Army has done what Wile E. Coyote never could for a fourth consecutive time. They’ve gotten the best of the Roadrunners on their own turf. This win represents the second straight time that the Black Knights entered the Alamodome as multiple-score underdogs and have come out victorious.
ON BRAVE OLD ARMY TEAM!
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 30, 2025
Going on the road and snapping UTSA's 25-game home conference winning streak 😤 pic.twitter.com/KGkvihFWYX
After hosting my San Antonio family for Thanksgiving, we made the trip up to the Alamo City on Saturday for this weekend’s Army game, which quickly became another family gathering. San Antonio is a beautiful city — and I’d be happy to tell you all about it — but this trip stuck strictly with business. We went up solely for the game.
Despite the extraordinary amount of time I have spent within the Connally Loop, this was still my first visit to the Alamodome. The stadium seemed nice enough upon entering; I soon found myself settling into the visitors’ section.
If you drive 2 hours to San Antonio and you didn't make your kids listed to the Hellcats the whole time, did you really do it? pic.twitter.com/shbVf8ITJG
— 𝙱𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚊𝚍𝚎 𝚁𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚎𝚠 (@BrigadeReview) November 29, 2025
Almost immediately, I began speaking with some Army fans near us. In addition to being huge fans of the team, they also told me that they’re huge As For Football fans! Shout out to Jesse, Jason, Tyson, Rocco, and Major!
I’m not sure anyone in the Army section thought that the Black Knights could go into the intermission tied, let alone with a touchdown lead. The first four drives looked exactly the way every Army fan dreads. The offense couldn’t move the ball — even in short yardage situations — and the defense began breaking much more than it bent. The Black Knights soon found themselves down ten with few signs of life along the offensive line.
The team solved their problem almost immediately. One 81-yard pitch to SB Noah Short, followed by a 73-yard pick-six by CB Jaydan Mayes. Tack on a rather gritty eight minute field goal drive, and Army found themselves up a full seven at the break.
Noah Short gets loose from 81 yards 💨 pic.twitter.com/LKmleDvqd3
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 29, 2025
THE BLACK KNIGHTS WITH THE PICK-6 💨
— The American (@American_Conf) November 29, 2025
📺| @ESPNCFB #BuiltToRise x @ArmyWP_Football pic.twitter.com/0saO7h9AbJ
Wow! Who saw that coming?
A quick note on the field goal drive. At first glance, you’d think an eight minute drive that ended in just three points must’ve been a loss for the offense. But this drive started at the Black Knights’ three yard line, and it looked dead in its tracks at least three separate times while the team remained firmly outside of reliable field goal range. Inside the stadium we felt relief, not disappointment, when Army knotted the game at 10.
To start the second half, Army forced an electric turnover on downs before settling for another field goal. This time, it did feel like settling. But the Army section wasn’t ready to complain about being up by multiple scores.
Army’s defense forced a punt on the ensuing drive, but after a three and out by the offense, San Antonio rattled off a pair of frustrating touchdown drives to take the lead by four with just over nine minutes to go.
Then Army put together the fourth quarter drive that fans have been begging for all season. The offensive line looked good enough, but a pair of gutsy fourth down passes kept the drive alive. Fittingly, the drive finished with yet another pass to TE Parker Poloskey – the first touchdown pass to a tight end since 2008. I don’t know if Poloskey finished as the team’s Offensive Player of the Game since Noah Short and PK Dawson Jones also had potentially career days, but the team definitely needed contributions from its top tight end to win this week.
Your Black Knights are BOWL ELIGIBLE AGAIN! pic.twitter.com/nwFJWyYB6f
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 30, 2025
Biggest Takeaways
Defense
All year, fans have complained about Army’s bend-don’t-break defensive scheme. “Why are we giving up 16 yards on 4th and 15?” To an extent, they have a point. But Army does what they have to do to prevent the long ball. Usually, Army can force enough field goals and punts to give their offense a chance to win. But this relies on the defense staying rested and the opponent’s offense staying cold.
This game proved a doctoral thesis on the use of this theory. UTSA had a total of ten drives yesterday. Six of those drives came at the beginning of a half or after a long Army scoring drive. This is when you’d expect to see a rested Army defense. Those six UTSA drives ended in a punt, a pick-six, a turnover on downs, another turnover on downs, another punt, and one last turnover on downs. By comparison, UTSA’s other four drives came after either Army punts following possessions in which the offense failed to gain more than one first down and/or after an Army turnover on downs following a short possession. In either case, UTSA scored a touchdown, a field goal, another touchdown, and yes, another touchdown in each of those four drives.
FIGHT ON TO VICTORY! pic.twitter.com/u90aASNTsZ
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 30, 2025
Offense
First, if it wasn’t clear before, it is now. This team must stay under-center in all manner of “-and-short” situations. Watching consecutive shotgun runs fail to pick up a first down on 3rd and 1 got painful quickly, especially after the offense audibled out of an under-center play on 4th down.
Second, defenses are going to key on Noah Short. Army won this game in large part because Short got loose once. But without another key threat, perimeter runs will never be consistent enough to prevent effectively using them on long drives. Every single set of downs which resulted in a punt or a turnover on downs included a failed perimeter run. All this to say, getting FB Briggs Bartosh back would be huge. Really, anything they can do to improve their perimeter running game would massively improve their overall offensive performance.
Finally, the passing game delivered in enough big spots to get the win this week. But going into that final touchdown drive, Hellums had gone 1/6 through the air. His throws consistently high and behind his receivers all day, right up until that last clutch drive. That’s probably not going to cut it most weeks, even if the team somehow makes it to 2/7 with that pass to Noah Short.
Army has two weeks to get this part of the playbook sorted. They’re going to have to find a way to integrate the perimeter run game with passing concepts that utilize their full array of weapons. We saw this week that they can use their tight ends to good effect. Add in WR Brady Anderson and with Short and SB Samari Howard as underneath threats, and maybe they’ll have something. It wouldn’t hurt to try something besides moonshots early in games.
But whatever. We’ll take anything that can keep an opponents’ linebackers and safeties guessing. This 2025 team doesn’t have the Doomsday O-Line to make it work against a crowded ten-man box.
Hellums to Poloskey for the TD!
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) November 29, 2025
First receiving TD by an Army TE since 2008!
📺 @ESPNCFB pic.twitter.com/nbOzFjv9sr
Looking Forward
We’ll get more into this next week, but the Army defense did a good job disrupting UTSA’s gameplan this week. The offense had explosive moments, too. Enough to win the game! But they’ll need to concentrate all of that disruptive, explosive success to get a win in the Army-Navy Game.
Go Army! Beat Navy!!!
