LANDOVER, Md. – Bryson lives West Point and Army Football every day. The West Texan — who plays quarterback, more like a defensive end chasing quarterbacks — has found time amid the relentless routine of a cadet to also absorb the history of the Army-Navy rivalry .
He does have help with that and counts Rollie Stichweh as a friend and advisor. Stichweh has emphasized that leading a team “more than anything is about keeping everyone level-headed through all the highs and lows,” Daily said, and Stichweh knows as much about this game as anyone. If you’re not familiar with that name, here’s essential Army and Navy knowledge: Roger Staubach and the Navy defeated Army in 1963 in one of the game’s most memorable editions, a game that was delayed a week due to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy Jr., one that came down to the final possession. Navy’s 21-15 win was its fifth in a row in the series, capping a season in which the Midshipmen finished No. 2 in the standings and Staubach won the Heisman Trophy.
The other quarterback was Stichweh. Many more people knew about it a year later when both were seniors and Stichweh defeated Staubach to end the streak, before leaving to serve in Vietnam and win the Bronze Star Medal and Air Medal. Saturday at Northwest Stadium, in the 125th edition of this competition, Army’s Daily was the senior star who had to endure the bitterness of ‘singing first’ on his last chance.
Blake Horvath was much more than just the other quarterback.
The Navy junior etched his name in the annals of this game and a few more households overall with 196 yards and two rushing touchdowns, 107 yards and two passing touchdowns, a 31-13 stunner of a win and significant contribute to the celebration of agreement.
“You’re talking about a guy who didn’t even get an honorable mention at the entire conference, you know?” said Navy coach Brian Newberry, which of course contrasts with the day winning AAC Offensive Player of the Year and sixth place finish in the Heisman Trophy voting. “And honestly, he beat the guy on the other side today.”
Bryson Daily’s 16 pass attempts were his second most this season. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
And he felt it, as they all did, as they always do. This ended the season with the most combined national relevance for these programs in decades, and that’s something to watch as both players and chemistry continue to develop over the years, while the rest of the sport continues its annual selection Etch A Sketch plays. Horvath and Navy (9-3) said college football should watch out for Horvath and Navy in 2025.
But who cares? These are the moments they will talk about for the rest of their lives. It’s so important to everyone who plays and everyone who serves: the rest of college football be damned. The reason an Army-Navy game is on more bucket lists than parasailing in Hawaii is because each game offers an intersection of intensity, pageantry, history and humanity that you can’t find anywhere else.
The West Point cadets and Annapolis midshipmen march onto the field before the game in a breathtaking display of precision and order, by young people who have signed up to protect our country. This felt like a typical football afternoon coming in, walking past the Army Rangers tailgate as George Thorogood’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” blared from the speakers and people sang and drank along. Inside the stadium, nothing is typical. College football is a high-level spectacle, but not this.
Then you’re reminded that these are 18 to 22 year olds as they sit in their seats and put on “Sweet Caroline,” or sing at someone to take off a shirt, or collectively groan when something goes wrong on the field . That happened often for the Cadets on Saturday, their 11-1, AAC champion, No. 22 Black Knights outgunned early, fooled late and often pushed around in a game that earned its reputation as the most physical that you can find in sports. .
“It makes the season a little bit of a disappointment honestly, that’s just the truth of this game,” Army coach Jeff Monken said after his team was defeated 378-178, a week after beating Tulane and winning the AAC for its first conference had won. school history championship.
The sad or wonderful Army-Navy reality is that the Army would now trade all those victories for Saturday’s. When Horvath took the final step for the final knee in the victory formation, the sequence, precision and intensity changed and made kids go crazy. Horvath jumped around asking for more noise from the midshipmen. Junior fullback Alex Tecza of Mount Lebanon, Pennsylvania, who had the first big play of the game, 32 yards on a throwback screen from a play that looked like a speed option going the other way, did a backflip.
He found his backfield partner and high school buddy, Eli Heidenreich, who had an even bigger game: 52 yards and a touchdown on a catch and run, putting Navy ahead 21-10 and giving Horvath a share of the school single-season record. passing touchdowns (13) and himself a share of the record for touchdown catches (six). Heidenreich spiked the ball after that touchdown – “kind of an out-of-body experience,” he would later say – but now he was just looking for people to hug.
HEIDENREICH HOUSE BELL!
Navy increases lead! pic.twitter.com/23muqMib0l— CBS Sports (@CBSSports) December 14, 2024
He couldn’t reach Brandon Chatman yet, because Chatman was in the stands with several other Navy players, making the most of the moment. Chatman is also a junior, “Snipe Z” on Navy’s offense at Heidenreich’s “Snipe A,” and he caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from Horvath on the game. Chatman grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, under difficult circumstances, and agreed to live in the garage so his mother could rent out his room, sleeping with a fan inches from his face to keep him from waking turned into puddles of sweat.
He went on to play slot receiver for Warner University, an NAIA program in Lake Wales, Florida, when Navy found him and saw a place for him in this type of offense. His resolve was tested when a close friend was shot at home and he was unable to attend the funeral while he was in “plebe summer” — basic training for incoming freshmen — but he remained in Annapolis.
“This place actually saved me,” Chatman said.
“The thing about Chat is that no matter what happens in his life, there is always a smile on his face,” Tecza said of Chatman. “The happiest child I have ever met, a child who never complains.”
A kid getting his first win over Army after Army won two in a row and six of eight. The same was true for another junior, Horvath’s co-MVP in this game, nose guard Landon Robinson. All he did was pile up 13 tackles on the defense and make plays on special teams that broke the game open — getting the look he wanted from Army on a Navy punt, calling for a direct snap and rumbling for 29 yards. Senior linebacker Colin Ramos kept the game going by attacking Robinson’s fumble at the end.
Robinson, whose father was a Kent State gymnast, was on Bruce Feldman’s annual Freaks List for benching 450 pounds and squatting 650. He was the only nose guard in the country to play on the kickoff team in 2023 . Perhaps this naval offense, which required major strides in versatility in 2024, can find him more work.
“We’ll work on that ball security,” Horvath joked.
The Navy’s initial celebration had to be paused so the midshipmen could line up behind the Black Knights in respect, while the Army and cadets sang their alma mater. Their faces were grim and remained that way during the long walk from the field to the tunnel and their dressing room.
Navy celebrated its third win against Army in the last nine meetings. (Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
Daily, who was held to 52 yards rushing and 65 yards and a touchdown passing — with three interceptions when he was forced to get out of character and fly around as Army faced a deficit — also led the team in that strive. Meanwhile, Navy sang second for the first time in three years and then got the party going again.
“There is pain when you sing first in this game,” Horvath said. “We didn’t want to do it again.”
The Midshipmen players were still making all kinds of noise when they finally got to the tunnel and their locker room. One shouted: “They have a football team?!” in an apparent reference to a joke Monken made at Navy’s expense earlier this season in an interview with Pat McAfee on ESPN. Newberry walked into his post-game press conference with two loud words: “Hell yeah!”
But above all it was respect, both on and off the field, and that is not made up, because that is not possible. Newberry touched on the topic of these programs and their record 20 combined wins this season with success in college football, saying, “It’s hard these days with the changes in college football to really build a culture that’s built on love and trust.”
Pure cheer.
The Navy deserves the right to sing second. pic.twitter.com/NfIE3gmeiI— CBS Sports College Football 🏈 (@CBSSportsCFB) December 14, 2024
Daily agrees. Tellingly, he has a strong sense of the history of this rivalry and strong feelings about the future The Athletics recently: “This 100 percent works in our favor. We have known for years who we are fighting every day. And the biggest key to this is that we can hold each other accountable. Boys don’t rise to arms or their feelings when called. That is only possible if you have relationships that last for years.”
Now Daily has graduated from this rivalry, going 2-2 overall and 1-1 as a starting quarterback. They will play for him in 2025, just as he played for those who came before him. He left the place Saturday night as an advisory alum like Stichweh, with a few words for the Black Knights to get more of this beautiful game.
“To feel this loss, to feel this pain,” he told them, “and just never let it happen again.”
(Top photo of Blake Horvath: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)