To put the talent gap between No. 17 Army and No. 6 Notre Dame into perspective, travel back two weeks to the Black Knights’ matchup with North Texas.
With 25 players, including quarterback Bryson Daily and safety Max DiDomenico, Texas is the most-represented state on Army’s roster. But none of those players were even offered a scholarship by the Mean Green. Not that it mattered: Army controlled the time of possession and won 14-3 to earn the program’s first 9-0 start since 1996.
Heading into Saturday’s game at Yankee Stadium, the even more dramatic talent disparity against the Fighting Irish had Army coach Jeff Monken recalling a quote from his coaching mentor, Paul Johnson, who would say of high-profile opponents during his stint at Navy: They’ve got 22 Parade All-Americans, and we’ve got 22 guys who walked in a parade.
“Our guys have to embrace that we have to execute our assignments and our fundamentals at a really high level, and try to do that better than anybody else does that,” Monken said. “We have to practice and play with absolute exactness. Because if we don’t, we’re going to get embarrassed.”
Even as Army continues to stress one annual game above all others — the rivalry with Navy, set for the Saturday after the American Athletic championship game against No. 20 Tulane — the opportunity presented by Saturday’s matchup makes this one of the most important and meaningful regular-season games in modern program history.
Beating Notre Dame would thrust the College Football Playoff into chaos, impacting the race for the Group of Five’s automatic bid into the field and the number of at-large bids given to teams from the Big Ten and SEC. A win would be Army’s first in this series since 1958, snapping a 15-game losing streak that coincides with the program’s steady drop from Bowl Subdivision powerhouse to perennial underdog.
‘Notre Dame is a great team,’ said senior offensive lineman Lucas Scott. ‘Obviously, they have a great tradition. They’re not going to give us any freebies. We’ve got to do everything we can, fire on all cylinders every play, every snap.’
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Army doesn’t ‘match up physically’ with Notre Dame
It may take a perfect game to beat the Fighting Irish.
Notre Dame has been rolling since a stunning loss to Northern Illinois back in September, winning eight in a row by an average of nearly 32 points per game. A series of lopsided wins has helped the Irish remain ahead of several two-loss SEC teams in the playoff rankings despite owning just one ranked win, against No. 14 Texas A&M in the season opener.
“We don’t match up physically. So we’ve got to do is execute at a really high level and do what we do, and hope that’ll be good enough,” said Monken.
Army’s game plan will be simple: control the clock, force turnovers, commit no giveaways, have no breakdowns on special teams and hang around long enough to “give ourselves a chance,” according to Monken.
The Black Knights can look back to Notre Dame’s 51-14 win against Navy last month and see the potential for that formula to find a foothold. The Midshipmen ran for 222 yards, the most the Irish had allowed in a game in nearly two years, and averaged 5.4 yards per play, the highest for any Notre Dame opponent since Northern Illinois.
But Navy was undone by a whopping six turnovers, which the Irish converted into four touchdowns.
“Our big thing is, Army can’t beat Army,’ Scott said. “We feel like if we don’t commit penalties, don’t miss blocks, every person, all 11 guys do their job on every rep, then no one in the country can beat us. I think that’s the mindset we carry all the time.”
Still, this talent gap leaves no room for error and would demand something close to a flawless performance — if not outright perfection.
“It’s a college football game. And they’re all hard for us, every one of them,” Monken said. “Certainly, our guys recognize who Notre Dame is. They recognize that this is the most talented team that we’ve faced all year, the most successful team from a record standpoint that we’ve faced all year. This is the best football team that we’ve faced all season. They’re one of the best teams that I will have a faced as the coach at Army.”
What an Army win would mean for the playoff
Army’s here-and-now focus can’t overwrite the immense importance of this game on the playoff picture and the Black Knights’ eventual postseason destination.
“It’s day-to-day here,” DiDomenico said. “We haven’t talked about anything past Notre Dame, to be completely honest. Of course, people and the media see what happens. As far as in-house, we’re focused on the next game, the next day.”
Losing on Saturday would eliminate Notre Dame given an earlier loss to Northern Illinois and the depth of two-loss Power Four teams still in contention. The biggest winner in the case of an upset might be No. 11 Tennessee, which has fallen out of the hypothetical playoff bracket following last weekend’s loss to Georgia but would have the chance to vault back into the mix.
Army could lose and still earn an automatic bid as the top-ranked conference champion in the Group of Five, but not without some help in the Mountain West. Currently, No. 13 Boise State leads the way among the non-major conferences with games remaining against Wyoming, Oregon State and one of No. 23 UNLV or Colorado State in the conference championship.
And even a competitive loss on Saturday and wins against Texas-San Antonio and Tulane would leave the Black Knights in very good position should the Broncos lose once, especially if the loss comes to the Rams to decide the Mountain West.
But a win would have a rattling impact on the year’s postseason race and stir echoes of the sport’s bygone era, when Army would routinely compete for and even win national championships at Notre Dame’s expense.
“I assume that the field is still going to be 120 yards long,” said Monken. “I assume they’ll still have goalposts the same size as they have at Michie Stadium. So once the game starts, we’re on the field, we’ve got to play the game. It wouldn’t matter where we played those guys. It’s going to be a hard game to win.”