ARMY BLACK KNIGHTS FOOTBALL

December 13, 2025

Cale Hellums

Andon Thomas

Noah Short

Press Conference

Navy 17, Army 16

Q. Cale, on the interception where he was double covered, did you think you had room to run there, or did you see something that led you to believe that Brady was open?

CALE HELLUMS: Looking back at it and how the play happened, that's the one play I wanted back. He was open early on in the progression. For some reason I got off of it and I came out and I scrambled to the right, and I just forced it. I thought I could have fit it in and put more air under it or thrown it away. It was a dumb decision. That's the one play I want back from this game. It sucks.

Q. Navy's offense is very explosive. I thought you guys played really well defensively. It was a game of inches so many times. The fourth down play where you almost had the fumble. Eric Ford almost picks up the fumble at the goal line for the scoop and score. What was it like out there, and how did you keep the team to keep playing every play, coming back from some of that adversity? And then on the touchdown pass, was there anything you guys thought you could have done differently?

ANDON THOMAS: Yeah, first all, give glory to God. I think it's important. It's easy to give Him glory when the outcome goes your way, but it's a little harder when you lose, right? He's really blessed me and blessed those guys to play football at this level. It's truly a blessing, especially to play in games in a magnitude like this, where millions of people are watching.

It's really been a blessing. I think it speaks to the volumes of the character of the guys. We battled through adversity all year, and we did that again today. At the end of the day, we have to execute. They executed a little better than us, so...

Q. Last question for Noah. You had a couple big plays in the passing game. Not much in the running game. Was that something Navy took away from y'all, or was it just part of the game plan?

NOAH SHORT: They did a great job on the perimeter. Their D ends, they were boxing, coming up field hard, just making all the outside runs cut up. So they did a good job, and they played well enough to get the win. So just tip your hat off to them.

Q. For any of you guys, the offense the last three drives, two punts and one interception, what do you think Navy did differently in the second half or the second part of the second half? Did they do anything different than they did early in the game?

CALE HELLUMS: I think they just flipped the switch. Early on in the game, we found great success on the offense, and we were rolling. I think we went three drives in a row with points, and that's hard to do in the Army-Navy game.

And later in the second half, I think, we just flattened out, and a lot of that falls on my shoulders. I got to be better. The offensive line played tremendously, like they always do. We got stagnant late on, and that's on me.

Just tip the hat to Navy. They flipped the switch, and their defense came out swinging.

Q. Noah, being a senior, this is your last Army-Navy game. Tell me about your emotions, the highs and lows. You still have a game to play, but how tough is it to go out like this?

NOAH SHORT: Yeah, it's unfortunately for sure. You always want to end your last Army-Navy game with a win. For it to be so close, it is tough for sure. But one thing about this team is never quit, and that's something to be proud of. I wouldn't want to be on any other team.

Q. I know you guys were all disappointed, but Cale, you ran for 100 yards, had 25 carries. Is that the plan for you to carry the ball most of the time? Or is it just challenging, the way Navy is set up, to get the ball to the other backs?

CALE HELLUMS: Yeah, I think going into it, you know, we wanted to distribute the ball around, and Coach Worley called a great game, and we had a great game plan coming into the game, and we executed very well. We just got stagnant at the end, like I said earlier.

But part of playing the quarterback position for Army football, you know you're going to run the football a lot. And Navy had some adjustments in the second half, but we were looking to get some guys more touches in the run game. But that's always the plan, but once you go out and you're in the fight, things can change.

Q. Andon, Justin Weaver made the interception in the third quarter. How did you feel at that point? The defense was making plays, you were really making some hard hits.

ANDON THOMAS: Yeah, it feels good when you get an interception or a turnover. So we were feeling good. But you got to stay locked in. The game's not going to be over ever really until the scoreboard hits quadruple zeros.

It feels good, but we have a good next-play mentality. We went straight to the iPads. Straight to the benches. Looked at what we saw, communicated. I think we played pretty well going forward.

But shout out to Justin. He's been a great player for us all year. We all told him it was coming, and it came. So super proud of him.

Q. Two times there the ball was out of bounds, you forced a fumble (indiscernible). Third down stop there looked like it may have been a fumble, but they ruled it down. What do you tell the team at that point?

ANDON THOMAS: It's unfortunate. Sometimes the ball rolls your way, and sometimes it doesn't. Ultimately the game didn't come down to two plays. We lost because they executed better than us and executed the fundamentals better than us.

So we could play the what-if kind of game, but just keeping the guys locked in ultimately. We should have jumped on the balls when we had a chance, and we didn't. And I think that's a big part of why we lost, so...

Q. What happened after the game? Seemed like it's not typical Army-Navy after a game, see some words, exchanged. Can you give us some insight on what you heard?

ANDON THOMAS: Yeah, there's a lot of emotion around this game. There was a couple of shoves here and there. Probably got out of hand. That's not a good representation of who we are. But it got out of hand. The emotion is high, especially when you lose, but it's just kind of part of the game sometimes.