'It is a warning

Safety Aloha Gilman and cornerback Lucas Scott have traded playful jabs with each other leading up to the USA game.

Alohi Gilman is a one-time winner from the national title at Notre Dame.A 30-3 loss to Clemson in the semi-exclusive game ended that dream.

But if Gilman can relive one game of his career, it won't be this one.

"I always tell people if I could play one more game of college football, it would be Navy," Gilman said this week."When you go out there, it's a battle. There's a tough pack on both sides and they just go out there and try to take each other's heads off.

Army and Navy will face off at M&T Bank Stadium at 3 p.m. Saturday. This will be the 126th meeting between the two service academies, known as "America's Game."

Gilman, who played his freshman season at Navy in 2016, is one of two Ravens players, along with backup linebacker Lucas Scott, to play in the rivalry game.Gilman and Scott never crossed paths in academia due to their age difference, but that didn't stop them from making fun of each other.

"Lucas has been my main rival the last two weeks," Gilman said, adding that Scott caught some good passes in practice while on the scout team.

Scott spent four seasons with Army before joining the Ravens as an undrafted free agent and signing with the practice squad.

Scott saw two wins over navy in 2022 and 2023. Gilman can't say the same.

“[Gilman] only played in one game, but the game he played in [in 2016] was the first game in [14] years where Army beat Navy, so I had to rub it in his face a little bit,” Scott said.

Gilman and Bentang agree that the Navy Transport Game is unlike any other game.Gilman called it a super bowl for both teams.Scott said this is the biggest week of the year for both colleges.

"It's a fake experience, a really cool experience," Scott said."It's hard to understand unless you do it and you're not in the academy. You're doing all this with your brothers, and it's hard to understand that brotherhood is the reason for what you go through on each team."

He won't be traveling to Cincinnati for Sunday's game against the Bengals, so Scott plans to tailgate with his parents and attend the game.He has a seafood lunch Friday afternoon with some of his former teammates who are now graduate assistant coaches at Army.

A former offensive letterman, Scott laughs it looks like a dark knight between the lines.But he will grind it all.

"If you see the flow, you'll have a blanket. It's a really cool day," Scott said.