You could feel the air leave Michie Stadium. It wasn’t just the late November chill settling over West Point; it was the collective realization that a season of promise had suddenly, violently hit a wall.
For 55 minutes, the Army Black Knights looked ready to punch their ticket to the postseason. They were up by double digits. They were controlling the tempo. They were doing what service academies do best—grinding the clock and wearing down an opponent that had forgotten how to win. But in college football, 55 minutes isn’t enough. And in the final five, disaster struck.
Tulsa, a team that hadn’t won a conference game all year, rallied from an 11-point deficit to stun Army 26-25. It was a collapse that didn’t just ruin Senior Day; it left Army’s bowl eligibility hanging by a thread.
The Breakdown
Let’s be real: Army should have won this game. When you’re up 25-14 with under four minutes to play against a 3-7 team, the math is overwhelmingly in your favor. But the Black Knights made critical errors at the worst possible moments, and the Golden Hurricane made them pay…