Image courtesy of The Times-Herald Record
The spectacle that is Army-Navy is just two months away and luckily for local football fans, that spectacle will be right in our own backyard this year.
Gillette Stadium is set to host the historic matchup on December 9th, but how much do local fans really know about either team? The answer probably varies given allegiances and upbringings, but with Boston College traveling to West Point this weekend, those interested can get their first glimpse of what they can expect to see on the field in Foxborough.
Army is currently 2-2, but this isn’t your grandfather’s or father’s classic Army team. The forward pass is actually a real thing. The old school ‘three yards and a cloud of dust’ offense is gone, although, the Black Knights do still have a traditional look with their running game.
Quarterback Bryson Daily leads the team in rushing with 275 yards on 76 attempts and three TD’s. The next closest running back is Hayden Reed with 35 carries and 159 yards (1 TD). Daily’s also got 592 yards passing with five TD’s. Army’s leading receiver is Isaiah Alston (266 yards, 2 TD’s) with Noah Short (11/192/2) behind him.
“He’s a bigger guy. He’s a tough kid. He’s going to break tackles. He’s going to try and run through you not always around you,” BC head coach Jeff Hafley said earlier this week when talking about Daily. “They have a lot of quarterback designed runs, it’s not as many scrambles as we’re used to seeing in the past. Whether it’s the option, whether it’s quarterback lead plays, whether it’s quarterback power plays, they have it all. If you look at their first four games and just sort of sort through run plays they pretty much have every run that you’re ever going to see. There’s still a triple option element. You’ll see some condensed spacing that reminds you of when they were in the wishbone, it’s just out of the shotgun right now. A lot of it is by design. He’s a good runner, he’s a tough player and he can throw it. That’s probably the biggest difference. They’re throwing thr ball (more) now than I’ve seen. They’ll do anything from line up in 10 personnel and run traditional zone read or run the option out of 10 personnel. They’ll line up in 13 personnel and get big, kind of wedge block you in and get everything downhill and just try to get three yards, three yards, three yards, first down. Or, all of a sudden they’ll pull it and they’ll throw the ball down the field. There’s more balance right now, but I think the quarterback’s a really good player.”
BC has struggled when facing mobile quarterbacks in time Hafley has been here, particularly this season against Holy Cross’ Matt Sluka. While you would think that game is good preparation for this one, Hafley cautioned that the designed run is a much different thing to prepare for than a guy who scrambles like Sluka.
“Probably the downhill running game. There’s more quarterback designed runs,” Hafley said of the differences between the two offenses. “With Holy Cross, there was a lot of run on pass plays when he was scrambling. This is designed quarterback keeps, a lot of it in the box with lead plays off of certain run actions or certain runs looks. There’s more option element. They’ll still have the option element to hand the dive, get on the perimeter or pitch the football, so I think it’s quite different.”
With so many different things to prepare for against an unfamiliar team, Hafley pointed out just how important discipline will be on defense.
“Well, you’ve got to figure out what you want to do schematically. Whether or not you want to go in and play three-down, four-down, what coverages you want to run and then you’ve got to show them a lot of different looks,” he added. “Your rules within your scheme have gotta hold up and then you’ve got to get as many hats to the ball as you can. You have to be very disciplined when you play offenses like this. You’ve got to have great eyes because they’ll try to trick you with their eyes and get you going somewhere that you shouldn’t be going. Then, you’ve got to tackle well because they try to make you play in space. At the same time, they’ll try to run downhill and run through you. We spent a lot of time on the run game this week and make sure your DB’s stay focused on the pass because that’s where they’re different.”
If you tune in on Saturday, this will not be the same Army team you’re used to seeing through the years. If you’re going to Gillette in December, the chance to see quite a show won’t just be during the flyovers.