Blake Horvath, Navy Clap Back at Army Coach’s Comment on Pat McAfee

The Navy Midshipmen won the Army-Navy Game on Saturday and the Midshipmen’s quarterback couldn’t resist a call-back to a comment two months ago.
Dec 14, 2024; Landover, Maryland, USA; Navy Midshipmen quarterback Blake Horvath (11) carries the ball against the Army Black Knights during the second half of the the 125th Army-Navy game at Northwest Stadium.
Dec 14, 2024; Landover, Maryland, USA; Navy Midshipmen quarterback Blake Horvath (11) carries the ball against the Army Black Knights during the second half of the the 125th Army-Navy game at Northwest Stadium. / Danny Wild-Imagn Images

Navy quarterback Blake Horvath had the game that most have come to expect from Army West Point quarterback Bryson Daily.

He finished the 31-13 Midshipmen victory with 311 total yards, four touchdowns and bragging rights for a lifetime.

And, he couldn’t resist a little trash talking with Army’s coach, Jeff Monken, of all people.

To understand, one has to go back two months.

Monken appeared on the ESPN’s Pat McAfee show in October and the possibility of back-to-back Army-Navy meetings was brought up. At the time, Army and Navy were undefeated and ranked. There was a chance the pair could play each other in the American Athletic Conference championship game and then the traditional Army-Navy game the following week.

Monken was asked how he felt about that. He took a little dig at Navy.

“Do they still have a football program at Navy?” he said, with only a hint of a smile.

Navy didn’t forget. The teams and players in rivalries like this never do.

Horvath took to social media after the game to call back the comment and also tag McAfee’s social media account.

I guess we do still have a football program… 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️ @PatMcAfeeShow

The official Navy football account retweeted it three sets of wide-eyed emojis.

Navy coach Brian Newberry also called back to the comment in his first words of post-game comments to media.

"We've still got a football team in Annapolis,” Newberry said.

Horvath also praised his offensive line after the game and noted that Army’s offensive line had just won the Joe Moore Award, given to the nation’s top offensive line.

“I am just so proud of the seniors and the offensive line,” he said. “We didn’t win the Joe Moore Award (for the nation’s top offensive line), but we out-rushed Army 271-113, those are just the facts.”

Navy had lost the last two meetings to Army. For Newberry, it was his first Army-Navy win as head coach. And it came with some trash talking that will last the lifetime of this rivalry.

Both teams will play in bowl games. Navy (9-3) is set to face Oklahoma in the Armed Forces Bowl in Fort Worth, Texas. Army (11-2) had a little drama surrounding its bowl berth as the game was going on. Marshall dropped out of the Independence bowl after losing more than 20 transfers in the wake of the departure of head coach Charles Huff. Louisiana Tech will take the Thundering Herd's place and face the Black Knights.


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