ARMY BLACK KNIGHTS FOOTBALL

October 19, 2024

Bryson Daily

Miles Stewart

Army Black Knights

Press Conference

Army 45, East Carolina 28

Q. Bryson, congratulations. An extraordinary day. 171 yards rushing. One TD pass to your friend here. Just how did the flow go? It really seemed to go well for the first three-quarters of the game. Then you have more resistance from ECU.

BRYSON DAILY: Yes, sir. ECU is a great defense. It's the best defense we've faced all year. They had a good plan. They came in and were hitting hard, but I thought our guys responded well.

They played tough. Coach Worley also had a great plan to counterattack it. I was just really proud of the toughness our guys showed today.

Q. I wanted to check. 31 carries today. That's a lot. Is that just your mindset? You want to carry the ball; you want to take the responsibility for the team on that?

BRYSON DAILY: It's whatever the defense gives us, and that's what we needed to do today. Some games I'm only carrying 10, 12 times, like last week, but this week that's what we needed to do to gain yardage and get in the box. If that's what we need, I'm willing to do it.

Q. Miles, tell us about the touchdown play, 13 yards from your friend here, Bryson. Tell us about the play.

MILES STEWART: Yes, sir. So it was well-blocked. Called at the right time, and I just happened to be the guy in the position to receive the ball, but it was a well-thrown ball.

I mean, it was just like we drew it up. So sometimes you get thrown in the game, and you get in that moment, and you just got to execute your job.

Q. Did you feel ECU made adjustments at the half or in the second half that made it tougher?

MILES STEWART: I think it was a tough game. It was grinded out. I wouldn't say it was an adjustment. I would just say they're a good team, and they're probably the best team we played, and we're going to play great teams all season.

Q. Congratulations on setting the single season rushing touchdown record. Maybe can you talk about what that means to you?

BRYSON DAILY: Yeah, it's just an absolute testament to this offense. The offensive that Coach Worley put in, the O-line, the guys like Miles blocking outside. I guess two or three of those touchdown today's were walk-in touchdowns. I'm extremely lucky to be in the position I am, and it's just a testament to the whole offense.

Q. Is this game maybe something you haven't had a game where you really had to play deep into the fourth quarter other than FAU? Is a game that can help you guys, the fact that you were out there to the very end?

BRYSON DAILY: 100%. Football is four quarters, and it's been a while since we had to play the whole four quarters with the starters. It was very good for us moving forward. We had to grind out a whole game and score some more touchdowns to really finish it off. I think that's great for our team, and we needed that.

Q. Bryson, for the games that have been played so far, it seemed like passing was a part of the game. Today it just seemed that it was just the right amount and just the right success to really keep them off guard enough to open up the running game. Talk about how important it's been to develop the passing game and to have the success, even though you're not using it a lot, but to have the success when you do use it.

BRYSON DAILY: Whether you're running the ball really well like we have all seasons, you're going to have to start committing more guys on defense, committing safeties to the box, corners to the box. When that happens, you have to be able to hit passes.

We had guys make great plays today. Casey's catch was unbelievable. He does it all the time in practice, and I'm glad he got to show it out there today.

Coach Worley did a great job with dialing some of those up at opportune times. That was really good for offense today.

Q. Bryson, the running game is a little more conservative today than other games this year, a lot more keeping the ball inside as opposed to going outside. I assume that was the game plan?

BRYSON DAILY: Yes, sir. A lot of their coaches have been at triple option schools, played against a lot of triple option. So they really knew how to defend it, and they're a heavy-pressure team, so that deters you away from the option sometimes.

But we knew we would be able to hit the inside zone, inside zone follow stuff. It worked out today, and the O-linemen did their thing.

Q. How good is it to have Tyrell back, either one of you guys?

MILES STEWART: He's a spark plug. Everybody is excited. You all could be in this meeting room when T. Rob is called on any time, everybody's eyes just light up. When he touched the ball, you just heard a gasp of the crowd. Everybody just held their breath because you know he's electric.

So having him back, having that threat in the back field and a leader in our room is a great feeling, and it just shows perseverance. He's been through a lot, and his perseverance and being able to one touch go for about 20 yards was just -- everybody sees that. Everybody knows hard work gets you somewhere.

Q. It's your senior year. You've been putting in the time on blocking on the edge. I know it's a team goal, but to get that first touchdown for you, it had must mean a lot to you.

MILES STEWART: It means a lot, and I think everybody on this team will tell you it's a lot that goes into this offense. Blocking -- any time Bryson scores, I feel like I score. Any time Kanye scores, I feel like I score.

So we always preach finish in the end zone, and you always want to finish in the end zone with your block. As long as the team is finishing in the end zone and we're winning games, everybody is bought in. So I think the culture is great, and we're all playing for our brothers.

Q. You guys are 7-0 going into the break before Air Force. Got to be a great feeling. How do you feel?

BRYSON DAILY: Yeah, it's obviously a great feeling. We've been able to make it out of these games winning on the scoreboard, but moving forward we have to come in with that 1-0 mentality like we have every week this year. Whatever ranking we have, whatever record we have, it doesn't matter. Especially going into this next one.

So just getting the guys' mentality right, and we'll get them ready to go.

Q. Can you walk us through the spin move touchdown? What was going on there?

BRYSON DAILY: Yeah, so it was just we had an extra guy off the back edge, and he took too sharp of an angle downhill. I get made fun of because I don't have many juke moves like these guys. It was kind of just reactionary, drop the shoulder, and his momentum kind of made me spin. It just happened.

Q. You did finish it with a stiff arm into the end zone?

BRYSON DAILY: I'm not sure.

Q. It seemed like today you were doing more shotgun and more spread offense. Is that just becoming more a part of your offense?

BRYSON DAILY: It's just part of the game plan this week. We knew with what they were giving us that being able to shotgun and spread them out a little bit was what we needed to do to have success.

We're capable of doing it. We did it all last year, and we've done it a good amount this year. So it helps the versatility of this offense if we can go in and out, and that showed today.

Q. Bryson, to go back to your first touchdown run, not sure if you were able to see this from your vantage point, but it looked really impressive on TV. Noah's block on the perimeter on the corner, he held -- when I say held, I don't mean illegally held, but he hand-fought that guy and held him for probably six or seven seconds. Did you get an opportunity to see that and how impressive was that block?

BRYSON DAILY: Oh, yeah, with the iPads on the sideline I was able to see that. All day Noah Short, Miles, Hayden Reed, they blocked their tail off on the edge, and those receivers too.

The linemen, they block for good runs, but those guys on the edge, those are touchdown blocks, and they made a bunch of them today and making my job really easy.

Q. You mentioned the fact that East Carolina probably has the best run defense you guys have faced all year, and they did. Yet, you still rushed for 295 yards. Probably would have been 300 had you not gone victory formation at the end there and 45 points. What does that say about the toughness of this offense?

BRYSON DAILY: It's a tough group. No matter what challenge we're faced with -- and we were challenged this week. It was a big test. The guys responded.

They were hitting us in the mouth that first drive, and we had to hit a big pass to get that going, but from then on out the guys played extremely hard, and they executed well. It was really great to see that from the unit.

Q. Bryson, the play action pass you hit to Casey to open the game, was that something that you guys got based on the look East Carolina was giving you, or how long I guess -- had that been game planned all week, or when did you know that was going to be play number one?

BRYSON DAILY: We put it in this week, and we knew we would have a good look with their defense. Coach Worley kind of talked about it earlier in the week that someone was going to have to convince him to not call it first play. I said, I'm not going to convince you.

He called it. He trusted us, and Casey made a good play.

Q. That first play that was just referenced, how much of a difference does it make with the way East Carolina was going to defend you the rest of the game? Does opening them up on the first play just put them on defensive?

BRYSON DAILY: You know, you hit play action early in the game and especially first play, you at least have the safeties thinking about that. You have the corners thinking about that that they can't just run support immediately.

So that's something that opens up the run game, and it did. Then we had to go back to some play action a couple more times later because they started coming down again, but that's what is so good about this offense right now is we're able to hit those play actions when we need to. We have great receivers, great slots that are catching those balls.

Q. Bryson, you guys get a week off, a bye before Air Force. Tell us as a college football player and I know you guys don't go on vacation, but how critical is it getting just this little break in the season an extra prep before Air Force?

BRYSON DAILY: Yeah, bye weeks are extremely important for us. It allows guys to get healthy, get some miles off their legs, but we're also practicing every day, and we're going to need to to get ready for the team we're playing.

But it's extremely important. It's going to be a big advantage for us.

Q. Miles, your first score in your career. Yes?

MILES STEWART: Yes, sir.

Q. I know it's a team game, and you do a lot of other things out there, but how did that feel?

MILES STEWART: Like I said, it was a surreal moment. You dream about that your whole life, but just being in a position doing your job for the team, I mean, anything.

Q. Last for you, Miles, you mentioned T. Rob earlier. He had that big run in the third quarter, 23 yards. I'm sure everybody got stoked about seeing that run and seeing that he's still capable of doing this. What was the reaction on the sidelines? Did you talk to him?

MILES STEWART: Yeah. So we always believe in T. Rob, and we all know -- we see him every day. We works out with us all summer. He works out with us in practice. So we see that he can do it.

It was just great to see him finally be cleared in a game and get to do it against another team. Like I say, he just shows us persevere through any adversity because that's what he does, so...

Q. Did you notice he was more excited than you've seen recently?

MILES STEWART: I mean, T. Rob is an energy guy. He's excited every day, but he was very hyped. I think it definitely helps with his confidence.

He definitely looked way more confident going out there after that run, even though he looked confident the whole game blocking and hitting people. After that run he definitely -- that's definitely a confidence boost when you know I can still get that burst out of myself.

Q. What do you think (indiscernible)?

BRYSON DAILY: That's a great question. Thank you for asking that. Scoring in the second half. We had a couple of three and out stops. The defense made some good plays, but we've got to finish those drives and score more touchdowns. Thank you for asking.

Q. How are academies different from regular season games?

MILES STEWART: Academy games are just different because the rivalry, the pageantry. It has a long history --

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