Team: Army West Point
Conference: Independent
Game Date: November 27 (Week 13)
Location: Williams Stadium – Lynchburg, VA
Game History: Army was apart of Liberty’s inaugural FBS season in 2018. The Flames traveled to West Point where they struggled to keep pace with the Black Knights, losing 38-14.
Coach – Jeff Monken
This season will be Jeff Monken’s 8th season at the helm for Army, currently making him one of the longest tenured head coaches in college football. His time in West Point has been marked with success, putting together a 49-39 record with four winning seasons and bowl appearances. Monken’s influences include stints at Georgia Southern under Paul Johnson, Navy and Georgia Tech, making his work with the triple-option offense apparent. In addition to Army, Monken’s head coaching experience includes Georgia Southern.
2020 Record: 9-3. Last year was a bounce-back season for Army. The sustained success they saw for three years, including three-straight bowl wins (’16-18), slowed in 2019 despite a relatively easy schedule.
2021 Outlook:
As one would expect, the Army offense finished near the top of the FBS in rushing, averaging 273 yards a game and held the ball for over 34 minutes each week. They return a number starters, notably in skill positions. The Black Knights have some vital pieces to replace up front though. Their inexperience on the line should be helped by the plethora of returning rushers. Sophomore Tyrell Robinson, senior Cade Bernard, junior Anthony Adkins, and junior Jakobi Buchanan are all back after combining for 1,481 yards and 20 TDs last season. Army also has a pair of talented QBs in Junior Tyhier Tyler and Senior Christian Anderson. Anderson, the better passer of the two, was injured last season giving Tyler the opportunity to grow as a runner in the flexbone. With both back, they should be able to utilize all aspects of their offense.
It’s easy to become enamored with an offense as deceptive as the triple-option, but Army was home to the second-best defense in college football last season. On average, they allowed just 15 points and an FBS-leading 275 yards per game. A number of defensive starters have moved on, but they have plenty of talent to stand up offenses this season. LB Arik Smith, Army’s 2020 leading tackler, returns as the core along with Malkelm Morison who will work all over the field. Unlike the offensive line, the defensive line is seasoned with NT Nolan Cockrill and DE Ryan Duran III who will cause pressure. A secondary that allowed just 161 passing yards a game returns mostly everyone highlighted by sure tackler S Cedrick Cunningham and CB Jabari Moore who had 3 tackles for loss, 3 ints, a forced fumble, and fumble recovery.
Offensive Player To Watch – Junior FB/RB Jakobi Buchanan
Buchanan is an important piece to the Army offense. While he was second-overall in rushing for the team, he led all running backs with 474 rushing yards. He also accounted for six TDs.
Defensive Player To Watch – Senior LB Arik Smith
After a stellar 2020 campaign, Smith is set up to be the best defensive player for the Black Knights this season. Last year he was co-leader in tackles with 78 stops and caused problems behind the line of scrimmage, accounting for 9 tackles for loss and a team high 3.5 sacks.
If you have missed any of our previous early opponent previews, you can find them all here:
Campbell
Troy
Old Dominion
Syracuse
UAB
Middle Tennessee
Louisiana-Monroe
North Texas
UMass
Ole Miss
Louisiana
