It’s not often that an undefeated team is listed as an underdog in the back half of November.
However, that is the situation No. 19 Army finds itself in as it prepares to face No. 6 Notre Dame on Saturday evening at Yankee Stadium in New York.
Army coach Jeff Monken said he understood his team’s underdog status. The Black Knights (9-0) have more players from Texas than from any other state, he said, and zero of those players received a scholarship offer to play at North Texas.
Now, compare North Texas with Notre Dame (9-1), a blue-blood program filled with four- and five-star recruits. Monken said it was easy to recognize a difference in terms of pure talent.
“It’s really hard to win a college football game, and it’s hard at Army to win a football game,” Monken said. “So our guys have to embrace the fact that we have to execute our assignments and fundamentals at a really high level and try to do that better than anybody else does. …
“We have to practice and play with absolute exactness because if we don’t, we’re going to get embarrassed. That’s who we are. I embrace that. That does not mean we’re void of talent. We’ve got talented players on our team. But more talented than Notre Dame, collectively as a football team? No.”
In terms of fundamentals, Army has been stellar. The Black Knights are one of three undefeated FBS teams remaining, along with No. 1 Oregon and No. 5 Indiana, and they have the nation’s longest winning streak at 13 games dating to last season.
Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman believes Army’s success was hard-earned.
“I told the coaching staff, I think it’s our toughest challenge to date,” Freeman said.
The Fighting Irish carry an eight-game winning streak into the prime-time matchup, including a 35-14 victory against Virginia last week. They have outscored opponents 380-114 this season.
Riley Leonard leads Notre Dame with 1,789 passing yards and 12 touchdowns to go along with 641 rushing yards and 13 scores on the ground. Jeremiyah Love has 720 rushing yards and 12 scores, and Beaux Collins has 30 catches for 390 yards and two TDs.
Freeman praised his team for its tenacity, as the Fighting Irish have not trailed in the second half during the streak.
“It’s like, is this play the most important play of the game?” Freeman said. “And that’s a mindset. Don’t worry about the score — don’t care what the score is. You could be up, you could be down, it doesn’t matter. This play is the most important play of the game, and that takes effort and focus to do, right?
“It’s not natural. It’s natural to let up. It’s natural to say, ‘OK, here’s a score, it’s not that serious. This play doesn’t matter.’ But the guys on the field have to have a conviction that this play is so important to get the outcome that we want in the game.”
Army is led by Bryson Daily, who has thrown for 644 yards and seven touchdowns and has rushed for 1,062 yards and 21 TDs. Kanye Udoh is the next-leading rusher with 856 yards and nine scores.
Notre Dame holds a 39-8-4 advantage in the all-time series against Army, having won the past 15 meetings. The teams have met 23 times at Yankee Stadium, 22 of those at the original ballpark (1925-29, 1931-46, 1969) and one at the current stadium (2010).
