WEST POINT, N.Y. — The first conference championship celebration in Army history was underway at midfield and Bryson Daily made clear it would be a brief one.
The Black Knights are going after another trophy next week.
“Beat Navy,” Daily said.
He and the Black Knights ought to be a tough matchup for the Midshipmen — or just about anyone.
Daily rushed for four touchdowns to tie the American Athletic Conference championship game record, and No. 24 Army completed a perfect first season in the league by beating Tulane 35-14 on Friday night.
Kanye Udoh rushed for 158 yards, including a 72-yarder to set up a Daily TD, and a score. Daily added 126 yards on the ground for the Black Knights (11-1), who overwhelmed AAC opponents with their bruising, clock-eating rushing attack during their first around the league, then ran it to perfection in the championship game. Army won the first conference title in its 134-year history.
Except for an unsuccessful stint in Conference USA from 1998-2004, the Black Knights had played as an independent since their program began in 1890. Coach Jeff Monken said this week that Army felt that it needed to be in a conference to have a pathway to college football’s expanded postseason.
The Black Knights have one game left in the regular season and it’s they one they want most: against Navy next Saturday in Landover, Maryland, for the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.
“Now we’ve got the biggest game of the year coming up in eight days and we’re looking forward to that,” Monken said.
Daily’s four rushing scores gave him 29 this season, breaking the AAC record of 25 set by Navy QB Will Worth in 2016 and tying No. 10 Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty — a Heisman favorite — for tops in the nation. The conference player of the year — and MVP of its championship game — has rushed for multiple TDs in 10 consecutive games.
Monken thinks his quarterback deserves something bigger — the biggest award in all of college football.
“I don’t know that there’s anybody in the country that would balk at the idea of the starting quarterback of the Army Black Knights, who’s rushed for 100 yards in a game 10 games in a row on an 11-1 team that just won the conference championship, why doesn’t that guy belong down?” Monken said.
“There’s a lot of great football players in the country but there’s not one who means more to his team than that guy sitting right down there,” he added, pointing down a table toward Daily. “And so it’s the MVP of college football. Who’s most valuable to their team? I’d argue there’s not a guy in America more valuable to their team than Bryson Daily.”
The 221-pound Texan gained 126 yards on 25 carries. The Black Knights went 4-for-5 on fourth down and Daily kept it himself for touchdown runs of 5, 3, 4 and 7 yards.
“The Bryson Daily guy is like a linebacker carrying the football,” Tulane coach Jon Sumrall said.
Daily credited the members of his offensive line, saying they played their best game of the season while hearing that the Green Wave — who came in as the No. 2 seed but a 4½-point favorite — had the defensive scheme to stop Army’s national-leading rushing attack.
“The line of scrimmage was getting moved 2-to-3 yards and by the fourth quarter 4-to-5 yards,” Daily said. “They played awesome just like they have all year.”
Army’s offensive may be simple to predict but hard to stop, in large part because of Daily. The senior has rushed for 1,480 yards this season, even though he missed one game due to injury and still has another to play in the regular season.
If Monken had his way, Daily would then make a stop on the way back to West Point with hopes of joining Felix “Doc” Blanchard, Glenn Davis and Pete Dawkins as Heisman winners from Army.
“I don’t have a vote in it and they’re not going to listen to me, but he belongs down there,” Monken said. “And I know that the college football world would be thrilled to see that, and how many times in history is there going to be an academy player that legitimately could go down there and everybody feels like that guy belongs? You know what, this is that time in history. That guy belongs down there, that’s what I think.”
Darian Mensah threw two touchdown passes for Tulane (9-4), which was playing in its third straight AAC championship game and has lost the last two. The Green Wave had hopes of hosting before losing at home to Memphis on Thanksgiving night, ending their 17-game winning streak in conference games.
They were even shakier Friday, botching field goal attempts after their first two drives, then fumbling a kickoff and having a pass intercepted in their own territory on the next two.
Then Tulane could barely get its hands on the ball in the second half, when Army had TD drives of 11 and 16 plays.
A temperature of 29 degrees to begin just the third December game in the 101-season history of Michie Stadium demanded a strong running attack, and nobody does it better than Army, which came in leading the country with 312.5 rushing yards per game.
Daily didn’t even attempt a pass until the second half — when he kept a scoring drive alive with a 9-yard completion on fourth-and-5.
The Green Wave were asked during the week about playing in the chilly conditions along the Hudson River, and the weather may have been a factor when Tulane attempted a field goal after a good first drive. Holder Brice Busch dropped the snap on the Army 27.
The Black Knights will extend to a ninth straight week in the AP Top 25, their longest stretch since being ranked each week of the 1958 season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
