Previewing Air Force's Opponents: Army

This is the second leg in the Commander in Chief trophy for the Academy. Army has been the worst of the three major service academies by having only one winning season in in the past twelve years when the Black Knights went 10-2 in 1996. The last time that Army defeated Air Force was a 27-24 in 2005. Army which uses the same approach to the game as Navy and Air Force, by using the a unique style in offense by trying to create an advantage for being over matched by most opponents. That has just not worked well for the players at West Point.

Offense: The Black Knights return four offensive players and two of those position are key spots, with Quarterback Carson Williams and then Running BackTony Dace. The offense was not very successful becuse while Dace is the top returning rusher he only had 330 yards on the year. Their offense is pretty pathetic and only averaged just under 16 per game, and must improve to try to increase their win output and to stay more competitive. Having their quarterback and top running backreturn should help them improve, but with only two offensive lineman return Navy will still struggle to put points on the board. To put it nicely the Black Knights will struggle to score points even with who they have coming back.

Defense: On defense Army brings back five starters that should help the defense improve just by shear experience. Army runs a 3-4 defense in an effort to get more speed on the field, but that did not do much for Army last year because besides going 3-9 they gave an average of 29.67 points per game. Besides five starters returning on defense Army does return 14 other returning defensive players and that experience should help the team make some stops. None of the starting spots should be safe, because with a defense that poor every spot is up for grabs.

Early Prediction: Air Force by 10 to 14 points.