LSU Opponent Preview 2023: Army

Brian Kelly has made it clear that he hopes this is the last time he sees a service academy school on his schedule in his career. After facing the Army twice, Air Force twice, and Navy 11 times in his 12 seasons at Notre Dame, he has yet another meeting with a service academy, this time with LSU against Army.

Kelly has a 13-2 record against the three service academy teams, with a 2-0 record against Army by a combined scored of 71-9. It will be a new-look Black Knights squad, though, when the Tigers face Army on Saturday, Oct. 21 in Baton Rouge in the heart of the SEC schedule for Kelly’s team.

Prior teams: Florida State, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Ole Miss, Missouri, Auburn

Head coach: Jeff Monken (10th season)

Offensive coordinator: Drew thatcher (1st season)

Defensive coordinator: Nate Woody (4th season)

Last year

A 6-6 season with a win over Navy, but a loss to Air Force, the Army mostly beat the teams it was supposed to beat last year, but had some heartbreaking losses to Troy (10-9), and UTSA (41-38 in OT). The three on-possession losses explain Army’s down year.

In the past seven years, Army has only won less than eight games twice and has repeatedly gone toe-to-toe with some of the best teams in the country. In 2021, Monken’s team lost a thriller to Wake Forest, then beat Western Kentucky, Liberty, and Missouri. It’s a program that expects to be much better than 6-6.

Offense

The offense continued to thrive under Monken, ranking 31st in offensive EPA last year, 2nd in rush yards per game, and 14th in yards per rush in the triple-option offense. The style of offense allowed Army to shorten games and continuously put pressure on opposing defenses.

The Black Knights attempted 104 passes in 2022, the most since 2019. Since 2016, an Army team with a winning record has not thrown the ball more than 100 times in a season. It’s the last resort for Army and usually means things aren’t going well. Still, it was overall an efficient offense last year.

This year, it will be a new-look Army offense under Drew Thatcher.

Defense

The difference between the year Army had and the year Air force had was based on defense. The Black Knights’ defense ranked in the bottom half of the country in yards per play allowed and third down defense, while also finishing in the bottom ten for tackles for loss per game at just 4.4.

Without the usual push up front, Army’s defense struggled in the first half of the season, before finding some footing in the back half in games against Troy, Air Force, and UConn.

Over the offseason

Army lost NFL talent at outside linebacker in Andre Carter, but returns 13 starters, only loses one player to the transfer portal, and adds a 2023 class of players with 22 three-star prospects, once again reloading with capable talent.

The biggest change was on offense where Monken and new offensive coordinator Drew Thatcher are set to run the offense out of the shotgun in 2023. It’s a massive change from the aesthetics we’re used to, but it makes sense for Monken as the game evolves.

“Those (the blocking rules) had made it more difficult to execute the under-center option offense,” Monken said. “Not that I think it’s impossible. I just think there are some real challenges that didn’t exist prior.

“We made the move to a different style of offense but not necessarily a different philosophy. We still want to run the ball and we want to be a really physical offensive football team. So when we run the ball, there will be a lot of option elements in what we are doing but it’s going to look different than it has in the past.”

Going into 2023

Top returners: S Quindrelin Hammonds, S Max Didimenico, RB Tyrell Robinson, RB Ay’Juan Marshall, TE Joshua Lingenfelter

It’s a new-look offense, but the defense is where a lot of the question marks are this year for the Black Knights. Getting that side of the ball in-order will be the key for this team, even as all eyes adjust to watching Army play out of the shotgun on offense.

Expectations

It’s a challenging schedule in 2023, with road games at UTSA, Syracuse and LSU, and home games against Troy, Coastal Carolina, and Boston College, with the Air Force and Navy games thrown in as well. 

The standard for this program is eight or more wins, but it’s hard to say how this team will fare in 2023 with the uncertainties on both sides of the ball. Ultimately, if Army goes 7-5 with wins over Air Force and Navy then it’s a good season. Those two games hold a ton of weight – and rightfully so.