FILE – Army head coach Jeff Monken sees in the 2nd half of an NCAA college football video game against Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich., Saturday, Sept. 7,2019 Monken has his Black Knights back in the national rankings after an off year, but in this crazy season they unexpectedly have a forced bye week that actually may be a blessing in disguise. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
Army coach Jeff Monken has the Black Knights purring again, and all of an unexpected the momentum built in two lopsided wins to begin the season has been stopped by the coronavirus.
After beating Louisiana-Monroe 37 -7 on Saturday, the Black Knights looked out that this Saturday’s home game against No. 21 BYU had actually been delayed. That’s a tough pill to swallow, particularly for senior citizens in their last hurrah.
” With the way things are going right now, some video games being canceled, it’s Week 3 and we’ve currently had a video game canceled.,” Monken stated Tuesday.” I anticipate that this won’t be the last time this takes place throughout the season, so if it takes place again you start depending on your hand how many chances you have.
” We don’t wish to lose chances. We’ve got a healthy football group right now. I hope we’ll stay healthy through the whole year. That’s difficult to do. While we were healthy we were simply intending to play. It’s frustrating not to play. Our people want to play.”
And why not.
Army balanced 388 backyards entering outscoring Middle Tennessee State and Louisiana-Monro e 79 -7 and dominating both sides of the ball. The triple option led by junior quarterback Christian Anderson has scored touchdowns on all 6 tries inside the red zone while holding the ball just over 36 minutes a video game, thanks to a variety of running backs led by senior tri-captain Sandon McCoy (4 TDs) and sophomore Jakobi Buchanan (139 yards rushing, 2 TDs). And after that there’s the defense, which has actually required six turnovers (three fumble recoveries, 3 interceptions), and unique teams have made an impact, too – a fake punt on fourth-and-10 prospered and slanted a tight game Army’s way versus ULM.
Among the tricks to that success? The West Point bubble the team has lived in because getting here in June.
” It was really essential,” said senior linebacker Amadeo West, another captain who was limited by injuries to 13 video games his first 3 seasons.” We’re very happy we had our management here make arrangements and decisions that allowed us to be in this bubble and ultimately allowed us to stay healthy and stay away from the outside world. Ultimately, it was a blessing due to the fact that we developed our culture and we was familiar with each other and just build on the relationships we have on this team.”
” I think it’s real crucial,” McCoy added.” We do not have a choice. We can not leave (school). Nobody can leave. It simply limits our point of contact to get COVID.”
And assists build team chemistry.
” We’re used to having a little more freedom and being able to leave and things,” West stated.” However, obviously, we’re residing in challenging times, so we comprehended that tough times need difficult steps and we have to make personal sacrifices in order to gain the bigger achievement, and that’s to win as a group.
” We knew we were facing truly excellent opponents entering into both games. Coach Monken simply stressed concentrating on us and fundamentals. Nothing remarkable – just play group ball, and that’s what we did.”
The success on the field has the Black Knights ranked No. 22 today in the AP Top 25.
Ho hum.
” I truthfully didn’t know we were ranked up until today, to be honest,” West stated with a laugh Tuesday night after practice.” It simply goes to reveal that’s not necessarily a priority in this program. We simply wish to concentrate on us, the relationships we have on this group, and focus on the challenger.”
Sadly, there is no opponent today, but it’s not for absence of attempting. Army began calling schools right away after discovering of BYU’s decision before the opening kickoff against ULM. With a restricted number of FBC and FCS teams readily available, Army contacted just over 20 schools and came up empty, even though the Black Knights were prepared to travel to play.
” We never were close to making a deal,” associate athletic director Bob Beretta stated.
If absolutely nothing emerges, the Black Knights will have extra time to get their rooms clean for the difficult Saturday morning examination and after that get ready for a road game a week from Saturday against No. 13 Cincinnati.
When it comes to still playing BYU, it stays any person’s guess.
” There’s definitely a great deal of unknowns and a great deal of possibilities,” Monken stated.” As we enter the weeks to come and look at the other games … and the results of what might occur with this infection and what we need to do with each open weekend that we have, I think we’ve type of got to consider that.
” We would like to play that game (BYU). They’re a great team. It would be just a terrific chance for our program. If we can do it, then we’ll attempt to do it. Right now we’ve got our schedule set.”
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More AP college football: https://apnews.com/tag/Collegefootball and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25
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