Army Coach Jeff Monken on the Challenge Wake Forest Presents
Wake Forest returns to Truist Field on Saturday night, hosting Army for a rematch of last season’s 70-56 shootout. With No. 15 Wake Forest riding high off a statement win against No. 22 Florida State in Tallahassee last weekend, Army head coach Jeff Monken understands the challenge that awaits his team.
“[We have to] prepare for a great football team we’re going to face in Winston-Salem this weekend,” Monken said. “Dave Clawson has done such a great job. They’ve got a tremendous football team.”
READ: Dave Clawson Talks Florida State Win, Previews Army
Last year’s matchup between Army and Wake Forest was a true display of offensive firepower. The teams’ combined 126 points was the highest in any FBS game last season, and the Deacs put up 638 yards of total offense. Something will need to change within the Black Knights’ defense for them to find success this time around.
“I remember last year when the scoreboard was like a pinball machine,” Monken said. “We stopped them one time on a fourth and short. That’s the only stop we got all day. Those guys were up and down the field — it presents some unique challenges. Hopefully we’ll learn some lessons from that.”
The Wake Forest offense has put the college football landscape on notice this season, averaging 40.4 points and 431 yards of total offense per game. As a result, Sam Hartman and the rest of the offense have earned the respect of Monken and the Army program.
“Sam Hartman is one of — if not the best — quarterbacks in his system in the country,” Monken said. “He’s a great player and certainly it starts with him, but [he has] a great supporting cast and wide receivers that are among the best we’ve faced since I’ve been here.”
The Black Knight defense will have to face off against the Wake Forest RPO/slow mesh, which has been a frequent topic of conversation for the Deacs’ opponents this season. The hardest thing about defending it — the big plays can come from anywhere.
“It really forces defenses to have a lot of discipline in terms of identifying what’s going on in the play formation, the play action, whatever it may be,” Monken said. “It’s difficult to defend.”
Army has struggled so far this season, with just one win through their first four contests. There are no excuses within the program — the 1-3 start simply isn’t satisfactory.
“We have high standards around here, and pretty high standards for the way we perform,” Monken said. “This team has won a lot of football games over the last four or five to six years. We’ve got to continue to hold our guys to that standard so that we can meet the expectations and we haven’t so far.”
Despite the slow start, Monken and his team understand that facing a Top 15 team is a great opportunity to get things moving in the right direction.
“[It’s] the opportunity to face one of the great teams in college football right now,” he said. “Our guys are looking forward to it. Hopefully [we’ll] get a good plan together and have our team ready to hit them with our very best shot.”
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Ben is a managing editor and lead contributing writer for Deacons Daily. Ben has a year of experience as the Sports Editor for the Old Gold & Black, and a year of experience as the publication’s print managing editor. He has a journalistic profile of over 40 published news and sports pieces for the Dayton Daily News.