Jeff Monken | Army 42, Lehigh 7 postgame

I starting with just we can go right into question that's good enough for me sure good to get the first sure thing out of the box coach uh you know 375 yards rushing today 432 overall on offense defense uh he held them 272 yards rushing you said you wanted to be the best rushing team in the country and and you want to stop rushing you want to be the best defensive team at stoping the rush how do you feel you did on that today I I thought we did a good job of uh of getting some good hard tough runs on the inside uh we got a good offensive line and for the most part they roll to get some push and get some movement up front there a couple times they they got us for uh couple loss yardage plays I believe I didn't look how many we had but there was a couple uh a couple of short kind of got stuffed runs but uh but for the most part I thought they did a good job and we were able to run the quarterback and the and the BBS in the interior we hit a couple plays on the on the perimeter um was the longest run of the day the the fake punt it probably was I know had the long oh no had that long run didn't um so you know we gained a few there too but yeah I I was happy with the way we ran the football and controlled the clock and the fact that we were able to get into the end zone for a touchdown on every Drive which you know it doesn't matter how many times you have it uh if you score a touchdown every time you have it it's usually going to end up being pretty good for you uh defensively um I felt like at half we were kind of in the Ben don't break mode we gave that first touchdown and that was a good drive on their part took it 75 yards and punched in the end zone and and uh they look they give them credit they look good on that drive and uh and there were some other times where you know we had them in first and 25 and we gave up 22 yards on the pass play and able to get the ball down there and we pi theall fall off in the end zone but I just I'd like for us to make a punt a little bit more and uh you know the uh the Run game for them was sometimes pretty good at times we did a good job get enough blocks and get them stopped but you know they had some good run plays in there themselves running the quarterback running their their tail back and and uh so I I I thought their team played really hard and u i i noticed on the very last touchdown there's less than a minute to go and their defense is out there and they rushed the pat really hard like it mattered and it says a lot for their culture so um I thought their team fought played hard I was glad we were able to come W with with a win running the ball and and doing doing a pretty good job stopping the run and Coach you had it was mentioned nine players on defense starting their first game talked to Donovan plat came up with an interception um and Cale forner eight tackles was on the day uh how did you feel like your your young defense played I thought those guys played really hard and and uh for the most part played pretty well you know they're not all void of experience um Donovan's played in games Dam Washington's played in games um Caleb forer's played certainly a lot for us at inside linebacker uh Kyle Lewis and Jacob to and DeAndre Miller You Know Jack Lor U chance Keith he's he's not had a lot of experience he's probably one of the least experienced guys in terms of the time he's had on defense ell mzi he's played a little on special team some situational stuff as a freshman but you know those two guys are playing a lot for the first time we got a lot of guys in there Max and Arin who have been in games so uh though they're they may be starting together uh or starting for the first time they they've got plenty of experience and you we had confidence in those guys and confidence that they would go out there and and be able to execute the fundamentals and and perform so you know like I said there's things we can do better there's things we can do on offense a lot better special teams there's every area there always is there's always areas to improve but um you know I thought the defense like I said came up with some plays when we needed it um I I wish we wouldn't bend as much and hopefully as we go through the year we'll Bend less but uh if they don't get in the end zone I guess that's the that's the bottom line but flipping the field position where they start on their own 25 and they're putting it into the end zone or we're picking the ball off in the end zone you know it's pretty good shift to field position so it's a field position game and the better field position we get on offense certainly the better chance we're going to have to score my last quick question about andon Thomas in on the second drive on the punt um you call for him toh get a direct snap uh what thinking on that and is that they said I think on on on media that that it helped to have the uh radio in the hel in the helmet was he is that a factor so I I didn't communicate with him at all I have the ability to communicate with him on that play but I didn't communicate with him at all uh it's it's it's just a call that we have they took it from the sideline out to the field he's got the the opportunity to to take the play if it's there and the look that we wanted was there so he called for it and um he's actually the guy that calls it and and did a good job they they they got a couple blocks for him and started off looked like he was going to get stuff there and he kind of wiggled out and and and had a good nice run so U I just I didn't want to start this season our first offensive drive with a punt um you know we got a new offensive coordinator the system we're running this year is a little bit different and I want our guys to have some confidence and you know if we didn't make it we didn't make it Go Play Def defense and we had a lot of game left at that point that I figured that if you know if we gave the ball back to them and they went and scored we're going to find a way to to score ourselves and put ourselves back in the ball game but it worked out and we had a nice game and we're able to finish the drive with a touchdown thanks coach a little bit of gutsy call Coach or no gutsy yeah I don't know if you think it's going to work how much guts does it take you know I thought I was confident it was going to work so it did it's pretty easy call and and you know what if it wasn't there he could have called it off and we just punt it's not an All or Nothing play so he could have he could have just called it off and we'd have punted there and been disappointed that we had to punt it the Distribution on the offense with a lot of guys getting different carries fresh legs how much you think that helped you guys today there there are there are plenty of guys that are capable of carrying the football for us and you know I'm not I'm not anointing any of our guys as all Americans or anything like that just they're just tough guys and they care about the team and they're they're going to run the ball hard and play the best they can for our team because they care about their teammates and and so fortunately we got Kanye Udo who's I think very talented player and he showed the ability to run with some power today and break tackles and stiff armed guys which was you know really fun to watch and encouraging the touchdown run he had down there in the corner on our s was a great run uh Hayden Reed's one of our best football players so to be able to get him the ball and he's very slippery and and and finds his way into into holes and seams and gains positive yards and randine is just a hammerhead he moves the pile he's a strong tough Runner and I mean our our quarterback's tough as nails so he runs the ball and gains positive yards knocks people back and we had a couple plays that that were negative yardage plays but uh it it was those plays were not uh you know a guy just getting knock back because he you know he couldn't move the guy that was trying to tackle him most of those were uh perimeter plays or balls that got out to the edge and just they had an angle on us and so I I like I like the running backs that we've got the the slots are they're all a little different you know miles and Hayden playing slot and Noah short and Samari Howard all a little bit different but but all capable carrying the ball and they're doing a good job blocking on the perimeter for each other so know said it's not perfect and we got a lot of things a lot of things to improve but a lot of confidence in that group of guys that we got coach um 1 and0 the last two years start 0 and one uh going into the a the American Conference game next week what does that mean going into with with the win it's a lot nicer to be one and0 than 0 and one I can tell you that being And1 and worth the damn so uh glad we got the victory tonight um we're we're going to play a team next week that's a lot better than the one we played tonight more talented um and uh you know we're going to have to play better we can't we can't bend as much as we bent on defense and uh and expect to play as well next week um we can't have negative yardage plays short yardage plays in early Downs in drives against FAU and put ourselves in third and long it's going to be hard to overcome against talented teams like like Florida Atlantic we're getting ready to play in a great League it's a very talented League very well coached league and of the group of five conferences in the country it's in my opinion as good as there is and you know other conferences make their arguments for their teams but there's a lot of parody in the league there's a lot of teams at the top of this league that uh that are outstanding teams that are played in New Year's six games and beaten power five teams and so it's a it's a strong league and it's going to take a strong effort performance on our part to to compete and play in the league but we're excited about that opportunity uh turnovers I think were two two z um you always talk about how important turnovers are they are and and those those two those two were big the one uh going toward the building here um the pick was important they they were kind of getting themselves into scoring position and then like I said they they push that ball down they after Happ first in 25 they're they're getting ready to score and uh and we made the pick in the corner of the end zone so those were those were big we we we couldn't have emphasized carrying the ball with two hands more than we did I mean we work ball security every day but just constantly talking about the importance of squeezing the ball and having two hands on the ball and so I was really proud of our guys for that the ball exchanges were good uh the pitches the the one that I I probably most disappoint was the one that Bryson tried to he tried to force it on our sideline and it careened off the hand of our pitch back and went out of bounds th those those things we can't do that's that's a that's a that's a major error um for us he's just trying to make a play but he's got to eat it at that point and uh so we can't do those things but we took care of the ball we got up off the ground with the ball about every time I think Bryson on one of the sneaks it popped out of there late he was down the whistle had blown but I like for our guys to stand up and hand the ball to the official after every play that we got it it you know just confirms that we've hung on the ball and it's still ours we've seen several players tonight play multiple positions uh was that just about getting them ready in case and then NE an inevitable injury or is that just to try and make sure that the opposition knows that there's different things out there they've got to worry about well Hayden Reed played several different play places just with the slot and the in the VB back position um I don't know that we had a lot of other guys uh moving around you know we've got some linemen on our team that can play different positions on the line um on defense um there's there's like Trey Sophia he can play a defensive end position he can play the outside linebacker position he he just played dline tonight but U hayton's probably the guy that you see moving around a good bit um with the motions and the shifts and those kinds of things it it may look like guys are playing a different position but you they're pretty settled into to where they're at in the lineup thank you sir get in the room we'll go to a couple on Zoom uh Joe from go Black Knights go ahead hey coach mon congratulations on the win um first question you know I know last week after the last scrimmage um you said you definitely to cut down on the pre- snap penalties and unforced errors uh you only had the one tonight U obviously I know you'd like it to be zero but is that an improvement over what You' seen it is I mean I'm I'm not satisfied unless it's zero but it it was it was better and because we've had some issues with that as we've gone through preseason camp and it was it was Hayden Reed who jumped on that one play and and frankly I told him in practice we've had we've had got the same issue with him he's he just gets um he's just amped up and ready to go and on the on the start of the snap count he just flinches for whatever reason so he's got to he's got to grow out of that and uh so he will you know they I I was proud of our guys for for not being ansy like that and and jumping on Snap counts and the the Lehi played an entirely different defense than we anticipated it's not their their base defense uh at least in terms of the way their defensive coordinator defended option in the past so uh though we had practiced against that defense uh every day in Camp against our own defense we really anticipating a different front so I was proud of our guys for for managing that and doing a good job and they didn't panic and uh fourth and goal from the three the option play to to uh knowah short that went for a touch