Every season has stories that add depth and color going beyond the record of wins and losses for Army West Point football, and our GBK analysts Joe Iacono and Gordon Larson put their heads together to pick the top 10 stories of the 2021 season.

Some of our choices are about specific games, while others are about individual accomplishments that span the entire season. We made no effort to rank them in any logical order.

Texas is a favorite recruiting ground for both Air Force and Army, and the Black Knights have played 14 games in Texas since they beat SMU in the Bell Helicopter Bowl in 2010. More importantly, Army had won 9 of the 12 previous games it played in Texas since that win in 2010, including 4 straight wins in the Armed Forces Bowl. But the win this year over Air Force in OT has to be at or near the top of the most memorable Texas triumphs. It was the first-ever Commander’s Classic game, and the first time the Air Force game had been played at a neutral field since 1965. Air Force held a dominant lead in the series, but Army had won 3 of the last 4.

As is usually the case, the game was a hard-fought defensive battle that sent the game into overtime for the first in CiC game history. Army lost the toss and had to go first. Christian Anderson led the team to the AF 5 in 5 quick plays. But on third down and 5, Anderson fumbled the ball as he crossed the 2-yard line, and offensive tackle, Jordyn Law recovered the ball in the end zone to give Army a 7 point lead.

Air Force took over at the 25 knowing that they needed a touchdown to stay in the game. Andre Carter sacked Haaziq Daniels on the second play of the series, but Daniels completed a pass to the Army 11 to earn a fresh set of downs. Fattah was held to 5 yards in two carries; so Daniels went back to the air on third down. His third-down attempt fell incomplete. With the game on the line, Daniels had Kinamon open in the end zone, but Jabari Moore stepped in to break up the pass and preserve the win that kept the CiC trophy at West Point for another year.

Army’s ‘W’ over Missouri in the Armed Forces Bowl is the 1st win against a Power 5 opponent since 2017 and only the 3rd win against a Power 5 opponent in the Monken era.

Prior to the 2021 Armed Forces Bowl, Jeff Monken and Army were 2-10 against Power 5 opponents over the last 8 years. They had come super close against Oklahoma in 2018; Michigan in 2019; WVU in 2020; and Wisconsin and Wake Forest this year, only to come up a tad short each time out.

Black Knights’ fans, coaches, and players all desperately wanted to prove they could not only hang with the blue bloods of college football but beat them. After falling behind 16-7 at halftime after a somewhat lackluster first-half performance, Army played a near-perfect 2nd Half. After falling behind 22-21 with 1:11 left in the contest, this one would end differently for the Black Knights. Jabari Laws drove the Black Knights down to the Missouri 23-yard line with :03 left on the clock and Cole Talley came in to kick the game-winning field goal as time expired. It was the first “walk-off” field goal for a win in at least the last 12 years.

We would rank this quality win right behind Air Force and Missouri as the third biggest win of the season for Army in 2021. The Black Knights scored a major victory over the nation’s best passing offense in Western Kentucky and QB Bailey Zappe on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in Michie Stadium

At the time, I’m not sure any of us realized what a quality win this was for the Army program. Army jumped out to a big lead over a high-quality opponent in Western Kentucky, 35-14 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Army’s lead was the product of great pass defense, turnovers created by the Army defense, and a great rushing and passing attack on offense.

In the 4th quarter, the Black Knights' offense stumbled a few times and turned the ball over on downs. This led to superstar QB Bailey Zappe getting 3 possessions towards the end of the game and converting all 3 into touchdowns to make the final a nail-biter at 38-35. Cole Talley kicked what would end up being the game-winning field goal in the 4th quarter. If not for that clutch kick; and Marquel Broughton recovering 3 onside kicks, Army may have walked away with a loss that day.

At the time, many of the Army faithful were lamenting our “bad” pass defense in the 4th quarter. Not saying the 4th quarter pass defense was awesome, but Western Kentucky and QB Bailey Zappe ended up breaking Joe Burrow’s record for most passing touchdowns and yards in a season by the time their 2021 campaign had come to a close (6072 yards and 63 TD’s). WKU finished the season 9-5, won the C-USA East, lost in the conference championship and ended their season with a 59-38 win in the Boca Raton Bowl over a strong App State team. The Hilltoppers scored over 50 points in four games.

Conventional wisdom says you have to find a starting quarterback and stick with him. One adage says that if you have two quarterbacks you don’t have a quarterback; so it was interesting to see Head Coach Jeff Monken and OC Brent Davis adopt a multi-quarterback offensive strategy in 2021. We’ve seen multiple quarterbacks on the field in past years, but it was normally due to one of three things. Either the starter was out with an injury, Army was so far ahead they could afford to look at some of the reserves, or Monken needed a passing specialist to insert in obvious passing situations. Kelvin White was used in Hail Mary situations in the early Monken years, Kelvin Hopkins had his debut in a rare two-minute drill against Temple, and we saw Laws employed in that same situation against Missouri.

But the idea of swapping quarterbacks in and out of the game in the middle of a possession is something we didn’t see much of until the middle of last year when Monken and Davis were down to their 5th and 6th string quarterbacks, Cade Ballard, and Tyhier Tyler. Neither of the two was prepared to run all the plays in the offense, so Davis worked on one set of plays for Ballard and a different set for Tyler. Ballard was the better passer of the two, and Tyler was the better runner, and neither of them was very proficient at the reads required to run the full triple option.

Army came into fall camp with 5 experienced quarterbacks, and Head Coach Jeff Monken hinted that he was considering using more than one of them regularly, much the same as he’d done with Ballard and Tyler in 2020. In this case, the two regulars were Anderson and Tyler, with Laws and Jemel Jones used more in a backup role. The major advantages of using multiple quarterbacks are 1) there is less drop-off if one of them is injured, and 2) the offense can take advantage of each one’s capabilities. Tyler was the best running quarterback on the team, while Laws and Anderson were far more proficient in the passing game. Just how that will work out going forward is anyone’s guess, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see Coach Monken continue to use multiple QBs in 2022.

Jabari Laws was the comeback story of the year for 2021.

Jabari Laws started the 2019 season as the backup to Kelvin Hopkins Jr, but Hopkins was injured in the second OT of the Michigan game and Laws was elevated to the starting role in the third game of the season against UTSA. Laws started the 4th game against Morgan State, but Hopkins came back to start the next three games against Tulane, Western Kentucky, and Georgia State. Laws shared the quarterback duties with Hopkins and Anderson in the loss to San Jose State, but it was the 2019 Air Force game, where Laws captured the imagination of Army fans. With AF leading 17-13, Laws passed the Black Knights to the AF 13 on a 31-yard completion to Brandon Walters, but Jordan Jackson knocked Laws out of the game on a tackle that was clearly targeting, and Hopkins, coming off the bench cold, was unable to pass Army into the end zone. Laws bounced back to start against UMass, but he was injured a second time in the VMI game and was out for the rest of the season. Laws completed 16 of his 20 attempts in 2019, establishing himself as the best passing quarterback on the Army squad.

Laws came into preseason camp in 2020 as the likely starter, but a pre-season injury sidelined him for the entire season, and he was on light duty the following spring practice as well. Monken used Laws in reserve in 6 games this season, with 5 snaps in the opening game at Georgia State, 2 snaps in the UConn game, 21 snaps in the Wisconsin game and 19 in the Wake Forest game. With his 80% completion record from 2019 and an 85% completion record going into the bowl game against Missouri, Laws was the guy Monken wanted on the field when he needed to move the ball 75 yards in a minute and 11 seconds. Laws completed just 2 of his 4 attempts for 21 yards in the final drive, but he ran for another 15 yards and got a pass interference call that put Army in range for the field goal. After facing so much adversity in trying to get back on the field, it was a great way to end his Army football career.

The emergence of Christian Anderson as a Passing QB boosting Army’s passing efficiency success rates was our greatest turnaround story of 2021.

In 2019, Anderson was the #3 quarterback behind Kelvin Hopkins and Jabari Laws but got the start against Navy when both of those two were sidelined. He completed just 7 of 23 attempts and compiled a mediocre efficiency rating 94.09. His efficiency rating dropped to 70.98 in 2020 when he threw 4 interceptions to offset his 1 TD pass.

But anyone who followed Anderson in high school knew he had a “live” arm. The Bronx native was the second all-time leading passer in New York high school football history. Had he not gone to an option team, he probably would have been lighting up opposing secondaries most of his career.

Anderson hadn’t been able to showcase much of that passing ability prior to the 2021 season at Army either due to injuries or play calling. However, in 2021, Offensive Coordinator Brent Davis used Anderson’s skill set to burn teams early and often with play-action deep balls over the top as well as run-pass option bootlegs like the one he scored on against Missouri. Anderson with the ball in his hands on the perimeter became quite the weapon for the Army offense in 2021.

On the season, Anderson was 31-63 for 713 yards; 5 touchdowns; 0 interceptions, and a QBR of 170.5! These numbers are outstanding for an Army QB. By comparison, his 2020 QBR was 71.0.

At GoBlackKnights.com, we have emphasized the importance of passing efficiency for Army as the key statistic to how well the passing game is working since they throw the ball so rarely and only in key situations. Well, in 2021, Army ranked third nationally in passing efficiency with a rating of 176.25. The threat of the pass kept many teams from loading the box with 9 or 10 players when Anderson was in at QB, which led to success in the running game, leading Army to the #2 ranking nationally in rush offense.

The emergence of OLB Andre Carter as one of the nation’s sack leaders ranks as the breakout story of 2021.

Everyone who saw the 6-foot-7, 250 pound Carter play his first two years knew that he was an unusual talent at West Point, and certainly a player who had great measurables, and had the potential to develop into an outstanding defensive star and potentially a future NFL player.

2021 was Carter’s first year as a full-time starter. He made his presence felt right away in the season opener against Georgia State with 3 sacks. He continued his rampage on opposing Quarterbacks throughout the season and ended with 15.5 sacks after the bowl game for a new single-season record at Army West Point. His 15.5 sacks have him currently tied for the national lead.

He is also tied for 8th nationally with 4 forced fumbles on the season. Carter also had the honor of being the first AP All-American at Army (3rd team) in the Monken era and was named Pro Football Network’s 2021 Independent Defensive Player of the Year. We are all excited Carter is back for one more season on the banks of the Hudson. He will surely be a key to Army’s success in 2022.

A few years ago, Army went to a 4 fullback rotation in their lineup, and Fullback Coach, Mike Viti explained that each of the 4 has a set of unique capabilities that he employs depending on the situation. It was clear that Buchanan was going to be a power runner when we first saw him in action back in 2019, but it didn’t become apparent how good he was at picking up short yardage until this season. In 2019, Buchanan carried the ball 19 times with no losses. He broke into the regular rotation in 2020 and carried the ball 111 times for 474 yards with no losses.

Sometime this year, it dawned on the statisticians that Buchanan never lost yardage, and we started hearing the game broadcasters citing the number of times Buchanan had carried without a loss. At last count, that number is up to 266 carries for 1066 career yards with no losses. He’s averaging a modest 4 yards per attempt, but his unique talent for moving the ball forward serves a very useful purpose.

We all know that Coach Monken believes in going for the conversion on fourth and short almost anywhere on the field, and Buchanan has been like money in the bank when he’s called on to get a yard or two on 4th down. Monken didn’t start calling on him in that capacity until about mid-2020, but he had 8 successful conversions in 8 attempts last year, and he had 17 conversions in 17 attempts this season. His success at converting fourth and short came in useful in another way in the Missouri game. Monken called Buchanan’s number on the first 4 fourth down situations in the game, and Buchanan converted each time. So when the chips were down in the 4th quarter with Army facing a 4th and 2 at the Missouri 14, one has to believe that the Missouri DC was focused on stopping Buchanan. So Buchanan took the fake handoff and started to the left side of center led by most of the Army team, while Tyler rolled outright and had the option of running the ball past the one defender on that side of the field or passing the ball to Brandon Walters who was wide open in the end zone. It sort of reminds me of Hitler not believing that D-Day was at Normandy if Patton was still in England.

We’d be lying if we claimed that we didn’t foresee these two sophomores having a great season in 2021. Tyrell Robinson was our choice for Rookie of the Year in 2020, and Army fans recognized the potential that Isaiah Alston had early on in the season as well.

Alston was a bit more of a pleasant surprise since we were led to believe that he was still developing aspects of his game. Clearly, he was a good receiver, but apparently, he learned to block along the way as well. Wide Receivers who don’t block don’t play for Army West Point. We also noticed that Robinson has improved his blocking skills as well, and both of the sophomores are regulars in the starting lineup. Robinson played 447 snaps this season with a PFF rating of 81.5 while Alston played 318 snaps with a rating of 90.4.

It’s no wonder that the two sophomores were the favorite targets for both Laws and Anderson. Alston finished the season with 22 receptions for 449 yards and 3 touchdowns, while Robinson had 12 receptions for 340 yards and 3 touchdowns. Of course, we all know that Robinson does more than just catch passes. He finished second in rushing yardage with 620 yards in 72 carries, returned 10 punts for 141 yards and 5 kickoffs for 112 yards.

Punter Zach Harding’s ability to flip the field and become one of Army’s best offensive weapons rates as one of the major success factors in 2021.

Anyone who has been around Army Head Coach Jeff Monken knows how much he loathes punting. He would rather never punt at all if given the option. However, sometimes it’s the only option.

While punting has been a bit of an adventure at West Point for much of Monken’s tenure, the last two seasons with Zach Harding in that role have been as close to automatic and perfect as most coaches and fans could hope for.

On multiple occasions, Monken has called Harding the team’s MVP and said he should get the opportunity to play on Sundays. Harding has been invited to the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl Game later this month to showcase his talents for NFL scouts.

Here are some of Harding’s key stats: He has a 44.1-yard average, which puts him only 60th nationally. His long punt was a booming 63 yards. Surprisingly, that’s only 75th in the nation. What’s most impressive about Harding, however, is his deadly accuracy. 17 of his punts have pinned opponents inside their own 20-yard line and 11 of his punts have traveled over 50 yards. We don’t have a stat we could find on this, but we personally witnessed Harding pin opponents inside their 5-yard line on multiple occasions this season.

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