Jeff Monken was asked, before his first Army training camp 10 years ago, to list the biggest challenges facing his football program. His list contained one item.
“We,” Monken said.
Monken, then 47, had been hired away from Georgia Southern to take over a team in the pits. The Black Knights, who represent the United States Military Academy at West Point, have posted a winning record over the previous 14 seasons. Much more important was that Army had lost 12 straight games to Navy, its bitter rivals.
Having this year’s Army team achieve an 11-1 record, a No. 19 national ranking and a conference championship heading into Saturday’s Army-Navy game is proof that Monken won his challenge, by developing big, confident players capable of punishing opponents with precision.
Related: ‘They’re not quite good at rugby’: How West Point formed a band of brothers
The recovery has been gradual, but this season’s near-perfect march has delighted those who remember — or, more likely, those who read — the Army’s glory days, the seasons between 1943 and 1950 when the Black Knights won two national championships and were just one. of the best American university teams.
It is true that the army is not one of 12 teams who will participate in the expanded College Football Playoff this season. The Black Knights won the American Athletic Conference, not one of the so-called Power Five, and they will face Marshall in the relatively low-key Independence Bowl.
Not that the College Football Playoff matters to many observers, including myself. I’ve covered the Army-Navy game 11 times over the past two decades, and the pomp and circumstance around the game — and the fact that these players can fight real battles together after graduation — aren’t the only reasons why I like it. This is not a fancy air show, nor a glorious tryout for a professional football career, but pure competition.
Monken, an engaging but intense Illinois native, brought Army football back from oblivion, not only by landing smart, talented cadets who play team football, but also by working hard with attentive obsessive about details. There were no shortcuts.
“I think a lot of times we’re looked at as a team that’s old guys and not very talented,” Monken said after his team beat Tulane last week to win the conference title. “The fact is we have talented guys. Are we as talented or more talented than the other teams we play? Maybe not. Probably not. But that doesn’t matter. You just have to have the best team on a given day to win.
The military did this the old-fashioned way. While most of the best college football players can opt for courses that are, well, unacademic, the standards for entry to the United States Military Academy are rigorous and the course load and military obligations are punishing . Most Army football players attended the academy’s preparatory school two miles away before entering West Point.
Additionally, Monken and coaches at other service academies shape their teams without the help of Name, image and likeness (NIL) offeringsor by attracting players via the meat market which is the NCAA transfer portal.
According to an academy spokesperson, army athletes cannot accept void agreements, which can Win millions of dollars for the biggest college stars. This is because Black Knights players are considered federal government employees and active duty military personnel, which prevents them from accepting outside employment.
Cadets can, and sometimes do, transfer from West Point. The academy accepts transfer students, but they are extremely rare because athletes must start college again as freshmen, regardless of their athletic eligibility.
(The same rules apply to Navy, whose football team is 8-3 under second-year coach Brian Newberry. After each team wins games Oct. 19, the (Army was 7-0 and Navy was 6-0, opening the possibility that these old foes might play a second time for the conference championship. Navy’s losses to Rice and Tulane negated that.)
Military metaphors tend to be overused in this rivalry, but the Army-Navy game is almost always won in the trenches or at the line of scrimmage. This game should be played in the mud. Army is No. 1 and Navy is No. 8 in rushing attack among Football Bowl Subdivision teams.
They don’t hesitate to wave the flag during the Army-Navy game. Following recent tradition, the Army will wear black uniforms honoring the legendary 101st Airborne Division, and the Navy will wear white uniforms saluting its elite Jolly Rogers fighter jet unit.
But the rivalry had become so favorable to Navy — the Midshipmen would extend their winning streak against Army to 14 games before it ended in 2016 — that some wondered if Navy should, well, let the ‘Army wins from time to time.
“Because you have such great respect for them, you don’t want to see their pain of losing,” former Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo told me of Army before the 2014 game, a win of the Navy 17-10. “But you also don’t want it to take a toll on your team and yourself. This is a difficult question to answer. You feel bad for them. But you don’t want your side to feel that pain.
With the corps of cadets in gray coats and the brigade of midshipmen in navy uniforms filling several sections of the stadium, and with the American president occasionally in attendance, it is easy for most spectators to feel a surge of patriotism, especially when many come from military families. It’s an American tradition, in an apolitical way.
It is therefore important that both teams are formidable again. Navy has seen a slight decline over the past four years, but Newberry brought the Middies back this year. Monken’s first two Army teams have only won six games total, but Army has three 10-win seasons since 2017.
In 2016, Monken told me, “We’re not physically as big and as long and heavy as the teams we play. There are a lot of teams we play that are faster than us, more athletic than us. It’s about getting these guys to maximize their potential and perform at their best. »
The army does not have Mr. Outside (Glenn Davis) and Mr. Inside (Doc Blanchard) anything but legendary as was the case in those great national title teams under the leadership of Earl “Red” Blaik in the 1940s. Top students now go the NIL route – or go to the transfer portal if things don’t work out.
Monken could very well end up getting a better, higher paying job in the college football world with NIL and the transfer portal. This journey, however, would certainly begin like his time in the military: with a brutal self-evaluation, brutal as it was difficult.
