Game notes
- Time and date: Saturday, December 13 at 3:00 p.m. ET
- Network: CBS
- Location: M&T Bank Stadium — Baltimore, MD
- Spread: Navy (-6)
- Over/under: 38.5
- All-time series: Navy tied, 63-55-7
- Last meeting: Navy 31, Army 13 — December 14, 2024
- Current streak: Navy, 1 (2024)
Army-Navy is beyond a football game. It’s a lifestyle.
One Saturday afternoon is reserved every season for the two arch rivals, more associated with one another than any rivalry in college football. If
you win the Army-Navy Game, your season is defined by it. If you don’t win, it’s a stain on your résumé you deal with until the following December. “Go Army! Beat Navy!” and “Go Navy! Beat Army!” are battlecries all 365 days of a year, but those words hold extra weight on the second Saturday of the 12th month.
These aren’t ordinary athletes. Army and Navy players endure some of the most grueling schedules of any college students out there, balancing the student-athlete life with service to the United States of America. There are more future pilots and lieutenants taking the field Saturday than future NFL players. Yet, this game embodies all of the dedicated work the Black Knights and Midshipmen put in on a daily basis. And in an era full of hectic changes to the sport of college football, the Army-Navy Game provides a sense of stability, showing what this wonderful game is truly about.
For the 126th time, this is Army vs. Navy.
Army Black Knights outlook
Army (6-5, 4-4 American) posted its winningest season of all-time in 2024, producing a record 12 wins. The Black Knights also captured their first conference title in the process, storming into the American and claiming the crown in their first year. They finished No. 21 in the country. Yet, there was still a feeling of emptiness attached to all those accomplishments, and that all stems from what transpired Dec. 14, 2024.
One of Army’s two losses last season came at the hands of Navy in the annual rivalry. The Midshipmen pulled off the 31-13 upset for the most lopsided result since 2019. Ever since, the date Dec. 13, 2025 has been embroidered on Army’s team gear, ensuring the Black Knights would exact revenge this season.
Army’s season got off to the rockiest start imaginable, taking a stunning loss to FCS Tarleton State in Week 1. However, Jeff Monken and the Black Knights recovered quite well, earning a signature win over Kansas State in Week 2 and snapping UTSA’s 25-game home win streak vs. conference opponents in their latest matchup in Week 14. Army attained bowl eligibility at the buzzer, and now it can secure its sixth-straight .500+ season under the 12th-year head coach.
Schematically, it’s a typical Monken team. Army ranks last in the country in passing attempts and passing yards, utilizing their triple option scheme to control games. For the second-straight year, the Black Knights rank atop the country in time of possession, hogging the ball for 35:16 per game on average. Losing a Heisman candidate in Bryson Daily was not easy to stomach, but the Black Knights found a worthy successor in Cale Hellums who is seven yards short of leading all FBS quarterbacks in the rushing department — and he only started eight of 11 games. And part of those statistics are a credit to Brady Small, who earned his second First Team All-American Conference selection at center.
Hellums leads the unit with 1,078 yards, but there are several other frequented ball-carriers including veterans Noah Short and Hayden Reed. Short lines up in a multitude of positions in the offense, often operating as a slot back or wide receiver. The senior is often put in motion before snaps and presents a dangerous degree of explosiveness with a team-high 6.1 yards per carry, and this was demonstrated in his last game at UTSA, where he fielded a pitch out of the backfield and sprinted 81 yards directly to the end zone. Short is also the No. 1 target in the passing game with a team-best 22 receptions, although Brady Anderson ranks first in yards due to his downfield presence.
Reed has seen a recent decrease in reps since moving from fullback to his original position of slot back but remains an integral part of the offense, as his 113 yards were instrumental to forcing overtime vs. North Texas in September. Taking recent snaps at fullback is Jake Rendina, who played a significant role when Army eked out a win over Temple by controlling the ball for the final 9:53.
The lack of possessions certainly contributes to it, but Army ranks 49th in scoring defense — holding all but one opponent below 30 in regulation. When the Black Knights surrender fewer than 24, they’re 5-0. Otherwise, they’re 0-4, clearly built to thrive in lower-scoring bouts.
The defense is median-level against both the run and pass, with the linebacking corps as the premier position group on the unit. The tandem of Andon Thomas and Kalib Fortner causes immense havoc, and the two combine for 166 tackles and 9.5 tackles for loss as stellar run stoppers. Thomas and Fortner was already an established duo during last year’s title run, but Eric Ford has embellished the group with a team-high 4.0 sacks as the chief pass rusher.
On the back-end, safeties Collin Matteson and Casey Larkin look to disrupt Navy’s home run plays as the third and fourth top tacklers on the team. Larkin has made a name for himself as a ballhawk, securing six interceptions across the last two seasons. Army seeks to inflict damage in that area after Navy won the turnover battle 3-0 a year ago.
Navy Midshipmen outlook
Navy (9-2, 7-1 American) storms into Baltimore with all the bragging rights, earning the right to sing the alma mater second after stunning the favored Black Knights 31-13 in last year’s installment. The Midshipmen used that win as a springboard for the program, and the team has been quite dominant since. Navy defeated Oklahoma in the 2024 Armed Forces Bowl thereafter, and now enters this matchup at 9-2 and ranked No. 22 in the AP Poll, with signature wins over South Florida and Memphis.
Brian Newberry’s team cannot let its lofty regular season performance define them for this rivalry, as the Army-Navy Game is the ultimate “throw out the records” matchup. But the Midshipmen accomplished a lot this season, earning their first 7-0 start since 1978 behind the nation’s No. 1 rushing attack.
You get remembered for what you do in the Army-Navy Game, and nobody will forget Blake Horvath’s performance in 2024. The Navy quarterback made the stage his own, firing for 107 yards and two touchdowns as a passer while rushing for 204 and two touchdowns in a multifaceted clinic. Horvath was snubbed from Heisman voting, but the senior quarterback still crafted a spectacular season which currently features 1,040 rushing yards (third among FBS QBs), 1,390 passing yards, and 23 total touchdowns.
Consistency is the name of Horvath’s game, as he posted a stretch that involved six-straight 110+ yard, 1+ touchdown outings, terrorizing defenses with his legs on a weekly basis. But if the gameplan calls for it, the quarterback can sling it. Just look at his Oct. 4 performance vs. Air Force where he logged 339 yards and three touchdowns through the air, faring 20-of-26.
When Horvath drops back, you can usually expect No. 22 to be the recipient. Eli Heidenreich is Navy’s all-time leading receiver, and he’s 14 yards away from standing alone for the best single-season in program history. Heidenreich lives off Navy’s threat of the run to get wide open downfield. He often gets extra steps on defenders, and the majority of his catches are explosives — averaging 20.1 yards per reception. At the peak of his powers, Heidenreich posted 243 yards and three scores in a single game this year.
The Pittsburgh native receiver is also a multidimensional player, checking in at fourth on the team in rushing at 409 yards on 6.6 per carry. Other rushers leading offensive coordinator Drew Cronic’s ground attack include longtime fullback Alex Tecza and slot back Brandon Chatman. Tecza posted four 100-yard games in the regular season and was the impetus to Navy’s signature wins over South Florida and Memphis, exceeding the century mark both times. Chatman is typically a tertiary or quaternary option in the run game, but he can steal the spotlight when he’s on fire, like he did in a 141-yard outburst vs. Florida Atlantic in October.
Navy won a bulk of its games in shootout fashion this season. The Midshipmen won four games despite allowing north of 30 points, and while they have favorable time of possession, they don’t exactly control the clock in the extreme manner Army does.
The most dangerous man on Navy’s defense resides in the middle of the d-line. Landon Robinson won American Conference Defensive Player of the Year honors, and the defensive tackle’s impact cannot be adequately quantified by the stat sheet. The 6’0”, 287 pound All-American commands significant attention on every snap due to his size, speed, and athleticism, and he’s made offenses pay with 54 tackles, 8.5 tackles for loss, and 6.5 sacks. Robinson is also an Army-Navy Game icon, utilizing those physical attributes on a 29-yard fake punt run to help seal the 2024 contest.
Outside of Robinson, Navy hasn’t been the best at getting behind the line of scrimmage for negative plays (121st in tackles for loss), but linebackers MarcAnthony Parker and Luke Pirris are of substantial assistance, combining for 160 tackles and 12.5 TFLs. Navy is 58th in run defense and 124th in aerial defense, so the Midshipmen must emphasize stopping Army’s rare attempts at home run plays through the passing game.
Giuseppe Sessi is the safety to watch on the back end, and he strolls into this matchup with 73 tackles (second on the team) while still eyeing his first career interception. Interceptions have not been abundant for Navy’s defense this year, and it picked off just five passes in the first 11 games.
Prediction
Sometimes it’s hard to properly analyze the Army-Navy Game, because it feels like a separate entity from the rest of the season. When Navy participated in the 2016 conference championship, Army pulled off the upset. When Army participated in the 2024 conference championship, Navy pulled off the upset.
The game is typically of low-scoring nature, but that hasn’t exactly been Navy’s style this year. The Midshipmen find themselves involved in shootouts quite often with the ability to score quickly, countered by a defense that isn’t producing stops at the highest rate. Army’s games are more traditional from what you expect to see from an option-based service academy as every possession is at a premium and the scores rarely surpass the 20s.
In the end, Blake Horvath writes another chapter in the history books with a dominant ground performance, also involving Eli Heidenreich on several plays pertinent to the outcome. Navy emerges for the second-straight year, earning the right to sing second.
Prediction: Navy 28, Army 20
