Army and its star quarterback Bryson Daily, playing his final game as a Black Knight, had a lot of unfinished business to complete Saturday night in the Independence Bowl.
Coming off a stunning 31-13 loss to arch-rival Navy two weeks ago, the Black Knights needed another game – and another victory – to somewhat rectify things and finish the 2024 season on a high note and the most wins in a season in the history of the 135-year program.
Daily, a two-year starter, needed at least three touchdowns to set an NCAA FBS record for most touchdowns by a quarterback in one season, a finishing touch to a magical season that saw him finish in sixth place in the Heisman Trophy voting.
Missions accomplished.
The Black Knights, behind Daily’s 127 rushing yards and three scores, outlasted undermanned Louisiana Tech, 27-6, to win the Independence Bowl, gain its 12th win of the season in 14 games and see Daily collect those three scores allowing him to finish with 32 rushing touchdowns on the year. Ironically, it is one more than Navy quarterback Keenan Reynolds had during the 2013 season.
From the start, Army and Daily controlled the tempo of the game against Louisiana Tech, which was a late replacement in the game. Sun Belt Conference champion Marshall, Army’s original opponent, decided to forego the game after about three dozen of its players entered the transfer portal. Taking their place less than two weeks ago, Bulldogs entered the game with a 5-7 record and finished fifth in Conference USA.
The Black Knights played a stellar, yet typical first half, maintaining ball possession for more than 22 minutes of the 30 minutes in the first two quarters and scoring touchdowns on each of their first three drives. For the game, the Black Knights ran for 321 rushing yards on 64 attempts and had possession of the ball for more than 40 minutes.
Daily scored his first touchdown on a 15-yard run early in the first quarter. Junior Hayden Reed, getting his first start at fullback this season replacing the departed Kanye Udoh, who entered the transfer portal and is headed to Arizona State, scored Army’s second touchdown on a 12-yard run late in the first quarter.
Most impressive was the Black Knights’ third drive of the half, a 21-play, 75-yard and 12:21 possession that featured four fourth-down conversions, three by Daily. It ended when Daily raced in for an 8-yard run with 1:54 left in the second quarter to give Army a 21-3 halftime lead. It was his 31st rushing touchdown, tying Reynolds record. The possession was the longest-play drive in Independence Bowl history.
Daily’s 3-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter gave him sole possession of the quarterback record – and Army a 27-6 lead – and moved him into a tie for third place for the most rushing touchdowns by any position with Devin Singletary of Florida Atlantic and just five off the record of 37 rushing touchdowns set by Barry Sanders at Oklahoma State in 1988.
The last Daily score was set up by a 52-yard reception to senior tight end David Crossan, his first reception of his career. Daily became the second Army player to rush and pass for 1,000 yards (1,007 with the completion to Crossan) in a season, joining Kelvin Hopkins in 2018. He finished the season with 1,659 rushing yards, second in academy history behind Ahmad Bradshaw’s 1,746 yards in 2017.
As usual, Daily, who has now rushed for more than 100 yards in a game this year 11 times and was named the game’s offensive most valuable player, gave credit to his teammates.
“That is just toughness by this team,” Daily said. “We’ve done it all year. We are very aggressive on fourth down. If we get close on fourth down we are going to go for it. I am really proud of the guys. They don’t flinch when those big moments come on fourth down.”
As he said, Daily did not win this game by himself. Behind the Black Knights’ Joe Moore award-winning offensive line, Reed made the most of his chance to start at fullback by picking up 114 yards on just 20 attempts for his second career 100-yard game. Army added 52 yards from slotbacks Noah Short (27) and Tyrell Robinson (25).
Army’s defense was nearly impenetrable. Louisiana Tech’s freshman quarterback Evan Bullock was held to 169 passing yards on 14 for 28 passing and the Bulldogs managed just 49 rushing yards on 22 carries. Junior Kalib Fortner, who was named the game’s defensive most valuable player, was in on seven tackles, including three solo tackles, and had one sack. Junior defensive end Deshontez Gray added a career-high four tackles including a sack for the Black Knights.
Sophomore cornerback Jayden Mayes stopped a late Bulldog drive with an interception in the end zone for his team-best fourth pick of the season.
Daily
“To be able to play in this game and get a victory just finishes off the season on a positive for us,” said coach Jeff Monken, who is now 5-1 in bowl games in his 11 seasons at Army. “Obviously a big goal of ours is to win the Commander in Chief’s trophy and we weren’t able to do that two weeks ago, but we were able to win a conference championship in our first year in the league. I’m really proud of our seniors in leading us to that and they responded tonight with a 12th victory.”
