Army West Point Athletics
Jeff Monken Press Conference Quotes: San Jose State
October 22, 2019 | Football
WEST POINT, N.Y. -Â Army West Point football head coach Jeff Monken et with members of the local media on Tuesday afternoon for his weekly press conference inside Nowak Auditorium.
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The Black Knights will take on San Jose State Saturday at 12 p.m. at Michie Stadium. The game will be aired on CBS Sports Network.Â
Army West Point Football Head Coach Jeff Monken
Ref.: On what is the most important thing to get back on track
"The most important thing is to play our brand of fundamental football. Football is blocking and tackling. We have to do that as well as we are capable of doing it. If we do it as well as we are capable of doing it, it will be good enough. We have to take care of the ball. It is a huge statistic in football. Unless a team is physically superior who can afford to give up a few turnovers and survive it, we're not. We had a big turnover on Saturday night and they turned it into seven points. We can't do that. There are a few things that I think if we just do better we will perform better.
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I thought we were better on Saturday night than we have been in the past couple games. We were more like ourselves. We had more confidence and performed better. They made some plays against us on defense. We got ourselves into some third down situations which were more manageable, and they got their way out of it on some third and longs. We have to do a better job getting teams off the field. It is something we have done in the past, but haven't done a good job of this year. We have to sustain drives and score when the opportunity comes with the ball. With limited possessions, and both teams will have limited possessions if we play effectively, we have to maximize the opportunities to score."
Ref.: On team's fourth quarter play
"I thought our guys had a great attitude and gave a tremendous effort on Saturday night. Georgia State made plays. They did a better job of blocking us, maximizing their opportunities on offense and scoring and then getting us stopped. It has nothing to do with attitude or effort, its just performance. They have guys on scholarship too and they have some really good athletes. I think they are a good football team. They're not 1-6, they're 5-2. They've won a lot of football games this year, as has Western Kentucky who is 5-2, as has Tulane who is 5-2, as has Michigan who is 5-2. They have good players and good coaches and they've won some games this year. Unfortunately, we didn't win those games. A couple of times I thought we had a chance and we just didn't get it done. Hopefully we'll continue to improve and play like the team we want to be and play like the team we're capable of being, and that will be good enough."
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Ref.: On returning to Michie Stadium after playing on the road
"It's nice to come back home. Before the Tulane game, we had won a lot of games in a row here at home, so Michie Stadium has been really good to our program recently. We were disappointed we didn't win the last time we were here in our home stadium. It's just a great source of pride to play in front of the Corps and to be here in this historic stadium and we are going to do our very best to try go 1-0 here at Michie to start this thing off."
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The Black Knights will take on San Jose State Saturday at 12 p.m. at Michie Stadium. The game will be aired on CBS Sports Network.Â
Army West Point Football Head Coach Jeff Monken
Ref.: On what is the most important thing to get back on track
"The most important thing is to play our brand of fundamental football. Football is blocking and tackling. We have to do that as well as we are capable of doing it. If we do it as well as we are capable of doing it, it will be good enough. We have to take care of the ball. It is a huge statistic in football. Unless a team is physically superior who can afford to give up a few turnovers and survive it, we're not. We had a big turnover on Saturday night and they turned it into seven points. We can't do that. There are a few things that I think if we just do better we will perform better.
Â
I thought we were better on Saturday night than we have been in the past couple games. We were more like ourselves. We had more confidence and performed better. They made some plays against us on defense. We got ourselves into some third down situations which were more manageable, and they got their way out of it on some third and longs. We have to do a better job getting teams off the field. It is something we have done in the past, but haven't done a good job of this year. We have to sustain drives and score when the opportunity comes with the ball. With limited possessions, and both teams will have limited possessions if we play effectively, we have to maximize the opportunities to score."
Ref.: On team's fourth quarter play
"I thought our guys had a great attitude and gave a tremendous effort on Saturday night. Georgia State made plays. They did a better job of blocking us, maximizing their opportunities on offense and scoring and then getting us stopped. It has nothing to do with attitude or effort, its just performance. They have guys on scholarship too and they have some really good athletes. I think they are a good football team. They're not 1-6, they're 5-2. They've won a lot of football games this year, as has Western Kentucky who is 5-2, as has Tulane who is 5-2, as has Michigan who is 5-2. They have good players and good coaches and they've won some games this year. Unfortunately, we didn't win those games. A couple of times I thought we had a chance and we just didn't get it done. Hopefully we'll continue to improve and play like the team we want to be and play like the team we're capable of being, and that will be good enough."
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Ref.: On returning to Michie Stadium after playing on the road
"It's nice to come back home. Before the Tulane game, we had won a lot of games in a row here at home, so Michie Stadium has been really good to our program recently. We were disappointed we didn't win the last time we were here in our home stadium. It's just a great source of pride to play in front of the Corps and to be here in this historic stadium and we are going to do our very best to try go 1-0 here at Michie to start this thing off."
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