Cale Hellums lifted Army to an upset victory against Kansas State last time out. Now, the junior quarterback will get the chance to keep the momentum going as the Black Knights host undefeated North Texas at Michie Stadium Saturday.
Hellums, starting his first game at quarterback after starter Dewayne Coleman was roughed up in Army’s first game, carried the ball a school-record 41 times in a 24-21 win over the Wildcats, was named the starting quarterback for the Black Knights during coach Jeff Monken’s regular live radio show Monday evening.
“It is hard to argue with (Hellums) performance against Kansas State,” Monken said at his regular press conference on Tuesday. “The way he ran the ball and led our team and he is completely healthy. Dewayne went into the game against Kansas State prepared to play a backup role and go into the game if we needed him to. The 100 percent health of our guys sometimes that makes a difference on where they stand on the depth charts as well, so it was a combination of both.”
Army will face a totally different North Texas team than they met last year in a 14-3 Black Knight victory. The Mean Green defense, which finished near the bottom of the rankings in points allowed last year, have only averaged giving up 13.3 points per game in their first three games. Offensively, led by quarterback Drew Mestemaker, who has already completed 66 passes for 764 yards and nine touchdowns, without an interception, North Texas has averaged scoring nearly 48 points per game, including knocking off Washington State, 59-10, last Saturday.
Monken said his team played a near-perfect game, with no turnovers and just a couple of penalties, against Kansas State and would have to play at about the same level to defeat North Texas.
“They are high powered, spread the field and get a lot of people involved,” Monken said. “They have been in the red zone 21 times and scored 20 and 16 were touchdowns. That is crazy stats, crazy.”
To win the game, Army will have to control the tempo of the game, utilizing its option offense for long and successful drives that result in touchdowns and, perhaps more importantly, keep the Mean Green offense off the field.
“We will have to play our game,” said Monken, noting that his offensive line played more physically last week. “The team that scores the most points win. All you have to do is score more points than your opponent.”
Monken will count on Hellums to duplicate his near-perfect performance against Kansas State to hold down North Texas.
“We did not go into the (Kansas State) game anticipating he was going to carry 41 times but we did not know we would have it (offensively) 82 times either,” Monken said. “We were able to control the football, chew up some clock with some short and medium gains. We did not have a lot of big plays.
“We leaned on (Hellums) and we typically do that with our quarterbacks. We rely on the quarterback to run the football. He is a tough, rugged runner and, give him credit, that is not what he did in high school. But, he has embraced who we are and what his role is and what our quarterbacks have to do and did a really good job with it two Saturdays ago down in Manhattan (Kansas).”
