Army Pregame | Class Is In Session By: The Professor Posted on: September 20, 2018

The Sooners made it out of Ames with a win. It wasn’t as pretty as they would have liked it to be, but a win is a win. Up next for Oklahoma are the Black Knights of Army. It will be a contrast of styles against a team with a history of winning battles on the gridiron when they’re not busy winning actual battles.

In this preview, I’m going to try to tackle some of the history and the stats that make this game more interesting than most.

Don’t worry though, I’ll actually wrap it up at some point.

THE HISTORY

Army and Oklahoma have met 3 times in their histories. Oklahoma leads the series 2-1, but each team has scored the same number of points against each other. The one game that Army beat Oklahoma was in 1946. Army didn’t lose to anyone that year.

Army won the 1945 National Championship, and that team is considered as one of the most dominant teams in college football history. Despite what the folks in Stillwater want to nail to their stadium walls, everyone knows that Army was indisputable #1 that year.

PSA: Oklahoma State’s championship from 1945 was awarded in what was likely fundraising campaign by the AFCA. The AFCA asked for applications, along with a fee, from schools who thought that they deserved consideration for championships before 1950, the year the organization began awarding titles. Oklahoma State was the only school that applied. They weren’t just the only school that applied for 1945, they were the only school that applied at all, for any year.


Ok, back to the real heroes. Army’s run in the 1940s was incredible and happened just before Oklahoma really got going. Army has never been as dominant as they were 70-some years ago, but hey, they still have a more recent championship than Texas A&M.

THE COACHES

Lincoln Riley continues to roll, as he now has 15 wins as a head coach, and his offense has averaged 45.9 points per game over that time. The absence of Baker Mayfield hasn’t seemed to affect his offense at all, and that is a bit terrifying.

The man on the other sideline, Jeff Monken, has been at Army since 2014 and is coming off a 10-win season of his own. He’s 20-9 since the start of 2016, and Army has seen some success that it hasn’t seen it some time. Monken and the Black Knights’ play a style of football that lines up and runs right at you. It’s a throwback to the 1940s and their dominant days, but Monken has made it effective.

One coach’s offense is on the leading edge of innovation, the other’s is a bit of an anachronism. It should make for an interesting contrast.

THE PLAYERS

The differences in play-style are illustrated in the statistics. For one, Kyler Murray has 863 passing yards in three games this season. Army has 781 passing yards in the 16 games since the start of last season.

Army also has four players with at least 150 rushing yards this season already. So far, 82% of the plays that the Black Knights have run this season have been running plays, compared to the Sooners’ 56.5%.

Something that bodes ill for the Black Knights is not their pass offense, but rather their pass defense. Army is in the bottom 10 of the FBS in yards allowed per pass attempt. On the flip side, Oklahoma is the third best FBS team in yards gained per pass attempt.

Oklahoma’s defense has some cause for concern as well. The Sooners’ Stop Rate, the percentage of drives a team stops the opposing team from scoring, is 73.7%, which ranks just 55th in the country.

Another interesting note is Army’s philosophy on 4th down. So far this season, Army has tried to convert 4th down 11 times, while they’ve punted 12 times. They aren’t afraid to line up and go for it.

The game Saturday should be a fun one for fans, and service men and women alike. Hopefully, the weather doesn’t get too bad, and everyone gets to enjoy some old-school football. That’s all for this lesson, and check back next week for the postgame.

 

 

The Professor, also known on Twitter as Blinkin Riley (Steven Smith) will be dropping some knowledge on us throughout the season with a pre-game lesson and a post-game lesson each week! We encourage you to follow his Twitter account @blinkinriley for additional mini-lessons…