It has not been a great year for Army football. They currently sit at 3-6 and are a long shot to make a bowl game with potentially two FCS wins on their resume even if they were to get to six wins. However, none of that mattered on Saturday, which leads me to giving my weekly shoutout to them.

How They Got Here

Army entered Saturday as 17.5 point underdogs against No. 25 and previously undefeated Air Force. The rivalry game was played at Empower Field at Mile High, home of the Denver Broncos, and delivered a more spirited effort than a lot of Broncos game in recent memory. The Black Knights had lost five straight games, including a 62-0 blanking against LSU and 21-14 loss to UMass. Vibes were low. But there’s nothing like a service academy game to get the juices flowing and the good spirits back in the locker room.

My favorite part of these triple-option games are the numbers. Air Force out-gained Army 259-253, 104-40 in the air, and converted third downs at a higher clip. However, the real kicker was Army forced six turnovers to Air Force’s big fat zero. The Black Knights forced four fumbles and two interceptions en route to a 23-3 beatdown. One last fun number: Army QB Bryson Daily was just 4-9 for 40 yards passing, but added 36 carries for 170 yards and 2 touchdowns on the ground. Air Force QB Zac Larrier put up a not-so-fun stat line of 9-22 for 93 yards and 2 INTs. As someone that has loved the story of undefeated Air Force this season, it was a little disappointing, but it’s hard not to respect the other troops and what Army did last weekend.

What’s Next

As mentioned before, it has not been a great season for Army. Losing to UL Monroe and UMass are unusual lows for a usually solid program. However, this win over Air Force is huge. Parlay it with a win in the Army-Navy game, and you’re honestly coming away from this season feeling great. The other piece of news to drop this week is that Army will join the American Athletic Conference starting in 2024-25 in a football-only capacity. The interesting part of this is that the Army-Navy game will remain a non-conference game, with the potential of the two teams meeting again the next week in the AAC championship game. That would RULE. As for now, Army will have to just be happy with being named my G5 team of the week.