CONTINUED FROM PART 3, in CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, The Top 10 Army Football Teams of the Past 50 Years:
7. 1996 – 10-2 – Head Coach: Bob Sutton
Bob Sutton’s second and final appearance on this list, and, to this day, the team that is most people’s standard-bearer for modern Army football; and it’s not hard to see why.
First Army team to win 10 games in a season.
First Army team since 1958 to finish in the final AP poll.
Undefeated at Michie Stadium.
Beat Air Force and Navy to win the CIC.
Came up just short to Auburn in the Independence Bowl.
Now, you could argue no real “special” wins outside of the CIC (though I’d say any win against Rutgers is a special one), but they made all their “Par 3s” in impressive fashion.
Frankly, if your only two losses are to teams who also finished in the Top 25, I’m not going to complain. Yes, the Syracuse game got a bit out of hand, but the Orange did that to a few other pretty strong teams that season.
Not to mention, 1996 remains the last Army squad to push the Navy streak to 5.
8. 2017 – 10-3 – Head Coach: Jeff Monken
It was Jeff Monken’s fourth season (first appearance on this list), so it seemed logical to expect something special, and boy did he deliver (though you might not have thought so after the first month).
The Cardiac Cadets were certainly in full swing though:
You had the comeback against Buffalo where a fake punt sealed it; the Eastern Michigan game where they stopped a two-point play to win; the Temple game where they went 79 yards in 1:30 to send it to OT and win; and, oh yeah, the Armed Forces Bowl against San Diego State where they MADE a two-point play so they wouldn’t have to go to OT against future Seattle Seahawk Rashaad Penny.
But also, undefeated at Michie, beat a Duke team that also won a bowl game, and beat Navy 14-13 (shades of 1995) to take home the CIC trophy for the first time since 1996.
My personal favorite memory of the season though? Watching Air Force fans leave early because their team was getting shut out all day.