Army must beat UTSA to secure bowl berth

The math is pretty simple. Army must play better, a lot better, than the team did last week and through much of this season if it hopes to steal a win at UTSA Saturday and get that much-desired sixth victory that makes the Black Knights eligible for a bowl game.

Winning its last American Conference game of the season is not going to be an easy task. Behind the pinpoint passing of junior quarterback Owen McCown and a group of talented receivers and running backs, the Roadrunners are scoring nearly 35 point a game and have won three of their last four games en route to a 6-5 overall record and 4-3 in the American Conference.

Army (5-5, 3-4 American) has enjoyed success in the Alamodome, winning all three games against the Roadrunners on the road, including 2020 and 2023. UTSA has won 25 straight home conference games since 2020.
The Black Knights’ rivalry game against Navy is on Dec 13 after bowls games are awarded.

“Everybody knows, they can do the math (about the game being the difference between becoming bowl eligible or not this season),” said Army coach Jeff Monken. “It is one of the reasons we are so disappointed about this past Saturday (a 26-25 loss to Tulsa). We were knocking on the doorstep of being bowl eligible and we blew it. We let it get away from us, unfortunately. The by-product of our work and investment, there are these milestones and opportunities that certainly we want to be a part of and playing in the postseason is one of those.”

Monken said his team is “desperate to get a win and to respond” from the disappointment of Tulsa.

“Hopefully, we can find a way to put ourselves in the game and have a chance to win” Monken said. “It would be nice to be bowl eligible and get another game added to our season.”

There are many areas to improve for Army. The defense had trouble stopping the Golden Hurricane, giving up nearly 500 offensive yards, and were saved by two timely fumble recoveries deep in Army territory. Offensively, the Black Knights were simply inconsistent, especially in the second half where Army was held to just 40 offensive yards on its last five drives of the game.  

“Tulsa did a good job and part of the frustration is just not being able to have that consistency in the second half with what we did in the first half,” Monken said. They did a really good job defending us in the second half. We just have to do a better job sustaining blocks, fitting the runs with the ball. The fundamental things.”

Besides stopping McCown, who has thrown for nearly 2,500 yards with 25 touchdown passes and just six interceptions, Army will also have to focus on running back Robert Henry, who has gained 983 yards on the ground and scored nine touchdowns, and four receivers with at least 24 receptions each this season.

Calling UTSA “a team with a lot of weapons,” Monken said for Army to win it will have to start with a sound run defense, as well as limit big plays. Offensively, he is counting on strong blocking to open holes for the running game and, as usual, no turnovers or negative yardage plays that would hamper long drives and limit Army’s time of possession.

“If you look at the East Carolina game (a 58-24 UTSA victory last Saturday) that was incredibly impressive,” said Monken. “East Carolina has a great defense, going into the game they were a top 10 defense in the country and UTSA went up and down the field on them. I watched their game against Tulane (a 48-26 UTSA victory on Oct. 30) on a Friday night and, again, it was really impressive what they did. Tulane and East Carolina are two good football teams.”