Friends, your Army Black Knights got a monster home win yesterday over the struggling Charlotte 49ers. The Black Knights dominated this game in every facet, putting up 304 yards rushing on 64 carries (4.8 yards/carry) while holding Charlotte to just 178 yards of total offense and threatening a shutout until the waning seconds of the fourth quarter.
Army Marches On🫡#BuiltToRise x #AmericanFB pic.twitter.com/W2aLgnaAS0
— The American (@American_Conf) October 11, 2025
The Black Knights seem to have found both the identity and their starting quarterback over these past two games. They now head into the second half of this season looking like a team that can perhaps answer some of these challenges and achieve some of their seasonal goals. Though the struggles have been frustrating, watching this team grow and develop remains one of the most enjoyable aspects of Army fandom overall.
The day began warmer and sunnier than we might’ve expected, giving us a great start to yesterday’s second annual AFF/Class of 1995 Octoberfest Tailgate. Germany’s Octoberfest actually ended last week, and as I said on Twitter, this felt a little freeing. None of us stuck quite as close to the theme as we might have. For example, I bought some German beers, but they were mostly a mix of pilsner and hefeweizen, and our actual Octoberfest beer came from a local brewery here in Connecticut. Moreover, my wife Sally and I prep’ed for the event with a French gewürztraminer from Alsace on Friday night. Alas, it turned out semi-dry at best, meaning that our kids ended up enjoying it a good bit more than my wife and I did. Still, we did what we could to at least stay theme-adjacent.
A little waterlogged, alas.
As For Octoberfest
Army sold this game out, meaning that literally tens of thousands of people tried to get into Michie Stadium at the same time that we headed over there with our friends. Security handled this pretty well, getting folks efficiently through the gates. But we saw former Army QB Bryson Daily and some of his friends coming down late from the lots, and one of Daily’s buddies yelled out, “Look! It’s Bryson Daily!!! Come get his autograph!”
This was pretty funny.
The Black Knights played about as well as we could’ve possibly hoped through the first three quarters of yesterday’s game. Charlotte opened with six straight running plays followed by a 14-yard pass after a False Start. But then the Black Knights defense started keying on their running attack, and that all but killed Charlotte’s offense. Charlotte QB Zach Wilke eventually took an 8-yard loss at the Army 44, and that forced a punt. Save for an Army fumble deep in their own territory, the 49ers wouldn’t get back onto the Black Knights’ side of the field until late in the fourth quarter. The Black Knights then went 80 yards in 9 plays, keyed by a Quarterback Counter that QB Cale Hellums took for 50 yards. Hellums scored a Keeper on the next play, and with that, the Black Knights took control of the game.
Cale Hellums goes for 50 to setup the TD 🫡
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 11, 2025
📺 CBSSN pic.twitter.com/HRcUMiZuRJ
Army’s defense forced a three-and-out on the ensuing drive, and FB Hayden Reed broke free for a 13-yard run on the first play after the punt, but unfortunately, he then put the ball on the ground. That’s a tough play because it looked like Reed had two hands on the ball when Charlotte stripped it, but Reed has also been somewhat fumble-prone this season, too. More to the point, he’s playing in a crowded backfield. The Staff pulled him until the start of the fourth quarter, and the offense never missed a beat.
It feels like a lot of the Black Knights’ problems this season happened as the team tried to figure out who it needed to start and where. For example, Hellums has now made a strong case for himself as Army’s starting quarterback. However, we didn’t come into this season expecting he’d be the starter. Similarly, I don’t think we expected to see a four-headed monster at fullback headed by cow Carson Smith and yearling Briggs Bartosh, but this is where the team found itself starting in the second quarter yesterday. Those guys came in and carried the load at least as effectively as Reed had done. Smith in particular looks like the team’s best power runner in traffic.
The defense played an outstanding game this week, but perhaps the best thing about this game came as a result of the way the offense moved the ball. Hellums took 21 carries for 143 yards and 2 touchdowns on a whopping 6.8 yards/carry. He also went 2/4 passing for 50 yards with his incompletions coming on intentional throw-aways when the play just wasn’t there. He neither forced it nor took unnecessary risks. Even better, he handed the ball off. Reed finished with 11 carries for 53 yards (4.8 yards/carry). Smith took 6 carries for 37 yards and a touchdown (6.2 yards/carry). Bartosh took another 6 carries for 25 yards (4.2 yards/carry). FB Jake Rendina, now back and finally looking healthy, took 2 carries for 10 yards.
Final score: Hellums 21 carries, fullbacks 25 carries.
Friends, that’s what growth looks like for a triple-option quarterback.
In a larger sense, we saw some of everything from the offense this week. We saw an explosive running play, an explosive passing play, a quick drive to set up a field goal, a 17-play drive to drain nearly 11 minutes off the clock, and nearly 38 minutes total time of possession. We even saw Hellums run one obvious slow-mesh Midline Option read that he wound up taking for six yards and a first down. Maybe that wasn’t the first Midline Option the Staff has let him read in real time between the tackles this season, but it might’ve been. We’ve been looking for it, and mostly they’ve had him running straight designed power runs. As a measure of growth, that one play was HUGE.
Hellums to Short for 44 to set up the TD 🤩
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 11, 2025
📺 @CBSSportsNet https://t.co/SwPSCiF7hh pic.twitter.com/aKIkZ4co0c
Unfortunately, the wheels kind of came off the offense in the fourth quarter. The team had put up something like 260 yards rushing on a little over 5 yards/carry through the first three periods, and then they really struggled to get those last 40 yards and over the 300-yard mark for the game. Honestly, QB Dewayne Coleman looked hesitant running the football. Like he was mostly afraid of making a mistake out there more than he was looking for an opportunity to make a play. With that, the offense stalled, turning the ball over once on downs and missing two field goals with one blocked. They should’ve been able to run out the clock and finish up 31-0 but instead wound up giving up a late touchdown in garbage time to lose the shutout.
Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but this team will have plenty to work on in practice this week. Plus, we watched all of this in a steady drizzle that started somewhere in the third quarter. It put something of a damper on our postgame tailgate, though my buddy Matt had at least left early to get our fire pit going.
My man saved the day with that one, for real.
🔊 OUR VICTORY SONG! pic.twitter.com/tqSVWMGukR
— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) October 11, 2025
Looking Forward
Army plays at Tulane this weekend in a rematch of last year’s American Conference Championship. The Green Wave have gone 5-1 this season, 2-0 in the conference, and they’re coming off a big home win over East Carolina. As of this writing, the Black Knights are 12.5-point underdogs.
I’m not remotely as good at this as Lynn Fern, who was out this week. However, I did take my camera. Good thing, too, because Army’s social media accounts have posted ZERO pics from this game. So you’re stuck with my personal efforts as shot from the stands. I stuck the full gallery on our Patreon page if you want a closer look. They’re in front of the paywall; we’re not trying to charge you for these.
But while Army might be an underdog, they potentially match-up pretty well against this particular Tulane team. ECU came back on them and even took the lead last Thursday once they started running the football, most especially with their quarterback. If Army can also run the ball effectively and somehow slow down Tulane’s own rushing attack — no small ask — then the Black Knights may yet steal another one.
To win this week, the Black Knights will need to play tighter football through four full quarters against a very talented team. Still, this really is a game that they can win if they can play their brand of football and control Tulane’s rushing attack.
Here’s hoping for a good week of practice and focused play on the field.
Go Army! Beat Tulane!!!
