Army, Navy keep all focus on game

Middies on 14-0 streak in series but might get tested by 6-5 Knights.

WEST POINT, N.Y. — Bob Sutton is still riveted by America’s Game, even if he’s far from the service academy world that once consumed him when he coached at Army.

And despite recent lopsided results in the Army-Navy rivalry — the Middies have won 14 straight — Sutton says nothing is ever a given when these two teams play.

“I love the Army-Navy game, best game going,” said Sutton, now defensive coordinator for the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs. “I think (Army) has things turned around a bit. They were close last year. Navy, (coach Ken Niumatalolo) has done an unbelievable job there. He’s won some huge games this year.

“But I’ll say this about ArmyNavy, none of that matters one bit. None of it has anything to do with that game.”

That game will be played Saturday in Baltimore, not far from the Navy campus. The Middies (9-3) are coming off a 34-10 loss to Temple in the American Athletic Conference title game, a setback that relegated star quarterback Will Worth to the bench for the rest of the year. They will face an Army team that hasn’t played in three weeks.

One thing is certain, though. No matter the final score, coach Jeff Monken’s third year at West Point will end like only one other football season at the academy in the past two decades. The Black Knights (6-5) will be playing in the postseason — they’ve accepted a berth in the Heart of Dallas Bowl against North Texas in late December —for just the second time since Sutton’s 1996 team won a school-record 10 games. That’s a big deal around here. “I’m very proud of this team,” senior linebacker and co-captain Jeremy Timpf said. “I know Army has been struggling the past few years, and it’s good to go out as a senior and know that you’ve produced a bowl game.”

On Saturday, Army comes in with more emotion than usual. Its gold helmets carry a sticker with the No. 28 framed by the words “Brother, Teammate, Friend” in honor of sophomore defensive back Brandon Jackson, a rising star who was killed in a one-car crash the morning after Army had beaten Rice in early September.

“I never thought I would lose one of my brothers while we were still at school together — while we were still teammates,” senior linebacker Andrew Knight wrote in a personal letter posted Wednesday in the Players’ Tribune. “West Point prepares you for many things, but not for something like that.”