Well friends, that was a tough one. I really thought we’d be having a different conversation this morning.
Honestly, by the time I got about halfway home last night, I’d gotten to the point that I felt a little stupid. Not stupid for going to the game because, as we’ve said a million times before, Army Football is rarely about the actual football. I spent all day yesterday reconnecting with my friends and classmates, the only family I have in this world beside my wife and kids. Win or lose, nothing can take that away. I wouldn’t trade that time for anything, but it does prove the point that in many ways, the football is the least important part of the gameday experience.
But I still felt stupid because I realized that we’ve seen this exact finish play out so many times over the past year and change, and yet, I bite on it every time. I honestly believed that Army was going to win yesterday throughout nearly every minute of that contest, and yet I still let myself get invested in it, and goddammit, I should’ve known better.
🗣️🗣️🗣️ pic.twitter.com/GamyoQDRha
— South Florida Football (@USFFootball) September 12, 2026
I don’t think this Army Team is bad, exactly, but they might be the worst team in all of college football when they have a lead in the second half. I mean, these guys absolutely cannot finish against even moderately good teams under any circumstances. In the past year, we’ve seen this team blow second half leads to Tarleton State, Tulane, Air Force, Tulsa, UTSA, Navy, and now USF. With that, the question isn’t “Will they collapse?” Instead, we should be asking ourselves, “Will they leave themselves enough time to come back after they collapse?” Because against all odds, they’re actually really good when they have to come from behind and win a freaking football game. But they’re so good in the first halves of these games, that it feels like we barely see that, leading to no less than seven epic collapses in a year, two of which happened to come early enough in games to allow them to come back again and actually win those games anyway.
I firmly believe that if Army had been down three points with five minutes to play instead of up three, the psychology would’ve been totally different, and they’d have won that game. But because once they’d gotten up by two scores, we got the worst possible version of this Army Team, and as a result, they dropped a winnable game right there at home on national television.
Friends, we all know this. I mean, seven games is a trend, and we wrote about this very thing right after Army-Navy just this past December. And yet we still let ourselves fall into this cycle time and again. The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results, but somehow, we’re all still living through this weird Groundhog Day of rebirthed hope and death, hanging breathlessly on these same results over and over again.
Like I said, it made me feel stupid during the drive home.
Not the ending we wanted, obviously, but Mike K. Heit got some incredible pictures. His photobook is up on our Patreon page.
To be clear, anyone can lose a hard-fought game. God knows, I’ve personally lost enough times to fill a book, and indeed I wrote that book, and it’s actually out there if you care to read it. Even so, this specific situation is not where I thought we’d be. As things stand, we’re two weeks into this young season, and I’m already sick to death of college football. My wife and I saw Steve Winwood in concert this week, and as I was driving home, I put his mix on Spotify just to try to find some sense of emotional balance and maybe turn the page in my own head. It’s the next morning, and I’m still happy the team has a bye this week just because I feel like I need a few days to think about something else. It’s gonna take a minute before I’m ready to embrace how much this sucks with the same belief and enthusiasm I had heading into this week’s game.
We saw so many mind-boggling decisions late in the second half yesterday. For example, QB Cale Hellums went 9/10 passing, but by the time he dropped back for his lone attempt in the second half, the team was sitting in an obvious passing situation at third-and-nine, trying to buy that one game-winning first down that would’ve put the game away. As you’d expect, USF blitzed and got a sack. Similarly, FB Jake Rendina had his best game ever carrying the football; he was the lone guy getting yardage against those early stacked boxes, and yet, he somehow didn’t get a single carry in the second half under those same circumstances. Finally, why go to press coverage on fourth-and-six with no safety help over the top? That’s literally daring USF to throw a touchdown pass to win the game, which is exactly what they did.
Toe-tapping Godspower Nwawiuhe 🫡
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) September 12, 2026
We lead 14-7!#GoArmy pic.twitter.com/9L5RvpUxYJ
As we’ve said before in this space, Army Football often feels like a test of faith. You get a great degree, excellent job prospects, and make the best friends in the world. All of that is great. But being a fan of the Army Football Team requires real courage. Are you man enough to handle it? Can you keep the faith, even in the face of these kinds of repeated collapses?
Friends, I love this team. I really do. Sometimes I wish I didn’t, but we are where we are. With that said, they have some bad tendencies they need to correct. Worse, it feels like the tape is out there now for anyone who wants to study it. The better teams have clearly seen it and started taking advantage. I don’t know how Coach Monken and his staff get this fixed, but it badly needs fixing.
Looking Forward
The Black Knights have a bye this week, and that’s good. As we said, they’ve got stuff to correct, especially on defense. We saw guys in the right positions to make a ton of tackles yesterday, but they struggled to get USF’s skill position players all the way down on the ground. That won’t get it done. If Army wants to compete in the American, they’ll have to find some way to compete man-to-man. Unfortunately, we didn’t see that one hundred percent of the time this week.
Final:
— Temple Football (@Temple_FB) September 12, 2026
Temple 9
Penn State 27
The Owls will take the road next Saturday to battle Toledo at 3:00 pm. The game can be found on CBS Sports Network.#TempleTUFF
Meanwhile, Temple played really well against Penn State yesterday. They struggled to throw the ball against the Nittany Lions’ pass rush and secondary, but they still ran for 176 yards on every bit of 5.3 yards/carry, and that could be a problem. We said last week that Army would lose if they couldn’t stop the run. And then they couldn’t, and they lost. Whatever else happens over these next two weeks, Army will lose again if they can’t stop the run. If you can’t stop the run and you can’t stop the pass, it’s really hard to play defense in college football.
Here’s hoping they can get it corrected, friends. Against all reason, I’m really looking forward to believing in this team again.
Go Army! Beat Temple!!!
