Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Air Force

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 challenge Air Force on Saturday afternoon at Falcon Stadium.

(Ref.: opening statement)
"Good afternoon. We are getting prepared for the game this Saturday after the bye week and the game against Rice. We had some really good things in that game two weeks ago that I feel like we are able to build on. It was unfortunate that we were unable to win the game, but to see our kids fight back from being down 14 points, two minutes into the game, was very encouraging and we showed a lot of resilience. We had some chances to make some plays and didn't and on that last drive we were knocking on the door and had to settle for a field goal. They put a great drive together and beat us, but I thought our guys fought really hard through some adversity and were able to respond.

I hope that is something that will help us this week and the rest of the season. The game this week is important to the Academy and we want to do everything we can to win. I am sure there are going to be some times in the game on Saturday where we will have to dig down deep and hopefully we have learned how to do that a lot better.

I am excited about the opportunity to play this Saturday, I think our guys have done a nice job with practice. We are starting to get a lot healthier, particularly on the offensive line, and I think that will help us and help our depth. We have a few more days of practice in order to get prepared for our trip."

(Ref.: can you win a shootout against Air Force?)
"All we want to do is have one more point than them at the end. It doesn't make any difference to us how it happens. We just want to have enough points to win the football game."

(Ref.: on winning the Commander-In-Chief's trophy)
"There's only one way to settle that. There are two games to play and this is one of them so we are going to try to play our very best and do our best to execute. We didn't do a very good job of that last year and I hope we will do a better job this year and give ourselves a better chance."

(Ref: like most and least about having a week off)
"I think a week off is beneficial to any team. The extra preparation and rest is particularly helpful. Getting healthy and getting guys back is important. We had some guys get banged up in practice last week, it's football it's going to happen, but a lot of those guys that had been on and off again throughout the season have gotten healthy which has helped us. I don't know if there is a negative to having a week off. I've never felt it was a disadvantage to have an extra week to prepare. We used it to our advantage as to get extra preparation and rest."

(Ref: Bradshaw at quarterback this weekend)
"We do expect him to play. He has practiced the last couple of days and will practice the rest of the week. Our training staff has done a great job getting him back to health and we expect to play him on Saturday. Certainly that position and the two guys who have played all the snaps for us this year have both had their problems with injuries and that is always a concern when you have a guy that is nicked up and if they come back it may reoccur. That is always a concern, but we don't have much choice. We are going to play those guys and if we can't, we have other guys that we are preparing as well. Those guys are working really hard. Younger guys have been getting reps these last couple of weeks in preparation for the Rice game and now. Not having Ahmad Bradshaw ready for that game gave those guys some opportunity and the bye week gave them more reps. The more they play and practice the more comfortable they will be. If they have to get into a game we have to do things that they can handle and work to keep the game going."

(Ref: Importance of Air Force and Navy games)
"I think they would be considered the two biggest games on the schedule anyway before you ever play a game. The battle for the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy means a lot to the Academy and is a huge part of playing at West Point. Certainly those two games are important to us and are always a goal of ours to win those games. We don't apologize for saying those are big games. There are still other games to play, but when those two are the next games on our schedule, they happen to be the biggest game of the year at that point. I try to treat each week that way, that the next one is the most important one since it is the only one that you can do anything about."

(Ref.: how the defense is set to approach the Air Force quarterbacks)
"I think it's hard to prepare for two different quarterbacks, unless they're entirely different, and I don't know that the philosophy changes for either of our teams based on who the quarterback is. It's a lot to prepare for, the things that they've done with their current quarterback, and if there's a change in the quarterback on that side, it will be very difficult for us to have two game plans in place. I think they've got a philosophy on offense, as we do, and it is a matter of putting those pieces in place. If a guy goes down, it's not just the quarterback that changes. If you're going to change the plays then the lineman and the skill players all have to block different plays and maybe techniques change. That's not easy to do. We're going to prepare for the things that they've done and the things that we anticipate that they may be able to do against us, and hope that that's good enough."

(Ref.: whether the defense needs to change the game plan against DE Alex Hansen)
"The difficult thing in our offense is that you can't just pick out guys that you're going to double-team block. We've got to run our offense and execute our offense. Certainly they've got some good players and we'll have to do a very good job of executing and blocking them and try to sustain blocks. I think that's key. With those defensive ends and those guys that play on the edge of the blocks, just like their offense, a lot of times we're able to read those guys and we don't have to block them every single play. Certainly that's beneficial to us. As you said, they've got some good players and we'll have to do a good job of doing our job, much better than we did a year ago, in order to move the football. That's going to be key for us. They beat us in the time of possession, they beat us in rushing yards, they just beat us last year. If we want to keep that from happening again, we're going to have to play a lot better."

(Ref: Thoughts about defense generating turnovers against Rice)
"That was encouraging. Turnover margin is one of the things we talk about as a program and not giving the other team opportunities and trying to steal a possession by taking the ball away. I thought our defense did a great job with that. We also got one in the kicking game with the onside kick, and I thought that was a big play. Unfortunately, we weren't able to convert any points out of that, but it's encouraging to see those guys getting the ball back. That's something we have to continue to do if we are going to have a chance to win and win consistently. You have to win the turnover battle. We've given the ball away far too many times for us to have the kind of success that we would like. We have to give the ball away far less, preferably not at all, and take it away a lot more. It was good to see those guys do that on Saturday."

(Ref. Air Force's experience)
"I think game experience and having guys that have played in your system for four-straight years is extremely valuable. It's valuable to any team. There have been teams that I've coached and have been a part of that were very senior-laden teams that were very successful. It was because they had those years of experience with us and our system. They grow up in the program and understand the expectations. They have their own expectations about how to play and their performance level. I've also coached senior-laden teams and we weren't very talented and weren't very good. It has to do with the caliber of player, and then the experience really kicks in. Hopefully, that's something that we're building. Hopefully, with all these young guys who are playing right now, they will grow up through the program, stay healthy, continue to develop, and soon we'll have a team with a bunch of juniors and seniors starting and freshmen and sophomores backing up. When you have an experienced team that has some talent, you've got a chance to be pretty good."

Army West Point Athletics

Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Air Force

Players Mentioned

Ahmad Bradshaw

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