Never take a service team for granted. Playing a big time football power is a walk in the park. This is as easy as it will get.
Houston had collapsed this season after a 7-1 start and their defense sucked really bad in Nov. Also D'eriq King their qb who IMHO is sort of a poor man's Kyler Murray was lost to an ACL. If he had been playing and 100% this could have been a very different game. King was extremely quick/fast like Murray and also has a strong and accurate arm, but clearly this is one of the best Army teams since the Red Blaik era.
Army hung 70 on them NOT trying to hang 70 on them. I'm not sure there's a woulda, coulda, shoulda scenario that covers that gap.
So today on the way into work the guys on ESPNU, Greg McElroy and Taylor Zarzour, were talking about what a great job Jeff Monken has done at Army and how they think Army is setup for a really good run now with him as the Coach. They also said that they thought he'd be a great fit at a place like Kansas or Vanderbilt where the recruiting is never going to be as good as their competitors and that bringing in an offense like his would make them more competitive. Paul Johnson had a pretty good run at Georgia Tech with this offense, and if KU was ok with that level of success then maybe they should consider it. Air Force has struggled the last 2 years and Navy was not good this year, so maybe it is Army's turn to rule the roost for awhile. I hope he stays at Army, I like to see our Service Academies do well in Sports.
One thing I find interesting is that both Navy and Air Force has tried to 'move forward' a bit with modernization of their offense and struggled. If my friend's son gets his shot at Air Force, there's a chance they'll be really good very soon... but I digress, Army is turning back the clock of time to find success. Their offense is 1940s primitive and their defense is a no bones about what they do: tackling, hard hitting, with speed. Serious question, are Army's OLs bigger than Navy's? Is there a height/weight restriction thing going on?
I don't know about the height/weight restrictions but all of their players definitely know where they will be working the day after graduation.
I know some Academy players have spent a year in prep school, Roger Staubach went to a prep school before entering Anapolis. I think I've read that Air Force esp uses the prep school route to get the players ready for the Academy. I wonder if while in prep school they are also playing football and using the same systems as the Academy and when they finally are plebes they have been in the offense/defensive systems for a year and are a year older and have a year of advanced strength training?
The Navy prep school is usually for students that aren't ready academically for the Academy courses. A lot of sailors selected from active duty go to the prep school first to get back into the swing of college. They could be using it to get athletes up to speed also.