iStock/Thinkstock(BALTIMORE) — A regular season in college football is not complete without the Army-Navy game. This weekend, the two military schools will battle it out on the gridiron for the 119th time.
Army sits at 6-5, their first season with more than four wins since 2010, and head coach Jeff Monken expects the game to be competitive, as it always is.
“It’s two teams that absolutely want to beat the pants off of each other, so they’re gonna play really really hard,” Monken said. “There’s a lot of emotion for both sides. Everybody that’s a competitor in that game cares more about that game than any game they play.”
Monken and Army head into M&T Bank Stadium against a 9-3 Navy team that is coming off of a tough loss to Temple in the American Athletic Confernce championship. To top it off, Navy lost starting quarterback Will Worth and starting slotback Toneo Gulley in the game for the rest of the season due to foot injuries.
Navy also has a 14-game winning streak against Army on the line. Despite their recent success, head coach Ken Niumatalolo knows the game won’t be easy for his team but that they’re battle tested and ready for anything.
“They’re resilient kids here,” Niumatalolo said. “It’s just kind of your makeup, the character that you build when you come to this school.”
Regardless of their differences on the field, Coach Monken said both teams have very special young men. “They’re the guys that go stand in the gap between the freedom we enjoy and those that want to take it from us,” he said. “That makes this game pretty special.”
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