Army West Point Black Knights College Football Pregame Quote, 12/08/2020

Game week is finally here for the most anticipated game of the year and for a tremendous rivalry. Our team is really excited. We’ve been working really hard in our preparation and trying to get healthy and get a couple of injured guys back so that we can enter this game on Saturday with the best team possible. We know it’s going to take a tremendous effort. It is always such a hard-fought battle and so intense. We are prepared for a really hard-fought football game. Hopefully, we can play well enough and execute enough to give ourselves a chance to win. That is always the case in this game. The emotion that charges everybody with trying to be their very best makes this an incredible competition and we are looking forward to it.

We are excited we are able to play this game here for only the fourth time in history and for the first time since 1943 in the midst of another crisis, World War II. Certainly, this one is very different, but nonetheless it has pushed the game here to West Point and we are excited to host it and we want to do the very best to defend our home stadium. We are looking forward to Saturday. I know it will be a very good game against a very well coached football team. It’s been a real battle for us every season that I have been here.

On the significance of playing the game at Michie Stadium:

In the first four meetings of these two teams, they took place on the campuses of the two schools. The first one was here and the third one was here and by the fifth game in this series, it was being played at a neutral site. Not until 1943, during World War II, we came back to West Point. The state of our world right now has forced the game away from Philadelphia and we needed a place to play to have our Cadets and their Midshipmen in attendance and because we are the home team and we were capable of pulling the game off here, we fortunately had the opportunity to host it. It will be special to play it here. It will be very nostalgic and really a great piece in the history of this rivalry.

On the 1-2 key factors that will make a difference on Saturday:

We know them pretty well and they know us pretty well and I think that’s the case with a lot of rivalry games. What’s unique about this rivalry is that we’re almost mirror images of each other and that doesn’t happen in very many rivalry games where the offensive plan and system is the same as the opponent as well as the defensive system. That allows each side to really be able to dive in deeper on how to execute effectively against the other team. I think the keys to victory are the same in this game as they are in every other game. It’s maintaining possession of the ball and making the most of the possessions that you have, not turning the ball over, winning in the kicking game, being able to effectively run the ball and stop the run. Those are things that in this game, the winning team, typically has a little bit of an edge. It’s hard because they know our offense well and we know theirs well. So, it’s a real game of cat and mouse. It becomes challenging to come up with a game plan every year that’s maybe even a little different than the year before. You run out of things to do in the offense, there’s only so many places you can take it and eventually it just comes down to blocking them and trying to get off the blocks and turning first downs, getting yourself in scoring position and hopefully having enough opportunities that you can get points on the board and have more than they do at the end of the game. It’s just a slug fest, it’s a bare-knuckle brawl from start to finish and that’s what makes the game so special and so fierce in terms of the competition. Winning this game takes the same execution that it takes in other games to win.

On if the unique variables, such as not playing at a neutral site, make this game seem somewhat surreal:

A little bit. I don’t know that anything in this odd season that we’re having seems out of the ordinary. I guess for me, it’s just a little more matter of fact that this is what we’ve got to do in order to be able to pull this game off. Playing it here is just what we had to do. There’s something special about going to Philadelphia or one of the cities and playing the game and having fans, parents, alumni and just all of the pageantry that goes along with it, that’s one of the things that makes Army-Navy really special. Once the game begins and we’re in the thick of the competition, it really doesn’t matter where it’s played. It could be here or at one of the NFL stadiums or their stadium or over here at the local high school – we’re going to play it the same, they are going to play it the same, it’s going to be very competitive and tough. It’s just going to take the team that executes the best to win the game.

On what it is about this game that feels so different than anything else:

I think the history of this rivalry and that certainly is a huge part of it. But also, the fact that each team is representing their branch of service. To me, that brings in a sense of pride that is unique to these schools and we’re playing for so many other people – a team that’s much bigger than the one we’re going to take the field with. There are 1.3 million men and women all on active-duty service in the United States Army, almost 200,000 additional Army reserve personnel (officers, enlisted) ‚Äì a million and a half people that serve the U.S. Army is who are representing on Saturday and I think that having that opportunity to represent that team against the team that they represent, the U.S. Navy, is really a sense of pride. I think of the history of this game, and the history of players and coaches who have played in this game, but also the Presidents of the United States who have visited this game, the announcers that have called these games ‚Äì some of the most iconic names in sports broadcasting ‚Äì this is a game that’s way beyond a typical college football game. It’s just really special to be a part of it.