Here's my challenge with ULM

[ArmorDude]

Monken doesn’t have a single signature win. He has plenty of signature losses. Yale, ULM, and even Michigan come to mind.

Winning bowl games when the other team’s best players are not playing are not signature wins.

I’m worried that this change in offense will lead to another 8-10 year drought. Please let me be wrong.

In the meantime, Go Dawgs.

[Oliphant]

Monken doesn’t have a single signature win. He has plenty of signature losses. Yale, ULM, and even Michigan come to mind.

Winning bowl games when the other team’s best players are not playing are not signature wins.

I’m worried that this change in offense will lead to another 8-10 year drought. Please let me be wrong.

In the meantime, Go Dawgs.

I was going to say. Navy fired a coach who beat highly ranked squads. Air Force's coach has several signature wins.

We have some close moral victories.

[palidog]

Interesting comments by WPGRAD.....I do not think Monken is dumb and I believe he has his reasons for installing this offense now. I also think that the talent level at WP this year, on offense and especially at QB, may not be up to snuff. BUT, he is not one of the top 10 coaches in college football. HE coaches West Point, an independent that picks and chooses who it plays and has beaten up on some awful programs over the last few years. How would Monken's Army teams fare in the AAC? I do not think as well as they have as an independnet. How about in the Sun Belt or Conf. USA? Same thing. Monken has done an admirable job at West Point thus far. He wins more than he loses.....he is not a top 10 coach in college football. If he was, he would have been scooped up several years ago by a larger program. He wins because Army plays a weak schedule (not this year) and he does a better job against those weak teams than they do against us. As a sidetone, please give me the signature non-Academy win he has had during the REGULAR SEASON (not a bowl game when other teams may not have all their guys)? I'm waiting

[wpgrad]

Let's be clear we are gonna play a horrid Delaware State team, which as a side note I'm not in favor of ever playing an HBCU, and then it's UTSA, Syracuse, Boston College, Troy, LSU. Guys we are staring 1-6 in the face then maybe we catch a break vs UMASS and then to Air Force.
PD

Just curious...why you don't like playing HBCU? Is it just the 1-AA thing and don't count? Cause talent wise some of the HBCU's are pretty good?

[PrideandDream]

Evasive talent wide most HCBUs are bad. Few are very good. And we don’t play those few. Not to be not picky but they are FCS schools not 1-AA. And the only reason I bring that up is because most FCS schools compete to get into the FCS playoffs but top tier HBCUs are playing to get into the Celebration bowl due to financial reasons. So it’s really hard to know how good they are or are not with limited FCS exposure outside of other HBCUs. Same argument could be made for the Ivies which also don’t play in the playoffs I believe. Correct me if that’s wrong. Secondly we are paying to play these teams and they wind up as poorly attended home games. We are desperately behind in having any quality opponents at home to show off West Point. Of course game day logistics make that a nightmare anyway. Let’s be honest who is excited about playing Delaware state? Seriously. That is a no name program that costs us money and does nothing to promote our brand. Thirdly I believe there are real safety issues in some of these games. Maybe not if we played Jackson State or FAMU. But Morgan State? Delaware State? These are not good programs and frankly you see their players at risk. Now some don’t care about injuries. Typically I don’t care about injuries but I do care when it becomes extremely obvious if the talent disparities. And personally I think it has gotten worse. Even the Army’s of the world now have a significantly higher gap in talent vs most HBCUs. Last time we played Morgan state I was shocked at the difference. Lastly it doesn’t help recruiting. The kids we need don’t aspire to play at an HBCU level. We need the kids that want to play at Penn State but did t get an offer but have us and Western Ky or south Florida as a choice. Or kids that might be a preferred walk on at a P5 or that get G5 offers. These kids at HBCUs rarely have offers to upper tier programs. And that’s driven by size and talent. In short we do very little to move our program forward by scheduling an easy win. And god help us if we lose. Let Monken and staff go out with this new scheme and Gail to put up a TD this week. Then we will really have a crap storm going on.

PD

[Oliphant]

Let's be clear we are gonna play a horrid Delaware State team, which as a side note I'm not in favor of ever playing an HBCU, and then it's UTSA, Syracuse, Boston College, Troy, LSU. Guys we are staring 1-6 in the face then maybe we catch a break vs UMASS and then to Air Force.
PD

Just curious...why you don't like playing HBCU? Is it just the 1-AA thing and don't count? Cause talent wise some of the HBCU's are pretty good?

The MEAC and the SWAC are always among the lowest-rated conferences in FCS ball. They are generally only ahead of or tied with the non-scholarship Pioneer League or the 46-scholarship NEC.

Even Deion's Jackson State teams barely beat a weak Campbell squad. They would have been obliterated in the FCS playoffs.

The MEAC lost 17 straight playoff games before taking the Celebration Bowl deal.