Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Bucknell

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Army West Point football head coach Jeff Monken met with members of the local media on Tuesday afternoon for his weekly press conference inside Nowak Auditorium. The Black Knights are preparing to host Bucknell on Saturday afternoon at Michie Stadium.

(Ref.: opening statement)
"Good afternoon everyone. We are getting the team prepared for this game against Bucknell. We realize there is a lot to improve on after Saturday's game. Duke did a great job and you have to give them credit because they did a terrific job blocking us. We struggled to get off the blocks sometimes and certainly on offense, putting the ball on the ground didn't help. We put ourselves in some bad situations and we didn't get all the blocks we needed. Had we done that, we would have been able to move the ball more effectively. It's a little humbling to experience that and be beat like that. If you play long enough, it's bound to happen. There's a lot to learn from it. There were some positive things, but certainly not enough. There are things that we need to drastically improve and we got back to work on Sunday. We were happy with the effort of our guys and the way they came to practice ready to go. I think they recognize that we've got a ways to go. We are going to do the best we can to prepare for Bucknell and we will be glad to be back for the homecoming game and it is one that the team definitely looks forward to."

(Ref.: Lessons learned from the Duke game)
"The urgency to take care of the ball and to make sure that when we make a pitch that there is a guy there to accept the pitch. When we are handling the ball and reading the option that we don't have to make a perfect play. I think that at times our guys want to make the right play and give the right guy the ball, and sometimes it's okay to hand the thing off and be wrong. Sometimes that will be a zero-yardage play, or a one yard gain, but it's certainly better than pitching it on the ground, getting the ball slapped out, or eating it, that is more costly. I think our guys that handle the ball that do carry it or catch it need to always be conscious that it's awfully important to hold onto the ball and when I give the other team an opportunity they wouldn't have had it can really cost us. The week before at Penn State we put the ball on the ground seven times and we had the chance to win it at the end, and this weekend we put the ball on the ground seven times and they blow us out. That is what ought to happen when you put the ball on the ground. Each time you do, it is a negative yardage play. The sense of urgency for that needs to be there. "

(Ref.: Practicing against fumbles)
"Practice. We practice catching kicks and punts every single day including game day pre-practices. That is something we have to do a better job with fundamentals. Fundamentals of catching the kick, that breaks down when you drop it. A couple of the pitches have been batted out, we had one slip out of our hands against Penn State, we tossed the ball into an outside blitz on fourth down Saturday, the guy just timed it with the snap count. Not too many of our fumbles are contact fumbles. There's not many where we are carrying the ball and they come punch it out. They're happening on the exchanges, whether it is center and quarterback exchange or the mesh between the quarterback and the b-back, it's a pitch. Not many are happening where somebody is just getting it knocked out and I think that is a positive. The one toss to John Trainor that went on the ground, he thought it was a different play so he just ran by it and we tossed it on the ground. Things like that cost you a bunch of yards and it is a silly foolish mistake that shouldn't happen. It isn't an issue about hanging onto the ball, it is an issue with exchanging the ball where we have to do a better job."
(Ref: quarterback situation this week)
"We are going to have one. I think they will both be ready, but I'm not sure which one will be the starter."

(Ref: reason behind the number of fumbles)
"It is not a hanging on to the ball problem, it is an exchange problem. Twice we have fumbled the ball in the last two games with the center-quarterback exchange. That is just the quarterback backing out of there too early or the center not going the same direction on every play. The quarterback is responsible for knowing which way the center is going so he can move his hands that direction when the ball is snapped. Sometimes they don't do a good job of that, sometimes the center is taking such a big step because he has a long way to go to block back on a guy and he leaves the ball a little bit short."

(Ref: was there any thought to bringing in another quarterback in the fourth quarter)
"No. We were doing our very best to try and stay in the game and have our best guys in there and keep it respectable. We wanted to play the guys that we thought gave us the best chance."

(Ref.: on the injury status of Drue Harris, Gibby Gibson and Rhyan England)
"Gibby and Drue will be ready to go. We don't have any doubts at this point that they'll be ready. A.J. Schurr is dinged up from the game on Saturday. He left the game with a thigh bruise, but I think that'll be something that will work itself out over the course of the week. Jeremy Timpf came out of the game, but he's going to practice on a limited basis today and we'll give him more reps as the week goes on. The guys that are out right now will likely be Justin Gilbert and Jaryn Villegas. Ryan Alexander is fine, he's not injured."

(Ref.: on what you have seen from looking at Bucknell)
"Only Saturday will tell. I think our guys have handled each week very well in terms of their ability to focus and refocus on the next game. Probably any one of the first five football games could have gone our way. We didn't make the plays to complete those games and win them and we were disappointed after every single one of them. Obviously, we were disappointed after the Duke game. A 44-3 loss knocks you back on your heels a little bit, but it still counts the same as losing a close game. They're all disappointing, but it's our job to move on and prepare for the next one."

(Ref. play of Kenneth Brinson)
"I think Kenneth has done a really nice job all year rushing the passer for us. That's been his role for us. He's played some special teams, but he's just a raw, good athlete that's learning to play the game at this level. Marist High School in Atlanta is an outstanding football program; one of the best in the state. It is hard to step onto the Division-I level and be ready to go. It takes a really special guy to just fall in line and look like a veteran play, and he's done some things at times that make him look like a well-schooled veteran player. He's also done a lot of things that remind you that he's just a freshman, and I think that was the case on Saturday. He made some really good plays and there are some areas where he is going to continue to improve. You can see the ability he has and how much better he is going to be the more he understands the defense and playing that position. I'm really excited he's in our program. He's a great kid, tremendous student and has an unbelievable family, and he's a perfect kid for our program. He's going to have a great career here if he continues to improve and stays healthy."

(Ref. Bucknell's challenges)
"They have some good players. They've got a wide receiver in Will Carter, number 18, who is an outstanding player and is very fast. They've got a veteran offensive line. There are a bunch of juniors and seniors you can see on their lineup. Defensively, they're big. They've got a really big nose guard that's a 280-pound kid that is a veteran guy and a 295-pound nose tackle. Both of them are good players. Bucknell plays an aggressive style of defense. I think they're going to have a plan based on watching us play for six weeks now and fitting their defense to what we do offensively. Each week it's a challenge, and we're going to have to get our guys geared up and excited about playing this game because I know Bucknell is going to come in here charged up and excited about the opportunity to play here. I hope we will have a great week of practice and go perform on Saturday much better than we did last Saturday. If we don't, they've got enough weapons to hurt us and beat us."

(Ref.: balancing between focusing on the opponent ahead and improving as a team)
"We've got to strike a balance there every week on improving the things that maybe we're not as good at and getting a game plan together to be able to defend our opponent and attack our opponent offensively. Today's no exception. The practice schedule each week is like clockwork. It's the exact same practice schedule every week regardless of who we're playing. What we do might change in terms of the plays that we run or the defenses that we line up in based on each opponent, but this week is, again, we've got to work on fundamentals, blocking, tackling and obviously taking care of the ball. We've got to devise a game plan and seeing what we like through Tuesday's and Wednesday's practices against what we feel Bucknell is going to give us and then Thursday try to get everything lined up where we feel like our guys, assignment wise and technique wise, are doing everything that we need them to to prepare for Saturday."

(Ref.: how offensive line has come along through midway point of season)
"I think those guys are working really hard. I thought through the first five games that they had improved tremendously. I thought they really did a nice job blocking in the Penn State game. They got knocked around a little bit against Penn State, which is going to happen, we knocked them around a little bit. I thought that was good on the part of our offensive line, playing a great, veteran defensive line like Penn State. I thought this week we struggled. We had Rick Kurz in there to start the game, who is a true freshman, and the first play from scrimmage he gave up a sack and missed an assignment, the linebacker came right through his gap, he didn't block it and he's got to handle that. But there's going to be some mistakes that those freshmen make that have nothing to do with ability, it's probably not having played as much. We put Brett Toth in there to take his place and he played the rest of the game. Our veteran guys, Gilbert, who has not played in several weeks, and Villegas, who has not played in several weeks, and Hennessy, who's been out all year, guys who have played a lot of football for us and been in games here are not in there and it certainly changes when you have Kurz and Victor Nieves, two freshmen, lining up next to each other. They improve, and they've gotten better, but it's not the same as having a junior or senior lined up there next to one another, playing against other guys who are juniors and seniors who play in the ACC. You're playing with guys who are one-year removed from our prep school playing against guys who have had three years in the ACC, there's a difference in the ability and the experience of those guys. That's not an excuse, we've just got to do a better job of preparing those guys so that they can execute against good players like that. We ran into a little bit of that on Saturday, they were just a very physical difference and played very hard. Like I said, I was impressed by their whole team."

Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Bucknell

Players Mentioned

Ryan Alexander

Kenneth Brinson

Rhyan England

James Gibson

Justin Gilbert

Drue Harris

Rick Kurz

A.J. Schurr

Jeremy Timpf

Brett Toth

John Trainor

Jaryn Villegas

Army West Point Athletics