Army

1-1
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The Navy rivalryNoah Short produces at a notably LOWER rate when his team is an underdog than when favored -- he fades when the pressure is on, and his per-target value drops too.our read

American Athletic · Jeff Monken, year 13 (90-64) · Michie Stadium · 38,000 · 22,604 avg in 2026

The nationunrankedAP / Coaches
The model#38 CFB ZeitgeistSP+ #63 (+2.2) · FPI #78
The marketno line yetat Temple · our model 65% Army · a number, not a pick

LastL 24–28 vs South Florida · Sat Sep 12 · Godspower Nwawuihe 94 rush yds, 1 TD, 4 rec yds

Nextat Temple · Fri Sep 25 · 4 pm ET · Lincoln Financial Field · series 8-7, won the last 4 · Game preview

Updated Tue Sep 15 · through week 2

Zeitgeist statureRegional Program I#48 all-time– holding
one line from National Program III
The era · 2014 through 2025

The CFP Era

12 seasons inside the CFP era, no bids yet — the era the program is still trying to break into.

Era record 88-62 12 seasons
Best season 12-2 2024
TRAJECTORY · quality-score line · AP rank dotted · CFP bids marked · coach regimes ribboned
Program Quality AP Rank (inverted) CFP Appearance
'14'16'18'20'22'24NOW
CHAPTERS · 12 seasons · tap to open the archive
'14 4-8 '15 2-10 '16 8-5 '17 10-3 '18 11-2 '19 5-8 '20 9-2 '21 8-4 '22 6-6 '23 6-6 '24 12-2 '25 7-6

Army's 2014–2025 record is 88-62. The era is still being written; the CFP line is the one the program is arguing for.

Era win %
.586
Ranked seasons (AP)
3/12
Best AP finish
#19
THE RIVALRY · ARMY × NAVY

Army-Navy Game

125 meetings since 1891 See the whole history →
ALL-TIME 55-63-7 since 1891 · .440 win rate
STREAK L2 Navy holds the last 2
TROPHY The Rivalry Itself No trophy — the season is the argument
NEXT 2026 season date set by conference
Heat trajectory

Week-by-week rivalry heat isn't tracked yet for this matchup — check back as the 2026-27 season approaches and real fan-intel signal accumulates.

Fan Heat Index

Who's more worked up right now

Cross-fanbase rivalry sentiment for this matchup hasn't been measured yet this week — both sides show as neutral until real signal comes in.

Army
Awaiting
Navy
Awaiting
Army —
Navy —

THE LAST 5 · year-by-year

  1. L 2025 Loss 16–17
  2. L 2024 Loss 13–31
  3. W 2023 Win 17–11
  4. W 2022 Win 20–17
  5. L 2021 Loss 13–17

Program outlook

Army went 12-2 in 2024 and won the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy. Then they went 7-6 in 2025 and lost it back to Navy by one point. Jeff Monken is in year 12 — and December is the only scoreboard West Point truly keeps.

Read the full essay — 3 more paragraphs

Army's season has a shape that no other program in the sport replicates. The early games matter. The conference record matters. But the thing the Corps of Cadets counts is Navy, played in December in an NFL stadium, with the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy at stake and every player headed for active-duty service after graduation. Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis — Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside — won consecutive national championships in 1944 and 1945 with back-to-back Heisman Trophies on the same backfield. That is the program's golden age, and it sits at the front of West Point's football identity the way Bryant-Denny sits at Alabama's. Everything since has been measured against the discipline those teams embodied.

Monken rebuilt the modern program from irrelevance: an 11-2 in 2018, a 12-2 and a Commander-in-Chief's Trophy win in 2024, the program's best modern season. The 2025 reset was predictable in the sense that Army entered its first year in the American Conference with a new set of opponents and a roster cycling its roster of cadets. A 7-6 finish and a Fenway Bowl win over UConn were not humiliations. The 17-16 loss to Navy in December was. Annapolis has now held the Trophy two straight years. West Point measures itself against that result the way programs with different missions measure themselves against polls.

The 2026 season's specific question is whether Monken can sustain the post-2024 altitude. The 12-2 was a peak — the cadets who built it have commissioned and moved on, as they always do. The triple-option must be reinstalled with new personnel every cycle, a constraint no other program in the country navigates the same way. The internal debate — keep the option pure versus bring in more portal flexibility — will not be settled in the Long Wait. It will be settled in November and December, against Navy.

On the field

Disciplined triple-option football, run by a roster of cadets who will commission as officers: Army's offensive identity is assignment-perfect, clock-eating, and built on conditioning rather than recruiting rank. Ball control is the scheme's north star — possession time, fourth-quarter execution, and the mental precision that comes from a West Point standard of preparation. The defense plays gap-sound and disciplined. In a modern college football landscape of tempo spread and transfer-portal arms races, Army's model is a legitimate outlier — and in the right game, against the right opponent, still a genuine threat.

program outlook · as of 2026-09-14

All-time record · Army

Army has won 55% of its games since 1891 — 68% at home, 29% on the road.

733-552-51 all-time · 135 seasons · 1891–2026

Home 591-260-16
Away 123-273-35
Neutral 19-19
57% 1890s
62% 1900s
79% 1910s
69% 1920s
72% 1930s
74% 1940s
64% 1950s
60% 1960s
34% 1970s
49% 1980s
45% 1990s
21% 2000s
44% 2010s
64% 2020s

Coaching Era · Army

Jeff Monken

Jeff Monken into year 13 — a multi-decade era by modern CFB standards.

Era Jeff Monken · 2014–presentOC: Cody WorleyPrev OC: Drew Thatcher (2023)DC: Daryl DixonPrev DC: Nate Woody (2022–2025)
The full CFP-era story →The full coaching lineage →
13 years · era

Program memory

What this program never forgets

Most weeks vanish. These didn’t.

1945

Back-to-back national titles

Blanchard and Davis lead Army to consecutive national championships at the peak of the war years

The 2024 breakthrough

12-2, a conference championship, the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy, and a top-25 finish — the best modern Army season

The 2025 Navy loss

A 17-16 defeat to Navy hands Annapolis the Trophy and ends the season on the wound West Point feels most

Heartbreak

Moment of the season — so far · Army · 2026

Won 59-3 vs Bryant

Week 1 of 2026. A statement margin. Recruiting boards re-rendered overnight.

Decisive Margin

More in this tab

Ladder finishHow far up the ladder this season got.

Season standing · 2026 · 1-1

Army is 1-1 and unranked in the season's first weeks.

Even or better through the season's first weeks. The resume is still forming.

Sub-FBSBuildingBowlRankedContenderPlayoff
ConferenceWhere this team sits in this season's conference standings.

American Athletic standing · 2026

13th in the American Athletic

Army is 13th of 14 in the American Athletic at 0-1. The path to the title is steep — the focus is on bowl access and rivalry wins.

#ProgramRecord
1Florida Atlantic1-0
2South Florida1-0
–Charlotte0-0
–East Carolina0-0
–Memphis0-0
–North Texas0-0
–Rice0-0
–Temple0-0
–Tulane0-0
–Tulsa0-0
–UAB0-0
–UTSA0-0
13Army0-1
14Navy0-1
Coaching historyEvery hire and departure on record, not just the current era.

Coaching history

  • Hired Jeff Monken2014
  • Rich Ellerson departs20-41, 5 seasons
  • Hired Rich Ellerson2009
  • Stan Brock departs6-18, 2 seasons
  • Hired Stan Brock2007
  • Bobby Ross departs9-25, 3 seasons
  • Hired Bobby Ross2004
  • Hired John Mumford2003
Coordinator lineageOffense and defense under each coordinator.

Unit lineage

Army’s offense and defense, by coordinator

FBS-relative efficiency percentile per season (2014–2026), same population as the Coordinator Mirror board. Dashed vertical lines mark a coordinator change.

Offense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014–2022 · Brent Davis2023 · Drew Thatcher2024–2026 · Cody Worley
Defense2014–2026
2014201620182020202220242026
2014–2018 · Jay Bateman2019 · John Loose2020 · co-Greg Gasparato / Nate Woody2021 · Nate Woody / co-Shiel Wood2022–2025 · Nate Woody2026 · Daryl Dixon
Elite (≥70th pct)AveragePoor (≤30th pct)
Gameday customsThe gameday customs unique to this program.

Rituals

Three gameday rituals — the ones outsiders never quite catch.

Army-Navy Game

since 1890

more

The Army-Navy game — first played 1890, only paused for World Wars — is one of CFB's most-storied rivalries. The Cadets corps + Brigade of Midshipmen perform full march-on, the Commander-in-Chief watches in person, the game's pageantry is unmatched. Every senior plays their last college game here.

Triple-Option Offense

since 1980s

more

Army runs the triple-option offense as institutional identity — the wishbone-rooted scheme that academy programs can sustain with mission-defined player rotations. Jeff Monken's tenure (2014-) refined the option into a national top-10 rushing offense. No other P5 / Independent at this scale runs option.

Commander-in-Chief's Trophy

since 1972 · trophy game

more

The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy goes to the service academy with the best head-to-head record across Army-Navy-Air Force triangle. Army's 2024 win over Navy AND Air Force secured the trophy — the first since 2020. The Commander-in-Chief personally awards it at the White House.

Cultural identityWhat college football loses if this program didn't exist.
BowlsEvery bowl this program's played, and how it did.

Bowl / Postseason Ledger

Recent postseason (2016-2025): 6-1

Most recent: 2025 — win 41-16 (home). Last 5 postseason: 4-1.

20252024202120202018
Reddit blowupsThe plays that blew up on r/CFB.

r/cfb moments

3k
[Postgame Thread] Navy Defeats Army 17-13
Dec 2021 · r/cfb
2.6k
[Postgame Thread] Army Defeats Navy 20-17 (2OT)
Dec 2022 · r/cfb
2.6k
[Postgame Thread] Navy Defeats Army 17-16
Dec 2025 · r/cfb
1.8k
[Postgame Thread] Tarleton Defeats Army 30-27 (2OT)
Aug 2025 · r/cfb
1k
[Postgame Thread] Army Defeats Navy 17-11
Dec 2023 · r/cfb

All-time top community posts · ranked by upvotes

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