Army West Point Athletics
Postgame Quotes | Navy 17, Army 10
December 13, 2014 | Football
Head Coach Jeff Monken
(ref: opening statement)
"We are certainly disappointed that we lost the game. I thought our guys fought tremendously hard and I am really proud of their effort. We just didn't make enough plays to win the football game and credit Navy, they are a really good football team and such a well-coached football team. They made the plays when they needed to, to win the football game. That is the bottom line in any game. It is certainly disappointing to have played as hard as we did and not be able to see our guys be rewarded with a victory, particularly. I am disappointed for them to not have a chance to experience a victory in this great rivalry and it is a great game. There was a tremendous crowd and really special to be a part of it. It is an honor and a privilege for me to be a part of this rivalry again and to represent West Point, which I think is one of the finest academic institutions in the world and the best leadership laboratory on the face of the earth. To hold a leadership position and to lead these men, who are going to lead other men and women, what a responsibility and what a privilege for me and so proud of them, just the way they fought. I told my team they have nothing to be ashamed of and it stings and it is going to hurt for some time and it will pain us until we have an opportunity to play again and try to do something next year, but these guys fought really hard and the four guys who were up here earlier in front of you, are four great kids and are going to be great soldiers and all four really good players."
(ref: on the foundation that has been started this year)
"I am excited about the future of this program. I wasn't delusional thinking that everything was going to change at the snap of a finger when I entered the room saying these are the changes I am going to make. Those things take time and it takes more than just a season. It takes building a program from the bottom up and getting the philosophy and the culture where I feel it needs to be in order to be a championship football program. I think we are well on our way, but we haven't gotten there yet. I am absolutely confident that we will get there."
(ref.: on the 4th-and-1 at the end of the second quarter)
"It is the second time this year we have fourth and short to go and don't make it. It is disappointing, but you have to be able to move the ball that far and we didn't. We stalled out more than that one time. We had the ball pushed down to their territory and we just couldn't get a first down and that is frustrating. We had to make a play there and we didn't. They did and then hit a big play and that is one of the things I talk about to our team all the time. You have to convert on third down and it shouldn't have gotten to a fourth down, if we had executed on third down and made the third down to keep the drive alive. I always talk about big plays and we gave up a big play on that pass play over the middle and then we gave up a big play to start the second half on the kickoff when they returned it to the 50. We didn't do a very good job on coverage on the ball and big plays make a difference and both plays were costly for us. They both resulted in points, one for seven points and one for a field goal."
(ref.: any thought of changing the play call after Navy called timeout)
"We talked a lot about different plays, but it is man-on-man and you have to block them. There are no plays that we have, that you don't have to block anybody. I wish we didn't have to and if anyone has them, I will take them. You have to block somebody, so if you have to move the ball less than a yard. It is you're against the guy in front of you, knock him out of there and we didn't do it. Credit to them, they pushed us back. They didn't feel we crossed the line to gain and it was their ball."
(ref.: difficulty on getting the offense going in the first half)
"I think it was the same reason that it was difficult for them to get going on offense. We both know each other's offense pretty well. We have had three weeks to prepare and they have had two weeks to prepare. We practice against ourselves and I am sure they do too. They have a great plan. They have been running that defense for 12 straight years and Buddy does an awesome job and he is a heck of a coach. The bottom line is that you've got to sustain blocks and there were times when we did and we moved the ball and times when we didn't and we didn't move the ball. It is frustrating to plow and go in three and four yards. When you get a no-gain play and we had some and didn't gain any yards and it was 2nd-and-10, in a game like that it is tough. We continued to do some different things and some different formations and find some areas where we felt like we had an advantage. I thought throughout the game we had spots where we could run the fullback and had some success running the ball on the perimeter a couple of times. The quarterback carried the ball in the midline a couple of times. It is difficult in a game where two teams are so similar and I feel like we are closely matched, in terms of our guys and their guys, and they know the actions and angles of our offense because they see it all the time. We knew it was going to be a slugfest from start to finish. We prepared and unfortunately today we didn't make enough first downs to keep the ball moving and get us in position to score."
(ref.: if program made progress by pushing game late into fourth quarter)
"No. I don't know. We want to win the game and I didn't have the feeling we wanted to play well and that we would feel alright if we played well or we're getting a lot closer. There was only one goal and that was to win and I thought we were going to. I'm disappointed that we didn't and we've got a lot of work to do between now and next year if we're going to have a chance to beat them next year."
(ref.: on working on onside kick with Mitchell Howard)
"He's been the guy all year. We work on it every week, a couple times a week to prepare for that, as we do the hands team. You come out to practice, you know, I'm very involved in the special teams and I try to cover as much as I can to make sure there are no situations that come up like that that we are not prepared for. I thought he made a great kick and gave us a chance and we were a little bit late getting to the first guy from the sideline who recovered the ball, but I thought he did a heck of a job to give us a chance to get the ball back."
(ref.: rationale for bringing in A.J. Schurr in the third quarter)
"Angel Santiago was hurt. He was injured and he couldn't play. He hurt his foot toward the end of the first half. I don't know the exact play. As we were going in at halftime I was informed that he was injured and that our medical staff was going to be looking at him. They gave him some treatment and tried to adjust the tape job and it wasn't working for him, so we put A.J. in and I thought he did a really good job."
(ref.: on moment with coach Ken Niumatalolo following the game)
"Kenny is my dear friend. Kenny and I share a bond of friendship that has lasted 25 years and it goes beyond just a colleague working together. There's a sense of brotherhood between he and I. We were young assistant coaches together and worked for six years under coach Johnson. I love Kenny. I'm so proud of him and the job he is doing and I know the feelings are mutual. I know those feelings are shared by him as well. It's special to have that relationship with he and with so many of the coaches on that staff over there. Those are dear friends of mind so it's tough to lose a rivalry game and the backyard brother too. You want to go out and beat your brother in the backyard and that's a little bit of what this rivalry is like between Kenny and I."
(ref.: on the play of the defense)
"I thought the defense did a great job. We got a lot of stops, not enough down the stretch, and we allowed them to convert some third downs and, as I mentioned, hit the big play right before halftime. We let them in the second half get the ball out on the 50-yard line, didn't mean they had to score. We didn't do a great job there of keeping them off the board, they got three points. I thought our defense really played hard. We missed some tackles and that's always disappointing to see when you've got a guy stopped. We had one where we thought we had the option played pretty well and they pitched the ball out there and we had them tackled for a three-yard loss and we whiffed and let the guy cut back inside of us and it was second-and-six and they converted the third down play. You've got to make those plays and that's the bottom line. It really comes down to fundamentals. You've got to block and sustain blocks and on defense you've got to get off blocks. You've got to tackle the guy and get him to the ground and you've got to break tackles on offense and take care of the ball. That's very fundamental but that's what it comes down to and if you look at the game, that's probably what it came down to."
Senior FB Larry Dixon
(Ref.: on growing up in a Navy family and following Navy football)
"I knew the program existed but I didn't follow it too much. I was more of a basketball player so it wasn't until high school that I started getting into football. And at that point everybody around knew what the Army-Navy game was so it was definitely something that we always tuned into at the end of the year."
(Ref.: on what game means)
"It means a lot to me. We get the opportunity to go out and represent a great profession like the Army and we get to compete against another academy knowing that everybody is going to be watching the game. This Navy team is really good. They play really well together and with a class unlike any other team. It's an honor to step out on the field with these guys and play this game that means so much to this country."
(Ref.: final possession) "It was big. Coach talks about critical situations. Third downs, fourth downs, it's like a turnover we need to convert that. Half off to our opponent, they made the play when they needed to."
(Ref.: on toughness of getting outside running game going)
"You've got to give credit to the other team. They played a very fundamentally sound game. They played their technique properly and they did the things it took to shut that down. Usually you've got to tip it off to the other opponent. We fought hard and we played with everything we had. I feel like we played well, we'll see with the film obviously. But, hats off to the other team, they did it right so give them credit where credit is due."
(Ref.: the progress the team is making)
"I think the biggest change, we kind of experienced it tonight, but you talk about being a senior and playing in your last game, but they don't ever prepare you for the last time leaving the locker room. My freshman, sophomore and junior years it was easier to leave the locker room because we weren't that close as a team. That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do was part ways with my teammates right there. At the very least what coach Monken has done, and I'm grateful for that, is that he created a family. I truly feel like these guys are my family. Joe is my older, younger brother and these guys are my younger brothers. I really feel like we're tighter than we've ever been and at the very least I have to say thank you for that because that's big.
(Ref.: on whether or not this year's loss was harder to take than 2013's)
"It's harder to say which ones are more difficult to take. They're different kind of losses because they're different teams. Coming into this game we understood that we could only control the 2014 Army football team. This loss is like comparing apples to oranges. But this one was hard. I feel like I let my team down, I let the players around me down and so it's going to be hard to go through that and think about that."
Senior DL Joe Drummond
(Ref.: the progress the team is making)
"I think, of course, it will be our one, huge regret from our time here, not having beaten our archrivals. They're a fantastic program. They certainly did what they had to do today to make plays in the critical situations to get it done. When it comes to this program going forward though, we know we're leaving it in very, very capable hands. This staff has done a fantastic job this past year to really getting Army football back to relevancy and back to competitive greatness. That's the only thing that could possibly be in our future. You look at the juniors, the sophomores and the freshman who will be upperclassmen next year, we're leaving behind some tremendous leaders and some tremendous players and they're only going to get better as their time here goes ahead. I'm excited to see what Army football does in the future."
(Ref.: on first memory of Army-Navy game)
"When I grew up, I didn't start playing football until my junior year of high school but I was always a football fan. Just all the history and the circumstances of Army-Navy is something that goes back a century and the teams coming together and not only representing their institutions but also the military as a whole. That's something that I've always had an interest with and I'd love to have the opportunity to do that next week."
(Ref.: on what game means)
"It's a tremendous opportunity for us as a team to go out there and execute our assignments, demonstrate our fundamentals and preparation and play against a team that is truly a fantastic program. The Naval Academy has been able to put together a great program and has had a tremendous amount of success and they do a great job of executing their assignments and playing with an intensity that's unmatched around the country. To have an opportunity with them and knowing that we're going to be on the same team after graduation definitely gives the rivalry more luster than it already does."
Sophomore DB Josh Jenkins
(Ref.: blocked punt)
"We had a play called up to 10-man block and we just went in there. I was put in a great position. I just did my job and watched everyone else make a play after."
