Army’s Vanishing Problems

In my mind, Army’s biggest problem is Temple.

About a month ago, I thought Army had problems.

Yesterday gave me some perspective in the form an unrestrained pit bull.

I got bit minding my own business on my walk in the park in Huntingdon Valley on an otherwise great Tuesday afternoon. Said a friendly hello to a stranger who looks like Jeff Bridges in The Big Lebowski and the next thing I know is that the dog that should have been on a short leash was on a longer one and my right arm was spouting blood. Just got back from Holy Redeemer Hospital and eschewed the five rabies shots offered me. If I start frothing at the mouth on Friday night, it won’t be because of Temple’s vanilla play-calling as so beautifully chronicled by Fizzy in this January post.

lastvisit

Army’s last visit to LFF.

That just goes to show you how problems change in a month. I will take Army’s over mine right now because the Army looked like it had major problems a month ago.

Their leading rusher, Aaron Kemper, and one of their bigger playmakers on defense, cornerback Josh Jenkins, have left the team between spring and summer camp. Additionally, a fullback and a slot back as well as a starting lineman, all of whom were expected to contribute, have departed, meaning the Black Knights have lost five potential starters since May. Army only returns about a dozen seniors to a team that only had one FBS win last year.

Add Army’s starting QB from last season — Ahmad Bradshaw — to the list of key players that have left the team.  The next guy up, Chris Carter, is a sophomore who started two games last year.  He has not practiced since the first day due to a hamstring injury.  Behind Carter are four freshmen. If you don’t think that’s a problem against this speedy Temple defense, you have not been paying attention.

Let’s go with the most important player, Bradshaw, first. He’s not only back, but head coach Jeff Monken has said all is forgiven and he will be the starter for the Cadets on Friday night (Lincoln Financial Field, 7 p.m., 2 p.m. tailgate).

Well, that changes a lot of things because Carter is the quarterback who brought Army to within four points of an upset over a team all of us respect, Navy, and its great head coach Ken Niumatalolo and Monken figures Bradshaw is the better player.  Still, only 16 seniors on a roster of 142 players has to mean something. Jenkins is also gone, but does that mean new Temple offensive coordinator Glenn Thomas will use play-action passes to suck in the linebackers and safeties and go over the top to people like Marshall Ellick to attack the new guy replacing him?

Hell, yes, I hope so.

Or I will be frothing at the mouth. If the score is 0-0 and I’m frothing, call the EMTs.

Friday: Depth Chart Thoughts

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17 thoughts on “Army’s Vanishing Problems

  1. Carter played against Navy last year, not Bradshaw.

    Carter did miss the majority of preseason practice, but he’s been practicing for almost 2 weeks now.

    Which expected contributor at slot back departed?

  2. I will be rooting for Army, who will need the encouragement. I do not want to see a blow out. I hope your arm-y heals well!

    • Have to disagree Dave, with this year’s schedule Temple needs to blow out pretty much all of the OOC schedule outside of PSU.

  3. FWIW (probably not much), Carter has been practicing for the past 2 weeks and is #2 on the depth chart. Yesterday Monken said he is available.

  4. we have spies inside our wire

  5. any idea on ticket sales?

    • They usually don’t sell the upper deck unless it is season tickets, but on Monday they released the upper deck to single game tickets for Army, which leads me to believe that the lower bowl is either full or close to full (same situation as Tulane last year). I would say at least 30K, probably no more than 35K. (Army returned a lot of tickets in Section 137, I assume that was for the corps of Cadets.)

  6. I just purchased endzone tix by phone for tomorrow night and they put me in 128 in the higher rows. I also got a flex pack for future games that I will redeem for games against teams not named Stonybrook and Charlotte.

    The sales guy told me he has been busy all morning with the phone ringing. He also said he was getting quite a few Army fans.

    Good weather + junkie need for some college football = very good crowd.

  7. Defense looks soft and offense is shaky.

  8. Temple will lose. Long season ahead.

  9. The old days are here again! Blarg…

  10. Phil Snow should be ashamed of himself. The triple option is not hard to stop if you play a six man line with two guys in the A gaps (either side of center) and tackles heads up on the offensive tackles. Can’t have your LB playing 4-5 yards off the guard. I sit in the end zone and knew nine out of ten times where Army was going. On offense I know now why PJ changed his name because he was pathetic. Lose some weight and again become the running threat you once were. On top of that, the OC did not throw one pass longer than twenty yards. Give me a break. Also why not use DeLoach on a fade by the goal line. Every coach all should refuse a pay check for this week because that had to be the worst TU performance in five -ten years.

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