You have to go back more than a century — even prior to World War I — to find an accomplishment as rich in the annals of Army football history as what Bryson Daily accomplished on Saturday.

Daily rushed for five scores and threw for another, tying him with the Hall of Famer Elmer Oliphant, generally regarded as the best athlete in West Point history, with six touchdowns in a game. Oliphant performed his feat in 1916, and Daily notched his place in history on a glorious fall Saturday at Michie Stadium.

Daily headed into the East Carolina matchup as the nation's most productive Division I quarterback, and the Pirates did little to dispel that. The senior and Abernathy, Texas, native threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Miles Stewart not even five minutes into the game.

What followed were scoring runs of 17 and 31 yards in the second quarter; 1 and 3 yards in the third; and, a 4-yard score with under five minutes to play, providing late relief in a 45-28 victory over the Pirates.

Army football's leader Bryson Daily: 'I can make fun'

His first scoring run was another highlight-film effort, using a reactionary spin move to elude a tackler and sprinting for the score.

"I can make fun,'' Daily said, "because I don't have many juke moves like these guys (his running backs). It was kind of just reactionary. He dropped his shoulder and his momentum kind of made me spin, so it just happened.''

Army has primarily been a run option team for decades, but Daily has carried over some experience from the Black Knights’ one-year experiment in 2023 to operate primarily out of the shotgun formation. On Saturday’s opening play, Daily found Casey Reynolds on a 37-yard throw down the middle.

“You hit play action early in the game, especially on the first play, you at least have the safeties thinking about that, you have the corners thinking about that,’’ Daily said. “If they can’t just run support immediately … that’s something that opens up the run game and it did.

Tallying Bryson Daily's record-breaking production

Daily completed seven of 10 throws for 147 yards. His lone scoring toss, on that first drive, was a perfectly-placed throw to Stewart.

“We had to go back to just play action a couple more times later because they (the Pirates’ defense) started coming down again. That's what's so good about this offense right now is we're able to hit those play actions when we need to and the great receivers, great slots that are catching those balls.’’

Daily now has 19 rushing touchdowns and passed for seven more — the 26 scores and running scores are both single-season Army records.

On Saturday, Daily had 31 carries for a career-high 171 net yards. He said he didn’t mind the number of calls.

“It's whatever the defense gives us … that's what we needed to do today,’’ he said. “Some games you are only carrying it a couple like 10-12 times, like last week (against UAB), but this week that's what we needed to do to gain yardage and get in the box. If that's all we need, then I'm willing to do it.’’

Daily has rushed for 100 yards and passed for 100 yards in four consecutive starts. He has amassed 909 rushing yards this season and 1,973 for his career.

“He’s just getting better,’’ Army coach Jeff Monken said of his two-year starter. “He’s getting more confident and our offense is continuing to improve. … Bryson Daily is a tough runner. That kid’s just got a warrior spirit mentality with the way he plays. … But he’s also doing a really good job in the passing game and putting the ball where our receivers can get it.’’

Daily has won the American Athletic Conference top offensive player award for two weeks running, and a third is not out of the question when it is announced early next week.

Contact Ken McMillan at kmcmillan@th-record.com. Follow him on X/Twitter at @KenMcMillanTHR

This article originally appeared on Times Herald-Record: Bryson Daily enjoying exceptional season as Army quarterback