This is a big change...

[OptionThis]

Towards the bottom of Sal's recent piece that focused on anther big development - Army's safeties coach, Scott Sloan is returning to Appalachian St. to be their defensive coordinator - is Sal's note that Army's new offense will not use the fullback position (nor slotbacks for that matter) and instead will employ one running back sets.

At least to me sort of a big deal that the key component of Army's offense over the last 15+ years and 3 coaches will no longer be a part of their scheme. I understand a change was due given how the NCAA's recent rules have gutted much of the foundation of true option offenses and Coach Monken and others have beyond proven they know what they are doing in upgrading Army football, but this is noteworthy...

http://blackknightnation.com/notebook-s ... ff-update/

[Dong Fong '09]

Thatcher has also said in other interviews that he’s going to use the spring to inventory what he has to work with and craft a scheme that gets our playmakers the ball. Not sure we will be able to draw conclusions until week 1 on what the offense will look like. He sounds like he is committed to the run so I am
Optimistic.

[PrideandDream]

Definitely going to be interesting.

Obviously we have to be run first. The question is do we have a scheme problem or an execution problem? I personally believe that talent drives schemes not the other way around.

What I'm most interested to see is what play(s) we have that can't be stopped in this new offense. What does the defense have to commit to stopping at all costs? True triple forces you to stop the dive and mid line, Air Raid forces you to defend the stick route, spread makes you stop the inside outside zone, these were all innovations in offense that have been adopted for the advantage of maximizing talent. Teams you see on Sunday are all looking for matchups and taking advantage of the few discrepancies that exist at the NFL level, teams on Saturdays don't have that kind of talent parity so you see more diversity of play where talent dictates scheme and you look for more collective advantages (outside the elite teams like UGA, Bama, OSU, etc). So what advantage is this new offense giving us?

I'm with Dong Fong we probably won't know until we see it. Right now just hoping Monken has some real insight that no one else does. I think my fear is I can't name an example of a Service Academy team going away from the true triple (not that we were running that) and being succssful. Conversely as we are moving away it looks like AFA is moving more and more back to true under center triple and running one smaller fullback down your throat.

Gonna be a long off season.

PD

[WrekDivr]

I noticed a comment in Sal’s interview where Thatcher was asked about fullbacks and he talked about running back talent and that we would see a lot of shotgun. That told me that we were not going to be using the FB dive as a staple of our offense, which is a big change. That said, the dive did not work for Army in 2022. We asked for change and JM is certainly delivering. It will be an interesting contrast to Navy seemingly doubling down on the TO.

[Go Frogs]

I could be way off base, but our new offense could be similar to what we ran against AF a few years back where it was out of the gun with two backs surrounding the QB. Possible a few more passes sprinkled in....

[wpgrad]

it is interesting, no doubt. My understanding of the situation is that Monken has folks that he trusts (Drinkall being one of them) and they have debated/tinkered with this idea for a few years given the changes in the rules that have directly impacted Option teams.

As Wrek says above, it is interesting that Monken's response is very likely to change everything up, fire his long time OC, get rid of slot backs coach, and make a huge change to a new offensive style. After 100's and 100's of fullback dives, we no longer have a fullback coach on our staff!! Navy, on the other hand, has doubled down on sticking with the option and is re-adding a TE to their stuff (paul johnson didn't use TE's)

I've said repeatedly on this board that Monken is an elite coach, and our poor season in 2019 and this year's debacle do not indicate that he has forgotten how to coach. I figured he'd make changes, in the same way he got rid of his DC and hired woody after 2019, and he has done just that.

I am pretty sure that Monken has looked around at offenses for years, saw what Thatcher was doing at Kearney, and figured out this was the offense for the future. Given his huge success at Army, I gotta think he knows what he is doing.

But am I nervous? Oh heck yes. I was admittedly all excited about us joining CUSA, and loved the Berry hire, and both of those things were catastrophic.

[RABBLE]

Our OFFENSE GOT STALE LAST YEAR AND IT SHOWED. Same old, same old and our opponents figured us out. Now we appear that this year's schedule closely resembles this year's schedule, we must diversify our offensive portfolio to at least make the other team's defensive coordinator work a little bit harder to prepare for us.
No use what changes will occur before next season and do not expect to find out before opening kickoff of our first game. Monken is the most tight lipped of any coach in the country. Probably have closed sessions this spring.

[kfan12]

Our OFFENSE GOT STALE LAST YEAR AND IT SHOWED..... Now we appear that this year's schedule closely resembles this year's schedule...

I would hope so

[WrekDivr]

The question is do we have a scheme problem or an execution problem?

I think these may be related. It sounds like the one of the things Thatcher is trying to do is make our offense easier to execute. I keep thinking about Steve Chaloult’s comment on the Army football show about how much harder it was for an offensive lineman to execute our offense last year than it was when he played. It sounds like Thatcher wants to make that easier so we fully execute on a higher percentage of plays.

[3seconddelay]

I’m having trouble keeping my optimism in check despite the tough schedule. If for no other reason than not having to watch Davis pound the offense against a wall over and over again. I think Bryson Daily is a special talent to have at West Point. I’m excited to see the talent at slot and receiver get more touches before they graduate. The new running backs coach also brings two years of seeing some top defenses.

2021 was the last year of CFB as we knew it. The NIL/Xfer Portal upset parity at many levels, dramatically, overnight. I said to myself first snap down at Coastal “oh crap here we go again”. Flashback to the first season in Conference USA. With that and Todd Berry leading the charge to eliminate cut blocking, I trust Coach Monken has found a formula to continue to put our guys in position to compete.