Football
For the first time in 134 years of Army football, the Black Knights are conference champions.
Bryson Daily ran for 126 yards and four touchdowns as No. 24 Army beat 35-14 Tulane on Friday night to win the American Athletic Conference championship in its first season as a member of the league.
Army (11-1) earned just the second 11-win season in program history, both under coach Jeff Monken, and still has two more games left.
The Cadets jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the second quarter when Kanye Udoh’s 72-yard run set up a 3-yard TD by Daily. Udoh ran for 158 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries. Army did not punt, commit a penalty or turn the ball over in the game.
Tulane’s first half was a string of mistakes, starting with a botched field goal attempt on the hold that ended its first drive. The Green Wave (9-4) also committed turnovers on consecutive possessions, the second of which led to Daily’s third rushing touchdown of the first half and a 21-0 lead.
Daily added another rushing TD in the second half and is tied for the national lead at 29 with Boise State star Ashton Jeanty.
Tulane, the highest scoring team in the American at 39 points per game, didn’t get on the board until the final minute of the first half on a cold night in West Point, N.Y.
After winning eight straight to get into playoff contention, the Green Wave lost at home to Memphis on Thanksgiving night to relinquish a chance to host the conference title game.
Tulane was appearing in its third straight AAC championship but lost it for the second straight year.
Attention in New Orleans now turns to first-year coach Jon Sumrall, who could be a target for several Power 4 schools with vacancies, most notably North Carolina.
After getting blown out by Notre Dame two weeks ago to end a 9-0 start to the season, Army’s College Football Playoff hopes faded.
The Cadets, however, still have another huge game left before the postseason.
Army faces Navy next Saturday in what remains a nonconference game, even though the rivals now both play in the American. The Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy goes to the winner for the first time since 2017 after both Army and Navy beat Air Force during the regular season.
The Black Knights have won the last two against Navy and six of the last eight meetings.
Army football has spent most of its storied history as a football independent, winning three national titles in the 1940s and claiming three Heisman Trophy winners (Glenn Davis, Doc Blanchard and Pete Dawkins).
Army’s only other foray into a conference was a seven-year stint in Conference USA from 1998-2004. It was a disaster. The Black Knights never won more than three games overall or two conference games in any season.
The program left CUSA, but remained stuck in a rut for another 10 years, until Monken, a former Navy assistant coach, took over in 2014. After winning just six games in the first two seasons under Monken, Army ripped off five seasons of at least eight victories over six seasons.
Army entered the American coming off consecutive 6-6 seasons after tinkering with its traditional triple-option offense. The Black Knights got back to basics this season and ran over their new conference rivals.
The Cadets came into the title game leading the nation in rushing at 312 yards per game and went for another 335 against Tulane. Daily threw only two passes and completed them both for 17 yards.
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(Photo: Danny Wild / Imagn Images)
Ralph Russo is a Senior Writer for The Athletic, covering college football. Before joining The Athletic, he spent 20 years as the lead national college football writer for The Associated Press. He also previously worked as the AP’s Mississippi-based sports writer and did a stint with The Denver Post. Ralph is a native New Yorker and a graduate of Fordham University.
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