Army’s bowl eligibility on line vs. Tulsa on Senior Day

How important is qualifying for a postseason bowl game to the Army football?

Why few would say it rates as high as winning the Commander-in-Chief trophy, it is clear that many within the program and most Black Knight fans view gaining entry to the post-season as an extremely important measure of the team’s success year-to-year.

On Saturday, starting at noon at Michie Stadium, the Black Knights will have the opportunity to obtain bowl eligibility as they take on visiting Tulsa on Senior Day where 23 firsties will be honored. A win would give Army (5-4 overall and 3-3 in the American Conference), the minimum six victories required to qualify for one of the 41 bowl games (not including games associated with the College Football Playoff series) scattered around the country.

Because the Army-Navy game takes place after bowl bids are announced, the Black Knights will have to win one of its other two remaining regular-season games to qualify for a bowl. Besides Tulsa, now 3-7 and 0-6 in the American, the Black Knights travel to UTSA (5-5 overall and 3-3 in conference) next Saturday for its last conference game.

Per his usual stance, Army coach Jeff Monken downplayed the importance of qualifying for a bowl game, while emphasizing the overall focus on the team playing its best.

“None of those things are goals for us,” Monken said. “We don’t put them up as goals, they are accomplishments that we would like to have. It is just about us playing the best we can play and maximizing who we can be as a team and each individual player working really hard to be the best he can be at his assignment fundamentals and having the self-discipline to work on that every day.
“All those accomplishments, things that happen when you have a good season, are just a byproduct of that self-discipline and the investment that we put in. We are focused on that and try to become a better football team this week than we were last week and try to be better football players today than we were the day before and hopefully that will then give us the results that we hoped for.”
Still, after a rough start to the season, which saw Army drop two overtime games in September and start the year at 1-3, reaching a bowl game would be a pretty good ending to the campaign.

Despite its overall record, Tulsa presents some challenges to Army. First, the Golden Hurricane have shown some brilliance of the field, knocking off Oklahoma State from the Big 12 in September and Oregon State from the Pacific-12 Conference last week. In August, Tulsa dominated Abilene Christian, the only team to beat Tarleton State this season, 35-7. Tarleton State defeated Army in double overtime, 30-27, in August.

Redshirt freshman quarterback Baylor Hayes has five 200-plus yard passing games and Grayson Tempest and Ajay Allen have emerged as quality receivers, each catching seven passes in Tulsa’s loss to Florida Atlantic last weekend. Tight end Brody Foley has nine touchdown catches, the most at his position in all of FBS this season.

On the other side of the coin, Tulsa has been giving up almost 30 points and more than 400 yards per game. The Golden Hurricane has also given up at least 40 points in four of its six conference games.

“The opportunity to back to Michie Stadium, play at home and honor our seniors has our team really excited,” Monken added. “I have been very pleased how these guys have grown this year as leaders. We have some strong leaders in the group. Our team captains, Anton Thomas and Andon Thomas, have done a great job, but there are a number of guys I have seen just develop over the course of their career and certainly this year to provide the leadership.”