By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
Army won 11 games and the American Athletic Conference championship. Louisiana Tech is 5-7 and was a late add to the 48th Annual Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl along I-20 on Dec. 28.
The Bulldogs are the biggest underdog in any bowl game this year. But 11th-year Black Knights coach Jeff Monken said Thursday he’s wary of the matchup – and expects his team will be playing a road game because Tech will have an abundance of crowd support.
He’s impressed with the Bulldogs’ defense, ranked 11th nationally in average yards allowed. He and his staff are playing a “guessing game” assessing the Tech offense, which struggled all fall. Coach Sonny Cumbie gave up play-calling duties in October, and hired highly-regarded Tony Franklin as offensive coordinator a couple of weeks ago.
What does Monken know?
“As described by an opposing coach is, they are ‘salty on defense.’ They lost some really close games,” he said about a squad that lost three in overtime. “I’m really impressed with their personnel.
“I think Sonny’s a really good football coach, and they’re playing at home, near their campus.
“They’re very athletic, but there is some uncertainty there as to what they’re going to do on offense – if coach Cumbie’s going to call the plays, if coach Franklin, the new offensive coordinator, is going to call the plays. We don’t know.
“Two different systems, two different game plans to prepare for, and that makes it challenging, especially with the short amount of time we have to get ready,” he said. “We certainly could keep practicing through Christmas.”
Instead, Monken broke camp after Thursday’s workout and gave the Black Knights time to visit their families before they reconvene in Shreveport on Christmas Eve.
It’s an Army squad stinging from a 31-13 loss in the annual Army-Navy game last Saturday, the first time in three years, and only the third time in the last nine, the Midshipmen have prevailed. Five days afterward, Monken’s agony hasn’t faded at all.
“I did a poor job of coaching, poor job preparing our team, obviously. I’m mad at myself, disappointed, embarrassed at the job I did. Our guys tried, and played hard. There’s a lot of factors you can throw out there, but in my mind they’re just excuses.
“We gotta be ready, and we weren’t. They outcoached and outplayed us, and unfortunately we lost the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy because of it, and that’s the most important, tangible goal to us,” he said. “We’re sorely disappointed. Their team played a really good game, and our team didn’t.”
Monken sees the Independence Bowl as an opportunity for his 11-2 team to gain some level of redemption.
“Anytime you get your butt whipped, you want to get back out there and prove that’s not who we are. That’s who we were on Saturday, but we’ve got one more opportunity to play, for our seniors to play and finish out a season, and it’s been a good season. We’ve won a lot of games. But it’s not a great season. Beating those guys last Saturday would have made it a great season.
“This would certainly be a great win for us, if we can get it, against a very athletic team, a very good team, well coached, and playing at home, so there are challenges for us,” he said.
Make no mistake about how Army views the contest. Monken discounts the commonly-held approach that bowl preparation affords coaching staffs time to groom and evaluate returning players for next season.
“This is only to win the game. That’s the only purpose of playing a game, in my opinion, is to try to win. We’re not on an exploratory mission to find out what we’ve got (for 2025),” he said. “We want to play our very best game of the season on Dec. 28.”
It’s the Black Knights’ third visit to Louisiana in two years. They were blasted 62-0 last Oct. 21 at No. 19 LSU, and opened the 2023 season with a 17-13 loss at ULM.
“The last trip wasn’t good,” Monkey said. “The last couple trips in fact haven’t been very good.”
His team is looking forward to this one. Army has a chunk of its roster relatively close to Shreveport, players from Texas (27), Louisiana (8), Arkansas (1) and Mississippi (1).
That should put a dent into Tech’s “home” crowd. Might there be some additional support for the Black Knights, Monken was asked, from the personnel across Red River at Barksdale AFB?
“Ha!,” he chuckled. “I think Louisiana Tech will have a better chance getting those guys to cheer for them, than we would have getting them to cheer for us.”
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com