Tag: Jeff Monken

Marcus Freeman named one of five finalists for Dodd Trophy

He deserves this for sure.

Notre Dame easily could have folded after its shocking loss to Northern Illinois in its home opener. Instead, [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag] got the Irish back on track, and they haven’t lost since. That put the Irish in the College Football Playoff, and Freeman’s reward was a contract extension that locked him up for the next six years.

Now, Freeman has another reward coming his way. He has been named one of five finalists for the Dodd Award, which is given to the coach whose team best excels on the field, in the community and in the classroom. This is his first time making the final cut alongside all the other finalists, consisting of Army’s Jeff Monken, Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham, Oregon’s Dan Lanning and South Carolina’s Shane Beamer.

Brian Kelly is the lone Irish coach to win this award, doing so in 2018. Given the current environment, it’s very likely Irish fans would be much happier seeing Freeman win it.

Here’s Freeman news conference this past week in case you missed it:

Obviously, the real goal is a national championship, but this is a nice one to have at the moment.

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Navy’s Brian Newberry subtly roasted Army’s Jeff Monken after his overconfident Midshipmen trolling

Brian Newberry didn’t forget!

Navy coach Brian Newberry didn’t forget Army coach Jeff Monken’s October slight after his team upset Monken’s team on Saturday at West Point.

The Midshipmen’s 31-13 road win over the archrival Black Knights was a shock after the latter’s excellent season. It was even sweeter after what happened earlier in the fall on ESPN.

Back in October, Monken was so confident in his surging Army team that he trolled Navy on The Pat McAfee Show.

“Do they still have a football program at that school?” Monken joked during the McAfee segment about why he wasn’t worried about Navy this year.

Well, those words came back to haunt Monken as Newberry threw them right back after Navy’s stunning Army upset.

“I’ll tell you what, we still got a football team in Annapolis,” Newberry quipped during his postgame interview with CBS Sports’ Jenny Dell.

Talk about a callback for the ages. We love rivalries!

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Five takeaways from LSU’s win over Army in Week 8

Here are five takeaways from LSU’s win over Army as the Tigers moved to 6-2 on the year.

For a second straight week, LSU put it on cruise control.

Hosting Army for just the second time in program history, the Tigers rolled to a 62-0 victory.

LSU’s now scored 48 points or more in four consecutive games. It was another strong night for Heisman contender [autotag]Jayden Daniels[/autotag], who didn’t get to pad his stats after being pulled early in the third.

Receivers [autotag]Malik Nabers[/autotag] and [autotag]Brian Thomas Jr.[/autotag] both crossed the 100-yard mark. It was the third time this year that the two each hit 100 in the same game.

LSU now carries a three-game winning streak into the bye before the showdown with Alabama. Here are five takeaways from LSU’s win over Army.

REPORT: Army rewards Jeff Monken with new extension

Army has rewarded head football coach Jeff Monken with an extension for a second time

Army has rewarded head coach Jeff Monken for the consistency that he has brought to the Black Knights football program.

According to ESPN’s Pete Thamel, Monken has received a new extension from Army that will keep him as the head coach in West Point through the 2027 season. The extension will raise his salary to over $2 million per year.

It’s the second contract extension for Monken during his time with the program. He also received one in 2019 that would keep him with the program through the 2024 season.

Since taking over the program in 2014, the Black Knights have gone from a struggling program to one of the better non-Power Five programs in the country. After going 6-18 in his first two seasons, the Black Knights have notched five eight-plus win seasons since 2016 while only suffering one losing season. During that stretch, Army has appeared in five bowl games and won four, including three Armed Forces Bowl appearances.

Most importantly to Army, Monken has led the program to five wins over rival Navy, with all five wins coming in their last seven matchups. Prior to Monken becoming the head coach in West Point, Navy had won 15 of 16 games, including 14 straight from 2002 through 2015. His overall record during his time with Army is 66-50.

The extension is a notable one, as Monken is a name that is commonly mentioned during coaching carousels for Group of Five and lower Power Five programs. Additionally, it has been discussed over the last several weeks that the American Athletic Conference could be targeting Army to join the conference in the near future. Since the program’s inception in 1891, Army has never been part of a conference, choosing to be Independent.

Beyond his time with the Black Knights, Monken was also head coach at Georgia Southern from 2010 through 2013 before the Eagles jumped to the FBS. During his four years in Statesboro, the Eagles had three seasons of 10 or more wins and made three NCAA Division I Semifinal game appearances.

Thanks in part to the program Monken had built in Statesboro, the Eagles won the Sun Belt Conference under then-head coach Willie Fritz in their first season at the FBS level in 2014.

So far in 2023, Army is 2-1 with back-to-back wins over Delaware State and UTSA. The Black Knights will now look towards trying to upset the Syracuse Orange this Saturday. Also remaining on their schedule this year is notable matchups against Boston College and LSU.