Army quarterback Bryson Daily will return against North Texas on Saturday and will start for the No. 25 Cadets, sources told ESPN.
Daily, the engine of Army’s potent offense, missed the team’s win over Air Force last week with an undisclosed injury. Sources told ESPN he returned to practice this week for a walk-through Thursday and practiced in full for the first time Friday before Army left for Denton, Texas.
Army is 8-0 and off to its best start since 1996. Army checked in as the third-highest-ranked team from outside a power conference in the College Football Playoff rankings, as it is positioned behind No. 12 Boise State (7-1) and No. 21 Washington State (7-1). Army is in first place in the American Athletic Conference, 6-0 in conference play and ahead of 5-0 Tulane.
According to sources, Daily has “looked like himself” since he returned to practice. But there’s some concern, according to sources, about his ability to play a full game coming off a two-week stretch where he only took part in one practice and one walk-through.
The possibility looms that backup quarterback Dewayne Coleman, who started his first career game against Air Force, will end up getting snaps. Until late this week, he has taken all the snaps with Army’s first-team offense the past two weeks.
Daily’s return is crucial for Army as he leads the nation in both rushing touchdowns for a quarterback (19) and rushing yards per game for a quarterback (129.8). Only Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty has more rushing touchdowns (20).
Prior to the injury, he’d played two of the best games of his career, as he scored five rushing touchdowns and ran for 171 yards against East Carolina and had four rushing touchdowns and 136 yards against UAB.
Army leads the nation with an average of 340.1 rushing yards per game.
