Jeff Monken: Six things to know about the Kansas Jayhawks football coaching candidate

Kansas and new Jayhawks athletic director Travis Goff continue to be nearing the end of their search for a new football coach, with a hire expected to be announced in the next week.

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at one of the top rumored candidates for the position: Army coach Jeff Monken. Here are six facts about him.

1. He’s been successful at a program that didn’t have much momentum before his arrival

Monken’s 49-39 record in seven seasons at Army — the Black Knights went 9-3 in 2020 — is even more impressive considering the program’s trend prior to his hiring.

Before he became coach in 2014, Army one more than six games just once since 2000, going 7-6 under Rich Ellerson in 2010.

Monken, meanwhile, has helped Army win eight games or more in four of its last five seasons. The Black Knights also garnered national rankings in the Associated Press poll in both 2018 and 2020 — a feat that hadn’t been accomplished at the school since 1996.

2. He’s ‘not a math guy,’ but coaches like one

Though Monken is known for his “old-school” triple-option offense at Army (and that primary offense likely wouldn’t follow him to KU if he’s the next coach), he’s definitely been “new school” when it comes to analytics and decision-making.

That’s showed up most in fourth-down aggressiveness. Army has been the nation’s leader in fourth-down attempts each of the last two seasons and also has finished top 10 nationally in the stat each year since 2016.

Monken explained his thinking in a 2018 Associated Press article, while first saying, “I’m not a math guy. I’m not an analytical thinker. I’m a PE major and proud of it.”

Still, Army subscribed to a service that provided statistical suggestions on when to go for it on fourth down, and Monken said he found logic in those numbers.

“It made way too much sense to me to argue with,” Monken told the AP. “I think it really fits what we do.”

3. He values a trait that KU coach Bill Self preaches often

If Monken becomes the next KU football coach, expect to hear a lot about “toughness” in Jayhawks football and men’s basketball press conferences.

That attribute — also a favorite of KU coach Bill Self’s — has been a cornerstone for Monken during his build of Army football, AD Boo Corrigan told the Annapolis (Maryland) Capital Gazette in a 2018 story.

“We hired Jeff for who he is — a tough son of a gun who is committed to all the right values,” Corrigan told the Capital Gazette. “I think Jeff has brought a high level of toughness and everything that comes with it. That means not turning the ball over, not having silly penalties, converting on third down, stopping the opponent on third down. It all comes down to attention to detail.”

4. He started from the bottom (of the floor) in coaching

Monken comes from a family of coaches; his cousin, Todd, is the offensive coordinator for Georgia, while five people related to him are members of the Illinois High School Football Coaches Association hall of fame.

Like many others in the profession, though, Jeff had to grind his way up. His uncle Bill, during a 2020 interview with The News-Gazette, recalled what Jeff did to secure his first coaching job as a graduate assistant for Hawaii in 1989.

“He was so gung-ho for football,” Bill told The News-Gazette. “But for a while he had to sleep on the floor in the office because he couldn’t afford to do anything other than that.”

5. He takes recruiting seriously

Monken revealed a truth about Army’s rebuild in a succinct quote to SB Nation’s Steven Godfrey in 2016.

“We’ve spent as much time in recruiting as we do on Xs and Os,” Monken told SB Nation.

Godfrey’s feature story on Monken and Army revealed just how detailed the program is in that facet.

Godfrey’s reported that Army’s recruiting setup at its football offices in 2016 had a “floor-to-ceiling wall of whiteboards” with over 200 names the program was pursuing. (Though Army faces recruiting challenges because it is a service academy, it also is not limited in the number of players it can recruit like other schools.)

Monken also told Godfrey his staff had worked hard to research where it might find the most success.

“We looked at every Division I signee for the last 10 years and charted their hometown and high school. Then every NFL Draft pick for the last 10 years. And then every starter on all of the academy teams for 10 years,” Monken told SB Nation in 2016. “There was a very glaring trend of where those guys all came from. So we made sure to attack those areas.”

Monken also likes to keep his recruiting operations secret, as evidenced — in part — by the fact that he follows no one on his Twitter account.

6. One of his favorite coaching quotes comes from an MLB hall of famer

Monken, in a December interview with Dan Patrick, revealed that one of his favorite quotes he uses with his players is, “Don’t convince me; show me.”

He said he first got the phrase from Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton. Monken was at a Houston Astros game when he was about 12 years old, and he said he asked Sutton for an autograph. Sutton told him he’d give him one if he asked politely.

When Monken started to apologize while trying to excuse his own behavior, Sutton stopped him: “Don’t convince me; show me.”

“I’ve never forgotten that he said that, and I still use that today,” Monken told Dan Patrick. “I’ve used it for my entire career when a guy talks about doing something, ‘I’m going to do this, and I’m going to do that,’ or, ‘I’m going to do better.’ I say, “Don’t convince me; show me.’ And I’ve shared with them where I got that quote, so I’ve got Don Sutton to thank.”