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Wake Forest Week: Another Power Five challenge awaits for Army

Quarterbacks Tyhier Tyler and Jabari Laws stood next to each other as Army’s alma mater played first at Camp Randall Stadium.

A sense of disappointment showed on Tyler’s face as coach Jeff Monken consoled him. There were no moral victories in a six-point loss to Wisconsin. Monken said his players, “fully intended and expected to win the game’ and not “just hoping to have a good showing.”

“Our guys were mad that we didn’t find a way and I think that’s positive and it speaks to the expectations that they have and the standard that’s set and the bar that’s been set in this program,” Monken said.

Monken said his player’s “feeling are hurt more than their bodies” after the physical game against the Badgers. Army must rebound and respond with another Power Five challenge on the horizon. For the first time since 2015 (Penn State and Duke), Army will play Power Five teams in back-to-back weeks.

No. 16 Wake Forest will present an equal or greater opponent as Army looks to extend its home winning streak to 14 games at noon Saturday.

“Seeing a packed crowd (at Michie Stadium) and the team that we are playing, everyone is excited and can’t wait,” Laws said.

Snapping a two-game winning streak is the utmost importance to the Black Knights with a bye week following before a Commander in Chief trophy battle against Air Force. Army has not defeated a ranked opponent since a 17-14 win over No. 19 Air Force on Nov. 4, 1972 at Michie Stadium.

“I think our guys are highly motivated to perform well and improve and that’s what we are going to try to do,” Monken said. “We are going to have to improve from last week if we are going to have any sort of a chance to beat Wake Forest. This is the top team in the ACC. They are very talented and very well coached so it’s going to take a tremendous effort on our part to be in the ball game with them. I think our guys are motivated to try to get better and improve and I see a difference just in the way that they will respond.” 

4 Comments

4 Comments

  1. Norm Remick

    October 20, 2021 at 9:55 AM

    Wake doesn’t have the super-big with quickness that Wisconsin has, but is a better passing team. They score a lot of points. That means we have to score more than 2 or 3 touchdowns. That means we need some high % (to maintain ball control) pass plays that will loosen up Wake’s defense and discourage a 10 man front. If we do that, we can win. However, if it’s business as usual, Wake will defend as Ball State did (9-10 in the box and safety reading and becoming a linebacker) to shut us down. I think we will need 5 sustained, clock-eating drives ending in touchdowns to beat Wake Forest because we’re not going to shut down their highly effective passing game. So, I hope coach has worked-out some easy-to-execute, short, quick, no-dropback passes to the tight end, split end and slotbacks that fit with sustaining our high % ground game to move the chains. That’s a winning game plan the coaches can give the guys to make it less difficult on them.

  2. Norm Remick

    October 20, 2021 at 10:08 AM

    Also, with short, high % pass plays, we can run 2 in a row in order to prevent the other team from loading the box after a pass play because they “know” we typically will not pass again any time soon.

  3. Aaron Burger

    October 20, 2021 at 4:00 PM

    I’d also expect to see HEAVY A-gap LB pressure, as Wisconsin did. That pressure has always given this staff’s teams fits, and I don’t understand why we don’t see more of it.

    Our guards need to be able to redirect on the snap to stonewall the walked-up LB or hard bull rushing/penetrating nose. Not doing so is when we see our reads/hand-offs being rushed.

    Also need to vary up the snap count.

  4. Stephen Guilfoyle

    October 21, 2021 at 8:07 PM

    Army defeated #25 Navy in 2016.

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