By DOUG IRELAND, Journal Sports
To put it mildly, a wide range of questions arise in postgame press conferences at bowl games everywhere. It’s the last game of the season; three different media corps are involved, the local media, and those who cover the participating teams. Each has their own different angles.
Sometime after midnight Saturday, about an hour after his team handled Louisiana Tech 27-6 in the Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl, Army coach Jeff Monken was asked, according to the official Independence Bowl press conference transcript, “if the 1996 Army team loss to Auburn in the Independence Bowl was an added incentive for this Army team.”
Some context: that Army team was the first in school history to win 10 games in a season. That game, a 32-29 Auburn win, came down to the final minute. But it was 28 years ago, and none of the Black Knights playing against Louisiana Tech were born yet.
Monken smiled, first mentioning this was Army’s first win in five tries in Louisiana in his 11 seasons, and politely addressed the question posed – but quickly moved to a much more profound message.
Army’s roster isn’t filled by players with NFL dreams. It is populated with young men who have accepted a commission in the U.S. Army and after an extremely challenging undergraduate experience, each will become an officer in charge of Army infantry. They will serve at least five years; some will make a career of it. No doubt some will see active combat duty and all the danger that entails.
Starting tackle Connor Finucane and linebacker Hamilton Baker played in the I-Bowl as second lieutenants, soon heading to their first assignments post-graduation
Said Monken about his team’s motivation in the Independence Bowl:
“That 1996 team was a really good football team and that one went down to the wire against a great Auburn team. Two legendary coaches in coach (Bob) Sutton and coach (Pat) Dye (editor’s note, actually, it was Terry Bowden at Auburn). That doesn’t affect our team. This team wanted to win for this team.
“They wanted to win for each other. The love each other. Brotherhood gets thrown around and used a lot but the shared experiences our players have together are really unique.
“From the moment they show up on campus, the freshmen class reports to the cadets in a red sash and for about a month they get worked over. It’s not easy and every one of our guys has endured that. They’ve gone through that and better and stronger because of it, but they grow together and there’s a bond that’s forged through that shared experience. And, they continue to do that throughout their careers at West Point.
“These seniors, for (senior quarterback) Bryson (Daily) and his class, these guys have being doing it for five years. From prep school through Beast Barracks, which is our cadet basic training. Through summer training sleeping outside at Camp Buckner when it’s 41 degrees and it’s raining on you and there’s no tent and rain is just peppering you in the face and your sleeping bag is soaking wet. Then the next day you’re up with 100-pound rucksack on your back and it’s 90.
“These guys do that. And, it’s not fake. It’s not manufactured, you don’t bring people in to do that. That’s what they train to do to go and be an infantry officer. That’s the thing about West Point and what it does to create leaders of character and tough, hard-minded people that are going to lead our Army, and defend our nation and gives us the freedom and opportunity to sit right here today. It’s because of the commitment that these guys and their classmates and all of our men and women that serve do.
“And so, the brotherhood that’s created and the bond that’s built it’s about this team. Not that we don’t honor the past and honor our graduates and honor the Army football brotherhood from the past, we do, but it’s about this team. These guys were fighting as hard as they could for each other tonight to be able to get that 12th victory.”
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com