Army

RB King stomped for 961 yards, Hall continued to throw well in finishing his West Point career and Army broke through with both a winning 7-4 slate and close 17-14 victory over Navy. For the Navy game, a small but noticeable change in the headgear brought approving nods of the head as the Cadets replaced the traditional gray masks with black ones that really stood out. TE Clennie Brundidge was joined up front by OT Joe Oliver who was named All East. DE Chuck Schott again was the defensive bell cow with eighty-nine stops and five fumble recoveries. The emergence of LB's John Hilliard and Kirk Thomas who combined for 236 tackles resulted in three games where the Knights gave up a TD or less.

1978 would be Smith's final season. LB John Hilliard was clearly the best of an undependable defense that was weakened when MG George Mayes went out with knee problems. QB Earle Mulrane put up 1400 passing yards and Jim Hill repeated as the Cadet's most reliable runner but they could not put up enough points when needed and 4-6-1 was the result, a step backwards after the promising improvement of 1977. The 28-0 loss to Navy, Smith's fourth in five years, sealed the deal and he was dismissed. Smith moved on to serve as offensive coordinator at a number of major programs such as Alabama and Arizona and in the NFL and to this day, has retained his reputation as an offensive innovator and developer of quarterbacking talent.