Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Fordham

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 Fordham on Friday evening in a 7:04 p.m. kickoff at Michie Stadium.

(Ref.: opening statement)
"Good afternoon everybody, I know everyone is as excited about football season as I am. We all seem to gather here this time of year when the leaves start to change and to me there's not a better time of year than football season. I'm excited about this new team to see what we've got and excited to take the field Friday night. We've got a great challenge ahead of us, this is an outstanding football team coming in here, Fordham has won 23 games over the past two years and we will find out a lot about our football team.

I think we have worked really hard, we have had a good offseason and we have some new faces. I'm excited for Friday, excited for the season and there is always hope of a new season. It's no different now, we have a couple more days of practice and when the lights come on Friday night we will see how ready we are."

(Ref.: number of positions solidified at this point)
"There are some guys on our team who have certainly solidified their spots. On defense, the two inside linebackers Andrew King and Jeremy Timpf both were starters last year, they are good football players and I'm glad they are on our team. John Voit is a defensive end and is another guy who has earned his spot. He played a lot of snaps for us last year and T.J. Atimalala at nose tackle is in the same boat. Chris Carnegie in the secondary and Xavier Moss, who moved over from offense this year, he has clearly set himself apart at that position. Rhyan England and Tevin Long have both played a lot of football for us on special teams and defense and they will factor in for us on defense.

There are some moving parts, the outside linebacker position, the other line positions and who will back those guys up. The one corner position we are going to start Steven Johnson and Brandon Jackson, who is a freshman, has played quite a bit for us in preseason camp and has had a good camp and I'm excited about him. Either of those two guys may be the guy.

On offense, Edgar Poe, who is a returning wide receiver, is aggressive when he goes up to get the ball, he is a good blocker and is a long body. DeAndre Bell is a solid guy, he has been in the program for a good while and has really played well. The offensive line is where we are the most experienced. Matt Hugenberg played every snap last year and it is good to have him back. Along with him, its good to have Justin Gilbert, who sat out all of last year with an ACL injury, to have him back is great for our offense. He is an athletic guy, a really good player, who moved from tackle to guard, which opened up an opportunity for Ryan Alexander, who became a starter last year after moving from offense to defense after a few games. We also have some other guys who have played, Brett Toth and Jaryn Villegas both played last year and I think those five guys have earned their spots as starters. Kelvin White, our tight end, is clearly the guy at his position and then there are a lot of other guys at the skill positions who are new faces for us. Ahmad Bradshaw at quarterback, Joe Walker, who has never started a game in college will be one of the slot backs. John Trainor who played at wide receiver last year will be one of the slot backs and we have four freshmen backing those guys up so that will be a young position. Matt Giachinta will be a first-time starter and will be backed up by Aaron Kemper. All the specialists are back, we have a really good punter in Alex Tardieu and Daniel Grochowski and Connor Farley are back as well at kicker and long snapper."

(ref: his feelings on the number of new faces on the team)
"That's college football. Look at Fordham's roster, I think they have four returning starters from a year ago. Eventually they graduate and you can't sign them to a longer contract, you've just got to develop guys. That's what we're trying to do in this program is develop these guys so that eventually they'll be the starters. Every coach in every program experiences that."

(ref: on whether or not A.J. Schurr's previous injuries played a role in the starting QB decision)
"I don't know if a guy, because he's been injured in the past, means that he's going to be more susceptible to injury in the future. I don't know that there's any statistics on that or any data that backs that up. If you've got any of that, I'd be interested in seeing it. Frankly, we're going to choose our quarterback based off of who we think best gives our team the chance to win and right now we think Ahmad (Bradshaw) is that guy."

(ref: on whether or not A.J. Schurr's injuries limiting his snaps played a role in the starting QB decision)
"He certainly would have gotten more repetitions and that may have helped him and benefitted him. But, he's been in the program and he was with us all last year and got a lot of snaps in practice and in games last year. Though he was hurt, just the veteran experience should help him. I think we can play with either one of those guys, we just felt like Ahmad (Bradshaw) has been playing better, practicing better and gives us a better chance at this point."

(ref: on whether anything specific separated Ahmad Bradshaw from the other QBs)
"I don't know if there was any on particular skill, we just felt like he was moving the offense better, performing better. We want to have a player there that is capable of running the ball, throwing the ball and making plays for us, both with their feet and their arm and I think he's capable of doing that. The other thing is that I think he's got a lot of potential to grow. He improves every day and he's gotten better the more he's played and I think he'll continue to improve and get better. That's typically the case with younger guys, that there is more of an upside in terms of development."

(ref: his excitement on getting the defense out on the field)
"I think we'll be better. We played good defense at times last year and we played very poorly at times. We've got to be more consistent. We've got to do a better job of trying to create turnovers and create more opportunities for our offense, getting people off the field on third down. We didn't do a very good job of converting on third downs. We let people continue drives last year that we had even in some third and long situations and gave up some opportunities to get them off the field. Those make a big difference in the football game for us. Just to see how these guys who haven't played respond when the lights come on. I think we have some talented young guys. How they're going to play on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons remains to be seen."

(ref: Offensive line's importance – Ryan Alexander transitioning from defensive tackle to offensive line)
"Ryan is the type of guy who really cares about the team. There's maybe not a guy that practices harder than him. Last year he was a backup on our depth chart and we just fell that he could be a starter for us on offense. He has a great motor and plays really hard. He is a good athlete. He's not a great big guy, he's 250 lbs. He is the smallest guy starting on the offensive line. He wanted to contribute and certainly playing 60 or 70 snaps on offense is different than playing only 6 or 7 on defense. I think he wanted to make a contribution and ultimately I think all of our guys do. He's had a great attitude and I'm glad we made that move with him."

(ref: Leadership TJ Atimalala on defensive line)
"T.J. has a great personality and work ethic. He practices hard and when he is in the weight room he works hard. The guys recognize that and he has the right personality for the unit he is a part of. He has had to step up in that role, but I don't think that is out of his comfort zone."

(ref. A.J. Schurr's preparation as a backup)
"We try to coach our guys that everybody needs to prepare like they're going to be the starter. Anybody that's a backup is one play away from being the starter. If Ahmad (Bradshaw) gets hurt, A.J. is going to go trotting out there. That's the same at every position. If the center goes down, then Josh Boylan is going to go in. If one of the inside linebackers goes down, then it's Justin Fahn or Scott Washle, and they're going to go trotting into the game. Everybody needs to prepare and be ready to play the game like they're a starter. In A.J.'s case, he is a competitor. If the guys care, it's going to hurt them when they're not the starter, and it should. That should create healthy competition at each position, and there needs to be competition in order for guys to be at their best. If we aren't being pushed by somebody else, it's unfortunately human nature that we tend to relax and don't feel that sense of urgency. I think some good, healthy competition at each position is good; certainly at the quarterback position. They're both very capable. I think both (Bradshaw and Schurr) are players that are capable of moving our football team and doing a good job for us. They'll likely both play on Friday night."

(ref. Restrictions on play calling vs. Fordham due to Ahmad Bradshaw's inexperience)
"We don't feel inhibited by (Bradshaw's) lack of inexperience. We're going to call the game based on what we think our offense can execute and what the defense gives us. That's really how our offense has always been built. We have a base play; we like to run that play and be good at that play, but we've got a lot of complimentary plays that go along with it that help us either execute that play, get the defense playing to where we can execute that play or take advantage of a numbers opportunity or a particular scheme. Nothing that we've put in our playbook or that we run as an offense is something that we feel we can't run with Ahmad or A.J. in the game."

(Ref: on your feelings heading into this season as opposed to last year)
"We know our team a little better than we did last year. There are some guys that have played and that gives us the advantage of having seen them in game action and really assess their strengths over the course of a year and a half. We've made some moves and changed positions with some guys and I think those are going to help our team.

"Each new year is exciting. Just as I was excited last year to go out there for the first time with an Army team, I'm just as excited this year to see what will happen."

(Ref: on the team's identity heading into the first game)
"We have a tough football team. That doesn't mean we're going to win any games, but I think our guys are tough. I value that more than I value any attribute a player has, whether it's speed, size, strength or athleticism. I'll take toughness first. Our players are mentally tough and being mentally tough allows them to be physically tough. Our guys play hard and give effort and those things can make up for a lack of athleticism or a lack of speed."

Army West Point Athletics

Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Fordham

Players Mentioned

Ryan Alexander

T.J. Atimalala

DeAndre Bell

Ahmad Bradshaw

Chris Carnegie

Rhyan England

Justin Fahn

Connor Farley

Matt Giachinta

Justin Gilbert

Daniel Grochowski

Matt Hugenberg

Brandon Jackson

Steven Johnson

Aaron Kemper

Andrew King

Tevin Long

Xavier Moss

Edgar Poe

A.J. Schurr

Alex Tardieu

Jeremy Timpf

Brett Toth

John Trainor

Jaryn Villegas

John Voit

Joe Walker

Scott Washle

Kelvin White

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