Army West Point Coach Jeff Monken said Monday he has no interest in the Black Knights replacing Connecticut in the American Athlete Conference — or any other conference.
Army’s recent success has resulted in the Black Knights speculated among possible candidates upon reports that UConn is exploring leave the AAC for the Big East.
“Not interested, if you ask me,” Monken told me. “We’re a national team. We need to play a national schedule. That’s one of the great things about our program that separates us from so many others. We recruit nationally so we should play nationally. We’re not a regional university. This is America’s University.”
The Big East schools that sponsor football programs don’t play at the Football Bowl Subdivision level. That raises doubts over the future of Connecticut football if the AAC rejects it as a football-only member.
Army has historically played as a independent with the exception of a seven-year run in the Conference-USA with disastrous results. Army never posted a record better than 3-8 and dropped out after three records of 1-11 in 2002, 0-13 in 2003 and 2-9 in 2004.
John Feinstein, author of “A Civil War” on the Army-Navy rivalry, had cautioned Army about joining a conference. He often writes it is in West Point’s best interest to remain independent.
However, Navy has been an AAC football-only member since in 2015. The Midshipmen shared the AAC West title in 2015 and won it outright in 2016. Navy’s success following by Army’s turnaround may have spurred pundits to speculate Army was a candidate.
There are many other reasons Army wasn’t competitive in C-USA, including injuries from a tougher schedule. But Monken emphasizes a national profile is a priority.
“We wouldn’t be accessible as American’s University playing a conference schedule,” he said. “We’re playing in stadiums around the country. We’re able to change our schedule so we can cycle through playing different conferences and in different parts of the country. That’s important to Army football to play an independent and national schedule.
“That’s been our formula to success. We want to continue using it.”
Army’s 2019 schedule is highlighted by a game on Sept. 7 at Michigan of the Big Ten.
Other games are schedule in states with military bases or a major city. The Black Knights play Sept. 14 at Texas-San Antonio, Oct. 9 in Atlanta and Nov. 30 in Hawaii.
In 2018, Army played at Oklahoma and 2017 at Ohio State. The Black Knight almost upset Oklahoma before losing in overtime, 28-21, but they were routed at Ohio State, 38-7.
West Point’s history also is a draw for some Power 5 schools to schedule home-and-home games. Stanford and Duke have toured the campus the day before their recent contests at Michie Stadium.
Army is coming off an 11-2 season and returns record-breaking quarterback Kelvin Hopkins for his senior year. In 2018, Hopkins was the first Army quarterback to rush (1,017) and pass (1,026) for 1,000 yards in a season.
Monken is entering his fifth season after taking over a rebuilding project. In his third year, Army was 8-5 in 2016, ending a streak of five straight losing seasons. The Black Knights were 10-3 in 2017 before setting a school record with 11 wins last year.
Initially, Monken’s task was building the confidence in the players. Now he has the task of confronting too much bravado.
“Complacency is a threat to success,” he said. “I worry about that all the time. When you win some games, you don’t want to start thinking you don’t have to do the things we were doing here to win. In some ways we push harder. We make it tougher to make sure we don’t slip up at what we’ve been doing.”
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Tom Shanahan, Author: Raye of Light http://tinyurl.com/knsqtqu
— Book on Michigan State’s leading role in the integration of college football. It explains Duffy Daugherty’s untold pioneering role and debunks myths that steered recognition away from him to Bear Bryant.
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