Affirmed: Army can wipe out FCS opponents, a welcome change from the Fordham loss last season. Against Lafayette and now Morgan State, Army barely made a single misstep. That’s part of why the Black Knights won’t have a losing regular season for the first time in six years. Now, though, comes the big one, the game West Point aches to win. More will be written during game week, but here’s a first angle on the meeting with the Midshipmen on December 10.
Every year, Army and Navy face at least one common opponent: the Air Force Academy. This year, Notre Dame joined the list because the Black Knights were able to make it onto the Fighting Irish’s slate. Yet, the backdrop to Army-Navy 2016 might be finely focused through a third common opponent more than those two.
The plot twist: At press time, that third opponent isn’t yet official.
Air Force – as a fellow academy team and one whose offense contains some option principles (but is hardly a replica of what the Black Knights or Midshipmen do) – offers a unique film study experience on a number of levels. It’s hard to say that either Army or Navy derives specific in-game benefits from being able to study the other Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy game. (Both staffs benefit, not just one.)
As for Notre Dame, it’s hard for either team to transfer lessons and epiphanies to December 10 if only because the Irish have the beefy, large linemen neither Army nor Navy possess. Even Ken Niumatalolo can’t really look at Notre Dame’s romp over Army in San Antonio and say his own team can do certain things to Army’s defense – not in terms of how his linemen block, at any rate. He might be able to identify a misdirection tendency or a chance to use his skill people on the perimeter, but Notre Dame – a team with formidable talent but a very weak will – might not be the most transferable or applicable cross-comparison for these two teams.
The team which might offer the best mutual film-study example for both Jeff Monken and Niumatalolo?
Temple.
The Owls are not yet a Navy opponent, but all they have to do to become one is to handle East Carolina this weekend and set up an AAC Championship Game showdown with the Midshipmen.
If Temple does meet Navy, the reality of the situation will be fascinating: Army will have played Temple in Game 1 of the season on September 2, and Navy will have faced the Owls in Game 12 on December 3. Both Army and Navy have undergone multiple metamorphoses in the three months that will bracket their respective meetings against Temple. If Jeff Monken wants to be creative with his film study, and he’ll have three weeks in which to examine tapes, he should look at how Temple has evolved over the course of the season, perhaps in the Owls’ 46-30 win over South Florida as a midseason measuring stick that is lodged between the Army and Navy games. Naturally, if Navy and Temple do play, Monken can devour that piece of film and show his players – who already vanquished Temple – something about Navy’s inclinations which other game tapes might not reveal.
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So many nuances are waiting to be explored in these weeks before Army-Navy kicks off.
Monken and his staff must explore those nuances on film, possibly through the prism of Temple more than any other team.
