Army Black Knights Season Preview

It was no Dark Knight for the faithful at West Point last season. They came off their first bowl win since 1985!

Rich Ellerson is entering his third season, but he has a ton of experience with the triple option. He came over from Cal Poly where he won three Great West titles out of his eight seasons.

He also learned a ton from Paul Johnson who was the offensive coordinator at Hawaii while Ellerson was the defensive coordinator (’87-‘91). 

Ellerson had a solid 7-6 season in his first season and his Armed Forces Bowl victory over SMU was the program’s first since 1985! Still, with only 11 starters back it will be tough to do it again. Luckily, he has his returning signal caller back which gives his team a puncher's chance as far as going back to a bowl. 

Steelman and fullback Jared Hassin combined for over 1,700 yards. The two starting tailback positions are wide open (Army uses a RB and a SB in option attack), though it looks as if Raymond Maples and Malcolm Brown will get the starting gigs.

Maples ran for 343 yards and four TDs in mop-up duty last season, whereas Brown ran for 343 yards and four TDs on just 62 carries.

The offensive line has just one starter back with left guard Frank Allen (6’4”, 275 pounds) though the Black Knights have replaced linemen without too much of a problem before. They did not go up against many athletic fronts last season and that will change this season.

How they compete against the athletic teams that has a ton of depth should be quite the challenge.

The defense will suffer in the front four since they just lost one of their top players in program history. Josh McNary had 10 sacks and 2.5 tackles for losses last season and most importantly, he was a constant guy who put relentless pressure on the opposition. 

The Army rush defense was 46th against the run last season. Their schedule was extremely soft so those numbers are a bit skewed. 

Only three starters return up front which means middle linebacker Steven Erzinger will need to produce just as good if not better than McNary if they want to keep the same production.   

Army was 0-13 back in 2003, but the team had more struggles prior to this. From 1997 to 2008, the Black Knights were just 30-108. They have not defeated a top 20 since 1972! They may go up against a few ranked teams in Air Force and Northwestern, though it is not likely that they will be ranked.

I foresee a few easy wins against Fordham, Tulane and Ball State. However, the rest of the schedule is just atrocious for their standards.

They avoid Notre Dame this year but getting Northern Illinois, San Diego State and Northwestern right out of the gates will be challenging. Also, Air Force, Vanderbilt, Rutgers and even Temple should be favored to knock of Ellerson’s 2011 squad. 

Predicted Finish: 3-9

Predicted Bowl: No bowl