No. 21 Army rides win streak into clash with struggling Air Force

When it comes to games against fellow military academies in the race for the Commander-In-Chief's Trophy, past achievements are irrelevant to Army coach Jeff Monken.

Unbeaten through seven games for the third time since 1950, No. 21 Army attempts to remain perfect Saturday afternoon when it hosts Air Force in West Point, N.Y. The challenge will be tougher without starting quarterback Bryson Daily, whom ESPN reported Saturday morning will be sidelined due to an undisclosed ailment.

Army (7-0) is attempting to win its first eight contests since starting the 1996 season with nine straight victories. The Cadets also are on an 11-game winning streak, the longest under Monken and the longest active streak in the FBS.

The three military academics play an annual round-robin competition. The winning team visits the White House for a trophy presentation with the president of the United States.

Air Force has won the trophy 21 times, Navy has 16 wins in the competition and Army has achieved victory 10 times.

"We've managed to have some success this year," Monken said Tuesday at his weekly press conference. "That's all in the past. This game this week will be the hardest game we play all year and the intensity, the emotion that is part of these games makes it different from everything else.

"So trying to focus through that and have our guys ready and able to do their job. That's the most important thing, this game, not anything we've done before or anything that comes after. This is a one-game season right now."

The Cadets and Indiana are the only teams yet to fall behind in a game this season. Army has scored at least 40 points in four straight games for the first time since the 1945 team achieved the feat in five consecutive during its 9-0 season.

The latest prolific showing occurred in a 45-28 win over East Carolina on Oct. 19, a game that featured a record-setting performance by Daily. The Army quarterback accounted for six touchdowns, including five on the ground.

Daily carried 31 times for 171 yards for his sixth straight 100-yard game while becoming the first player to account for six touchdowns for Army since Elmer Oliphant in 1916. Daily has had a hand in 26 touchdowns (seven passing, 19 rushing) this year, eclipsing the previous Army mark of 23 shared by Leamon Hall (1977) and Kelvin Hopkins Jr. (2018).

Additionally, Daily also set the school record for rushing TDs, breaking the mark of Carlton Jones (2004), Trent Steelman (2012) and Hopkins (2018).

Team officials told ESPN on Saturday that Daily is dealing with an undisclosed injury/illness that is not expected to be a season-ending setback, per ESPN. Making his first career start in place of Daily will be junior Dewayne Coleman. He has appeared in five games this season and accounted for two scores -- one passing, one rushing.

Air Force (1-6) appears headed to its first losing season since finishing 5-7 in 2018 and is 0-1 against fellow military academies after taking a 34-7 loss to Navy on Oct. 5. The Falcons have scored more than 21 points once this season and the average margin of defeat during their current six-game losing streak is 16.7 points.

And now the Falcons have to oppose an Army team that averages 40.4 points per game while yielding just 12.4 points -- with both figures ranking among the nation's top 10.

"I think you look in each area, defensively they've been really good against the run, given up very few big plays," Air Force coach Troy Calhoun said at his weekly press conference. "Just how well they've been able to keep the ball in front of them and how well they've been able to get off the field on third down.

"Offensively they're balanced. Certainly it starts with the quarterback, but some of the interior runs by two guys that have (done) pretty good. You look at yards per carry, really impressive, and then being able to hit the throws down the field, too."

Two weeks ago, the Falcons took their closest loss of the skid when they scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter of a 21-13 home loss to Colorado State.

Josh Johnson made his first career start at quarterback but John Busha ran the offense for most of the game and guided one of Air Force's more productive showings of this season. Busha completed 10 of 25 passes for a career-high 175 yards, and the Falcons also ran for 173 yards on 54 carries.

--Field Level Media