Woeful Army could make history

Lawrence native Mumford isn't candidate to take over football program likely to end with 0-13 record

A glance at Army’s recent football record is like a rifle butt to the forehead: 0-12 this season; 1-11 last season, concluding with a 58-12 trouncing by Navy at Giants Stadium.

If Army loses to Navy on Saturday at Lincoln Financial Field, it will be the first team in NCAA history to go 0-13.

Army’s decline cost coach Todd Berry his job midway through the season. Now, where does Army football go from here?

“We’ll get a good coach,” athletic director Rick Greenspan promised at last week’s Army-Navy press conference.

Greenspan said interim head coach John Mumford, Army’s defensive line coach, is not a candidate to replace Berry. (Note: Mumford is a Lawrence High graduate who has been a head coach at Southeast Missouri State).

Greenspan’s plan is to “hire the right guy and make sure our resources are right.”

Making the Black Knights’ landing at rock bottom more painful for their fans is Navy’s success this season. The Midshipmen are 7-4 and headed to the Houston Bowl Dec. 30.

Berry’s biggest mistake was thinking he could employ a passing offense with Army’s talent.

Faced with a 5-year military commitment after graduation, few players with NFL abilities are attracted to the service academies.

Navy is winning with the triple-option offense. When Army had success under coach Jim Young, it ran the wishbone.

Ron Naples, a 1967 West Point graduate, follows Army football as closely as any alumnus. The chairman and CEO of Quaker Chemical Co., Naples also serves as co-chairman of the city’s Army-Navy Game Host Committee.

“The problem is trying to match the offense with the kind of talent they have,” Naples said. “My view is, if you run an offense that’s built around discipline, execution and teamwork, you’re likely to be successful with an academy team. Nobody is going to outwork a well-motivated West Point team.”

Ask Greenspan what’s gone wrong and it sounds as if he is itemizing a presentation for an athletic board meeting.

There’s the facilities issue and funding. He talks about growing Army’s image as “America’s team.”

When Army leaves Conference USA after next season, it plans to play a more balanced schedule as an independent, as Navy does. The Black Knights have won just seven C-USA games in six seasons.

Despite the recent gloom around Army football, Greenspan believes the job is attractive to a certain type of coach.

“If a career goal is to be in a BCS game every year, this isn’t the job for you,” Greenspan said.

“If it’s to build and grow a program (and) coach football, it’s a great job.”

The next coach will inherit a team that loses just 10 seniors (only three seniors start).

One prospective coach whose name is heard on the guess list is Maryland offensive coordinator Charlie Taaffe, a former head coach at The Citadel who previously was an assistant at Army.