Army's Jeff Monken: Coaching college football is a tough business

WEST POINT – Coaching changes have stolen some of the spotlight in college football over the past 10 days.

Randy Edsall announced his retirement set for the end of 2021 following Connecticut’s 0-2 start, but the administration fired him instead, installing defensive coordinator and former Alabama assistant Lou Spanos as interim coach. Spanos lost his debut against Purdue 49-0 on Saturday. The 0-3 Huskies visit West Point on Saturday.

Following Navy’s 23-3 loss to Air Force on Saturday, Midshipmen athletic director Chet Gladchuk fired offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper, a close friend of Army head coach Jeff Monken since they were both at the University of Hawaii. In a reversal of course, though, Jasper was reinstated on Monday afternoon and will coach the quarterbacks. Navy did release offensive assistant Billy Ray Stutzmann for his refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine, denying his application for religious exemption.

And late Monday afternoon, USC fired head coach Clay Helton.

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“It’s part of college athletics,’’ Monken said during his Monday press conference. “(North Carolina coach) Mack Brown once told me, ‘This is a great profession but a bad business,’ and he’s probably right.’’

The Navy coaching staff was none too pleased with Gladchuk’s decision to dismiss Jasper and following a meeting with head coach Ken Niumatalolo the decision was made to bring Jasper back.

Hours before Jasper’s reinstatement, Monken said, “I love Ivin. He’s a great friend of mine. He’s a terrific coach. I’m sure he’ll land on his feet and continue to have a great career.’’

Monken made light of the changes at UConn. “I’m not sure our guys could have told you who the last head coach was, that Randy Edsall started the year as head coach and who the head coach is now. They don’t know and frankly I don’t think it matters to them. What matters to them is trying to play their best.’’

As to that point, Monken said Army must play better in a number of areas in order to avoid getting mired into a close game. His “laundry list” included: not fumbling the ball in the red zone; not giving up long touchdowns on busted coverages; converting short yardage conversions on third and fourth down; tackling better; and, sustaining blocks to allow more yardage on outside runs. Army had 10 missed tackles against Western Kentucky and five the week previous against Georgia State.

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“I've got to do a better job of making sure that we spend the time necessary on those individual areas: the blocking, the tackling, the ball security,’’ Monken said.

At least seven Army players went down with injuries or cramping issues in the WKU game. Monken said it’s too early in the week to determine their status, though it seemed center Connor Bishop may miss the UConn game, with Noah Knapp in his place. He made no mention of quarterback Tyhier Tyler (leg sprain) or fullback Tyson Riley. Mason Kolinchak may return to action at guard.

The injuries will shift the focus of practice as the coaching staff prepares players who were further down the depth chart. Monken said the staff will consider moving some players or “pulling up rookies who haven’t had any experience.’’

The great unknown

With Spanos at the helm of the Huskies, Monken says he has no idea how UConn will attack the game.

“That's the thing about competition in sports,’’ Monken said. “You don't know what they're going to do defensively or offensively or in the kicking game and what philosophies may have changed with the change in the head coach. But that's why we prepare and why we play the game. We'll try to be ready for whatever comes our way.

“I think people sometimes have this expectation that coaches should be mind readers and we should know exactly what the other team’s going to do. … Offensively, they may come out and attack our defense completely differently than they have defenses in the first three weeks and what we've seen on film may not be at all we see on Saturday. … So we’ve got to prepare for what we think we're going to see from UConn and if it changes then we'll make adjustments on Saturday.’’

Century club

Quarterback Christian Anderson rushed for over 100 yards for the second time in his 16-game career. Following a 114-yard outing at Hawaii in 2019, Anderson rushed for 119 yards against Western Kentucky. He has 1,022 career rushing yards.

Anderson was put up for the Manning Award stars of the week, which will be announced on Thursday.

No punts for you

Monken said he was going to put punter Zach Harding up for All-American honors. Still, he had no need to use Harding at all in Saturday’s game.

Speed merchants

Army utilizes a GPS tracking system on every player for every practice and game. The feedback gives the coaches an idea of how much work and mileage is being put on so the coaching staff can limit wear and tear. It also measures bursts of speed. Five players surpassed 21 miles per hour on certain plays against WKU: Brian Burton (21.0), Tyrell Robinson (21.3), Quendrelin Hammonds (21.3), Malkelm Morrison (21.9) and the winner was Marquel Broughton (22.2).

kmcmillan@th-record.com

Twitter: @KenMcMillanTHR