I watched both Monken's Army team and Ken N's Navy team from last Saturday during the week. In summary, this could be the year Army beats Navy. Losing QB Tago Smith for the year is a huge blow to Navy.
Big blow to Navy because Fayette County grad and senior Tago Smith was humming and scored TD's on the first three possessions when he tore his ACL on a 21 yard run inside the 15 yard line. He already had a 60+ yard run earlier and was making crisp reads and great runs. They were doing it all. Granted they were playing Fordham...but you could tell Tago was going to get it done. The Navy OL, AB's, BB's, and WR's all handled their jobs flawlessly and getting defenders to the ground. The Navy defense does not look to be as good as last year...and for more bad news the back up QB, senior Will Worth, is nowhere close to as good as Tago Smith....huge drop-off. He can throw ok but is very still and cannot cut upfield quickly at all. The third string QB is sophomore Zach Abbey who has still not played as he was suspended last weekend. Navy had to get true freshman Malcolm Perry, who was dressed in his whites and in the stands for the game, to come to the locker and dress for the second half. He then played all of the 4th qtr and looked like he has a future but is still built like a high school kid...good future though.
On the flip side this could be Army's year as they beat a good Temple team soundly. Ahmad Bradshaw looked like a true option QB with a combination of quickness, toughness, and good decision making. Their defense also looked like one of Monken's best Army defenses...but we will see as the Temple QB also made some big mistakes. Offensively I think Army is going to be much improved this year....particularly having Bradshaw (soph) and Chris Carter (soph) available at QB. They did try a few plays in the shotgun but only once did it get a positive gain....the rest were big losses whether they ran or passed out of it. They did throw a lot early on first down without success but it did stretch the Temple D a bit. Passing was only 2 of 5 for 15 yards...but they ran for 329 against a solid Temple team. They converted last years back-up LB Andy Davidson to BB where he ran for 121....if he can be the real deal they will be good this year.
While Army does not have the stockpile of BB's and AB's that Navy does this year...the OL looks good, the defense looks better than Navy, and the QB play will be much better than Navy. This could be the year Army beats Navy. We will see...a lot of football between now and December.
Big blow to Navy because Fayette County grad and senior Tago Smith was humming and scored TD's on the first three possessions when he tore his ACL on a 21 yard run inside the 15 yard line. He already had a 60+ yard run earlier and was making crisp reads and great runs. They were doing it all. Granted they were playing Fordham...but you could tell Tago was going to get it done. The Navy OL, AB's, BB's, and WR's all handled their jobs flawlessly and getting defenders to the ground. The Navy defense does not look to be as good as last year...and for more bad news the back up QB, senior Will Worth, is nowhere close to as good as Tago Smith....huge drop-off. He can throw ok but is very still and cannot cut upfield quickly at all. The third string QB is sophomore Zach Abbey who has still not played as he was suspended last weekend. Navy had to get true freshman Malcolm Perry, who was dressed in his whites and in the stands for the game, to come to the locker and dress for the second half. He then played all of the 4th qtr and looked like he has a future but is still built like a high school kid...good future though.
On the flip side this could be Army's year as they beat a good Temple team soundly. Ahmad Bradshaw looked like a true option QB with a combination of quickness, toughness, and good decision making. Their defense also looked like one of Monken's best Army defenses...but we will see as the Temple QB also made some big mistakes. Offensively I think Army is going to be much improved this year....particularly having Bradshaw (soph) and Chris Carter (soph) available at QB. They did try a few plays in the shotgun but only once did it get a positive gain....the rest were big losses whether they ran or passed out of it. They did throw a lot early on first down without success but it did stretch the Temple D a bit. Passing was only 2 of 5 for 15 yards...but they ran for 329 against a solid Temple team. They converted last years back-up LB Andy Davidson to BB where he ran for 121....if he can be the real deal they will be good this year.
While Army does not have the stockpile of BB's and AB's that Navy does this year...the OL looks good, the defense looks better than Navy, and the QB play will be much better than Navy. This could be the year Army beats Navy. We will see...a lot of football between now and December.
