Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Duke

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

(Ref.: opening statement)
"Good afternoon everybody, we are coming off a tough football game against Penn State. I thought our guys played really hard and executed very well in a number of phases of the game, obviously the turnovers were a huge detriment to our ability to be able to sustain drives and keep the ball moving. We had a number of negative yardage plays on some fumbles when we didn't turn it over, but it hurt us in the field position game and we ended up having to punt on a lot of those possessions. It was just disappointing to not be able to take care of the ball.

On the two drives that we scored, those were the only two drives we didn't have a negative yardage play or a fumble. We would have loved to have seen our chances if we were able to hold onto the ball. I thought our guys played really, really hard and played with confidence, but Penn State has a good team and a well-coached team. We practiced against their defense all week and felt very prepared, but we just weren't able to move the ball well on offense.

I thought our defense did a great job getting some stops when we needed them to, in some really tough situations. After the long punt they had against us there was a penalty on the first play and after a first-and-5 we held them to a field goal. I was just so proud of our defense and how resilient they were. Our whole team played with a sense of urgency and a confidence to win and unfortunately it just wasn't enough. Like they have so many other times this year, I am hopeful and confident they will come back and be ready to work to get prepared for a very good Duke team. I think Duke is probably as talented a team as we have faced this year. They have a lot of really fast football players on their team. Not just in the skill positions, they have an All-American in Jeremy Cash who is just a fantastic player. Their kick returner DeVon Edwards has already returned two kicks for touchdowns this year and coach Cutcliffe has done a marvelous job down there at Duke. It will be a tremendous challenge but we are glad to be playing back at home in front of our crowd. I know this game has been sold out for almost three weeks now, which is exciting and we have three days to prepare for Saturday's game."

(Ref.: on opposing teams having difficulty with your triple option offense)
"It's an offense that's so different from traditional offenses. I think defenses really feel that they have to balance against us. When we play an option team, we play defense differently than we do when we play against traditional offenses. We pretty much have the same personnel in the game all the time, so it's difficult for other teams to align their defense based on who we have in the game. They have to balance their defense, knowing that the option can go in any direction. I think that gives us an advantage in terms of running the ball."

(Ref.: on how the offensive line has improved throughout the season)
"Those guys are getting better, and they get better because they're playing more. That's typically where the best improvement happens, when you can get guys in there and have them compete against guys who are coming at them full speed. I thought John Voit had a really good season last year as a freshman. He came on toward the end of the year and was playing more snaps. I think he's really improved and he has a great temperament for that position. T.J. Atimalala has had the ability, but to play behind Richard Glover, who was a stronghold in there, he had limited opportunities to be the starter. Jordan Smith struggled with injury all of last year. This year, we've been fortunate that he's stayed healthy. He's a very athletic kid and he's gotten better because he's been able to go through entire weeks of practice and has played in games.

We're going to have to play some more guys in that position. There are some young guys that we want to get in the game. There are going to be some guys that get banged up and we'll need other guys to play."

(Ref.: on Eddy Ruzga's game against Penn State)
"I'm really proud of Eddy. He made back-to-back plays late in the game. He's a guy who's really moved around a lot. He played tight end last year. He's such a hard-working kid and he wants to contribute desperately to help our football team. We talked to him before this season, and Jay Bateman said 'I think we can use Eddy on defense,' and I thought that was great. As hard as he's worked to come into the game and to make plays like that, I was really proud of him."

(Ref: Andrew King's improvement throughout the year)
"I think we are playing better defense all the way around. That is one thing after going over last season we recognized, that we needed to play better defense overall. We had a bunch of guys that had great seasons last year. Timpf made a bunch of tackles and Jenkins made plays for us as did King. There were spurts where guys would make good plays, but just weren't consistently playing good defense. We haven't done that the whole year this year, and we've had times that we haven't played as good as we liked to on defense this year. I think the whole defense has been playing better and that helps King play his position better. When other guys are playing their gaps he can play his and make some plays. Personally, I think is a big leader on our team and is probably one of the biggest leaders we have on defense. He is improving and the more he plays, the more confidence he gets and the better he understands the defense…he has made some errors as everyone has, he has just played a whole lot better. He is a guy our defensive staff recognizes that has played well week in and week out."

(Ref: Offensive line movement)
"Hopefully we get Brett Toth back which will add a guy in rotation for us. He was the starter at right tackle at the beginning of the year and we moved some people around with his injury. He seems to be back on the mend and hopefully healthy for this weekend. Jaryn Villegas has really come along and we will get him back in the next week or two, which is encouraging to get those guys healthy. It is nice to get younger guys into the game. We were forced to put some freshman into action with Kurz and Nieves. I think Victor played his best game Saturday that he has played all year. I'm glad we are giving young guys some work, as you saw throughout last year, we had to make a lot of changes. Those guys get hit a lot and when you have running backs running at you for 50 plays a game, they fall on your legs and you get beat up. Alexander is tough through injury, Hugenberg is about a tough a kid I've ever coached and has been slugging it out. His weight loss over the course of last year to this year has helped him move better and he is a terrific leader for that group. There are guys doing good things. We have to improve, we have to do better. Certainly, if we were just mowing everyone down we would be running for 500 yards every game, but it is difficult to do. These guys are improving, blocking and playing hard. They are a tight knit group. I think we would pull any five guys and put them up there on the offensive line and they would work well together. They work well together and have something special. Most teams have that with their offensive line, the selflessness the position takes, and I think these guys have that spirit about them."

(Ref. One thing from last week that needs the most improvement)
"Certainly taking care of the ball is one thing. Several of those were just a poor job of our guys concentrating on the ball. You can almost picture in your mind every one of those balls that hit the ground. The first one was just a bad exchange on the center-quarterback exchange. We had one in pregame, and we had some in practice. You can't have those. They end up being a dead play if you don't turn it over. At the worst, it's a lost fumble. And, if you don't lose it, you fall on the ball and it's second and 10. That's what happened on the very last drive of the game. On first down, we fumbled and the ball hit the ground and had second-and-10. We've got to take care of the ball. On one of the pitches, Jordan Asberry didn't look the ball in and was looking down field. We could see it from the sideline with our naked eye, but when you watch it on film, it reconfirms what you saw. The other was on the first play of the second half that hit Christian Drake in the chest. We were running a quick reverse there, and he goes too shallow. We saw that and told him on the sideline, but it's mistakes like that, the little things, that end up costing you big. Really, just those fundamentals and taking care of the football. On the second fumble, we dropped back to pass, turned a guy loose and got the ball knocked out of our hand. It was minus-23 yards on the play. Even if you throw the ball away or get sacked there, you're still gaining a lot more yards on the punt when it's fourth down right after that. It's a field position game, and a lot of those resulted in us having to punt the ball where we may drive down and kick a field goal or put them with their backs to the wall. That is the one thing that has got to improve with our football team, and it doesn't have anything to do with defense or special teams but certainly on offense. Like I said, I thought the defense played really well. We're still missing too many tackles, but some of that has to do with the other team too. They've got some good players, but we've got to make the tackles. On special teams, we've got to do a better job of returning the ball. Three times this year we've punted the ball, and people have out-leveraged us. That's just not acceptable. We've got to do a better job there in the kicking game."

(Ref.: how Coach David Cutcliffe has turned around the Duke program)
"I don't have any history with coach Cutcliffe. I have spoken to him on the phone a couple of times and he has always been very gracious and professional and what he has done with that program is remarkable. The thing that is most impressive about how he has built it, is the patience that he has had and that everyone involved in that program has had a hand in developing them into a consistent winner. His first four years there they didn't have a winning record and finally his fifth year they went 6-6 and went to a bowl game. They didn't win the bowl game but just to build it, I won't count that as a losing season, going to a bowl game, they did a nice job. And then the next year they're playing in the ACC Championship. It takes a lot of patience to do that. Everyone wants to win right away. Coaches, players, everyone, there's that feeling of responsibility and a sense of urgency 'let's get this thing turned around right now.' Same feelings I have right now and our players have right now. He's built it with guys that they've recruited and developed and brought up through their program and now they've got a roster full of guys that they believe are the right kinds of guys for their program and their institution and they do a whale of a job coaching those guys. They are really a well-coached football team. They're disciplined and athletic. It's not happening by chance, they built the program and they've got an ACC football team that can play with anyone in that league."

(Ref.: on whether or not team has improved despite record)
"I think there's definitely been improvements. Just look defensively how much different we looked Saturday playing an outstanding Penn State team than we did in week one. We had far fewer mistakes form a mental standpoint. Offensively, we are moving the ball so much better, running the ball. There are some young players playing with a lot more confidence and I think those are all positive things. That's the difficult thing about building the program, and as long as it's been around here, it's very difficult to be patient. No one wants to hear that 'we're building it, we're building it, we're building it,' because they hear that over and over again. I know, I'm the same person. I don't want to hear that I want to see results. We're making progress. I know we are. I'm sure if you ask coach Cutcliffe if in year two or year three at Duke, when they still weren't having the results at the end of the games that they wanted, 'are you making progress?' I'm sure he would have said 'yeah, I know we're making progress.' Look at them now, seven years later, you can definitely see that there was some progress being made while they were building. Though it was frustrating I'm sure to have to endure that, for people to sit and analyze and evaluate and say 'gosh I don't know if these guys are making progress, they're not winning any football games,' but there's progress being made. I can just tell more than anything by the way our guys compete, the looks on their faces, the resiliency they have when their backs are against the wall. When something doesn't go our way, they don't panic, they just come back and fight and I think we've got a tough football team that plays really hard and they're focused on getting better and doing their job. All of those things are helping us improve and making us a better football program. So there's a lot of ways we've improved as a football team. I definitely don't think we've gone backwards or taken a step back at all, I think each week we've gotten better."

Army West Point Athletics

Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Duke

Related News

Players Mentioned

Jordan Asberry

T.J. Atimalala

Christian Drake

Richard Glover

Andrew King

Eddy Ruzga

Jordan Smith

Brett Toth

Jaryn Villegas

John Voit

Related Videos