Army Black Knights Star Bryson Daily Player to Watch in Independence Bowl

One college football expert believes Army West Point Black Knights quarterback Bryson Daily is the team’s biggest key to victory on Saturday.

Dec 14, 2024; Landover, Maryland, USA; Army Black Knights quarterback Bryson Daily (13) warms up during the first half of the the 125th Army-Navy game at Northwest Stadium. / Danny Wild-Imagn Images

Army West Point Black Knights quarterback Bryson Daily is hoping to bounce back from his worst game of the season when he faces the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs in the Independence Bowl on Saturday.

Kickoff is set for 9:15 p.m. eastern on ESPN, with the game to be played at Independence Stadium in Shreveport, La.

ESPN’s Chris Low wrote that Daily is the key player to whether the Black Knights (11-2) can accomplish something no other Army team has done — win 12 games in a season.

Fortunately, his three-interception performance against Navy was more of an anomaly than how the senior has played all season.

Daily has been winning awards all season, including finishing sixth in Heisman Trophy voting, the highest finish of an Army player since 1990.

He won the American Athletic Conference offensive player of the year award as the Black Knights won the league title for the first time and the program’s first conference title ever. He was a semifinalist for the Walter Camp national offensive player of the year, the Davey O’Brien award and the Maxwell award.

He enters this game in need of 58 passing yards to have 1,000 passing yards for the season. If he reaches that he would become only the second Army quarterback to have 1,000 rushing and passing yards in the same season joining only Kelvin Hopkins Jr., who did so in 2018.

Incredibly, he’s just the fifth Army quarterback since 1991 to be named a team captain.

He has 10 multi-rushing touchdown games this season, part of the reason he’s tied for the FBS lead with 29 rushing touchdowns with Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty. He has 12 multi-rushing touchdown games for his career, tying Trent Steelman for the most of any Army quarterback since 2000.

He rushed for 100 or more yards in 10 straight games, breaking Steelman’s record from 2012 and giving him the most single-season games of 100 yards rushing or more breaking Mike Mayweather’s record of eight set in 1990.

Daily now holds the program record for most touchdowns responsible for in a single season (38) rushing touchdowns in a single season (29) and tying for the record for rushing touchdowns in a single game (5).

Plus against East Carolina, Daily had five rushing touchdowns and one passing touchdown, giving him the first six-touchdown game by an Army player since Elmer Oliphant’s six-touchdown day in 1916.

He is also third in career touchdowns responsible for, behind Heisman Trophy winner Glenn Davis (43) and Steelman (45).