Army West Point Athletics
Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Wake Forest
October 25, 2016 | 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 back on the road this week, as they travel to Winston-Salem, N.C., to face Wake Forest on Saturday, Oct. 29 at 3:30 p.m.
(Ref.: opening statement)
"Good afternoon everybody. Getting prepared for this game against Wake Forest. Gosh, what a great job that Dave Clawson has done. Their whole staff and that program, to be playing the way they are and having the success that they've been having. It is really impressive. They have a really good looking football team with a lot of terrific athletes.
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"They've beaten us the last couple years. We have followed the same course here. Dave took the job at Wake Forest the same year that I came here to Army. We faced off there in Winston –Salem the first year, it was a really close and hard-fought game. It was kind of the same here last year, and we just haven't been able to find a way to beat them. We need to have a great week of preparation and hope to have as many of these guys that are injured get back to full health so we have our very best players to take in there and play them on Saturday.
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"Our coaches have been busy preparing the past couple of days. We are excited to have a chance to play such a great team from such a respected league like the ACC. It is a great challenge for us, but I think it is why our guys came to school here. To have the chance to play schools like Wake Forest so it will take a great effort and we are going to do our best to be prepared."
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(Ref.: on anything learned from the North Texas game)
"There's a lot we can learn, there's a lot we didn't do well. There were some bright spots, we had some guys do some positive things. We gave up the pick-six, but we had a nice drive to score our first touchdown. Our guys did a nice job controlling the ball and taking the ball down the field. We overcame some errors and we were able to get a touchdown, but unfortunately, we didn't sustain that. North Texas came out and ran the ball very effectively against us. We just didn't get off blocks like we have been, and credit North Texas with that. We put ourselves in some tough situations and we didn't help ourselves."
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(Ref.: on what to expect from Wake Forest)
"They have a lot of guys coming back. You can look at the roster and starting lineups and see they have plenty of guys who have played in the last couple of years against us. Dave (Clawson) has done such a great job with that team. They're playing really good defense, and what's been impressive is how they're playing as a team. They're doing a great job stopping people and are not panicking. They do a good job taking care of the ball, and, even in some close games, they have not tried to do anything that's not within their offense. They really try to get the guys to do their jobs. They're playing two quarterbacks, who are both very talented, and who spread the ball around to the guys they trust and they know can do something with it. They don't try to press. They play good defense, get the ball back, and just play good team football."
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(Ref.: on dealing with a loss)
"Anytime you lose, it's a downer. I'm sure everyone that lost this weekend feels down. Show me a team that isn't down after a loss and I'll show you a bunch of losers. When you care and you lose, it's going to hurt, and it should hurt. Hopefully it will tick them off, and we'll come back and play better. When that's the case, then you know you have guys that care.
Â
"Saturday didn't have anything to do with us not playing hard. We didn't execute and perform. We didn't do a good job all the way through, from coaching to offense to defense to special teams. It ticks me off, I can tell you that. It's a lot easier to go into the next week after a victory. Even with mistakes, you make the corrections but you pay the ultimate price. If you mope around and feel sorry for yourself, that can affect you and make you lose another game."
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(Ref.: on thoughts of Wake Forest's offense)
"They're big. But that's not different from a year ago. They've had a big football team. They're running the ball effectively and better than they've run it since we've been here and faced each other. This is about like a conference game now, we play them every year. We've played them the last three years so we're kind of getting to know them pretty well and they're getting to know us. I think they do a great job. John Wolford's a terrific player. He got hurt in our game last year and they went to Kendall Hinton, who is a really good athlete. We saw him the whole game last year. He did a nice job executing against us.
Â
"They don't try to do too much. I think that's something that this year you can really see that they're doing some things and doing them very well. Like I said earlier, they're trying to find ways to get the ball to the guys that they want to have carry it.
Â
"Dave Clawson's always been a really good coach and offensive mind. He is well-respected in college football and has coached a lot of places and has been very successful. He's going to find a way to move the offense. He's always done that. I think like us, in his tenure there things are starting to come together. And he'd probably tell you that they're not where they want to be yet. That they still are looking to improve and get better. And I'm sure they will."
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(Ref.: on Chris Carter's availability)
"We will find out more as we go through the week. I think he felt better on Sunday and today with practice, after having another 48 hours of treatment and rest, I believe he is a little healthier. I think that it's nice to be able to have another guy that you can go to and put in the game. Ahmad Bradshaw is doing a great job, he is working hard and playing hard. He had some tough plays on Saturday, but he was in some tough situations where they knew he was going to throw it. Chris does some good things for us. Along with getting healthy we would love to be able to count on him to go out there and play some series, along with Ahmad, like we did earlier in the year. Right now we are hopeful and think that his hand will be ready to go. We will find out more today."Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
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(Ref.: on the kicking game)
"We continue to have our difficulties punting the ball. One, we shouldn't be snapping the ball that high and two, we have to be ready to get a high snap. It was high and went through our hands and I'm disappointed that those things happened in the kicking game. He (J.D. Mote) had the opportunity to punt early in the year and to know he was the starter for the first time, I'm sure there's some jitters. He didn't punt the ball great but it wasn't so bad that we're wondering what fourth down plays we can come up with because we don't want to punt the ball. I think he's capable of doing it; he's got a good leg. We'll continue to give him a chance to do that, and we'll see how it shakes out."
Â
(Ref.: opening statement)
"Good afternoon everybody. Getting prepared for this game against Wake Forest. Gosh, what a great job that Dave Clawson has done. Their whole staff and that program, to be playing the way they are and having the success that they've been having. It is really impressive. They have a really good looking football team with a lot of terrific athletes.
Â
"They've beaten us the last couple years. We have followed the same course here. Dave took the job at Wake Forest the same year that I came here to Army. We faced off there in Winston –Salem the first year, it was a really close and hard-fought game. It was kind of the same here last year, and we just haven't been able to find a way to beat them. We need to have a great week of preparation and hope to have as many of these guys that are injured get back to full health so we have our very best players to take in there and play them on Saturday.
Â
"Our coaches have been busy preparing the past couple of days. We are excited to have a chance to play such a great team from such a respected league like the ACC. It is a great challenge for us, but I think it is why our guys came to school here. To have the chance to play schools like Wake Forest so it will take a great effort and we are going to do our best to be prepared."
Â
(Ref.: on anything learned from the North Texas game)
"There's a lot we can learn, there's a lot we didn't do well. There were some bright spots, we had some guys do some positive things. We gave up the pick-six, but we had a nice drive to score our first touchdown. Our guys did a nice job controlling the ball and taking the ball down the field. We overcame some errors and we were able to get a touchdown, but unfortunately, we didn't sustain that. North Texas came out and ran the ball very effectively against us. We just didn't get off blocks like we have been, and credit North Texas with that. We put ourselves in some tough situations and we didn't help ourselves."
Â
(Ref.: on what to expect from Wake Forest)
"They have a lot of guys coming back. You can look at the roster and starting lineups and see they have plenty of guys who have played in the last couple of years against us. Dave (Clawson) has done such a great job with that team. They're playing really good defense, and what's been impressive is how they're playing as a team. They're doing a great job stopping people and are not panicking. They do a good job taking care of the ball, and, even in some close games, they have not tried to do anything that's not within their offense. They really try to get the guys to do their jobs. They're playing two quarterbacks, who are both very talented, and who spread the ball around to the guys they trust and they know can do something with it. They don't try to press. They play good defense, get the ball back, and just play good team football."
Â
(Ref.: on dealing with a loss)
"Anytime you lose, it's a downer. I'm sure everyone that lost this weekend feels down. Show me a team that isn't down after a loss and I'll show you a bunch of losers. When you care and you lose, it's going to hurt, and it should hurt. Hopefully it will tick them off, and we'll come back and play better. When that's the case, then you know you have guys that care.
Â
"Saturday didn't have anything to do with us not playing hard. We didn't execute and perform. We didn't do a good job all the way through, from coaching to offense to defense to special teams. It ticks me off, I can tell you that. It's a lot easier to go into the next week after a victory. Even with mistakes, you make the corrections but you pay the ultimate price. If you mope around and feel sorry for yourself, that can affect you and make you lose another game."
Â
(Ref.: on thoughts of Wake Forest's offense)
"They're big. But that's not different from a year ago. They've had a big football team. They're running the ball effectively and better than they've run it since we've been here and faced each other. This is about like a conference game now, we play them every year. We've played them the last three years so we're kind of getting to know them pretty well and they're getting to know us. I think they do a great job. John Wolford's a terrific player. He got hurt in our game last year and they went to Kendall Hinton, who is a really good athlete. We saw him the whole game last year. He did a nice job executing against us.
Â
"They don't try to do too much. I think that's something that this year you can really see that they're doing some things and doing them very well. Like I said earlier, they're trying to find ways to get the ball to the guys that they want to have carry it.
Â
"Dave Clawson's always been a really good coach and offensive mind. He is well-respected in college football and has coached a lot of places and has been very successful. He's going to find a way to move the offense. He's always done that. I think like us, in his tenure there things are starting to come together. And he'd probably tell you that they're not where they want to be yet. That they still are looking to improve and get better. And I'm sure they will."
Â
(Ref.: on Chris Carter's availability)
"We will find out more as we go through the week. I think he felt better on Sunday and today with practice, after having another 48 hours of treatment and rest, I believe he is a little healthier. I think that it's nice to be able to have another guy that you can go to and put in the game. Ahmad Bradshaw is doing a great job, he is working hard and playing hard. He had some tough plays on Saturday, but he was in some tough situations where they knew he was going to throw it. Chris does some good things for us. Along with getting healthy we would love to be able to count on him to go out there and play some series, along with Ahmad, like we did earlier in the year. Right now we are hopeful and think that his hand will be ready to go. We will find out more today."Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â
Â
(Ref.: on the kicking game)
"We continue to have our difficulties punting the ball. One, we shouldn't be snapping the ball that high and two, we have to be ready to get a high snap. It was high and went through our hands and I'm disappointed that those things happened in the kicking game. He (J.D. Mote) had the opportunity to punt early in the year and to know he was the starter for the first time, I'm sure there's some jitters. He didn't punt the ball great but it wasn't so bad that we're wondering what fourth down plays we can come up with because we don't want to punt the ball. I think he's capable of doing it; he's got a good leg. We'll continue to give him a chance to do that, and we'll see how it shakes out."
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