ARMY-NAVY GAME

December 9, 2023

Jeff Monken

Army Black Knights

Press Conference

Army 17, Navy 11

JEFF MONKEN: Man, one of our coaches said on the headset, welcome to the Army-Navy game. He's right. It's always like that. We had a 14-point lead, and one second to go, they're standing there knocking on the door with a chance to tie the game up. Unreal. But proud of our team. What a great win. Both teams just fought like crazy.

That's what's great about the game. Their players played hard, played their hearts out. Ours did, too. Fortunately we came up with a play there at the end and got away with the victory.

The turnovers were big, obviously, ending that drive in the first half with the interception and then the strip sack for a touchdown, both big plays.

Really proud of our team. Really happy to be able to bring the Commander in Chief Trophy back home, which that's a source of pride for our program and for our entire academy to be able to claim that trophy.

Proud of our guys. We started out pretty rough at the beginning of the season, and our guys have just continued to battle and won four in a row here at the end of the season, including the two that we needed to win the Commander in Chief's trophy, so glad to be taking it back home.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JEFF MONKEN: Well, Coach Woody probably didn't like the way I was communicating with them during that drive there as they were throwing the ball down the field. They brought Lavatai in. Really, it changed kind of their approach, and we knew that it would be different with those two quarterbacks.

He did a nice job. He did a nice job directing them down the field and making some throws. So they had no time-outs left, so we fortunately got them to burn a time-out on a substitution earlier in the half, so they were down to two, and they used those two when we had the ball to stop the clock, as they needed to, so they were out of time-outs, and they had to throw it. They really couldn't run the football.

Didn't seem to help us much. They kept throwing the ball and completing it, but when they got it down there in 4th down -- I assumed they were going to run the football, and I think there was like -- I think the ball kind of got away and they stopped the clock there, it kind of rolled back, and I'm like, man, what are the chances of that happening.

So they kind of got a chance to settle themselves and get set, and our guys just made a great play. We were playing for that play, and our guys made a great play and a stop at the two-inch line or whatever it was.

Q. (Inaudible.)

JEFF MONKEN: Well, I think if we look at the history of this game -- so we've been under center for a long time. As a coach, as an assistant under Paul Johnson, as a head coach, I've been under center option since 1997. You do the math on that. I'm a PE major from Millikin, so it would take me a minute to do the math.

But we've been doing it a long time.

Prior to this season, I had coached in 18 academy games as a coach at Army. The most we had ever scored was 21 points. We did it twice. We've scored 7, 10, 3, 13, 14, 17 in regulation. Last year we scored 3 in regulation on offense. We blocked a punt. It was 10-10 at the end of regulation. But we just haven't been able to score points. So it is we weren't able to score many points today, either.

But they are really good at stopping the under-center stuff. If you watch them, the way they defended us, and Coach Newberry does a great job; he's a terrific defensive coordinator.

You watch the Air Force game from earlier this year, both of those teams are just ramming their head against the wall. They can't move it. Air Force is really good at stopping the under-center stuff. Navy is really good at stopping the under-center stuff because we all do it and we all have our ways to execute that under-center offense and ways that we defend it, and I think all three defensive coaches do a good job. I think Woody does a really good job.

I got tired of ramming our head against the wall. Just three plays, and it's 4th and 7 and you punt. So just trying to find a different way to skin the same cat.

We hit some good plays today. We punted far too much. We had some penalties that cost us. There was some confusion out there with our guys.

We're making verbal calls, and they're making verbal calls, and we clap, and if they clap it sounds like we're clapping, so we had a couple penalties -- that one we were in 1st and 20 on the last drive.

We really just felt like going to this offense particularly for these games was going to help us, and I don't know if it's the answer. We scored 10 points on offense today. But I didn't feel frustrated like we were ramming our head against the wall all day long. We didn't sustain drives, and we had a couple plays in the passing game that if we hit, maybe it's a different deal.

Anyway, I'm glad we got Bryson Daily. That guy is like a running back. You give him a chance to run the football, he runs through some people and gains positive yards. He's a tough kid.

Q. (Inaudible.) Any thoughts of going for it there?

JEFF MONKEN: Yeah, there was a thought to go. The analytics, it was a good at 4th and 3, and it was just a shade -- maybe a little more than three.

I thought at that point that we could stop them. We could keep them from going down the field on us. We had them in 4th and 10, and they get that pass play.

I thought a punt, we could bury them down there, they'd have a long way to go and make it difficult on them. But I'll talk to our analytics guys tomorrow, and they'll be like, that's why we say, that's why it is 4th and 3, go for it, because if you don't make it, they get the ball, short field, if they do score, you've got more time to mount -- there's all kinds of math. Like I said, I'm a PE major. I just read the book. But we thought about going for it.

Q. Can you talk about what you're most proud of with your defense today?

JEFF MONKEN: They did a really good job of stopping the run. Credit to Navy; they did a good job hitting some passes. We were playing -- they were playing a little soft on the perimeter, trying to keep the ball in front of us. We felt like if we kept the ball in front of us that we were going to be able to win the football game, not get something thrown over our head.

When they brought Lavatai in, they seemed to be more effective running the football with him running the zone follow and those kinds of things.

But I'm proud of our defense for the way they defended the run because I think that's where it's got to start, especially in these games. If you can be effective stopping the run, you're going to give yourself a great chance to win the football game.

They came up with some big plays. Obviously the turnovers were huge. Those were the difference in the game. The interception to stop the drive and the strip sack, those were big plays.

Q. Two-part question real quick. You talk about the illustrious history of this rivalry. Can that one play, that goal line stop, that 4th down stop, just live forever in the history of Army football? And what were you thinking about on that play?

JEFF MONKEN: 124 times this game has been played. I don't know if it'll live on forever. People got short memories. The 2020 game when we played at Michie Stadium, they had a 1st and goal at the 2 or the 1-yard line or something. We had four plays in a row and we stopped them. I don't know if it'll live forever. It lives in my mind. That was a big stop. This one will be, it was a big stop. For all of us, all the competitors, we'll remember it.

But there have been so many big plays in this game, and there's been so many big moments in this game. Hopefully they'll play this one another 124 years or more. I hope they do. There will be other big moments.

But this was a big one today, and it'll certainly go down in the memories of both teams I'm sure.

Q. The final drive there for Navy, it seemed a little frantic with the flow of the game. How much credit do you give to your leadership to make the play to win the game and for Kalib to have two moments like he had, the tackle on 3rd down along with the touchdown?

JEFF MONKEN: You know, our guys I think are gritty and tough, but they've got guys like that, too. It was just a battle of the wills right there.

What a great source of pride for our players to have a stop like that at the end of the game to win the Army-Navy game. There's no bigger game for us than this game. We don't apologize for it. We don't take the signs down around campus or in our building that say "beat Navy" all the other days of the year and then put them back up when we're getting ready for the Army-Navy game. We prepare for this game every day. Every day.

Our guys live it. There's 1,000 places on our campus, not dozens, 1,000 places where it says beat Navy.

So to win this game, to find a way is awesome, and it really is on the backs of our defense. Our defense won the football game for us today, and Kalib, I'm so happy for him, but that whole unit, I thought they did a really good job.

Getting that stop down there, it took more than one guy. There were a bunch of guys in there that were putting their bodies on the line and getting underneath pads. What a thrilling win.

I didn't answer your question about what I was thinking. I was thinking if they score, how are we going to stop a two-point conversion, and if we don't stop the two-point conversion, what's overtime going to look like. Immediately what do we need to be thinking in overtime. You're not sitting there going, I hope, I hope. Your mind starts racing like okay, what's the next scenario, what do we got to start thinking about.

Q. The landscape in college football is changing radically. The best you can, how can you summarize what this game means, rooted in the tradition of this sport, and what it means especially tore your seniors to leave on the right side of the rivalry?

JEFF MONKEN: It is changing, and I think some of the changes are really good for college sports and for college football. One thing about this game that's different than anybody else playing a college football game is there aren't any transfers out there. There's not one. No transfers. Nobody that was playing on their team, nobody that was playing on our team played at another college before they came here. Our guys grow up in our program. They come in as freshmen, we develop them, they grow up through the program, they play together sophomores, juniors and take the field for the last time tonight as seniors. It's pretty special. Special to have a group of guys like that that can stand there and look each other eyeball to eyeball and remember the day they reported for cadet basic training after their senior year in high school and all they've been through, and to be able to celebrate a victory and embrace each other. It's awesome.

This game will always be like that. There will never be -- no matter how the rules change, there will never be half our team started college somewhere else because if somebody transfers to West Point, if they can, they have to start over as a freshman. Whether you've taken one year of classes or you're a junior and you look around your own locker room and you say I can't beat him out and he's the same age as me and I can't beat him out and he's a year younger, I'm going to transfer to another college, I'm going to go to West Point. Okay, congratulations on the first two years of your college career. None of your classes count, start over as a freshman. Nobody is buying that.

We will always have guys that come in, get developed in our program and grow up in the program. I think it makes -- there's a purity to that. That's what college athletics was at one time, and probably never will be again. But it will be at our places.

Q. I think the last time I saw you in person was at the big New England clinic down in Newport.

JEFF MONKEN: Wow, that's a while ago.

Q. I wanted to go back to the move to shotgun because I know you come from the Paul Johnson tree, and obviously you guys put a lot of time into making that move this off-season. Just talk briefly about how did the transition go from being a flex bone triple under-center team to going to the gun? How was that transition for you guys both during the off-season and in season?

JEFF MONKEN: Well, you can look at the results this year, and they weren't at all what we wanted them to be. I think with the rule changes with blocking below the waist, that came in right before the 2022 season, so in the spring. Just before we entered spring practice in 2022, that rule came out.

I mean, I just said, well, they finally got us. Paul Johnson said for years, they're going to get us. If somebody from an option team doesn't get on that rules committee, they're going to get you, and they did.

It changed us in the 2022 season. Just the way that we could execute our offense, the way that we ran it without the cut block was a little challenging. I felt like we could keep the same personality, the same temperament and philosophy, get into a gun and be a gun option team.

What I found is what I probably always thought, and maybe in my mind wanted to deny is that it still makes us a lot closer to everybody else. So people defend us, there isn't necessarily that element of preparation. When people played us, it was like playing a different sport. Literally it was like a defense had to play a different sport on that day.

You've got five techniques that are rushing the passer and squeezing a tackle in a zone play and fighting a reach block and now they're having to look at a quarterback and a running back and he's got a ball in a fullback's belly, and okay, this call am I supposed to take the fullback, am I supposed to take the quarterback, am I supposed to run an up stunt. Inevitably it was difficult, especially when a team had a week's time.

But the cut block and the elimination of that -- it's not like we got great big guys that we can send a 220-pound running back out there and block a 220-pound linebacker or 200-pound slot and he goes and blocks a 200-pound safety. We've got some million mismatches that we were facing, so that's kind of why we went away from it.

But what I found is there's probably a need to have some of that still -- some of those elements in our offense.

You saw Navy, they're doing both. I think they realize the same thing. There's some difficulties in preparing for that under-center option.

But there's certainly some justification for getting in the gun and being able to be more multiple.

That's a long-winded answer, but there's been some growing pains this year, and I wish we had found a way to score more points, and we didn't. We lost some games this year to some teams that we boat raced them out of the stadium a year ago under center option, and we're in a gun and we can't score.

Obviously there's some things we've got to look at when we go into the off-season.

Q. Obviously you've been a part of this game for a long time. What is this experience and the atmosphere here at Gillette, how did that kind of live up to the hype maybe or how much did you like playing here?

JEFF MONKEN: It was fantastic. The folks here, the Patriots organization and just how welcoming they were, we came to the luncheon last Wednesday, they were fantastic.

It's a beautiful stadium, incredible American history here in this part of the country. This is the birthplace of our revolution, so to bring this game here is pretty special.

But frankly we could have played it out in a parking lot with nobody out there, and I promise you the two teams would have fought their asses off to win the game. Pardon my French. But that's just the way these games are. We could have met halfway up the interstate and just said let's get it on right here, and that's what this game is. It's going to be a bloodbath street fight every time it's played. Look at the game tonight.

It doesn't matter where we play it. It's a great game. But this was really neat to be here. The great history of this organization and all the great victories of Super Bowl teams that have played in this stadium, it's awesome. It's a great experience for our players.

Here's a bunch of guys, that no knock on our guys, but I don't have any five-star prospects that turned down USC and Ohio State to come to West Point. These guys are like everybody else. First time they put the pads on when they were a little kid, they dreamed of playing in a venue like this, in an atmosphere like this. So what an incredible experience for them to play in an NFL stadium.

Those are lifetime memories they'll have, which I'm glad for them. This is a great place, and the people here have been fantastic.

Q. A lot of talk about who you play for, the ones that serve, and I saw Josh Lingenfelter had Dwyer along his right arm today. I'm guessing that's for Steven Dwyer. Can you talk about that and the meaning of that and kind of sums up what this game is all about?

JEFF MONKEN: Steven Dwyer is a family friend of Josh, and so I know he wanted to honor him. It just gives us incredible pride to play for the United States Army. It's not just in this game. Every game. We wear the colors of the United States Army.

Today we had the great fortune to honor the Third ID, the dog-faced soldiers of the Third Infantry Division, and the history of that division, certainly the uniforms and the color representing the thunder runs when our Army went into Iraq. But the Rock of the Marne and the history of that unit from World War I, it's kind of fitting right there at the 1-yard line -- I can't pronounce the French words, but the commanding general of the Third ID during World War I, we were way out numbered by the Germans, and there was some thought by one of the other countries' armies to say, hey, let's retreat here, let's back off, and he basically said in French to the guy, "Here we shall remain." They held their ground and fought back the Germans and thus earned their place in history and became the Rock of the Marne. So to wear that uniform with those slogans and what they represent is truly an honor.

I hope that our guys the way they play every week, tonight and every time we take the field that they represent those men and women that serve. There's over 1 million men and women who serve on active duty in the United States Army, and they can't play in this game.

But all of our guys are a representation of them. The toughness, the grittiness, the competitive spirit, the fight. All of us sitting in this room, we expect that of our Army. When our Army gets sent to do a job, what do we expect? We expect them to go win? We expect them to come back victorious, to go beat the bad guy. We're a representation of those men and women, and so it's a tremendous source of pride for us to wear Army on our uniforms, no matter what colors we're wearing, we're wearing the colors of the Army.