League Changes Means Turning the Page for Army (again)AD Bryno has always been known to be a director of change. It’s just that in the past, the reasons for the changes have left pundits scratching their heads in some cases. For 2025, Bryno can cast and deflect the hate by simply summing up the catalyst as, “League Rules”.
The NCAA will undergo it’s biggest metamorphosis in terms of style, strategy and output that it has ever seen in the history of the NCAA. League President, JD Baker is introducing new guidelines that will throttle down offenses, changing the video game scoring the league has experienced in its recent past.
Bryno as responded. “We started with our o-line.”, he said at a morning press conference at the team’s training facility. “We had at least 4 guys leave, so we replaced them with transfers, here late in the off-season. “We still have our big-time vets in the trenches with Kurz, Johnson and Holland – and Brinker and Baudoux will still anchor the bookends.” “These moves were replacement and depth building..”
The Black Knights did say goodbye this year to the only Kicker they’ve ever had, in Carl Lopp. Bryno found his replacement on Day 5 of the signing week. “We really like Steven [Peters], if he can get through this camp on the right foot [chuckles}, I can see him having a career similar to what Carl had.” “We feel really fortunate to have grabbed him, because we do know that USC was courting him as well.”
Army was also in dire need of back-end help on defense and found SS Brad Lawrence in the 2nd round. He will be second on the depth chart behind Tanker Bryant.
Also in the signing period, two new freshman LB’ers signed with Army. With good camps, both could challenge for a starting role.
In all, Army brought in around 9 new players this off-season.
Players were not the only focus of change. Bryno said he was also ready to bring back the 3-4 defense and to do that meant letting go of Mark Pisano and promoting Arthur Salter to head coach. Salter has been the Offensive Coordinator at Army since 2017.
Filling the vacant OC slot is a newcomer, Abel Powell. The Knights also had to fill two other coaching slots at Backfield and Tight Ends. Both coaches moving on to other programs with promotions.
Salter’s only comments were, “I expect a good camp.” “These guys are coming off of a hard fought season in 2024 where we had a couple of hiccups that, unfortunately, were one hiccup too many to get into the bowl season.” “They are focused, and I love the veteran leadership that we have, especially on defense.”
When asked about Rothrock, he had no words, just simply, a BIG GRIN.
