The Sports Xchange
NCAAF Team Report – Army – INSIDE SLANT
Steelman to lead Cadets at home one more time
Trent Steelman has had a special four years running the Army option attack.
Steelman led the Black Knights to a winning season two years ago, their first in more than a decade, and even while his junior and senior years haven’t been winning ones, he has been there leading the attack, running up numbers that will sit in the program record books for decades to come.
Saturday, the quarterback plays his final home game when Army hosts Temple before finishing its season against Navy with the chance to win the coveted Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy Dec. 8.
How fitting would be for Steelman, who did get a CIC win with this year’s victory over Air Force, to get a victory in his final home game? And then with a win over Navy?
Temple, back in the Big East after its stay in the MAC, is 3-6, 2-4 in the Big East.
Last week, in a 28-7 loss at No. 24 Rutgers, Steelman became the third Army player to reach 3,000 career rushing yards and a 100-yard game was the 11th of his career, tied for second on the program’s all-time list.
Steelman has 1,013 yards on the ground this season, 66 yards from Army’s all-time record.
There are all kinds of lists he can add his numbers to in these final two games.
Steelman needs three touchdowns to pass the great Glenn Davis and have the most rushing scores in the history of the program. He also needs to average 113 yards per game (12 over his average) to break Collin Mooney’s 2008 Army season rushing record.
Steelman was guilty of a costly turnover at Rutgers as the Black Knights did what they’ve been doing through most of this 2-8 season: coughed the ball up en route to a loss.
But nothing can dim what Steelman has meant to this program in his four years.
———————————————–
NCAAF Team Report – Army – NOTES, QUOTES
–After ending a 13-game losing streak in the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy series with a 41-21 victory over Air Force, Army fell to 2-8 last week with a 28-7 loss at No. 24 Rutgers. The Black Knights host Temple this week in the home finale.
–This game is the seventh home game on the schedule and Army is 2-4 at Michie Stadium, the victories coming over Boston College and Air Force.
–The Cadets have lost 14 straight games to teams from the Big East as they host Temple, which has won the last four games with the Black Knights, scoring 146 points in those four games.
–The Black Knights had their streak of 300-yard rushing games snapped at five straight games by the stingy Rutgers defense, but Army still leads the nation in rushing.
–The Black Knights are tied for 88th in the country in turnover margin, with a minus-0.4.
SERIES HISTORY: Temple leads Army, 5-4 (last meeting, 2011, Temple won, 42-14).
SCOUTING THE OFFENSE: The Black Knights got a big performance from their defense last week, but the offense was again coughing the ball up and that eliminated any chance for an upset at No. 24 Rutgers. The offense works, but these guys have to hold onto the ball. QB Trent Steelman wants to go out with a bang in his final two games.
SCOUTING THE DEFENSE: Coach Rich Ellerson has been waiting all season for his defense to round into form and the last two games have been good. The Knights have yielded an average of 108 rushing and 295 total yards the last two games and had the offense in position to win the game at No. 24 Rutgers. “I know the guys are playing better each week,” Ellerson said. “They are competing each week. There are going to be some things that we really like. The best is yet to come.”
QUOTE TO NOTE: “People want to say we played our best game against Air Force. This is the best we’ve played this whole year from the start to the finish. We came out and did our thing.” — DB Josh Jackson, after the 24-7 loss at No. 24 Rutgers in a game that was tied after three quarters.
———————————————–
NCAAF Team Report – Army – STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
THIS WEEK’S GAME: Army vs. Temple, Nov. 17 — The big one is waiting for Army on Dec. 8, with Navy and the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy on the table. But this one is huge, too, as 22 seniors play their final home game. Temple is back in the Big East and Army has lost 15 straight games against team from that conference. The Knights have also lost four in a row to Temple and come into this one as a three-point favorite to get their third win of the season.
KEYS TO THE GAME: The theme has basically been the same for Army all year: hang onto the football and have a chance to win. The Knights couldn’t do it last week and it cost Army a chance to beat a ranked team for the first time in 40 years.
PLAYERS TO WATCH:
QB Trent Steelman — He sustained a shoulder injury late in last week’s loss and was replaced by freshman A.J. Schurr. As usual, Steelman didn’t want to come out. This is his final home game and he has records on the table to break. But you know he wants the win more than the numbers. Three rushing touchdowns in the last two games made him No. 1 on Army’s all-time list, and he piled up his numbers while playing for only one winning team.
RB Raymond Maples — He needs 35 yards to reach 1,000 for his sophomore year and that would give Army, with Steelman already over 1,000, two thousand-yards rushers in a season for only the second time in program history.
LB Geoffrey Bacon — The sophomore is fifth in the country nation with 112 tackles, an average of 11.2 per game.
ROSTER REPORT
–Senior K Eric Osteen will add field goals and extra points to his kickoff duties this week. He replaced freshman Dan Grochowski, who has been struggling and coach Rich Ellerson said he should have made the move sooner. “Groch has had an up and down year but he’s starting to get in one of these little spirals where he’s struggling to get the ball up and as he’s fighting to do that, he’s slowing down a little bit,” Ellerson said Tuesday. “I needed to probably get that done a little earlier for him. That’s one of the advantages we have this year. We have a guy like Eric in the wings. He’s very capable. It’s so much easier for Groch to step back and kind of retool as oppose to adjusting things in mid-stride. That’s my fault.”
–Long snapper Frank Ceva returns after missing two games because of a knee injury. The snapping of freshman Andrew Ellerson has also been a problem.
–Freshman FB Matt Giachinta saw his first game action last week and carried twice for six yards at the end of the game.
–WR Chevaughn Lawrence caught three passes last week, his eighth straight game with a catch, no easy task on a running team. He has 17 of Army’s 43 receptions this season.
–Freshman K Dan Grochowski had two field goals blocked.
–DE Jarrett Mackey missed last week’s game because of an injury, but is listed on this week’s depth chart.
–T Ben Jebb remained off the depth chart because of an injury.
–CB Marques Avery, who returned last week after missing a game because of injury, left that game because of a shoulder problem, but is listed as a starter for this week.
–NT Richard Glover, out last week, is not on the two-deep.
–RB Terry Baggett, who ran for 100 yards in the opening loss at San Diego State and was hurt in the second game, remains out because of a broken kneecap.
———————————————–
