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As of right now Tuesday February 27th at 1:30pm EST, Drew Thatcher is not listed on the Army Football Coaching Staff website at the link below.

Coincidence? I don't know. A quick web search doesn't show any reporting on him.

Maybe this is a fluke or maybe there is change coming?

Thoughts?

2024 Army Football Staff

PD

Good move for all parties if he's gone.
Demoted at WP and not an under-center triple coach, he's better off plying his wares elsewhere.
He may have already found a new home.

Wish him well. Just not a good fit for us.

With CW taking over as OC, it was a matter of time. Thatcher seemed like a good guy, but he is probably better off somewhere else.

My source in the athletic department indicated there was a strong concern that Navy was going to go hard after worley, and his promotion was required to keep him here and of course because he was the best person to run the new/old offense.

But when you think about the fact that Monken fired his longtime coaching friend Davis, brings in a new guy and moves him halfway across the country, and then fires him as well in less than a year… What a ruthless business

Ruthless indeed...but I'm glad to see Monken is doing whatever he thinks is needed to put a winning team on the field. No complacency or allowing himself and the staff to get in a rut of doing the same thing.

If the 2 games that Worley has called in the past couple seasons are an indicator of his talent, we should see a big step forward this season with the offense.

"Ruthless" is pretty harsh, but it could be defended as an appropriate description. So could "Results Oriented"....
Either way, you produce, or you go; and I share your admiration of JM's dedication to do whatever it takes to WIN. It's especially impressive that he admitted a terrible mistake with Thatcher and corrected it fast. There's a difference between a good-sounding idea ("let's run a gun option like Thatcher did at Nebraska") and a good, sound idea ("let's never relinquish our EDGE, which is an under-center triple based on team discipline and dedication").

In the case of Davis, he was forever a mystery, imho. It seemed as if he got more and more "Ball Security" oriented, to the point where our "offense" became literally unwatchable. FB dive, QB follow. Rinse and repeat. Do not PITCH, too dangerous. And certainly no wheels, or quick hooks or anything to loosen the defense. Eventually, 3 and out over and over.

Ball security is an excellent goal, but not taken to extreme as we horribly demonstrated. What's a little mysterious to me is that it seems like Jeff could have easily communicated that to Davis. Could have ordered him to open things up. Get to the perimeter, etc. Maybe he did. Dunno. But for whatever reason, it never got done.

And to take things further, if I were recruiting running backs against Army during that time, I would have used this mantra over and over: "Army is where Slots go to die". Cooper, Marshall, Walker, Trainor, Asberry, Robinson, and others vastly underutilized. Fast, elusive backs will turn into nothing more than blockers or decoys.

But now we have a new OC! And what I absolutely LOVE about the guy is that he is unafraid to call every play in the triple option book. We'll go inside if that's what the defense gives us, and we'll do it like days of old with Bradshaw and Woolfolk over and over and over. But when the defense closes in, we'll PITCH THE SUNOVABITCH and get T-Rob in space! That's what he did in both games he called. Used the entire playbook. Finally, he's a QB coach also, so I'm certain that he'll have Daily and his backups very qualified to pitch either left or right handed, so ball security will still be emphasized. And no slot will get ahead of the pitch because we do it so seldom, ala BC last year. Also expecting QB counters, quick passes, etc, to keep 'em guessing.

Of course, it can't be said enough that any success we enjoy will be largely the result of a dominant and relentless O line. Whether we have the horses remains to be seen...

Can't wait. Hoping someone will report on spring practice.

Out.

wpgrad wrote: ↑Wed Feb 28, 2024 9:21 am My source in the athletic department indicated there was a strong concern that Navy was going to go hard after worley, and his promotion was required to keep him here and of course because he was the best person to run the new/old offense.

But when you think about the fact that Monken fired his longtime coaching friend Davis, brings in a new guy and moves him halfway across the country, and then fires him as well in less than a year… What a ruthless business

Worley going to navy was a concern as mine as well. That would have been brutal if he became the OC at navy and tormented us for years.

I hadn't thought about Worley to Navy but that would be a real possibility and a loss for us.

I'm optimistic for his offense and hope he does well with it. We will see. Couldn't be worse than Thatcher's.

Though I have to wonder how much influence Monken has in the offensive scheme and play calling. I can't say Thatcher was way more creative than Davis and the common link there is Monken.

We will see. Hope that we can finally get some o line play and back under center all remains to be seen as of now.

PD

Good point, P&D - there were times when Thatcher’s play calling looked like Davis’ except from the shotgun.

Perhaps CW is a “Monken whisperer” and can crack the play book open a bit wider. He certainly did vs. Coastal.

I’m surprised it took this long. He must have found something else. Best of luck, brutal business. Looking forward to Army’s future!