We know Army is a good team. However, WKU did beat them last year. We should not have played as terrible as we did. No excuse. 40 seconds with 2 timeouts left on their goal line. no excuse. 4 (really 5) turnovers. No excuse. Even if we couldn't stop the run, those 2 things should not have happened.
Army has a GREAT coach. We do not. Army was terrible before Monken. He took nothing and turned it into 2 10 win seasons. Our coach clearly has dimentia. He can't count and is staff is even worse. Bad leadership = bad results.
Monken is a good coach - perefect for an academy (and he coached at Navy with Paul Johnson and Ken Niumatalolo), Unlike most Army coaches. Monken didn't come in intimidated by the military folks. He told them what HE needed and didn't ask what THEY needed. Alas Monken's teams were bad for first three years. What turned team around was recruiting the South. Army had 2 players from Georgia when he got to Army. By year three he had over 25.
Army's best year (2018) began with a shellacking from Duke. I consider opening games meaningless no matter what the score (except for Navy who obviously deserved BYU massacre lol). Players makes mistakes and coaches make mistakes.
I've been going to Army games for a few decades. I saw Army try all sorts of things during the 15 yr famine, where wins were few and Navy always won. Witnessing the turnaround, I can say the main thing was getting a good AD who understood football. It was an AD who killed football back in the 90s, by making Army run a pro offense and by joining CUSA. It took Boo Corrigan (came for Notre Dame) to KNOW HOW to hire the right football coach and to help him get what he needs. It was also key to have a superintendent (Caslen) who played Army football and knew what had to be changed.
That's the key point, things turn around when AD, college president and coach all get on the same page and seek action - no talk talk talk. Everybody wants to get a new coach when things go bad, but it takes more momentum and focus. The first things to change are usually the AD and president decide they want to win football. That's exactly how Rutgers turned around from 2004-12. Schiano was a good coach but he never would have changed Rutgers without a good AD and president.
Recruiting also means more than Xs/Os. Monken runs a great option but it didn't win until he got the horses.
I never saw a lot of MT football, but now that MT has played Army I'll be checking them every week. I like football from states where football is #1. I still follow UTEP close after playing at USMA. Now that's a program with a lot of problems (but a great stadium)
EDIT:
I'm watching the game on Youtube (full game is up) and I think MT just wasn't in good football shape. Pursuit was slow and haphazard, guys looked tired and they were getting hurt more than they should (although Army blocking can be a problem too if DE guys are big but heavy on their feet)