Army West Point Black Knights’ Jeff Monken Wins Andy Talley Coach of the Year

The Army West Point Black Knights head coach was given the honor of the top coach in his region.

Dec 14, 2024; Landover, Maryland, USA; Army Black Knights head coach Jeff Monken walks the sidelines during the first half of the the 125th Army-Navy game at Northwest Stadium. / Danny Wild-Imagn Images

The Army West Point Black Knights shared the news on Thursday afternoon that head coach Jeff Monken had been named the Andy Talley Regional Coach of the Year.

The @MaxwellFootball Club has named @CoachJeffMonken as the Andy Talley Regional Coach of the Year!

Awarded annually to the top prep or college coach in the Northeast. 👏👏👏#GoArmy pic.twitter.com/EJGemVD3Iy

— Army Football (@ArmyWP_Football) January 9, 2025

Each year, the Andy Talley award is handed out to the top college coach of the Northeast Region. Monken had certainly done enough to earn that honor this season.

Army finished this year with a 12-2 record and won the AAC in their first season as members. It is as impressive of a coaching job as one could possibly put forth. This was likely the best year that they have had in a long time. They set a new school record for wins and matched their low for losses since the 1950s.

Monken is now 82-57 as the coach of the Black Knights and 120-73 overall. He has been in West Point since 2014 now and has a bowl game record of 5-1.

The 57-year-old has already done enough to cement himself as one of the best Army coaches to ever put on the headset.

It was mostly done on the back of their once again dominant run game. They averaged an absurd 300.5 yards per game with 4,207 yards total on the season.

Quarterback Bryson Daily has been one of Monken's best developmental projects, as the offensive weapon exploded for a great year.

Daily ran the ball 310 times this season for 1,659 yards and a nation-leading 32 rushing touchdowns. He also had flashes through the air, but ultimately proved to be inconsisntent.

The senior completed 52.4% of his passes for 1,007 yards with nine touchdowns and four interceptions.

Monken will need to completely replace the offensive production next year, as star running back Kanye Udoh played himself into the transfer portal.

Udoh had 179 rushes for 1,117 yards adn 10 touchdowns. Every time he touched the ball, positive things happened. He is now with the Arizona State Sun Devils, however.

The good news is that Monken is a coach with an extensive offensive mindset that should be able to reload fairly quickly.

Expectations have been set high in the AAC after just one season. While they didn't make the expanded playoffs this year, they proved it to be at least possible. That should work as extra motivation in the coming years.