Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Duke

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 open the 2018 season at Duke on Friday evening at Brooks Field at Wallace Wade Stadium.

(Ref.: opening statement)
"Good afternoon everybody. I am excited to be here and I appreciate everybody being here this afternoon. Our guys are excited about the opportunity to just measure themselves against another team. It's really difficult to do that throughout preseason camp. We spend a lot of time interacting and competing against each other and against the scout team. I thought we had a good scrimmage last week, but it was the scout team and a lot of those guys are freshmen and playing college football for the first time. So, this will really be our first opportunity to do that against an outstanding Duke team.

"Coach (David) Cutcliffe has really done an incredible job with that program. They are very talented and they are very well coached. So, obviously, having played them the last three seasons, this almost feels like we're in a conference with them and it makes it really difficult. With our offense, they play Georgia Tech every year. They have a plan. They do a really good job defending the option. Not only scheming it, but executing it on the field. And then offensively, just the opportunity for them to see how we've attacked them defensively and come up with new schemes each year. They have such a talented quarterback in that (Daniel) Jones kid. I really admire his ability and his decision making and his leadership. And he's got a bunch of guys to throw it to. (He has) targets and T.J. Rahming, he's one of the best receivers in the ACC. You see it all over the internet. You talk about him and his comparisons to the best players in that league. So, obviously they're not doing it alone.

"They've got a very big offensive line. We're going to be outsized. And probably, when you look at it, their physical ability. They've got some guys that are all-american candidates and we don't have anybody like that in our room. We don't have a guy on our football team who got offered a scholarship to Duke. So, in terms of the difference between their players and ours, I think a lot of people could argue that they're a much more talented football team. But, we're going to do our best to play our style of game offensively, defensively and in the kicking game and hope that will be good enough.

"I hope our guys can tough it out. We know it's going to be a pretty warm day and that will be a challenge. They'll have a deep roster. So, (there are) a lot of challenges. (There are) a lot of very unique things in this first ballgame. But, again, just the opportunity to play a Power Five team from the ACC. (Our guys) come to school to play in these games and play against teams like this and I think they're excited about it."

(Ref.: on if there will be any changes from the way the offense was run last year)

"There's not going to be great philosophical differences in our offense this year and what we did a year ago. Certainly our quarterback is a different kind of player. Ahmad (Bradshaw) was such a strong inside runner. I thought he had a real knack for finding seams in the defense and poking his nose in there and at least getting us a couple of yards. Hopefully Kelvin (Hopkins Jr.) is going to be able to do the same thing for us. Kelvin is a really strong leader. He won a lot of games in high school.

"I'm hopeful he'll take care of the ball, which is something we were able to do in the run game last year pretty effectively. If he'll make good decisions and take care of the ball, I think he'll help our team be successful."

(Ref.: on his favorite part of opening weekend)

"The competition. Just the opportunity to go measure ourselves as an organization against somebody else who's been practicing and preparing. I think what we all look forward to are the Saturday's or in this case, Friday nights."

Army West Point Athletics

Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: Duke

Related Videos