A few weeks ago, Navy beat writer Mike James came up with a list of the five most underrated offensive players of Navy’s triple option era. That series proved an engaging read and made me ask, “Who would I put in the same list for Army?”
Well, friends, here’s the list.
#5 Joshua Lingenfelter, TE (2020 – 2023)
Though many may not realize it, Army has had its fair share of great tight ends. Ron Leshinski got extended looks in NFL Europe and in the NFL itself. Clennie Brundidge was a second team All-American. However, tight end is the most overshadowed skill position in the current Army offense. We all know Army does not pass much, and when they do, most of the looks go to slotbacks or wide receivers. However, one tight end stood out on the national scale.
In 2022, Pro Football Focus graded Joshua Lingenfelter as the top run-blocking tight end in the country with a grade of 86.8. An Army player leading the country in anything should be applauded. Lingenfelter proved to be a bright spot on an offense that at times struggled to adapt to the new cut blocking rules in 2022.
Additionally, Lingenfelter could be a big-play threat through the air. He averaged over 30 yards per catch across his five career receptions. That is the highest average for any tight end in the Monken Era with more than one catch (sorry, David Crossan). Lingenfelter’s exploits earned him a mini-camp invite from the Jacksonville Jaguars. Tight ends are unsung heroes in Army’s Triple Option, but Lingenfelter showed how indispensable they can be to Army’s offense.
#4 Xavier Moss, S/WR (2013-2016)
Before Travis Hunter made playing both ways fashionable, Xavier Moss did it first. Moss switched from wide receiver to safety ahead of his Cow season in 2015. This did not stop him from recording one catch for 26 yards and making four tackles against Fordham in the first game of that 2015 season. Moss would go on to make a name for himself at safety, putting up 124 tackles and three interceptions across the next two seasons. One of those interceptions came against Navy in the 2016 game that broke The Streak.
Moss also had one of the most prolific receiving seasons in recent Army memory back in 2013. That year, he caught 35 passes for 486 yards. Both were the highest totals for an Army player since 2009. Though no one specific performance ranks overly high among Army’s single-game records, Moss had multiple impressive moments. He caught a 75-yard touchdown pass against Boston College on a flea-flicker, the fifth-longest passing touchdown in program history. Against Wake Forest, he caught eight passes for 61 yards, the most receptions for an Army receiver since 2007. In the 34-7 loss to Navy in the snow, Moss caught all five of Angel Santiago’s completions for 50 yards.
Moss was the only vertical threat on the Army team that year. While Coach Monken’s Army passing games use slotbacks to spread the field, Rich Ellerson’s earlier squads used a T-Bone (pictured below) that virtually eliminated slotbacks from the passing equation. Moreover, Moss’s counterparts at receiver, Anthony Stephens and Chevaughn Lawrence, showed up almost exclusively in the short passing game, averaging less than eight yards per catch on 20 combined receptions. This left Moss as the only guy with the ability to go long, both physically and within the scheme.
The fact that Moss was able to catch 35 passes given these limitations is incredible. He saw fewer targets the following year after Army transitioned to the Flexbone, catching just six passes for 52 yards. Still, his 2013 season deserves credit for its consistency.
#3: Sandon McCoy, FB (2017-2020)
By all rights, Sandon McCoy probably shouldn’t be on this list. But his firstie season hit at the same time Army fans fell in love with hearing Ben Holden say “Fire the Buchanans,” back in 2020. As a result, Black Knight fans have fond memories of Darnell Woolfolk, Buchanan, Larry Dixon, and many more. But McCoy’s contributions today look underrated despite his being an integral piece on one of Army’s greatest teams since 1996 as well as a bright spot in an otherwise ill-fated 2019 campaign.
After a slow start in his plebe and yearling years, McCoy burst onto the scene in 2019 with 576 yards rushing and ten rushing touchdowns. He had three multi-rushing touchdown games that year, including a three-touchdown effort against UMass. In a losing effort against Georgia State that same year, McCoy put up a career-high 91 yards plus a pair of rushing touchdowns. In a year marked by significant turnover and injury at the quarterback position, McCoy provided much-needed stability to oft-shaky offense.
Although McCoy’s yardage declined in 2020, he was nearly automatic near the goal line. He ran for just 268 yards on 86 carries but got into the end zone for ten touchdowns. Against Middle Tennessee, McCoy ran for 50 yards and scored three touchdowns in a 42-7 blowout win. Later, he put up one of the most unique statlines ever against Mercer with eight carries for 19 yards and three touchdowns in the 49-3 win.
McCoy came up biggest against Georgia Southern. He only had five carries and 17 yards, but scored a pair of touchdowns in the Black Knights’ 14-point comeback win over the New Orleans Bowl-bound Eagles. He became the epitome of a short yardage specialist, notching just one carry over ten yards, a sixteen-yard carry against ULM, the whole year.
Perhaps McCoy does not get his due because his touchdowns came in less memorable games. For example, he did not score a game-winning touchdown against Air Force like Jakobi Buchanan. But McCoy’s scores proved important nonetheless. Additionally, with Army employing six quarterbacks in 2020, his leadership as a team captain provided reliability where it mattered most for a then-young Black Knights team.
McCoy’s presence was arguably one the main reasons why Army was able to make up for late-1980s and early-1990s woes with a Liberty Bowl appearance in 2020. That year’s team won nine games but does not get celebrated as much due to the weird circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic did not make McCoy’s role as a team leader easier! But he embodied the steadiness amid unprecedented circumstances that characterized that 2020 team.
#2: Kell Walker, SB (2016-2019)
To discuss Kell Walker’s accomplishments at Army, we first must discuss the role of the slotback in Army’s scheme and its differences to Navy and Air Force’s schemes. Of the three Service Academies, Army seems most reliant on power and the inside running game. Navy’s triple-option under Head Coaches Paul Johnson and Ken Niumatololo more frequently used slot backs, even having one, Shun White, exceed the 1000-yard mark. Air Force’s approach is more akin to a Wing-T attack with featured backs like Chad Hall, Anthony LaCoste, and Kadin Remsberg fitting the more conventional running back role. By comparison, Army uses its slotbacks as ballcarriers the least of the three.
All of this contributes to many Army fans forgetting Kell Walker’s exploits. But this is crazy. Walker contributed heavily during all four years of his Army career. As a plebe, his 2016 campaign was more impressive than his 58-carry, 378-yard stat line seems on the surface. For example, Walker scored the only touchdown in Army’s 44-6 loss to Notre Dame that year. More importantly, he was the leading rusher in Army’s Streak-breaking win against Navy. It was not FB Andy Davidson or QB Ahmad Bradshaw that led Army in rushing that day, but Walker. He ran for a whopping 94 yards on just 16 carries, the highest total for an Army slotback or running back in that game since 2007.
Walker played an even larger role in 2017, finishing with 629 rushing yards, still the most for a slotback in the Monken Era. He had a gamebreaking stretch of back-to-back 100-yard games. He ran for 127 yards and three touchdowns in the 49-12 win over Rice. Those three touchdowns are the most by an Army slotback under Monken. Other highlights included a 153 all-purpose yard performance against eventual Big Ten champion Ohio State and a pair of touchdowns against Air Force. Later that year, he ran for 115 yards against Eastern Michigan. Walker added 111 receiving yards that year as well, good enough to lead the Black Knights receiving and account for 30 percent of Army’s receiving output overall. Moreover, his 543 kick return yards helped put him over 1000 all-purpose yards for the year, one of only two slotbacks to accomplish this feat in the Monken era.
Walker never saw as many touches as he did in 2017, totaling just 398 yards in 2018 and 320 yards in 2019, but he still showed that 2017 brilliance on occasion. For example, he put up 80 rushing yards and three catches for 40 yards in the famed near-upset of Oklahoma in 2018. In that year’s Army-Navy Game, he had 109 all-purpose yards, the most by an Army slotback against Navy in the Monken era. The following year he had eighty yards and a pair of touchdowns against UTSA.
Army fans may overlook Walker due to the embarrassment of riches on offense on those 2016-2018 teams. In 2017, Ahmad Bradshaw’s single-season record of 1746 rushing yards overshadowed Walker’s do-everything exploits. In 2018, Kelvin Hopkins became the first Army quarterback to both rush and pass for 1000 yards in a season, while Darnell Woolfolk ran for 956 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Walker’s career remains significant for many reasons. First, he always kept opponents honest on the edge and opened holes between the tackles for Bradshaw, Woolfolk, and Davidson. More importantly, he showed how devastating explosive slotback play could be for Army and paved the way for future electric seasons from Tyrell Robinson and Noah Short. Without Walker’s contributions, the Army offense might have a much different philosophy.
#1 Jabari Laws, QB (2018 – 2021), 2018-2021
Though Jabari Laws orchestrated one of the most iconic game-winning drives in Army history in the 2021 Armed Forces Bowl, many still do not realize how brilliant his short career was. Despite struggling with injuries and often fighting for playing time, Laws put up so many brilliant moments that one barely knows where to start.
But let’s start at the beginning. Laws ran for 137 yards in just his first career start in 2019 against UTSA. He then relinquished the starting job to Kelvin Hopkins for the next few games but returned to the starting role against Air Force and had an all-time great performance that came in a losing effort. Laws threw for 214 yards on just nine completions, going 9/11 through the air on the day. Among those completions, he hit Cam Harrison for an 87-yard touchdown strike that threatened to steal a win that day for an otherwise struggling Army offense. His performance became just the second 200-yard passing game since Army returned to the option way back in 2008.
Against weaker competition the following two weeks, Laws put up unbelievable stat lines. He had 140 yards on only eight carries against UMass, including an 83-yard touchdown run. That run was the longest by a quarterback since George Smythe had a 95-yard run against Lebanon Valley back in 1923 (!). It’s the sixth-longest run in West Point history. The following week, Laws ran for 97 yards and a touchdown on just nine carries against VMI.
Unfortunately, this performance came with serious challenges. Laws tore his ACL against VMI, forcing a young Christian Anderson and a then-injured Kelvin Hopkins to share snaps in a 34-7 loss to Navy. Who knows if Army plays Navy closer with a comfortable Jabari Laws starting. Laws then re-injured his ACL before the 2020 season forcing him to miss the entire year. By the time he came back for 2021, he had to battle five experienced quarterbacks for playing time. Nonetheless, Laws found ways to end his career on a memorable note.
Laws received playing time in passing situations as Army’s best pure passer in 2021, and he had some incredible moments. After only playing garbage time snaps against UConn and Georgia State, Laws entered the Wisconsin game late in the fourth quarter to try to spur an Army comeback. He proceeded to complete five of his six passes for 87 yards and thereby cut Wisconsin’s deficit to 6 and force an onside kick. The Black Knights lost that game, but Laws established himself as their Captain Comeback.
The following week against Wake Forest, Army called on Laws to keep up with Sam Hartman and Wake Forest’s offense. In a 70-56 thriller, Laws threw for 140 yards and three touchdowns, again going 9/11 through the air. This three touchdown passing game was the first such game since Carson Williams threw for three scores against Tulsa back in 2007. But Laws was always at his best against the Power Five, completing 14/17 passes for a combined 227 yards and three touchdowns against top contenders that year in Wisconsin and Wake Forest. Laws got the opportunity to pad his stats further against Bucknell, completing three passes for 58 yards and a touchdown.
Laws’ final act came in the famed comeback drive against Missouri in the 2021 Armed Forces Bowl. He accounted for 36 of Army’s 51 yards in the final 71 seconds (15 rushing, 21 passing) to set up Cole Talley’s game-winning 41-yard field goal. A fitting end to one of Army football’s greatest what-if stories.
A look at Laws’ career stats feels like something out of a video game. He completed 77 percent of his passes, with 35 completions on 44 attempts for 618 yards and five touchdowns. He holds the top two spots in season pass efficiency (minimum 20 attempts) and would be the all-time leader in yards per attempt if he qualified (the minimum threshold is 50 in the Army Record Book). His career pass efficiency of 234.8 shatters Willie McMillian’s current record of 170.8. Laws would make this list on his passing exploits alone, but his rushing stats only belabor the point. He averaged over five yards per carry after sacks. Jabari Laws was simply special.
However, possibly the most incredible feat we can name is that Jabari Laws is the only Army quarterback since 1956 to throw at least 40 passes in his career, complete over 77% of them, and never throw an interception (stats via Stathead).
Just incredible efficiency.
Although 2020’s team is one of the greatest in recent Army history, Laws’ absence from that regular season that year creates one of the team’s more devastating what-ifs. Army very well could have gone undefeated if Laws has started at quarterback. With Laws at the helm, it is reasonable to believe Army at the very least beats Tulane, then 6-5. An experienced Laws replacing a still-developing Christian Anderson would make the loss to Peach Bowl-bound American Conference champion Cincinnati much more competitive. The same applies for the heartbreaking last-second loss in the Liberty Bowl.
Jabari Laws fit many moments of greatness into such a small sample size of play.
Works Cited
1. The Army Football Media Guide proved a crucial resource in this passion project.
2. If you guys don’t have a subscription to Stathead, you’re missing out.
3. GoArmyWestPoint.Com remains an invaluable resource.
