ASSOCIATED PRESS In his first season as Army's head coach, Bobby Ross led the Black Knights to their first consecutive wins since 1997.

Ross is committed
to leading Army
back to glory

The veteran coach has energized
the Black Knights in his return
to the sidelines

PHILADELPHIA » Venerable Bobby Ross was not quite ready for those daily rounds of golf and afternoons at the senior-citizen center.

The fire continued to roar, the challenge remained acute, and a competitive drive accelerated Ross' strong desire to get back on the coaching sidelines.

Army-Navy When: Tomorrow, 9:30 a.m. Hawaii time Where: Philadelphia TV: KGMB, Ch. 9

After all, here's an icon among college football coaches with seasonal and school achievements worthy of any lofty stature. But Ross was away from the game for three years and now admits the aspiration to return became not as much overwhelming as necessary.

To make his intention known, Ross began to reach schools and old contacts. In return, he received, perhaps due to his age of 66, a number of polite "thanks, but no thanks" from programs around the country. One school ready for his renewed spirit was Army.

The once-proud program at West Point laid in ruin, reduced to rubble, and its direction dubious at best.

By the middle of last season, then head coach Todd Berry was fired and his departure merely accentuated a program that waved more than a few red flags. Immediately after Army ended the 2003 season at 0-13, and losers of 15 straight over two years, the job of rebuilding this storied program fell upon Ross.

At first, the native of Richmond, Va., told the academy he was not interested. After additional pleas from Army's athletic department and alumni and a long discussion with his wife, Alice, one night at the kitchen table, Ross accepted the formidable challenge of restoring glory, passion and results to a highly visible, national program.

"Initially, I wanted to get back into coaching and made my intentions known," Ross said at the recent Army/Navy media day here.

"The competitive drive never left, and I knew I had the energy. But things had to be right and the program had to be the right program. I didn't want to go through a long interview process, and I told (Army athletic officials) that when we first talked."

Ross admitted the compelling reason came from his wife, and described her argument for taking the Army job as "almost a duty to do the things which are right." Taking the Army job, she convinced him, was the right thing.

Three days after the Black Knights fell to Navy 34-6 last Dec. 6, Ross was introduced as Army's 34th head football coach. For the Black Knights, the long road back to glory and prominence began on that bleak late-autumn afternoon with the Ross announcement of a five-year contract.

From the start, Ross appeared to be the kind of coach destined to turn Army football fortunes from a desolate past. His sense of discipline, commitment and performance represented those features clearly absent from the Black Knights' program of recent years.

Guiding Georgia Tech to the national championship in 1990 and later the San Diego Chargers to the 1994 Super Bowl, Ross arrived at West Point with 96 wins as a college coach (with the Yellow Jackets, Maryland and The Citadel) and another 77 victories coaching the Chargers and Detroit Lions. With San Diego, he reached the NFL playoffs in three of his five years there and, in Detroit, he took the Lions to postseason play twice.

The Army situation was different, he admitted, from previous experiences. That dealt with the reality of jumping, head first, into a losing program. Moving in an agenda devoid of any recent success, Ross was quick to develop priorities.

"We must be more competitive," he pointed out.

"The way to do that is to have a strong development program. We need to improve the facilities, add a decent weight room and create a strong, offseason program. We also set, as a goal, to win the Commander-in-Chief Trophy. That will come, but we need to improve our discipline and have the athletes commit to football as they commit to their academics."

Under Ross, the Black Knights continue to struggle, though not to the point of previous futility. Army opened the season by dropping four straight, but responded with a two-game winning streak. Those wins over Cincinnati and South Florida represented the first time the Black Knights put together consecutive wins since 1997, when they defeated Rutgers and Colgate on two straight Saturdays.

"This has been a tough season," Ross admitted.

"It's never fun when you lose, and I don't take losing lightly. Until we beat Cincinnati (Oct. 9), this was a program which lost 19 straight games. The morale was down and heads were down."

Not any longer.

Players have bought into his program of renewed pride and vigor and responded with commitment. Despite gaining only two wins, Ross' emphasis on strength and development has created an offensive line that achieved. With the help of four seniors in the interior, junior running back Carlton Jones has gained 1,171 yards for the season, and that represents the first 1,000-yard rusher for Army since Michael Wallace picked up 1,157 yards in 2000.

With strength up front, the Cadets have averaged 176 yards per game on the ground and another 209 through the air. That's a clear improvement from the 63.5 yards per game on the ground a year ago.

"The two things which (Ross) has stressed are fundamentals and confidence," said offensive tackle Joel Glover.

"It's starting to pay off and I can see the program heading in a positive direction. From being here the past few years, I see a change for the better. (Navy coach Paul Johnson) has shown it can be done and he has taken that program from zero to hero. No reason under coach Ross the same thing can't happen here."

If Ross is re-energizing a dormant program, he may have to accelerate the time table. In dropping a 20-14 decision to Alabama-Birmingham on Nov. 20, the Black Knights played their final Conference USA league game.

Now, like Navy, Army goes independent and already, Ross has lined up opponents like Iowa State and Baylor among schools on the Black Knights' 2005 slate. That said, Ross has already developed an ambitious offseason conditioning program and has set the wheels in motion for a strong player-development program.

That's a priority he set upon arriving at West Point and continues as the key, Ross argues, to the foundation of any successful program.