Army Crumble Late Against Tulsa on Senior Day

West Point, N.Y. — In what was supposed to be a celebratory day on the banks of the Hudson River, Army fans were left stunned as the Black Knights crumbled and blew another fourth-quarter lead this season, this time, on Senior Day at Michie Stadium.

The Black Knights led by eleven points with less than five minutes remaining and gave up twelve after not coming to play in the second half. Army junior quarterback Cale Hellums finished the game with 159 yards and three touchdowns on the ground, while Tulsa countered with senior Dominic Richardson rushing for 203, and a score.

“Yeah, you know, it pains me to lose obviously, always, but you know, being senior night and it being my and all the seniors’ last game at Michie [Stadium], it’s really disappointing, said senior linebacker & captain Andon Thomas. “We got two more guaranteed games, hopefully three more. So we got to get back to work.”

For Army (5-5, 3-4 American), this loss will now force them to travel down to San Antonio and beat UTSA to become bowl eligible in 2025. The loss is also the cadet’s first on Senior Day since a 31-21 loss to Rutgers back in 2015, and falls to 10-2 in the Jeff Monken era at West Point.

In Tulsa’s (4-7, 1-6 American) case, they already knew they weren’t going bowling this year, but this victory gives them back-to-back wins for the first time since September 23rd & 28th, 2023, as they look to end 2025 on a high note.

Army Football News:

• Army’s Andon Thomas Named Finalist for Campbell Trophy, College Football’s “Academic Heisman”
• Army Falls in Heartbreaker to Tulane, 24-17, Despite Valiant Fourth-Quarter Rally
• Army West Point Dominates Charlotte 24-7 Behind Hellums’ Career Day and Stifling Defense

Trading Blows in the First Quarter

As soon as the game kicked off at Michie Stadium, you could tell it was going to be one of those weird games. Tulsa started with the ball, and it took them no time at all to open the scoring, with Dominic Richardson powering into the endzone from two yards out to give the Golden Hurricanes an early 7-0 lead.

The drive appeared it would stall following the Army defense stuffing two straight run plays that could only gain four yards. But Freshman quarterback Baylor Hayes rolled out to his right on third down and hit freshman Donnell Gee Jr on a 50-yard bomb down the right sideline to set Tulsa’s touchdown up four plays later.

Tulsa’s first drive took just 2:37; Army’s first drive would last just 49 seconds. Cale Hellums hit senior slot back Noah Short on a deep post for a 46-yard gain to open the drive for the Black Knights. One play later, Army was in the endzone, as Hellums broke through the line of scrimmage and scampered for 31 yards to tie the game.

Back on the field, Tulsa again was able to drive the ball into Army territory, this time aided by a “questionable” pass interference penalty. The Black Knights would, however, hold the Golden Hurricanes to a 47-yard field goal attempt, which would be blocked by sophomore defensive back CJ Martin.

In the seven years that Sean Saturnio has been Army’s special teams coordinator, the Black Knights have been excellent at blocking kicks, and on Saturday, they got their first field goal block of 2025.

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On their ensuing drive following the blocked kick, Army would give it right back to Tulsa after turning the ball over on downs. It looked like Army was driving late in the quarter, but Tulsa’s defense was not fooled on a stretch play to Noah Short and forced a negative play on fourth down.

With the ball back in their hands, the Golden Hurricanes offense would repay its defense with seven points just a minute into the second quarter, thanks to a seven-yard run from junior Ajay Allen to make it 14-7 Tulsa.

Baylor Hayes was balling at Michie Stadium, and he continued his good start by hitting junior Zion Steptoe for a 33-yard gain down to the Army ten-yard line. That completion was Hayes’ second of 25+ yards in the first sixteen minutes of play. The Golden Hurricanes would punch it into the endzone the following play and retake the lead.

The Black Knight Offense Ends the Half on Fire

Army would own the second quarter, possessing the ball for a total of 11:17. The cadets’ first drive of the quarter saw them chew off 8:08 on a grinding 13-play 70-yard drive that would be capped off by Cale Hellums’ second touchdown of the game.

On fourth and two from the Tulsa five-yard line, the ball was going to be in Hellums’ hands, and after motioning an extra lineman to the right side of the line, the Tomball, Texas native sprinted left through an open gap in the defense, while being face masked, to get Army back on level terms.

Jeff Monken elected to go for two with the penalty. From shotgun, Hellums soled a run to the left and rolled out to the right, faking out the entire defense, making it an easy pitch and catch to sophomore tight end Tex Brannan.

The Black Knights were feeling it on both sides of the ball at this point in the game and forced a punt from Tulsa to set them up with an opportunity to score on both sides of the half after deferring the opening coin toss.

Army would accomplish the first part, capping a nine-play, 55-yard drive with another Cale Hellums touchdown. On the final drive of the first half, Hellums rushed the ball seven times, ending the drive with a five-yard rush to score his third rushing touchdown of the half, to give Army a 22-14 lead heading into halftime.

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Get the Turnover Axe!

The goal was to score on either side of the half for Army, and Jeff Monken was able to accomplish that with a 33-yard field goal from sophomore kicker Dawson Jones to give the Black Knights a 25-14 lead after taking 7:51 off the clock to begin the third quarter.

Army had thought that they had scored a touchdown a couple of plays earlier when sophomore receiver Brady Anderson appeared to have caught a 22-yard touchdown in the corner of the endzone, but after video replay, the call was reversed and ruled incomplete.

With the lead now at eleven points, Army would need its defense to make some plays, and in the third quarter, the turnover axe was active.

The Black Knights would have a bend, don’t break approach with Tulsa driving. The Golden Hurricanes had first and goal from the ten, but Army brought a run blitz, disrupting the handoff exchange, and Baylor Hayes fumbled the ball with senior edge rusher Eric Ford picking up the loose ball.

It was the same story for Tulsa on their next drive. Hayes completed a pass across his body to freshman Josh Smith down to the Army 21-yard line, but senior safety Gavin Shields came across and punched the ball out, and in a scramble for the fumble, senior Collin Matteson came out of the pile with the football for the Black Knights’ second fumble recovery of the quarter.

Another Blown Fourth Quarter Lead for Army

In the fourth, things seemed comfortable for Jeff Monken, as the Black Knights were able to chew off 6:05 off the clock before punting away to Tulsa.

The Golden Hurricanes were able to cut into Black Knights’ lead, kicking a 48-yard field goal to bring the score to 25-17 Army with just 4:17 remaining in the game.

One thing Army couldn’t do was turn the ball over. That’s exactly what Cale Hellums did as he threw into double coverage and was intercepted by senior Lento Smith Jr. on the second play of the drive, throwing to his favorite target, Brady Anderson, down the left sideline. A brutal mistake that would set up Tulsa to tie the game.

“Yeah, you know, just bad play by me, and I made a misread,” Cale Hellums said about his fourth-quarter interception. “I’m just supposed to sneak a peek at that route and then work to the boundary side, high-low week, and Noah Short came up late in the flat, and I just got off of it and forced a bad decision.”

With that interception, Tulsa was set up at the Army forty-yard line and gashed the Black Knights on a twelve and thirteen-yard runs. On the fifth play of the drive, Tulsa would find the endzone, with Baylor Hayes hitting Josh Smith on an 8-yard slant route.

On the two-point conversion to potentially tie the game at 25, Tulsa attempted a couple of rub routes with trips to the right, but Army wasn’t fooled. Baylor Hayes gave his receiver a chance, but the ball was thrown just a bit too high, and it landed out of the back of the endzone.

One First Down for the Win

After recovering an onside kick, Army would need just one first down to kill off the game and become bowl eligible with its sixth win of the season. The Black Knight picked up two yards on first down, but the biggest play of the game would come on second down.

The first two plays were set up to make Tulsa call their remaining two timeouts. They used their second on first down, but on second down, Jeff Monken called a stretch run to Noah Short, who, instead of going down in bounds, was tackled out of bounds to stop the clock.

“Can’t go out of bounds,” Jeff Monken said of Noah Short going out of bounds on that play. “He just got close to the sideline, and then he got knocked out of bounds. He needed to just dive on the ground there. Unfortunately, we didn’t, and they didn’t have to use the timeout.”

Live By the Sword, Die By the Sword

Even with all the bad decision-making on the field, Army was set up with one last play to end the game on a fourth down and three from the Tulsa 39-yard line. The Black Knights are an analytics-heavy team and are all about being aggressive on fourth and shorts under head coach Jeff Monken.

On fourth down, Monken called a quarterback counter, with two offensive linemen pulling to the left and blocking just two defensive players.

Even with that advantage, Cale Hellums, instead of getting to the outside, tried to slip inside the blocks and get the first down. Unfortunately, for the first-year starter, he was tripped up for no gain, similar to the Air Force a few weeks ago. Army got the look they wanted, but could not convert on a play they needed to make.

“It was the look we wanted. We got a similar look in the first half, where we got like 20 yards, so I thought it was the same exact look. Yeah, I got tripped up into my own guy or the defender. Coach Monken said I could have dipped and slipped, act like I’m going in and skate it out around. I thought the defender was kind of taking away the perimeter based on his leverage. I think, you know, just in that instance, you gotta make a play. And, you know, I didn’t make a play. So that’s just on me.”

Head coach Jeff Monken was asked post-game if he thought about punting in that spot and pinning Tulsa deep in their territory.

“I thought about it. But we weren’t doing a very good job of stopping them. They were taking the ball up and down the field on us. So even if we punt, there’s enough time for them to drive down the field and kick a field goal. If we make the first down there, which I thought we had a good call, and really, if he [Hellums] bounces around that block and gets the first down, the game’s over. We can end the game on that play. If we get the first down, they have no opportunity to win the football game. As it turned out, we tried to end the game right there. It’s what we need to do. Who we are. We just didn’t execute it. Didn’t get it done.”

Heartbreak at Michie

That stop on fourth down gave all the momentum to Tulsa, and the Golden Hurricanes were able to drive down the field with ease, getting multiple chunk plays on a beat-down and tired Army defense.

With only 15 seconds left in the game, Army had one last shot on special teams to make a play and get a block. But there was no magic left in the bottle, and graduate kicker Seth Morgan hit the game-winning 27-yard field goal to break the hearts of the Black Knights on senior day at West Point.

In his final home game, Andon Thomas walked off the field at Michie Stadium with a loss.

“We pride ourselves on winning the fourth quarter. And bottom line, we didn’t do that. I think a couple things went wrongly. Honestly, we got a little flat and that’s on me. I should have been rallying the guys, you know, picking them up. We had some guys with their heads down and you know, that’s on me to pick them up really. So I really take accountability for that. There’s a lot of emotion there and it’s really disappointing. :ast home game ever for me and for the seniors, Last game ever and it’s going to be a loss.”

Jeff Monken kept it honest and simple in his post-game press conference.

“Disappointed for our entire team, certainly our seniors playing their last game here [at Michie Stadium]. To say I’m disappointed is an understatement. They just outplayed us.”

On Deck For the Black Knights: UTSA

Army has just one game left on its schedule before its date with navy on the second Saturday of December. Next weekend, the cadets will make the trip down to San Antonio, Texas, to take on the UTSA Roadrunners (6-5, 4-3 American), with kickoff set for 3:30 pm.

UTSA has had an up-and-down season compared to their standards the past couple of seasons. But the Roadrunners have won three out of the last four, with wins over Tulane at the end of October and East Carolina this weekend in the Alamodome.

This will be one of the more difficult games this season for Army. The Roadrunners are led by quarterback Owen McCown, son of NFL quarterback Josh McCown. Owen has thrown for 2,186, 20 TD, and 6 INT while throwing to four different targets, with Devin McCuin his favorite target of the bunch with 52 catches, 567 yards, and 7 scores in 2025. In the backfield, UTSA boasts a two-headed monster with Robert Henry Jr and Will Henderson III combining for 1,613 and 13 touchdowns while averaging 7.0+ yards a carry.

If the Army defense doesn’t play sound football and play their role correctly, UTSA will run them out of the building with its offensive firepower next weekend.

FINAL STATS

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