The team is 3-1 and off to a great start. So, who do you feel is the team's MVP for the first 4 games?

Have been thinking about some general parameters of a successful season for a SA program. Granted the CiC is the ultimate goal. But let's just say that we focus in on an agnostic win-loss total. Took a look back at AF and Navy from 2002-2015 as clearly the most relevant benchmarks:

AF averaged 6.8 wins a season
Navy averaged 8.1 wins a season

Sadly, for several of those years Army was a gimme win and that is no longer the case. So factoring that in, it seems that ~7 wins is a fine run-rate.

I bring this up as it seems like there is palpable disappointment that we may not win 9-10 games this year given the Buffalo loss. I base this more on wild and often times weird FB comments than on comments on this site.

And while Army football has had an unmatched rough 20 years, I wonder if we may forget the down years at AF and Navy. Of note, here's AF:

2004: 5-6
2005: 4-7
2006: 4-8
2012: 6-7
2013: 2-10

Navy has been the best performing SA, but even with the incomparable K. Reynolds, they went 8-5 in 2012 and 2014. Last really down year 5-7 in 2011.

On a bit of separate note, I went and looked at the Navy "turn around" season of 2004 which many sight as the reason why we should have expected JM to improve so much more in YR2. Navy only played 2 winning teams that whole year: Delaware (FCS) and then New Mexico in bowl game. One of the teams Northeastern doesn't even have a football team anymore.

Ultimately, I'm excited about what I have seen this year and what it potentially means for the future. My concern is that expectations might have gotten a bit too optimistic. I really do think JM is building a team that gets us in the 6-10 win zone consistently. But, I also know that not every season is going to deliver the wins we want. However, I hope we learn the lesson of consistency in building a quality program.

Story on the Rivals LSU site

He had a long run there, especially by hiring/firing standard by today's college programs.

Former USC great and current Buffalo Bills running back Reggie Bush spoke to the Army football team yesterday evening at the team’s hotel.

Bush encouraged the team to “Trust the Process”. Which is super ironic, because that is the phrase that Walker himself uses all the time

As a matter of fact, Walker’s parents put #trusttheprocess on the front of his t-shirts too.


Reggie Bush (left) & Joe Walker

Here’s a photo of Bush and Walker together. Another irony is that Bush wore #5 during his days with the Trojans at USC and of course that is Walker’s number with the Army Black Knights

.... we played bad across the board, missing the 2015 team MVP in Edgar Poe, losing our kicker yet we were just one close field goal away from walking away with a win on Saturday.

Tough loss? Yep! Jumping off the bandwagon? Nope!

This is a good team, with good coaches who have gone through so much in just 4 games this season that I am very confident that they will rebound, especially after a much needed bye week.

GO ARMY, BEAT DUKE!

We got hurt with this call during the overtime period.

This is the comment by the Iowa Hawkeyes’ head coach after the Iowa-Rutgers game on Saturday. He is even confused because he is talking about two separate blocks:

I asked a college and high school official who I know and the Cut Block Rule is well new:

"There seems to have been more chop blocking penalties this year through the first four games and that is due to a change in the rules. Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz has something to say about those rules after the game.

“I’d like to address the rule changes they’ve made with cut blocking. One thing I’ve done for a long time is coach the offensive line and they’ve altered the rules and I’m a little befuddle on why. I never saw any data that showed there was an issue there. There didn’t seem to be last year. They changed the rules, and I’m talking about nationally. My concern for this is four weeks, there’s been four different interpretations on a rule. It impacts a game. It potentially could. It certainly did on the first play in the second half.

“My concern is that we have a bunch of officials, I’m sure it’s this way for every conference, I can only speak to the Big Ten. We’ve got a bunch of guys committed to working the game, working it hard, working it well, just like this crew today and we’ve created a set of rules that’s hard to understand. I can tell you I don’t understand them."

The coach above is actually talking about the new Cut Block Rule not Chop Blocking, they are two different animals. Chop blocking is done by two players on one. One goes high the other low. Cut blocks are from the waist down , from the front and done at a 10-2 angle ( steering wheel of car). There are players that are restricted at when they can do it and where on the field it can be done. It can be confusing and it has a lot to do with the tackle box.

Buffalo 21
Army 20

#JustTeasing

Army 31
Buffalo 24

I do believe this will be a tough game all the way through.

P.S. According to my man BillGil:

We have been listed as 5.5pt faves with QB Zack Greenlee still questionable. Forecast at kickoff: 75 deg with 50% chance of rain.

Great time to check out both at one time!

Losing last night like we did was a gut punch. However, 3 and 1 is a good place to be and better I venture than most thought we would land. Sure, we gave that game away but time to move forward. Here are some of my thoughts.

1. The team is better than I anticipated. However, I always thought there would be bumps along the way and never jumped the "9-3/top 25" bandwagon. Program is on the upswing and last nights performance does not change that thinking for me. Team gave the game away last night no doubt. But that was not the standard issue inexplicable clunker we've seen in the past (Stonybrook anyone?).
2. Proud of a team that lost a teammate and played 3 of 4 games on the road and came out with a 3-1 record. I think we can bash the performance last night justly, but stepping back I think there is a lot to commend the team for. Easy to get too shortsighted after a loss.
3. Every game remaining on the schedule is winnable. Run the table winnable - no. But if we play like we did the first 3 games, there are wins there.
4. Believe coaching staff will have us prepared coming out of bye week. More than most any other team in the country, team need this breather. Moreover, I believe the tam has bought into JMs approach and will come out firing.
5. Lastly, the defense probably has not gotten the same level of credit as the offense and should. They played well even last night. Tough to stop the other team when we cough the ball up on our 20.

Those of you who stayed up to watch the second half of the AFA game against Utah State most likely noticed that Weston Steelhammer was ejected in the third quarter for targeting. Calhoun complained to the officials, but it was clear in the review that Steelhammer made helmet to helmet contact. This is not the first time that Steelhammer has been ejected for targeting; so it's hard to cut him any slack on this. Calhoun should not have argued with the officials on the call, as it gave the appearance of approving of Steelhammer's targeting.

Because it happened in the second half, Steelhammer will miss the first half of the Navy game as well.

As you know, especially for those of you Army fans who have been regulars on GoBlackKnights.com for some time now, it is our custom to run our Cover-It-Live Chat during each and every Army ball game.

However, this Saturday game, we will not have it up and running (it’s a long story ... and our apologies).

But what we will have up and running will be this GBK Army-Buffalo Game Day Thread, whereby you can chime as you see fit and A.M. Allan will still be on board to peak in on the message board chatter but no official moderation.

I hope everyone will join in and add your voice to the CHAT as well. See you here at 7pm EST (9/24).