Daily’s grit, leadership has off to 9-0 start

WEST POINT, N.Y. — Black Knights quarterback Bryson Daily’s chat with former Army star and Heisman Trophy-winner Pete Dawkins was short but moving.

Meeting during pre-game warmups before facing Navy in 2022, Dawkins shared what playing for Army and being part of the academy’s last undefeated team in 1958 still meant to him. Daily, a sophomore biding his time behind three senior quarterbacks, held onto Dawkins’ insight in being told to take nothing for granted and leave everything on the field.

Toughness has always been a pillar of Army’s program. Daily has personified that grit during a 9-0 start that has helped the Black Knights climb to a No. 18 ranking in the AP Top 25 ahead of Saturday’s game against No. 6 Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium.

“That’s the only way I know how to play and that’s what the team needs from me — to run the ball and run it hard,” Daily said.

“That’s what it takes to win here. I’m happy to do that,” he added, before referencing his father and former coach, Darrell Daily. “You do tough things over time, it gets easier to do tough things. You eventually become a tough person. That’s something that my dad preached the whole time I was growing up.”

It’s a mindset that has Daily entering what could be Army’s biggest non-service academy game since Dawkins and the Cadets beat the Irish 14-2 in 1958.

Daily leads FBS quarterbacks in rushing yards (1,062) and is tied for second among all players with 21 touchdowns rushing, shattering Army’s single-season record of 17 in just seven games. In a 48-28 win over East Carolina, Daily ran for five TDs and added another passing, making him Army’s first player to account for six TDs since Elmer Oliphant in 1916.

The 6-foot, 221-pound senior runs toward contact and not away from it, an approach his father saw early in his son’s youth football days playing linebacker, and before coaching him in high school in Abernathy, Texas.

“He loves contact,” Darrell Daily said. “Never shied away from it. In fifth and sixth grade, he’d get penalties because he was hitting harder than everybody. It wasn’t anything cheap. It was just that he was physical.”

It’s much the same at Army. In his last outing, a 14-3 win over North Texas, Daily gained a team-leading 153 yards on a career-high-tying 36 carries. And he did so with limited practice time after missing the Air Force game with an undisclosed injury/illness.

“He’s one of one,” Army offensive coordinator Cody Worley said.

“I’ve never coached a kid as violent and as physical as he is at the position. It’s hard to replicate his type of physicality and the things he can do as a ball carrier,” Worley added. “What he doesn’t get credit for is short-area quickness. He can make guys miss, but he can also run through you and he can jump over you.”

Daily’s athleticism and toughness is what brought Army assistant coach Mike Viti on a recruiting trip to West Texas. A starting quarterback and linebacker, Daily rushed for 6,300 yards, passed for 4,800, and totaled 154 touchdowns (97 rushing) in four years. He was also a four-year starting guard and a 1,000-point scorer in basketball. He batted .575 and was 19-2 on the mound with a 1.67 ERA in one baseball season.

Viti and Army recruited Daily to primarily play quarterback in the team’s triple-option scheme, but he was also approved to try linebacker and fullback as potential positions.

“He checked every single box for us,” Viti said. “He had those leadership qualities. … He could have played probably three to four different positions combined with the defensive side.”

Army was the first FBS school to offer Daily a scholarship. Several Texas FCS schools thought they could land him to play on the defensive side, while Harvard, Princeton and Yale also heavily recruited him.