Army West Point Athletics
Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Tulane
November 10, 2015 | Football
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 Tulane on Saturday afternoon at Falcon Stadium.
(Ref.: Opening Statement)
"Good afternoon. Tough loss this past Saturday (at Air Force) and certainly those Academy games we put a lot of emotion and preparation into those games. It's tough to come away with a loss. Our guys played hard and gave a great effort. We just didn't make the plays we needed to and didn't score enough points. Had some chances with the ball and we just couldn't keep drives sustained. Defensively, I thought we really did a nice job. Particularly at the beginning of the game, we gave up a couple of big plays. Those hurt us. They hit a long pass a couple times and we gave them a short field once. Just bad field position and we couldn't move the ball and had to punt. They hit a couple of longer runs over 15 yards back-to-back that set-up a score for them. Just tough to lose a game like that that is so emotional and that you want to win so badly. Our guys gave a great effort. There were some things in that game that didn't go our way that had they gone our way, particularly early, just changes the whole deal. Being able to take a lead in that game, we hit that long run play that got called back for a penalty when it was 0-0 at the time and would've put us insider the 35-yard line. Perhaps that may have given us a chance to take the lead right off the bat. We had a costly penalty in the opening drive, third-and-1, our slot back leaned and got called for an illegal motion before the play started that made it a third-and-6 that we didn't convert. Just things like that were either self-inflicted or just didn't go our way kept us from being in position to score. We came right back on Sunday and started to prepare for Tulane which is a very big and talented football team. They don't have a record that reflects how good of a football team I think they are. They are really athletic at the skill positions. They are huge along the lines. The defensive line has two guys over 300 lbs. Their offensive line is a great big bunch of guys. That creates some physical difficulties for us. We have a starting left tackle that weighs 242 so there is obviously going to need to be some things we need to do to create opportunities for us against a team like this. We're looking forward to being back home and playing here at Michie Stadium. Still some opportunities out there for us to play this year and we are certainly going to take advantage."
(Ref.: On playing young guys over veterans to see what they have for the future)
"We're going to play the guys that we think give us the best chance to win against Tulane and going forward. That's fair to our team. We're not going to hold tryouts or treat it as a developmental squad. We want to win football games when we go to play so we're going to play the guys we think give us the best chance. That may mean there are some new faces out there but certainly will do our very best to win."
(Ref.: Bradshaw had another hard game, how is he feeling and will he remain the No. 1 QB)
"I think so. Neither Ahmad nor A.J. were 100 percent going into the game on Saturday. I wouldn't say they are 100 percent right now, but there were a whole list of guys who went into that game and battled their hearts out that weren't necessarily completely healthy. That is the case with a lot of football teams, we are just one of many teams that are battling that this season."
(Ref.: What can be done to jumpstart the offense?)
"Against Rice we fumbled on the opening drive which we have done at previous points in the season and that wasn't very desirable to start 14-0 with only two minutes off the clock. We got going and scored some points. This last week it was just a blow for blow slug fest. I thought our defense matched up with them offensively and I thought our guys did a great job defending them. We gave up the 59-yard pass to the slot, we gave up a long pass to the receiver out there on our sideline and it was an underthrown ball where the guy caught it like the punt. It was a big play that set up a score for them. The last touchdown, they had a third down and took a timeout got into a formation we hadn't seen all game or year. We had a guy tied to the tight end that should have been covering him, but we turned the guy loose. We can't give up those big plays and have a missed assignment where we cut a guy loose for a score or big play. I thought our defense battled and played well, and I thought their defense did too. We didn't hit any big plays, we had one long pass to Poe, but we didn't get any points out of it. We had a long run on the scramble in the second quarter where Ahmad did a great job running for about 50 yards, but it got called back. We didn't have any big run plays and we didn't run out of tackles. On the opening drive we had five or six yards, just couldn't go for 15-16. We need to get more chunks. I think both teams know each other really well and that is why it was a game like that. The teams that know us the best are going to defend us the best. I think that is the case with our defense as well. We did a really good job defending them. The big plays and giving them the short field were detrimental to our efforts."
(Ref.: Opportunities to pass against Air Force)
"They do a pretty good job. If you watch the Navy game, Navy gets the passes off and they were about 50-50. Navy was either hitting a big play or getting sacked. They do a good job of putting pressure on the quarterback. Again, knowing the scheme and being able to add extra defenders to the pass rush is what they do. We're not a chuck it around team. We're going to try and run the ball and keep the ball away from the other team. Our goal is to not put our defense in bad positions and get negative yardage plays where we were in second-and-12 or have a second-and-6 and then all of a sudden it's third-and-9 or third-and-11 because we tried to throw the ball and went backwards. We try to keep getting positive yards. We felt like if we could keep getting blocks and sustain blocks we could move the ball and that's why we try to play for field position. We had them buried at the four-yard line, deep in their own territory a couple times and it worked. We got the ball back on the 45-yard line going in. Really, we have to hit a first down and a half to get into field goal range and we couldn't do that. To take a shot and to throw a pass, when I thought they did a really good job of putting pressure on the quarterback against Navy and against us last year, we tried to take some shots and they sacked us a bunch, we were determined not to have negative yardage plays and reserve our right to punt and not put our defense in bad positions and just play the game. I don't know in terms of throwing the ball. If I knew what the result was going to be and what the outcome was going to be, I would do a lot of things different. We were trying to do what we thought was best to help our football team win and we didn't care if we win by two or 22. Just want to try and find a way to win.
(Ref.: Army's running back position)
"I thought one of them might separate themselves from the pack but you're correct, none of them have completely separated themselves. All of them do some good things. I think they all have qualities that are maybe better than the other guys in the group. Hopefully one of those young guys, Drue Harris, Darnell Woolfork, Spencer Scheff as he grows and develops, one of those guys might be the guy that can do everything and be an every down, all the time guy. Right now, some of them are better blockers, some are better with the under center stuff, some are better in the gun, some are better receivers, some are better inside runners, some better outside runners. All the B-Backs I'm talking about. I think just finding a way to play them in the right situations and not completely tip our hand on who's who. Can't have every pass play be this B-Back and every inside run be this B Back. We try not to do that obviously and tip the hand of what we're doing. But there are some things they all do well and that other guys in the group do better than each one of them."
(Ref.: what needs to be fixed in order to have a more productive offense)
"It is execution. Injuries and youth and all of those things, certainly can be reasons why there's not production by a team. But I'm not going to use that as a crutch or an excuse. The guys that we have are the ones that we have. We've got to do a really good job of coaching those guys and getting them prepared to play each Saturday, including this Saturday. There are some challenges, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse. That's our job to get those guys ready to go and get them ready to play. We're going to get better when we sustain blocks longer on offense, and that's the key to any offense. There are no offenses where you don't have to block. We need to do a good job blocking and sustaining those blocks, and when we do, we'll play better on offense. We've got to knock people to the ground, we've got to run through arm tackles and break some tackles, make some people miss at opportune times, and that will help our production too. When we are more effective running the football, then I think, there will be more opportunities to throw the ball. As I've found in my career and my experience with this offense, the better you get at running the ball, the better you are at running the ball and the less you throw it, because you are much better at running the football. That's what we want to do. I've said it before, there have been a lot of games that I have coached in this offense where we didn't attempt to pass the ball one time and we won by a lot of points and ran for a lot of yards. That doesn't have anything to do with the production, it's the guys that are responsible for blocking and carrying the ball doing their job and us coaching them to do that that's going to get the production we want. We're still a work in progress but the keyword there is progress. It's hard to see and I know people say we're crazy to think there's progress when we're not getting the end result and the wins, but I think we're improving as a team and we're improving as a program and we're going to keep fighting. I think our guys are playing hard and playing as well as they can right now. They're trying. There's no lack of effort and there's some guys who are in there, maybe because of inexperience, youth, injury or whatever it is, that are not able to do the job as well as they would if they were healthy, older or more experienced. But that's who we've got. We're going to play with the guys we've got. I love them and I am confident that, if we continue to coach them, that we'll be able to execute."
(Ref:. Improvements needed to lift running game)
"In the case of Justin Gilbert and Jaryn Villegas, I hope our training room does a great job and has them ready for the game. Justin hasn't been practicing for the final three days of practice last week, and our trainers nursed him back to health and gave him a chance to play. With a guy who has been around as long as he has, I knew he wanted to play and would play hard. Jaryn came in as a reserve of Victor Nieves. Victor was struggling a little bit in that game, and having Jaryn who has played some and is now in his second year in our program, we were hoping he could provide a spark. I don't know that he was 100-percent healthy either. We are going to need some help from TK and his crew to get those guys ready to go, and hopefully they will be. I know they will play hard if they're in the game, and I would like to have those more experienced guys in there if we can."
(Ref:. Challenge in stopping Tulane offense)
"They are very talented at the skill positions. They've got a really good running back, and physically matching up with him won't be easy. He's a very talented kid, as well as all their wide receivers. We're very impressed with all of their skill guys. And, they are big up front. For our guys who may not be as much of a match in size, weeding your way through all that stuff and being tough and playing hard isn't as easy when you're a 235-pound defensive end going against a guy that weighs 308 playing offensive tackle. You can't exactly just out-tough him and bull rush him, you've got to come up with some ways to get to the passer, make him get rid of the ball on time and hopefully put some pressure on him."
(Ref:. Challenges facing Tulane's defense)
"The way they line up against the option, they have a 328-pound nose guard who is quick, and it's impressive to watch a guy that's that big move like he does. They've got two inside guys, one is 304 and the other one's over 290. That's obviously a concern when you've got over 900-pounds of human being in the guard box with a couple of linebackers standing behind those guys. That's a challenge in itself just to get some movement and get the play started. Their athleticism and speed is different than ours; they're a talented, fast football team. We're going to try to get it on the perimeter and get it around those 328-pound guys, but out there are some very fast, athletic guys that we're going to have to block in space and make miss."
(Ref.: Opening Statement)
"Good afternoon. Tough loss this past Saturday (at Air Force) and certainly those Academy games we put a lot of emotion and preparation into those games. It's tough to come away with a loss. Our guys played hard and gave a great effort. We just didn't make the plays we needed to and didn't score enough points. Had some chances with the ball and we just couldn't keep drives sustained. Defensively, I thought we really did a nice job. Particularly at the beginning of the game, we gave up a couple of big plays. Those hurt us. They hit a long pass a couple times and we gave them a short field once. Just bad field position and we couldn't move the ball and had to punt. They hit a couple of longer runs over 15 yards back-to-back that set-up a score for them. Just tough to lose a game like that that is so emotional and that you want to win so badly. Our guys gave a great effort. There were some things in that game that didn't go our way that had they gone our way, particularly early, just changes the whole deal. Being able to take a lead in that game, we hit that long run play that got called back for a penalty when it was 0-0 at the time and would've put us insider the 35-yard line. Perhaps that may have given us a chance to take the lead right off the bat. We had a costly penalty in the opening drive, third-and-1, our slot back leaned and got called for an illegal motion before the play started that made it a third-and-6 that we didn't convert. Just things like that were either self-inflicted or just didn't go our way kept us from being in position to score. We came right back on Sunday and started to prepare for Tulane which is a very big and talented football team. They don't have a record that reflects how good of a football team I think they are. They are really athletic at the skill positions. They are huge along the lines. The defensive line has two guys over 300 lbs. Their offensive line is a great big bunch of guys. That creates some physical difficulties for us. We have a starting left tackle that weighs 242 so there is obviously going to need to be some things we need to do to create opportunities for us against a team like this. We're looking forward to being back home and playing here at Michie Stadium. Still some opportunities out there for us to play this year and we are certainly going to take advantage."
(Ref.: On playing young guys over veterans to see what they have for the future)
"We're going to play the guys that we think give us the best chance to win against Tulane and going forward. That's fair to our team. We're not going to hold tryouts or treat it as a developmental squad. We want to win football games when we go to play so we're going to play the guys we think give us the best chance. That may mean there are some new faces out there but certainly will do our very best to win."
(Ref.: Bradshaw had another hard game, how is he feeling and will he remain the No. 1 QB)
"I think so. Neither Ahmad nor A.J. were 100 percent going into the game on Saturday. I wouldn't say they are 100 percent right now, but there were a whole list of guys who went into that game and battled their hearts out that weren't necessarily completely healthy. That is the case with a lot of football teams, we are just one of many teams that are battling that this season."
(Ref.: What can be done to jumpstart the offense?)
"Against Rice we fumbled on the opening drive which we have done at previous points in the season and that wasn't very desirable to start 14-0 with only two minutes off the clock. We got going and scored some points. This last week it was just a blow for blow slug fest. I thought our defense matched up with them offensively and I thought our guys did a great job defending them. We gave up the 59-yard pass to the slot, we gave up a long pass to the receiver out there on our sideline and it was an underthrown ball where the guy caught it like the punt. It was a big play that set up a score for them. The last touchdown, they had a third down and took a timeout got into a formation we hadn't seen all game or year. We had a guy tied to the tight end that should have been covering him, but we turned the guy loose. We can't give up those big plays and have a missed assignment where we cut a guy loose for a score or big play. I thought our defense battled and played well, and I thought their defense did too. We didn't hit any big plays, we had one long pass to Poe, but we didn't get any points out of it. We had a long run on the scramble in the second quarter where Ahmad did a great job running for about 50 yards, but it got called back. We didn't have any big run plays and we didn't run out of tackles. On the opening drive we had five or six yards, just couldn't go for 15-16. We need to get more chunks. I think both teams know each other really well and that is why it was a game like that. The teams that know us the best are going to defend us the best. I think that is the case with our defense as well. We did a really good job defending them. The big plays and giving them the short field were detrimental to our efforts."
(Ref.: Opportunities to pass against Air Force)
"They do a pretty good job. If you watch the Navy game, Navy gets the passes off and they were about 50-50. Navy was either hitting a big play or getting sacked. They do a good job of putting pressure on the quarterback. Again, knowing the scheme and being able to add extra defenders to the pass rush is what they do. We're not a chuck it around team. We're going to try and run the ball and keep the ball away from the other team. Our goal is to not put our defense in bad positions and get negative yardage plays where we were in second-and-12 or have a second-and-6 and then all of a sudden it's third-and-9 or third-and-11 because we tried to throw the ball and went backwards. We try to keep getting positive yards. We felt like if we could keep getting blocks and sustain blocks we could move the ball and that's why we try to play for field position. We had them buried at the four-yard line, deep in their own territory a couple times and it worked. We got the ball back on the 45-yard line going in. Really, we have to hit a first down and a half to get into field goal range and we couldn't do that. To take a shot and to throw a pass, when I thought they did a really good job of putting pressure on the quarterback against Navy and against us last year, we tried to take some shots and they sacked us a bunch, we were determined not to have negative yardage plays and reserve our right to punt and not put our defense in bad positions and just play the game. I don't know in terms of throwing the ball. If I knew what the result was going to be and what the outcome was going to be, I would do a lot of things different. We were trying to do what we thought was best to help our football team win and we didn't care if we win by two or 22. Just want to try and find a way to win.
(Ref.: Army's running back position)
"I thought one of them might separate themselves from the pack but you're correct, none of them have completely separated themselves. All of them do some good things. I think they all have qualities that are maybe better than the other guys in the group. Hopefully one of those young guys, Drue Harris, Darnell Woolfork, Spencer Scheff as he grows and develops, one of those guys might be the guy that can do everything and be an every down, all the time guy. Right now, some of them are better blockers, some are better with the under center stuff, some are better in the gun, some are better receivers, some are better inside runners, some better outside runners. All the B-Backs I'm talking about. I think just finding a way to play them in the right situations and not completely tip our hand on who's who. Can't have every pass play be this B-Back and every inside run be this B Back. We try not to do that obviously and tip the hand of what we're doing. But there are some things they all do well and that other guys in the group do better than each one of them."
(Ref.: what needs to be fixed in order to have a more productive offense)
"It is execution. Injuries and youth and all of those things, certainly can be reasons why there's not production by a team. But I'm not going to use that as a crutch or an excuse. The guys that we have are the ones that we have. We've got to do a really good job of coaching those guys and getting them prepared to play each Saturday, including this Saturday. There are some challenges, but I'm not going to use that as an excuse. That's our job to get those guys ready to go and get them ready to play. We're going to get better when we sustain blocks longer on offense, and that's the key to any offense. There are no offenses where you don't have to block. We need to do a good job blocking and sustaining those blocks, and when we do, we'll play better on offense. We've got to knock people to the ground, we've got to run through arm tackles and break some tackles, make some people miss at opportune times, and that will help our production too. When we are more effective running the football, then I think, there will be more opportunities to throw the ball. As I've found in my career and my experience with this offense, the better you get at running the ball, the better you are at running the ball and the less you throw it, because you are much better at running the football. That's what we want to do. I've said it before, there have been a lot of games that I have coached in this offense where we didn't attempt to pass the ball one time and we won by a lot of points and ran for a lot of yards. That doesn't have anything to do with the production, it's the guys that are responsible for blocking and carrying the ball doing their job and us coaching them to do that that's going to get the production we want. We're still a work in progress but the keyword there is progress. It's hard to see and I know people say we're crazy to think there's progress when we're not getting the end result and the wins, but I think we're improving as a team and we're improving as a program and we're going to keep fighting. I think our guys are playing hard and playing as well as they can right now. They're trying. There's no lack of effort and there's some guys who are in there, maybe because of inexperience, youth, injury or whatever it is, that are not able to do the job as well as they would if they were healthy, older or more experienced. But that's who we've got. We're going to play with the guys we've got. I love them and I am confident that, if we continue to coach them, that we'll be able to execute."
(Ref:. Improvements needed to lift running game)
"In the case of Justin Gilbert and Jaryn Villegas, I hope our training room does a great job and has them ready for the game. Justin hasn't been practicing for the final three days of practice last week, and our trainers nursed him back to health and gave him a chance to play. With a guy who has been around as long as he has, I knew he wanted to play and would play hard. Jaryn came in as a reserve of Victor Nieves. Victor was struggling a little bit in that game, and having Jaryn who has played some and is now in his second year in our program, we were hoping he could provide a spark. I don't know that he was 100-percent healthy either. We are going to need some help from TK and his crew to get those guys ready to go, and hopefully they will be. I know they will play hard if they're in the game, and I would like to have those more experienced guys in there if we can."
(Ref:. Challenge in stopping Tulane offense)
"They are very talented at the skill positions. They've got a really good running back, and physically matching up with him won't be easy. He's a very talented kid, as well as all their wide receivers. We're very impressed with all of their skill guys. And, they are big up front. For our guys who may not be as much of a match in size, weeding your way through all that stuff and being tough and playing hard isn't as easy when you're a 235-pound defensive end going against a guy that weighs 308 playing offensive tackle. You can't exactly just out-tough him and bull rush him, you've got to come up with some ways to get to the passer, make him get rid of the ball on time and hopefully put some pressure on him."
(Ref:. Challenges facing Tulane's defense)
"The way they line up against the option, they have a 328-pound nose guard who is quick, and it's impressive to watch a guy that's that big move like he does. They've got two inside guys, one is 304 and the other one's over 290. That's obviously a concern when you've got over 900-pounds of human being in the guard box with a couple of linebackers standing behind those guys. That's a challenge in itself just to get some movement and get the play started. Their athleticism and speed is different than ours; they're a talented, fast football team. We're going to try to get it on the perimeter and get it around those 328-pound guys, but out there are some very fast, athletic guys that we're going to have to block in space and make miss."
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