, so of course we are very close,” Ms. Collins told GoBlackKnights.com, as she has proudly watched first hand that young boy she raised as single mom from the place that is called Chi-town grow into a young-man.

“He has grown so much, but he has always been a good kid, so I didn’t doubt his maturity or him being successful as an adult or as a young man.”

For Kizzy, as she likes to be called, the past two-years has been a challenged, after being laid off from her job within the Chicago Public School System. However, that has not deterred her from doing her best to make her son’s special games and events, like the Ohio State contest in Columbus, Ohio and Parents Weekend at the academy. For Bradshaw himself, his mother’s well being is part of his motivation both on and off the field.

“She always taught me that she is going to get through whatever she is going through, no matter what and that’s kind of how I take life on,” Bradshaw explained, when ask how he balances the challenges of being a student-athlete at West Point, along with knowing that his mother is facing her own personal/professional challenges. “No matter what I’m going through, for example if I have a lot of tests this week or game and all that stuff, I know that at the end of the day the struggle is going to end. That is something she taught me growing up, even when we were going through hard times, but we always go through it together and it’s going to end eventually and it going to be good. That’s how I look at it here (United States Military Academy at West Point), and I try not worry about anything like that because if I worry and fail then nobody gets help.”

“I just want to put myself in a position to get her out of the situation that she’s in and help her as much as I can.”

It is that same level of drive, focus and determination that Bradshaw entered with for the the 2017 season, where he named as one of the Co-Captains, and the reigns as starting QB were “officially” given to him.

So, when we asked the QB to talk about this current season and has he had time to put things into perspective even the team has two games remaining ... Navy and the bowl game, he responses with the level of humility that is truly part of his temperament.

“Honestly, I really don’t have time to sit down and think about all the stuff that’s going on,” he said. “I look at more of the team accomplishments that we have done together and I haven’t focused on the stuff that I have done. Maybe after the season I will look back and say I didn’t even know that. From time to time I get on Twitter and see little stats and the record and stuff like that and I see people tweet me and things, but I don’t really get on social media for that purpose.”

“The only time I hear about stats like that is when my friends tell me or if I run by it on social media. Most of the goals that I have noticed, is we have accomplished ... we went undefeated at home and that was one of our six goals as a team and that was real huge for us to be able to get that done.”

Army West Point entered the fall of 2017 with high hopes of another winning season and a second invitation to a bowl game. They were even picked by the broadcast team from CBS Sports to win the CiC trophy this year, and most experts picked Army to win the rushing title as well. The optimism wained a bit when it was announced that Chris Carter would not be eligible due to academics, and since Carter was acknowledged to be the better passer, there was additional concern about Bradshaw’s passing skills.

Bradshaw demonstrated that Army could win without passing the ball early on in the season. Against Fordham, Bradshaw rushed for a career high 177 yards but failed to connect on his two passing attempts, both of which seemed to be gratuitous attempts to get him some passing practice. In the second game against Buffalo, Bradshaw broke the 100 yard rushing mark again with 147 net yards, but connected on only 2 of 8 passing attempts for 17 yards. No one expected much against Ohio State in game 3, and Bradshaw completed just 2 of 7 attempts for 19 yards and was held to a meager 50 yards rushing by the Buckeye defense in the losing cause. Tulane had learned to defend the triple option well and held Bradshaw to 65 yards rushing and for the second time this season, Bradshaw failed to complete a pass on 3 attempts, bringing his season passing record to 4 completions in 20 attempts with no touchdowns and 1 interception.

Bradshaw finally broke the 50% barrier in passing in a game with 3 completions in 5 attempts against UTEP, but he barely missed another 100 yard rushing performance with 93 yards in just 11 attempts, choosing, instead, to distribute the ball to his teammates against the Miners. It took only 13 attempts for Bradshaw to exceed 100 yards rushing against Rice, but he finished the day recording his third game of the season with no pass completions. The following week he was blanked in the passing game again with no completions in 3 attempts against Eastern Michigan, but he more than made up for it with 171 yards rushing in 19 attempts.

The Temple game promised to be a major challenge in preserving the unbeaten string at home, and it turned out to be a thrilling game. Bradshaw was held to a season low 49 yards rushing in 13 attempts by the triple-option-wise Temple defense, but he recorded one of the two best passing days against the Owls with 3 completions in 5 attempts. But when it came to the final minute of the game with Army down 7 points, head coach Jeff Monken sent in his passing quarterback, Kelvin Hopkins to secure the tie with the closest thing Army fans saw to a passing attack all season.

Next up was arch rival Air Force in the first leg of the Commander-in-Chief’s trophy quest, and knowledgeable fans were absolutely certain that Bradshaw would have to pass more to get a win against the Falcons who were most certainly proficient at stopping Army’s running attack. But instead of passing more, Monken avoided passing at all in the game, leaving fans and sportscasters wondering how a team could beat Air Force without throwing a pass. It was the 5th game of the season that Army played and the 4th Army won without completing a single pass. Bradshaw proved that Army could run against a team that was well versed in the triple option as he gained a career high 265 yards against the Falcons.

Duke was the last team standing in the way of an undefeated season in Michie, and once again the pundits assured us that Army could not win without passing the ball more. In fact, Monken called one more passing play against Duke than he did against Navy, and Bradshaw completed it for a key 42 yard gain. It was a demonstration of the greater importance of passing efficiency over passing frequency in the Monken offensive scheme.

Army hit the road again to play North Texas in a rematch of last year’s bowl game in Texas. Bradshaw completed only 1 of 3 passing attempts, and it was good for 27 yards and was one of the key plays in the final drive to tie the score at 49 All. The Army rushing offense looked unstoppable against the Green Machine defense as Bradshaw led the 534 yard team effort with 244 yards rushing. His total was more than enough to break the season rushing record set by Colin Mooney in 2008, and Bradshaw still has one game left in the regular season.

In a few weeks, the annual Army Navy game will pit two of the top running quarterbacks in the country against each other. Both of them are arguably better candidates for the Doak Walker Award than they are for the Davey Obrien Award. Bradshaw currently ranks 5th in Rushing Yardage with 1472 yards, while Zach Abey ranks 13th with 1289 yards.

While Army and Navy both run offenses originally created by Paul Johnson at Georgia Southern, Navy departed somewhat from the pure triple option when they had Keenan Reynolds at quarterback. The fullbacks started getting a few less carries, while Reynolds became the featured running back in the offense with 35% of the team’s carries in 2014 and 2015. The trend continued up the past two years as well. In 2016, four Navy quarterbacks combined for 47.5% of the teams carries, and in 2017, Abey and Malcolm Perry have carried the ball 46.1% of the time as quarterbacks.

Meanwhile, Bradshaw continues to distribute the ball more than his Navy counterparts with 189 of the team’s 649 rushing attempts ( 29.1%), providing more rushing opportunities for his fullbacks and slotbacks. That explains why Bradshaw ranks 5th in the FBS with 7.79 Yards Per Rush Attempt, while Abey finds himself ranked 91st with a 4.49 average per attempt. In all fairness, however, we should mention that Abey’s average is reduced by the 9 Sacks that Navy has allowed this season compared to only 1 Sack of an Army quarterback, and that Army quarterback was not Bradshaw.

Bradshaw’s talents haven’t gone entirely unnoticed. At the start of the season, he was named to the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award watch list. Although Unitas was clearly a pro style quarterback known for his passing, the award, apparently, does not place too much emphasis on a quarterback’s ability to throw the ball. Army fans have noted how ironic it would be for a quarterback who passes the ball less than 4 times per game to receive the Golden Arm award.

Of course the proverbial question regarding Bradshaw’s career at Army West Point is, where does he fit on the list of All-Time Army football greats? Well, we will leave that up to the fans to debate and decide, but there is no question that he has a place somewhere on that infamous list ... that is not up for debate.

But just in case you needed some point of reference to put Bradshaw career/season in perspective, here’s what 4th year head coach Jeff Monken had to share with GoBlackKnights.com on Monday.

"We’ve played football here [Army West Point] for a long time and there’s been three Heisman Trophy winners, all of whom were running backs ... ball carriers for a living, which is what he [Bradshaw] is, he’s a ball carrier," said the 4th year Army mentor. "He leads all rushers all time [single season record] in program history, which is really incredible."

"Truly, to be a place where running the football that has been part of the culture and mainstay of the offense for decades over a century is pretty special."

"And he has handled it with such grace and humility ... that’s been the great thing, which has been the great pleasure in coaching him is that none of the individual accomplishments mean anything to him ... he wants to win," added Monken. "He is just trying to do his job to help our team win and I love guys like that."

"He’s been a great leader. But with that said, he’s in the Top Ten rushers in the nation. So, what he’s doing for our team and what he’s doing as an individual is pretty special in comparison with other people in college football in today’s world of college football, but not just looking at Army history. I’m really excited for him."

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