Watch: Army Black Knights Star Show Respect for Navy Football Legend

The Army West Point Black Knights offensive star broke a decade-long record held by a Navy legend during the Independence Bowl.
Dec 28, 2024; Shreveport, LA, USA; Army Black Knights quarterback Bryson Daily (13) and safety Max DiDomenico (6) celebrate defeating the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs to win the 2024 Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl at Independence Stadium.
Dec 28, 2024; Shreveport, LA, USA; Army Black Knights quarterback Bryson Daily (13) and safety Max DiDomenico (6) celebrate defeating the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs to win the 2024 Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl at Independence Stadium. / Danny Wild-Imagn Images

It’s been a record-breaking season for Army West Point Black Knights quarterback Bryson Daily and that included his final performance in the Independence Bowl.

Daily rushed for 127 yards and three touchdowns in his final college football game, a 27-6 win over Louisiana Tech.

As the game went on, Daily passed several players in the all-time, single-season FBS record book for rushing touchdowns (since 1958). By the time the game was over he had 32 rushing touchdowns, which ties him for third all-time.

But, the third touchdown run was meaningful from the standpoint of the service academies, along with Navy and Air Force. With that score, he became the all-time, single-season leader in rushing touchdowns among the three schools.

He passed Navy legend Kennan Reynolds, who had 31 rushing touchdowns in 2013.

After the game, Daily was asked about passing Reynolds and he showed his respect to the former Midshipmen star.

“He was a great player,” Daily said. “I’ve watched a lot of his highlights and stuff growing up. He’s a really good player. So just being mentioned with great players like that in the record books, I’m extremely proud of what this unit, this team and we did this year. But, yeah it’s great to be in the record books with a player like that.”

In four years at Navy, Reynolds played in 50 games and rushed for 4,559 yards with 88 touchdowns. His 88 touchdowns is the FBS career record for rushing scores and his 4,559 yards is an FBS record for rushing yards by a quarterback. He also threw for 4,001 yards and 31 touchdowns, along with just eight interceptions.

As a senior in 2015 he rushed for 1,373 yards and 24 touchdowns and threw for another 1,203 yards and eight touchdowns. That season he was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year, a third-team all-American and was fifth in Heisman Trophy voting. He was also awarded the James E. Sullivan Award, given to the top collegiate or Olympic athlete in the country. His No. 19 is retired by Navy.

Daily had a terrific season. He finished with 1,659 yards and 32 touchdowns on the ground, along with 1,007 yards passing, making him the second Army quarterback to pass 1,000 yards in both categories in a season. He was the AAC Offensive Player of the Year and finished sixth in Heisman Trophy voting, the Black Knights’ highest finish for that award since 1990.

Army reached 12 victories for the first time in program history. Earlier this year, the Black Knights won the first conference championship in program history and finished in the Top 25 of the final College Football Playoff rankings in the first time.


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