Army West Point Athletics
Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Lafayette
October 11, 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 return home for back-to-back games, beginning with a contest against Lafayette on Saturday, Oct. 15 at noon.
(Ref.: opening statement)
"Good afternoon. It is good to be coming back home this week after we've been on the road quite a bit for the past five games. The team is really excited to come back and play here at Michie Stadium and particularly to play in front of the Corps of Cadets.
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 "We have had a couple tough weeks away, especially this past weekend at Duke. To come away with a disappointing loss, I felt like we played really well on defense, with the exception of a few plays, we did a good job of slowing down their offense. We saw a chance to win, but we couldn't sustain anything on offense. We had several drives that were three plays and a punt, or fourth and short. It was frustrating to all of us.
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"We have to credit Duke and their defense. Their players did an excellent job executing their game plan. They really shut us down. Despite not playing as well as I hope we would, we had a chance to win the game and it is disappointing when you come close and see all the little things you could have done to make the difference.
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"It was a good team we faced, a well-coached football team. We are glad to have a game this weekend and not have to live with a loss for two weeks. Hopefully we can come back and play better this Saturday and we will be tested with Lafayette. They have a well-coached team under Frank Tavani who has multiple years of experience and who has taken his teams to championships and playoffs. We have watched a lot of film the past two days and we remember who we are, and we know that we are going to be challenged with everyone that we play."
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(Ref.: on what you can take away from the Duke game)
"There are a lot of things to take away. The rain is an easy excuse, but it's not an excuse for not blocking people. That's not an excuse for not covering a receiver at the goal line. That's our assignment and we have to play our assignments and execute on the fundamentals. I thought we played good enough on defense, but I'm disappointed we gave up some third down plays. On some of those play-action passes, it's easy to get your eyes in the backfield and see what's going on back there. We were just trying to poke our noses in there and stop them from getting into the end zone and they threw the ball over our head, but that's not the end of the world and it wasn't the difference in the game. Maybe we could have defended better, but our guys were trying to make plays and I thought we played really hard.
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"Offensively, we just couldn't block and knock them back on the perimeter. What was particularly frustrating were the fourth and shorts. Three times we had fourth and short. Once we got knocked back for a loss of five yards, once for a loss of six yards and one we came up about an inch short. That's been uncharacteristic of us, we've had fairly good success on fourth downs up until this game."
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(Ref.: on Lafayette being a trap game)
"There are no trap games at Army. If we know who we are, we'll realize that there's not a single team in this country that we can take lightly. I promise you, if you look at their guys on film, they're taller and bigger than we are. We're not the kind of team that says 'we're more talented and faster than them.' We're going to have to play our very best to beat them, and that's the case with everybody we play. If we don't play our best, we won't have a very good chance."
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(Ref.: on Jordan Smith's return to the lineup and what to expect from him)
"I anticipate that he'll play more and more as we get him back up to speed. He played 16 snaps at Duke and that was probably the right amount based on what our trainers were saying and based on what he can handle physically. I think he'll get more this week and as the season progresses. He's a tough kid and does a tough job when he's in there on playing blocks and getting to the ball. He lightens the load for the other guys. John Voit probably played more than he's played all year against Duke. In theory, Jordan should help take some plays off of Voit, Amadeo West and Raymond Wright. Because we're smaller than most of the teams we play, it's nice to have some guys that can rotate and keep them fresh."
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(Ref.: on what your linebacker corps brings to the defense)
"I think our whole team defense is collectively playing very well and I hope they'll continue to do so. Jay Bateman and the defensive staff are doing a terrific job of getting those guys prepared and having a good scheme for our opponents. Certainly the conditions on Saturday probably limited what Duke was doing against us, they were very cautious with the ball and that was wise on their part. But they took some shots throwing the football and our guys got off of some blocks and made some plays. Our guys are playing hard and have shown great effort. Our defense has helped us get three wins to this point and if we hope to get some more, it's going to take great effort on their part."
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(Ref.: on quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw managing and executing against Duke)
"The pitch-out that hit the ground, Ahmad was just trying to make a play. We got to that point in the game, its fourth quarter and we've got the ball in their territory, if we were going to have a chance to win the game we were probably going to need to do it on that drive. But he's just trying to make a play. We ran an option play to the left and it really got stretched out toward the sideline. He's either going to stretch it, continue to stretch it, and try to get the ball pitched to try to leverage the pitch key or he's going to turn it up inside and gain some yards or gain a bunch. I think he kind of saw an opening there and started up the field. And then maybe felt it was closing up on him or felt the pitch key kind of poke his nose back in there on him and he thought it could try to get the ball out there and leverage the guy.
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"Unfortunately it just wasn't a pitch where it needed to be, it hit the ground and they got it. It's disappointing but he's done such a good job of managing our team and really leading our offense.
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"I've been very pleased with Ahmad and the job he's done at quarterback. I'm disappointed about that play but he's just trying to make a play. It was a little bit of a decision right there, split-second, he'd love to take it back, and I wish there was a string attached to it because he'd pull it back to himself, but it doesn't work that way. I'm glad we have him on our team and I'm certain he's going to make a bunch more plays for us."
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(Ref.: on the special teams unit and using a few different punters against Duke)
"In the pregame warmup, frankly, the punters were really having a difficult time hanging onto the ball. I didn't see every one of them but I watched one of our punters drop it four times in a matter of about 15 punt snaps. And that was enough for to be put a more sure-handed guy in there and that was Jermaine Adams. Jermaine has really been an emergency punter. We practice him with the special teams punting the ball just in case something were to happen, like it happened with Mitchell Howard two games ago. He's the most sure-handed guy out of all of those guys and he really did a great job.
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"For a guy who's never punted in a college football game to go in there in those conditions and punt the ball, and I think we had him in there three times, he really did a nice job. We used Nick Schrage and Jermaine kind of interchangeably a little bit at the beginning of the game then Nick took most of them toward the end. We were just trying to do what we needed too to win the game.
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"I wish we didn't have to punt seven times, but I looked at the play sheets and we had 15 possessions. I don't know if I can tell you that I've coached a team over the last 20 years that the team that I was coaching for had 15 possessions in a game. That just tells you the way it was going. It wasn't going very good. We weren't controlling the ball and we were having to punt. I hate punting. On the other side, they did too. We blocked one, didn't do anything with it after we blocked it. We had another one in the fourth quarter that we ran right past it. There's another guy just trying to make a play and trying to do exactly what we've coached him to do. The ball hit the punters foot at the 15-yard line. His own 15. If we just block it, fall on it right there we're on the 15. Instead it's kind of a half side-winder rugby kick that rolled all the way down to our six. That's 74 yards of field position changing hands because we missed a blocked kick. It was a little frustrating that we didn't get more done on special teams."
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(Ref.: on how much better it feels going into a week where you have a home game)
"I'm excited to be back at home. It would be great to play every game at home. For a lot of those same reasons, to have our great home crowd here, to be able to have a little bit of a normal routine, stay in our hotel and not have to travel on an airplane. Where the travel gets you I think is the week before. What's nice is this week we play at home and we play at home again the following week. We will hopefully have a little more of a rested team. They had a day off yesterday from classes and we didn't practice, we practiced on Sunday and we will again this afternoon. Hopefully our guys got some much needed rest. I think they were looking forward to getting off their feet and I hope they did."
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(Ref.: opening statement)
"Good afternoon. It is good to be coming back home this week after we've been on the road quite a bit for the past five games. The team is really excited to come back and play here at Michie Stadium and particularly to play in front of the Corps of Cadets.
Â
 "We have had a couple tough weeks away, especially this past weekend at Duke. To come away with a disappointing loss, I felt like we played really well on defense, with the exception of a few plays, we did a good job of slowing down their offense. We saw a chance to win, but we couldn't sustain anything on offense. We had several drives that were three plays and a punt, or fourth and short. It was frustrating to all of us.
Â
"We have to credit Duke and their defense. Their players did an excellent job executing their game plan. They really shut us down. Despite not playing as well as I hope we would, we had a chance to win the game and it is disappointing when you come close and see all the little things you could have done to make the difference.
Â
"It was a good team we faced, a well-coached football team. We are glad to have a game this weekend and not have to live with a loss for two weeks. Hopefully we can come back and play better this Saturday and we will be tested with Lafayette. They have a well-coached team under Frank Tavani who has multiple years of experience and who has taken his teams to championships and playoffs. We have watched a lot of film the past two days and we remember who we are, and we know that we are going to be challenged with everyone that we play."
Â
(Ref.: on what you can take away from the Duke game)
"There are a lot of things to take away. The rain is an easy excuse, but it's not an excuse for not blocking people. That's not an excuse for not covering a receiver at the goal line. That's our assignment and we have to play our assignments and execute on the fundamentals. I thought we played good enough on defense, but I'm disappointed we gave up some third down plays. On some of those play-action passes, it's easy to get your eyes in the backfield and see what's going on back there. We were just trying to poke our noses in there and stop them from getting into the end zone and they threw the ball over our head, but that's not the end of the world and it wasn't the difference in the game. Maybe we could have defended better, but our guys were trying to make plays and I thought we played really hard.
Â
"Offensively, we just couldn't block and knock them back on the perimeter. What was particularly frustrating were the fourth and shorts. Three times we had fourth and short. Once we got knocked back for a loss of five yards, once for a loss of six yards and one we came up about an inch short. That's been uncharacteristic of us, we've had fairly good success on fourth downs up until this game."
Â
(Ref.: on Lafayette being a trap game)
"There are no trap games at Army. If we know who we are, we'll realize that there's not a single team in this country that we can take lightly. I promise you, if you look at their guys on film, they're taller and bigger than we are. We're not the kind of team that says 'we're more talented and faster than them.' We're going to have to play our very best to beat them, and that's the case with everybody we play. If we don't play our best, we won't have a very good chance."
Â
(Ref.: on Jordan Smith's return to the lineup and what to expect from him)
"I anticipate that he'll play more and more as we get him back up to speed. He played 16 snaps at Duke and that was probably the right amount based on what our trainers were saying and based on what he can handle physically. I think he'll get more this week and as the season progresses. He's a tough kid and does a tough job when he's in there on playing blocks and getting to the ball. He lightens the load for the other guys. John Voit probably played more than he's played all year against Duke. In theory, Jordan should help take some plays off of Voit, Amadeo West and Raymond Wright. Because we're smaller than most of the teams we play, it's nice to have some guys that can rotate and keep them fresh."
Â
(Ref.: on what your linebacker corps brings to the defense)
"I think our whole team defense is collectively playing very well and I hope they'll continue to do so. Jay Bateman and the defensive staff are doing a terrific job of getting those guys prepared and having a good scheme for our opponents. Certainly the conditions on Saturday probably limited what Duke was doing against us, they were very cautious with the ball and that was wise on their part. But they took some shots throwing the football and our guys got off of some blocks and made some plays. Our guys are playing hard and have shown great effort. Our defense has helped us get three wins to this point and if we hope to get some more, it's going to take great effort on their part."
Â
(Ref.: on quarterback Ahmad Bradshaw managing and executing against Duke)
"The pitch-out that hit the ground, Ahmad was just trying to make a play. We got to that point in the game, its fourth quarter and we've got the ball in their territory, if we were going to have a chance to win the game we were probably going to need to do it on that drive. But he's just trying to make a play. We ran an option play to the left and it really got stretched out toward the sideline. He's either going to stretch it, continue to stretch it, and try to get the ball pitched to try to leverage the pitch key or he's going to turn it up inside and gain some yards or gain a bunch. I think he kind of saw an opening there and started up the field. And then maybe felt it was closing up on him or felt the pitch key kind of poke his nose back in there on him and he thought it could try to get the ball out there and leverage the guy.
Â
"Unfortunately it just wasn't a pitch where it needed to be, it hit the ground and they got it. It's disappointing but he's done such a good job of managing our team and really leading our offense.
Â
"I've been very pleased with Ahmad and the job he's done at quarterback. I'm disappointed about that play but he's just trying to make a play. It was a little bit of a decision right there, split-second, he'd love to take it back, and I wish there was a string attached to it because he'd pull it back to himself, but it doesn't work that way. I'm glad we have him on our team and I'm certain he's going to make a bunch more plays for us."
Â
(Ref.: on the special teams unit and using a few different punters against Duke)
"In the pregame warmup, frankly, the punters were really having a difficult time hanging onto the ball. I didn't see every one of them but I watched one of our punters drop it four times in a matter of about 15 punt snaps. And that was enough for to be put a more sure-handed guy in there and that was Jermaine Adams. Jermaine has really been an emergency punter. We practice him with the special teams punting the ball just in case something were to happen, like it happened with Mitchell Howard two games ago. He's the most sure-handed guy out of all of those guys and he really did a great job.
Â
"For a guy who's never punted in a college football game to go in there in those conditions and punt the ball, and I think we had him in there three times, he really did a nice job. We used Nick Schrage and Jermaine kind of interchangeably a little bit at the beginning of the game then Nick took most of them toward the end. We were just trying to do what we needed too to win the game.
Â
"I wish we didn't have to punt seven times, but I looked at the play sheets and we had 15 possessions. I don't know if I can tell you that I've coached a team over the last 20 years that the team that I was coaching for had 15 possessions in a game. That just tells you the way it was going. It wasn't going very good. We weren't controlling the ball and we were having to punt. I hate punting. On the other side, they did too. We blocked one, didn't do anything with it after we blocked it. We had another one in the fourth quarter that we ran right past it. There's another guy just trying to make a play and trying to do exactly what we've coached him to do. The ball hit the punters foot at the 15-yard line. His own 15. If we just block it, fall on it right there we're on the 15. Instead it's kind of a half side-winder rugby kick that rolled all the way down to our six. That's 74 yards of field position changing hands because we missed a blocked kick. It was a little frustrating that we didn't get more done on special teams."
Â
(Ref.: on how much better it feels going into a week where you have a home game)
"I'm excited to be back at home. It would be great to play every game at home. For a lot of those same reasons, to have our great home crowd here, to be able to have a little bit of a normal routine, stay in our hotel and not have to travel on an airplane. Where the travel gets you I think is the week before. What's nice is this week we play at home and we play at home again the following week. We will hopefully have a little more of a rested team. They had a day off yesterday from classes and we didn't practice, we practiced on Sunday and we will again this afternoon. Hopefully our guys got some much needed rest. I think they were looking forward to getting off their feet and I hope they did."
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Players Mentioned
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