Army West Point Black Knights Boss Not ‘Demystifying’ Notre Dame

Army West Point head coach Jeff Monken isn’t worried about trying to make Notre Dame seem like any normal opponent.

Oct 19, 2024; West Point, New York, USA; Army Black Knights head coach Jeff Monken looks on during the first quarter against the East Carolina Pirates at Michie Stadium. / Lucas Boland-Imagn Images

Ahead of Saturday’s enormous showdown with Notre Dame, Jeff Monken isn’t spending time trying to “demystify” the Fighting Irish.

There are too many other things for the Army West Point football coach to worry about.

He coached the Black Knights (9-0, 7-0 in American) the last time they played Notre Dame (9-1) in San Antonio in 2016. None of the players on this team were a part of that game. But Monken sure remembers it.

It’s hard to forget losing 44-6 in the Alamodome.

“They returned the opening kick for a touchdown and it was all downhill from there,” Monken said during his weekly media availability. “It didn’t get any better. They ran us out of the stadium.”

He said that this edition of the Fighting Irish is better than that 2016 squad, which finished 4-8 under then-coach Brian Kelly. Army went 8-5 that year.

The stakes are a little bit higher this time around.

Army is ranked in both national polls and in the College Football Playoff Top 25. The Black Knights were ranked No. 19 in the CFP Top 25, a five-point jump from last week. The Fighting Irish are No. 6 in the same rankings.

Monken and his squad are in a position to qualify for the expanded CFP — if it can win the American Athletic Conference title and be one of the five highest-ranked conference champions. To do that, the Black Knights will likely need to be undefeated. Boise State is the only Group of 5 conference school ahead of Army at No. 12.

That means beating Notre Dame, which can ill afford a second loss. The Fighting Irish, inexplicably, lost to Northern Illinois in September, and the Huskies are 6-5. Losing a second game would probably kill the Irish’s hopes of making the playoff as an at-large team, which is their only avenue.

There is a lore to this game and Monken knows it. The Black Knights haven’t beaten the Fighting Irish since 1958. Many of the photos in the team’s practice facility are from matchups between the two teams at long-forgotten venues like the Polo Grounds in New York.

There is great history, he said. But, most of that history belongs to Notre Dame, which owns a 39-8-4 edge in the series. It’s the reason why Monken isn’t wasting time treating this game like it’s any other game.

“It’s going to take a tremendous effort on the part of our guys,” he said. “And our players know it. We don’t need to spend a bunch of time ‘demystifying’ stuff. It’s Notre Dame. It’s Notre Dame.”