Well friends, I don’t know if that was a frustrating loss or a miraculous comeback that just fell a half-play short, but your Army Black Knights lost their second home game in a row yesterday. Speaking personally, I enjoyed the game tremendously. However, that result might come back to haunt this team.
They did a lot right, and we should celebrate that. We saw a truly exciting contest with a lot of insanely crazy highs and catastrophic lows. At the same time, though, this team also made a handful of crazy mistakes, and those cost them one that they absolutely needed.
Final score in overtime. pic.twitter.com/hoc2lOXEEU
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 20, 2025
Unfortunately, this team has some problems right now. They don’t have a dependable quarterback, their offensive line looks good sometimes, their rushing defense looks seriously problematic, and they play with absolutely zero consistency overall. Coach Monken always talks about not looking for “out of body experiences,” that guys just need to do their jobs, do their one-eleventh, and as a team, they’ll have a chance. This team has struggled with that. They’re catching lightning in a bottle at times, but they’re definitely not playing consistent football.
If you’re Army, you need to do three things to win. Run the ball. Stop the Run. Don’t turn it over. When they do all three, they win all the time. When they do two of those three, they usually have a chance to win. If they do just one of those three, and they also get a few crazy insane breaks on both sides of the ball, then we get what we had yesterday. We got the cardiac-cadets roller coaster.
They needed maybe four miracles to pull that thing off, and they only got three.
Coleman to Anderson on FOURTH DOWN for 6! pic.twitter.com/VCmhjC56er
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 20, 2025
The three turnovers obviously changed the game. Can’t give the ball to a good team on a short field, and you certainly can’t do it thrice.
I feel comfortable saying that QB Cale Hellums played badly. That fumbled pitch went behind SB Noah Short. The outstretched hand fumble was batshit decision-making. And uncalled Pass Interference notwithstanding, Hellums stared his receiver down on the interception and then threw straight into coverage anyway. Hellums made a lot of good decisions with the football at Kansas State. This week, though, he didn’t look like The Guy.
So then firstie QB Dewayne Coleman came in, and for a wonder, the Staff let him make reads with the Midline Option and its many variants, and that too changed the game — to an insane degree.
The offensive line had trouble blocking for straight power runs all throughout this game. Either North Texas watched the K-State film and prepped intensively for those specific kinds of running plays, or Army’s O-Line struggled to block a couple of key guys, so that once the offense started optioning off of those specific dudes, that opened up some holes. Either way, Coleman read that North Texas defense flawlessly and operated the option like he’d been born to do it.
Friends, the Black Knights finished with 387 yards rushing on every bit of 5.7 yards/carry. Outstanding play! They had no offensive penalties, went 8/16 on third down, and went 3/4 on fourth down during regulation. With the running game working, Coleman was then able to complete 6/11 passes for two touchdowns, one of which went 68 yards for the critical score that sparked Army’s miraculous comeback. Coleman himself finished with 23 carries for 117 yards and a score. Amazing performance, honestly. He was so, so good. On top of that, FB Hayden Reed carried 19 times for 113 yards. FB Briggs Bartosh finished with 8 carries for 99 yards and one long 75-yard touchdown run.
All out effort. https://t.co/46XejHrCHw pic.twitter.com/c33vxZzUE8
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 20, 2025
We’ve seen Army put up numbers like these, and we’ve seen them have three separate one hundred yard rushers. However, it’s very rare to see numbers like that in a loss.
As much as the three turnovers hurt, Coleman looked ready to put the team on his back and will them to victory. When you’re the firstie quarterback, sometimes that’s the way things have to go. But the Black Knights absolutely could not stop the North Texas offense, even once Army’s offense started hogging the ball and even with the help of getting back-to-back scores going into and coming out of halftime.
As much as any other reason, Army lost this game because they gave up 229 yards rushing and 5 rushing touchdowns on 41 carries. They forced zero punts and looked completely overmatched throughout the vast majority of this game. UNT RB Makenzie McGill II had 101 yards rushing and a rushing touchdown on just 19 carries. RB Caleb Hawkins absolutely torched the Black Knights for 99 carries and freaking *4* rushing touchdowns on just 13 carries.
Friends, this was bad. It was every bit as bad as the three turnovers earlier in the game.
Credit where it’s due. Army’s defense forced a turnover on downs with 2:36 left in the fourth quarter to at least give their offense a chance. They also forced an insane fumble after the failed onside kick to set up Army’s tying field goal in regulation. Like I said, this team sometimes catches lightning in a bottle. Still, everyone in the stadium knew that the Black Knights needed to win in regulation. This defense got a few plays when they absolutely had to have them. However, consistent play eluded them.
North Texas scored without too much trouble once we got into OT. Then, once Coleman went out, the offense couldn’t move a lick. As great as that comeback was, the team still waited entirely too long to get itself sorted this week.
Getting three miracles was great. Asking for that fourth was asking for one too many.
Pics via Lynn Fern’s Photobook. More are available on our Patreon page.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Army travels to East Carolina this Thursday for what promises to be another extremely challenging contest. QB Dewayne Coleman took a painful-looking ankle injury in overtime yesterday. It seems unlikely that he’ll be back for a night game just four days from now. Nevertheless, Army needs a quarterback they can count on, and they need that guy to be ready to run the full offense.
Can Cale Hellums be that guy?
In a larger sense, we’ve now seen both of Army’s quarterbacks start and then go on to turn the ball over three times each. And yeah, the backup quarterback is always the fan favorite when the team is struggling. In this case, though, both the fanbase and the team itself look ready to come together around one smart, consistent guy. We all know that this team is gonna need both guys because of its offensive style. Hellums needs to get his head together and get ready.
We all know he has the physical tools. We saw that at K-State. The mental part of being one’s best self, though, of hitting true peak performance in high leverage circumstances, this has always been the hardest thing in sports. This is where Army needs to improve, and not just at quarterback.
If the Black Knights have an advantage this Thursday, it’s that the Pirates only have a half-week to prepare for their unique offense. However, that offense loses some of its uniqueness if they can’t read and adapt to the opposing defensive alignments. Lots of teams run power. Army’s needs to run the option.
6⃣ for the Pirates 🏴☠️ https://t.co/FnMSanfTqB pic.twitter.com/nqAaxVHsdP
— ECU Football (@ECUPiratesFB) September 21, 2025
Oh by the way, the American Conference as a whole has improved massively this season. The Black Knights don’t have any gimmes on their schedule. They’ve gotta stop beating themselves and start beating other teams.
Friends, they have plenty of talent. We’ve seen that. They just need to execute.
Go Army! Beat East Carolina!!!
