Meet Bryson Daily, the driving force behind Army’s unbeaten season
- Chris Low, ESPN Senior WriterNov 22, 2024, 12:39 PM ET Close College
- football reporter Signed up with ESPN.com in 2007
- Graduate of the University of Tennessee
WEST POINT, N.Y.– Mike Viti, Army’s assistant head coach for offense, still has his very first assessment of Bryson Daily on his computer system after seeing tape of Daily as a high school prospect.The report reads like it might have come from a street, perhaps even an underground fight club, instead of a football field.
“It appeared like he remained in a street battle whenever he carried on,” Viti said. “He appeared like he was fighting, just a different running style. And after that you find out he was a hurdler on the track team and a coach’s kid, and you get real excited.
“You understood you were watching a brawler.”
Viti, a previous fullback at Army, recruits western Texas for the Black Knights, and when he says “football player” in explaining Army’s record-setting quarterback, he indicates it.As they state in West Texas, they make ’em a little harder in those parts. Daily began at quarterback for Abernathy High, a school with 230 students located 20 miles north of Lubbock, from the time he was a ninth grader and led the Antelopes to the 3A state semifinals that season. He played for his father, Darrell Daily, and was more than simply a quarterback. He likewise played linebacker, and in vital circumstances would kick field goals and punt.As a freshman, he helped beat one of Abernathy’s leading competitors with a game-winning 27-yard field goal.
“Obviously, if you ask him now, he would state it was a 47-yarder,” his father joked.Daily also played
point player on the basketball group (he transferred to the post if the other group had a big bruiser down low), pitched and played shortstop on the baseball group and ran difficulties and threw the discus on the track group.
Bryson Daily and the No. 19 Black Knights deal with No. 6 Notre Dame at Yankee
Stadium in Army’s most significant (non-Navy) game in decades. AP Photo/Richard W. Rodriguez”He shouted out that he was an Army football player, whatever we’re searching for here,” Black
Knights coach Jeff Monken said.Daily’s play this season has actually shrieked out even louder, as he leads the unbeaten and No. 19 Black Knights versus No. 6 Notre Dame on Saturday night in Yankee Arena. Army hasn’t played a game with nationwide implications this high in decades, as the prime-time matchup has College Football Playoff implications for both sides. The Black Knights are two-touchdown underdogs.
“I think we do feed off that a little bit,” Daily stated. “A lot of guys, like myself, just had FCS offers coming out of high school, a lots of our starters. But we have actually won all 9 of our games this year, and those schools we have actually beaten wouldn’t have even considered recruiting us. It’s the same with this game. Obviously, Notre Dame has top recruits, a top program, a lot of cash, all that things.
“But the only thing we’re taking a look at is that it’s an excellent chance for us, and we’re delighted to go play.”
DAILY, A SENIOR captain, has been the face of this Army group, which has actually matched the best start in program history. The 1949 group, under legendary coach Earl “Red” Blaik, finished the season 9-0.
“Tough as s–,” Monken said of the 6-foot, 221-pound Daily, who has actually been a battering ram at quarterback for Army’s triple-option attack that leads the nation in hurrying (334.9 yards per game).
That description fits just about every player in a program that types brotherhood, and as Monken is fond of saying, is the “last of the difficult,” a throwback to the days before huge cash– for blueblood programs, administrators, coaches and now players– controlled the sport.On the field, Daily takes Monken’s”last of the hard “mantra to another level.”Bryson wants to penalize
you,”Army center Brady Small stated.”He runs hard. He does whatever hard, and what he provides for us as a leader is just as crucial. When we see him lower that shoulder, whether it’s for an additional lawn or 2 backyards, that’s why we enjoy him. It’s never ever about him.”
Daily, never ever one to avoid contact when running the ball, had 36 carries versus North Texas. Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire Daily ranks 5th nationally in hurrying(132.7 yards per game )and is tied for 2nd nationally with 21 rushing touchdowns. The only player with more goals is Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty with 26, however Jeanty has played in 2 more games than Daily.Daily and Jeanty are the only 2 players averaging more than 6 yards per carry and more than 20 carries per game. In his previous two trips, Daily has bulldozed his way to a combined 67 hurrying efforts, consisting of 36 brings in Army’s 14-3 win over North Texas 2 weeks earlier. The 36 brings were the most by an FBS player this season.Daily is anything but your stereotypical running quarterback.
His forte is power, not speed, indicating defenders tend to see a lot more of the front of his No. 13 jersey than they do the back.”I’m not blessed with the speed that some guys have, so I have to take a few
more shots,”Daily stated.”However I take pleasure in contact. It’s always been a part of my personality. A great deal of that originates from playing linebacker in the past and the mindset I grew up with betting my daddy. That’s the sort of program he ran, constructed on durability. There wasn’t any other way to play the game. “As difficult as he is, Daily is not immune to injuries, and he missed out on the Flying force game Nov. 2, 2 weeks removed from a six-touchdown performance(5 rushing, 1 passing) in a 45-28 win over East Carolina. He carried the ball 31 times in that game and practiced the next week, although the Black Knights didn’t have a game that weekend.But heading into the week of preparations for the Flying force game, Daily was sidelined with what Army officials termed a concealed injury/illness. He had contracted an uncomfortable infection in his foot that needed a procedure to drain pipes the swelling. Daily stated he could not even get his foot in a shoe, let alone put any pressure on it. He still doesn’t understand how he got the infection.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated”That’s football. You get hit as much as he has, and after that something freaky like that takes
you out,”said Darrell Daily, who invested the Saturday of the Flying force game in the medical facility with his son.Not being out there with his teammates for a service academy game was bad enough for Bryson Daily.
However to make matters worse, he couldn’t get the game on tv in his medical facility space. There was a problem streaming the game on his laptop, and he missed part of the very first quarter before lastly getting the computer system going.”He about tossed that sucker throughout the room,”Darrell Daily said.”It killed his soul not to be able to play in that game since he won both Commander-In-Chief games last year as a beginning quarterback. But he was confident that [backup] Dewayne [Coleman] would action in for him and manage things.”Army won 20-3 without him, but Bryson Daily was determined to return for the North Texas game. As soon as the swelling gone away, he was back at practice, but did really little the week of the game, once again putting his status in question. “He strolled through on Thursday and went through their pregame things on Friday and then headed out there and carried on 36 times, “Darrell Daily said.”I’m unsure any person
or anything was going to keep him out of that game.”NOW, WITH ANOTHER bye week to get healthier, Bryson Daily and Army get to play on their greatest stage yet in what has actually been an exceptional season for the Black Knights. One of just three unbeaten FBS teams with Oregon and Indiana, Army is the just one that has actually won every game by double digits. But it hasn’t dealt with any group the caliber of Notre Dame, which has quit just 7 rushing goals in 10 games.Daily, one of 29 Texans on Army’s lineup, gets his competitive spirit naturally. He matured in a household of coaches and athletes. His mom, Christi, coached basketball and track.
She and Darrell are retired and residing in Wimberley, Texas, which is about 40 miles southwest of Austin.Both of Daily’s grandpas were coaches, not to mention one of his grannies. Both of his siblings, Brooke and Ali, played sports, and Brooke is a junior high school coach in Wimberley.
Bryson Daily commemorates with teammates following Army’s win over UAB in October. Danny Wild/Imagn Images”It’s all we’ve known. It’s all Bryson has understood, from the time he was in youth leagues and my father-in-law [Pal Comer] was coaching him,” Darrell Daily said.Comer was the one who assisted Bryson Daily transport his strength and drive, which sometimes reached the threshold of being more of an unfavorable than a favorable when he was more youthful. Daily hated
to lose– and still does. However he learned to turn that anger into a steely determination.Comer still sends his grandson suggestions before games that a “cool head and hot heart”will result in success. Daily even has”CHHH”tattooed on his arm.”He’s an alpha leader, and the guys think in him, “Monken said.”He pushes the other guys and is
very demanding, but it’s always with the betterment of the team in mind.”Daily does not have anybody in his household with a military background, however it was an easy decision
for him when Army provided him a scholarship.” I wished to play college football at the highest possible level. It didn’t matter where,”Daily said.The FCS schools in Texas– Stephen F. Austin, Incarnate Word and Abilene Christian– all wanted him and so did numerous Ivy League schools, but not always as a quarterback. SMU kept him dangling and had
one scholarship area open, but ended up offering it to a player in the transfer portal.Army hired Daily as both a quarterback and linebacker and guaranteed him he would get his shot at QB. After checking out West Point, he was offered and felt a close connection with Viti, who was released in the Arghandab River Valley in Afghanistan from 2010-11 before going back to his alma mater to coach. Viti was an army leader
, and he survived on a fight station that was attacked essentially every day by the Taliban.”Seeing what kind of dude he was and seeing what West Point suggested to him and becoming aware of his service, I knew this was where I belonged,”Daily said. “It wasn’t almost football. It was about being a part of something bigger than simply yourself.” Allstate Playoff Predictor How will Saturday’s leading games affect the College Football Playoff go after? What are the existing chances for the leading four? The Allstate Playoff Predictor has the responses. Check
back every week as the chances are updated following that week’s games. Daily spent his very first year at the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory School in 2020 after needing to postpone hernia surgical treatment during the COVID pandemic. That very first year helped him prepare for life at the academy. As a freshman the following season, Daily scuffled with the shift from the spread/speed option he ran in high school to Army’s version of the triple alternative. He appeared in just six games his very first two seasons, although he did make the travel lineup as a sophomore.Daily patiently waited his turn and never flinched, even with four or 5 quarterbacks ahead of him on the roster when he showed up on school. He understood his time was coming. “The transfer website isn’t a factor here,”Monken said.”You’re still able to develop players, have them be around older players and discover and remain together for four years. Bryson purchased into that.”He won the starting job as a junior in 2023 and became just the 2nd Army quarterback to both rush and pass for 900 backyards in a season. However the Black Knights had shifted to more of a shotgun/passing attack, in large part because of the guideline alter the year before that removed blocks below the waist outside the tackle box. Army’s offensive numbers tumbled, and the Black Knights finished 6-6 for the 2nd straight season.This season, Monken decided to go back to a real under-center, triple-option attack based on the power game. The Black Knights went from averaging 20.5 points in 2023 to 35.2 points this season and regained their area as the country’s top hurrying group. They’re balancing 72.1 more lawns per game than the No. 2 FBS team(UCF ). “It was a method for us to possibly run some choice out of the shotgun and still be various,” Monken said of the unsuccessful experiment a year ago.”But I recognized we weren’t different enough.
So this year, I came back to getting more under center, going back to our roots a little bit and discovering a way to do that without having to rely on the cut block.” All the while, Daily has actually flourished. He has actually tried simply 51 passes, but seven have opted for touchdowns, and he has actually tossed only one interception. But it’s the running game where he has actually excelled. He’s not the type of quarterback who uses his speed to escape from defenders, but he fasts and uses the next-level cut to find openings a lot of players do not see.And when all else stops working, he goes into all-out linebacker mode, decreases his pads and basically says,”Might the very best male win,” to his would-be tacklers.”We’ve sort of grown with him, which’s what you have actually got to do as an excellent offense,” Viti said.”You’ve got to see who your best players are and play to their strengths.” Daily’s household will be well represented in New York. His moms and dads, two siblings and one set of grandparents are all making the trip from Texas.Daily, an engineering management significant, has an eye on infantry to begin his military service. However much like his dad,
he will invest next football season training at the prep school at West Point. That time will count as the very first 6 months of Daily’s military service.But no one in the Daily family is
getting too far ahead of themselves, especially Bryson. There’s a lot more football left to be played, consisting of the American Athletic Championship game game Dec. 6 and the 125th Army-Navy game on Dec. 14 in Landover, Maryland.And after that, perhaps even a playoff game.”We’re simply trying to take pleasure in every minute and go after that winning sensation, and that happens by going after that 1-0 mindset of going 1-0 weekly, “Bryson stated.”It’s no various this game than it was last game.”And that’s whether it’s a street battle or battling to find the objective line versus the Battling Irish.