Saturday effort was good for Army but Jeff Monken wants better

WEST POINT – Army opened the season with some impressive statistics on Saturday.

The Black Knights doubled up Georgia State on total yards (356-177), posted 20 first downs, managed two takeaways and kept the host Panthers off the scoreboard on seven of nine drives.

It’s nice, but that’s not good enough with Western Kentucky coming to town this weekend, Army coach Jeff Monken says.

“There’s a lot of things we could have done better,’’ Monken said in his Monday press conference. “I thought overall our guys played really hard and performed really very well for most of the game so it's encouraging. There's a lot of things to build on but we're going to be playing a better team and much improved team in Western Kentucky.’’

Monken pointed to the blocking game – sustaining them on offense and shedding them on defense – as areas that need improvement. He also said there were some missed assignments, probably because the Panthers didn’t play exactly as how the Army scout team prepared the starters.

“Again, our guys played really hard and they played pretty well for most of the day but (the) performance (is) going to have to improve,’’ Monken said. “If there's not constant Improvement throughout the year we're going to find ourselves way behind some of these other teams.’’

Western Kentucky crushed Tennessee-Martin, 59-21, in its season opener on Thursday. Like the Georgia State matchup, the Hilltoppers also beat Army two years ago, 17-8, with a lot of the same pieces coming back. Coincidentally, Georgia Southern beat Western Kentucky, 39-21, in the Lending Tree Bowl on Dec. 26.

The status of quarterback Tyhier Tyler (lower leg sprain) remains in doubt but his potential absence for Saturday’s 11:30 a.m. game at Michie Stadium is not as stressful given the depth at the position. Christian Anderson – who was going to alternate with Tyler – played the middle two quarters and engineered four scoring drives. In the next-man-up structure, Jemel Jones and Jabari Laws could see action behind Anderson (they both played in the fourth quarter on Saturday), with Cade Ballard and Maurice Bellan also dressing for the home game.

First-time touchdowns

Sophomore Tyson Riley and senior A.J. Howard posted their first career touchdowns, both scoring on 4-yard runs in the opening quarter. In all, six different cadets scored touchdowns.

Put me in, coach

Seven players made their collegiate debuts for Army: freshmen Laquan Veney and Brian Burton; sophomores Jaylen Jacobs, Beau Lombardi, Jackson Filipowicz and Simon Dellinger; and, junior Sam Barczak.

“Nothing takes the place of experience,’’ Monken said. “So to get a guy in a football game and have those guys … get in there and run into somebody else in a different colored jersey and get (out) those nerves and that anxiety about playing is good. … There's going to come a time where those guys will be the starters or they may be called upon because of an injury or another reason to go into the game, to start a game, and it's nice to not have that be their very first snaps of their career.’’

The linebacker Burton posted the only statistics, with two solo tackles and one assist.

“I thought Brian played really, really hard,’’ Monken said. “He's a good athlete, he runs well and he made some plays for us. A couple times he looked a little bit like a fish out of water, which was to be expected … he's a freshman playing his first college football game. … He's going to get better. The more he plays, the more he'll improve. I was really happy with his effort. … We're really happy to have him in our program and excited about the future with that guy.’’

Getting the boot

Junior Cole Talley took six of the seven kickoffs for Army, putting three in the end zone and averaging 63.8 yards per try. Talley hit a 22-yard field goal and had one of his point-after tries blocked; he was also tackled on a fake PAT play. Monken wanted to get back the blocked PAT so he called for holder Brooks Hosea to flip the snap back to Talley, who didn’t get very far on his bid for two points.

“I was disappointed about that,’’ Monken said. “It’s nobody's fault but mine. We could have executed it better, but I should have coached it better.’’

Sophomore Quinn Maretzki, who earned the starting nod in the middle of the 2020 season, took one kickoff.

Number 50

The Georgia State victory was No. 50 for Monken since his arrival in 2014. He needs two more to surpass Jim Young (51 from 1983-90) for third on the all-time Army list. Earl “Red’’ Blaik (121) and Charles Daly (58) are next in line.

Filling the stands

Spectators will be permitted at Michie Stadium on Saturday for the first time since Nov. 16, 2019, against VMI. For last season’s eight home games during the COVID pandemic, only the Corps of Cadets were permitted to attend.

kmcmillan@th-record.com

Twitter: @KenMcMillanTHR