South Carolina fans are furious that Army's Jeff Monken is a candidate for Gamecocks' coaching job
Ever since South Carolina fired coach Will Muschamp, a number of names have been mentioned as his potential replacement.
Some are more far-fetched than others, as it’s unlikely the Gamecocks (or anyone, for that matter) will land guys like Urban Meyer and Bob Stoops. Liberty’s Hugh Freeze, Oklahoma OC Shane Beamer, Louisiana’s Billy Napier and others are more realistic as options.
One name that has surfaced is Army’s Jeff Monken, who has used the triple-option to great success at West Point (including a 7-2 record so far this year). Let’s just say that style, which Monken may not even use if he were to come to South Carolina, is not very popular with Gamecock fans.
As you can see below, there have been several furious tweets from fans about Monken’s name being potentially connected to the South Carolina job:
Live look at Columbia 2 days after the Gamecocks hiring of Jeff Monken pic.twitter.com/PtOBsxvoMX
— Rob Gregory (@rob3gregory) November 23, 2020
My preference in coaching candidates, ranked:
1. Shane Beamer
2. Billy Napier
3. Jamey Chadwell
4. Literally anyone else
5. Bring back Muschamp
6. Disband the football program
7. Jeff Monken.
cc: @Bob_Caslen
— Jake Leyland (@ITSJAKELEYLAND) November 23, 2020
South Carolina is not going to hire Jeff Monken. Stop it.
— The Spurs Up Show (@TheSpursUpShow) November 23, 2020
https://twitter.com/GamecockNoah/status/1330930789547171840
South Carolina fans saying they are out if Gamecocks hire #JeffMonken is comical. If he wins 8-10 games a year…y’all will be back. Bet that. Rumors get folks talking all kind of crazy.
— Frank Sulkowski WJCL (@TheBigGuyWJCL) November 23, 2020
If you hire Jeff Monken @Bob_Caslen you will lose this fan base and be run out of town
— Fifth Quarter South Carolina 🤙🏻 (@FQSouthCarolina) November 23, 2020
Hey @Bob_Caslen @RayTannerSC, I'm gonna go ahead and speak for the whole fanbase and say not a single one of us wants Jeff Monken as our coach! Hire Napier or Beamer, be done with it, and let's get to recruiting!
— Garnet Over Everybody (@GamecockPride01) November 23, 2020
Where do I mail all of my Gamecock gear if @RayTannerSC and @Bob_Caslen hire Jeff Monken? I guess I could just burn it and save on postage.
— Stephen M Bennett (@stephen_bennett) November 23, 2020
I firmly believe the Jeff Monken rumor is just smoke by Caslen to help his old friend get a better contract at Army
— Atlanta Sports Guy (@Atlantasportguy) November 23, 2020
Jeff Monken will not be hired here, simply a PR stunt to get more people on the Shane Train 👍
— The Gamecock Insider (@InsiderGamecock) November 23, 2020
We’ll see where South Carolina goes with its coaching search, but it seems fans want the school to move on from Monken as quickly as possible.
Furious? No. Hilarious…yes! Absolutely nothing at this point would surprise me regarding our stupidity. This would be a classic move. One of which I would expect no less. Do it!!!
I don’t want him to go to SC either. I want him to stay where he is and keep winning.
You best get used to it. A friend of mine is close with the Monken family. It’s already a done deal. Apparently Jeff Monken has convinced your president and athletic director. That the triple option is the answer to his problems. Because Quote: ” You can run the triple option with unknown recruits. ” In short. You don’t have to compete in recruiting every year with Alabama and Georgia or all the SEC power players.
Monken has already reached a deal with SC. He isn’t asking for huge money. Muschamp and his buyout factor into all of this. Monken is getting a guarantee of 7 seasons to get it turned around. For this he has made SC a very attractive offer. Something that SC can afford after that buyout. In other words. SC cannot fire him under any circumstance before 7 full seasons have finished. Otherwise there will be a considerable amount of money come due upon firing. In exchange for this clause in the contract. There will be no buyout should he be fired one day after the seven seasons expire. Now the whole contract is 10 years at very affordable money for the first 5 years. Now if Monken has the team at a certain goal after 5 seasons. Then the money goes up considerably.
Monken has stated he believes he can have the team at 6 wins and bowl eligible by 5 years in. With an 8 year goal of possibly between 8 and 9 wins. Yet after the 7th season south Carolina can choose to fire him or possibly work on a new deal. But any way you look at it. Jeff Monken is a done deal. Hugh Freeze was almost hired. It fell apart behind closed doors. Freeze wanted a 4 year deal with guaranteed money. Considerably better pay to say the least. Urban Meyer wanted so much that they never made it to a phone call. But it was very close to becoming a done deal with Hugh Freeze. Until Monken’s lowball offer. Basically SC got everything they wanted out of the deal. With the exception of the long contract. Initially SC wanted to hire Monken at 3 years and the same money. Monken wouldn’t budge from the 7 guaranteed seasons. The way I heard it. They were about to pull the trigger with Hugh Freeze. Until they talked with Jeff Monken. Freeze had stated that he would have SC contending inside of 3 seasons. That appealed to SC quite a bit. Monken when asked how long before he could make SC into an SEC east contender. Stated that contending in the east wasn’t or shouldn’t be the goal. Rather becoming bowl eligible was the more realistic goal. That they would have to make it over lots of other hurdles before even thinking about contending.
At the end of it all. Apparently Jeff Monken and his logic won out. Especially when he asked those interviewing him. Do you really want to pay too much again for pie in the sky or work with me? That is what it came down to. Apparently Monken sealed the deal when he explained. That he could reach every goal for himself and the team. Without needing to win in recruiting. Because the triple option has never needed elite recruits to work. According to Jeff Monken anyway. Personally I feel you’ll be sorry you hired this guy. You should have went with Hugh Freeze. But I thought you guys might want to know this. It is a done deal no matter what they tell you. The Monken family are already house hunting in the area.
Gator Rick
Wow, lol. Glad you got the inside scoop
Give Sparky or Brad a call while you’re at it.
I already told you. Jeff Monken is a done deal. Lose the fans or not. Jeff Monken is a done deal. There is no real reason to believe that Hugh Freeze could have really contended inside of 3 years. I mean Dan Mullen isn’t going anywhere. As bad as I hate to admit it. Kirby Smart is probably here to stay as well. So how could Hugh Freeze contend inside 3 seasons? Personally I stand beside Jeff Monken as a great hire. I do believe he could get SC bowl eligible in 5 years. So stand behind your new coach. Personally I think it will be fun having the triple option back in the SEC.
Gator Rick
Replace a backward, outdated coach trapped in the past with a coach trapped even further in the past? Classic Tanner!
The RPO offenses most everyone is running today aren’t really a far cry from the triple option. They’re a lot closer to one another than the spread offenses of yesteryear.
That be true. A good QB with a good RB can make a defense go crazy.
Booches you’re right. Reading a crashing linebacker to decide whether to keep it, hand it off, or pitch it is very similar fundamentally to RPOs.
Georgia Tech is the cautionary tale for a P5 program hiring a triple-option head coach. Some spotty success was had (playing in the ACC, FWIW), but recruiting dropped off the table. QBs and receivers holding nice P5 offers are understandably reluctant to join up with a TO system, and the offensive line profile is different (smaller, more mobile).
Sitting in the heart of the 4th-most talent-rich state in the country, Paul Johnson actually held a twisted kind of public pride in the fact that elite kids wouldn’t come near his program.
Success in the college game today is through the air. UGA is a poster child for that reality. With Clemson in the same state, it would be suicidal for SC to regress to a TO or RO offense, and it would definitely chase Gunner Stockton away – and that’s the guy the Cocks need to build around for the future.
Incredibly spot on
For sure. My point wasn’t that the TO would be successful at SCaronlina, but rather a coach who runs the TO isn’t going to have much trouble picking up on and adapting to RPO type offenses that are successful right now. Bazelak ran the TO in high school and he’s done just fine (as a player) fitting right into an RPO offense with lots of passing. I don’t think it would be a difficult thing for a coach to do the same who’s already familiar with the basic philosophy.
I understand what you’re saying, Booches. The issue is, though, how does SC get better and hope to compete in-state with Clemson? Going the TO/RO/RPO route with the right coach may prevent total disaster, but it won’t put them on a recruiting trajectory to narrow the gap with Clemson or UGA/UF. They need another Holtz or Spurrier type of hire, and a modern offense. They play Clemson, Georgia, Florida and A&M every year, and will never get over the hump till they can match up on the field with half of those programs.
The problem, obviously, is that there’s not a Spurrier or Holtz available. If they can get Sankey’s OK, Freeze may be the best option.
Nailed it!
Agreed. I’m not saying Monken would be the best hire for them by any means. I replied to mrtruth because I don’t think he really understood how similar the triple option is to today’s RPO and how it’s ran. It’s not like comparing say the old single wing or split T which were designed to force the defense to line up a certain way before the play, for example.
In terms of reading the defense and attacking them based on their movements, yes.
I think the most obvious name is Mike Bobo, especially if they’re looking to switch gears and hire an offensive coach. But no HC search is officially underway until Jon Gruden is mentioned.
You’re thinking of a Tennessee coaching search.
Depending on who they hire, the new coach may retain Bobo and Shaw. If they have some sense they will retain Shaw anyway.
Retaining Shaw would be a good move Rooster. My thinking is that he might just develop into a good QB coach. Young & enthusiastic.
Or Arkansas…. Groooooooden.
Some of those tweets are way over the top. “Burn W.B. To he ground”? “How Columbia will look”? These folks need to grow up.
Monken, no he would be an emergency candidate only. However, I do remember Alabama looking at Paul Johnson back when Francione and Mike Price were hired just due to the sanctions and the job was not desirable at the time. It would be interesting to see someone try to run that offense in one of the power five conferences at a place without the strict academic requirements.
I do see Monken as a great candidate for Vandy though. He could get better players at Vandy than he does at Army.
I don’t see what is so wrong with Monken. He does a good job at Army.
The answer is right there in your comment. He does a good job AT ARMY.
Army can beat the crap out of South Carolina. So watch your mouth.
Lol!
Yes, he does a good job at ARMY. He always has an undersized team with below average speed. Yet he wins regularly and has pushed several blue chip teams to the brink. Doing more with less screams GOOD COACH.
Well he should be right at home here because that’s exactly what we have…but without the competitive edge.
Napier is your man. I was surprised Arkansas and for sure Missouri didnt call Napier. Missouri had some interest in Anderson at Arkansas State..what a huge mistake that would have been.
I’m glad we got Drink. Really smart and understands what’s going on almost before it happens. His oline was a mess vs usc and he found a way to win.
Missouri picked Drinkwitz that beat Napier two times last year!
Hmm sounds very familiar…
I have no dog in this fight, however as a UGA fan I can’t agree more with the comment by @darthA. UGA needs a coach who can do more with less. After all shouldnt a team with top 3 recruiting classes beat teams with inferior talent. Even with that said, Kirby has managed to lose to teams with less talent. Goes to show what kind of coach he is.
I do wish the gamecocks the best in their coaching search, however I can’t help but think the fan base is more delusional than georgia fans. Spurrier brought a period of success to columbia quite frankly I don’t think will ever be matched again. South carolina will never beat clemson again as long as dabo is there. Y’all’s best bet is hanging your hats on upsetting a more talented georgia team ever couple of years, and handling business against mizzou, vandy and kentucky on a yearly basis. Even that mizzou thing might be a challenge.
I’m sure it appears that way at the present time. Delusional, no. The building of the program started before Spurrier. I could say UGA fans are delusional as well. What would be the purpose of firing Smart and for what purpose? Therein lies the delusional part of UGA. Just remember, you won the National Championship with a coach that had a far worse record than Kirby does.
It’s fine for fans to say who they want and who they don’t as long as they don’t take it to a Tennessee level and make fools out of themselves and their program
Relax Gamecock fans Jeff Monken is not leaving West Point for South Carolina or any other job. I find it comical to think Gamecock fans would think he would even consider that job as it is a major step down from where he is. He is way too smart to leave the best job in the country. He is coaching at the #1 institution in the country; at the #1 leadership development laboratory in the country; gets to coach the best true student-athletes in the country; help develop the best future leaders in the country; win 8-10 games each year, win bowl games, beat Navy and Air Force; coach a program that has the prestige of West Point that has won 5 national championships, produced 3 Heisman Trophy winners. Nothing against the caliber of student-athletes at South Carolina or the SEC but very few have what it takes to handle West Point or willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for the country. Go hire Will Muschamp 2.0 and continue being irrelevant. GoArmy!! BeatNavy!!
GONAVY!!!
Go Air Force the CiC Trophy coming back.
I hope that the story concerning Caslen & Monken’s being “seriously” comsidered are total crap. Hopefully South Carolina hires a head coach that has already been the man that ran a program…not another coordinator. That experiment did not work out to well. Beamer’s name is hot but Jamey Chadwell can bring the offense to the Cocks.
Hope Jeff Monken stays at Army and continues to win. Not sure Gamecock fans deserve a leader such a Jeff.
I don’t think USC could afford Jeff Monken anyways.
Jeff Monken is a darn good coach and would not run the same offense at South Carolina.
Billy Napier would be an excellent choice.
Hugh Freeze is a repugnant, hypocritical piece of refuse but for whatever reason (winning at the expense of all else) he is in demand and probably has his sights set a notch higher (e.g., Tennessee, where hiring hookers on recruiting trips is apparently not as bad as being merely rumored to have known another coach was fooling around in the showers).
South Carolina is going to be a really tough job with Clemson and Georgia recruiting at their current levels.
Paul Johnson is available look what the triple option did for GA Tech he could bring it to Columbia!!!
Be careful what you wish for. Remember all the Tennessee people in an uproar about hiring Greg Schiano? Look what they ended up with.
No seriously, be happy you got rid of Muschamp since you didn’t appreciate him, and be lucky to get ANYONE with a current winning record.
When 8 or 9 coaches turn SC down for the job, will Monken really look that bad then?
Scott Satterfield just annouced that he’s happy at Louisville. Jamey Chadwell @ coastal Carolina is currently an offense-minded head coach and knows SC recruiting well. If SC hires another coordinator or assistant then it’s “on the job” training again. Didn’t work out too well last time.
This is exactly how big buyouts happen. The team in question has to pay a premium to get a better coach than their program can attract on its structural merits.
Today’s Forecast:
There is an 80% chance USC will bungle the new hire. History has a way of repeating itself.
This is just a 10rc reVOLts lather rinse repeat deal. The vuls moaned and groaned and pitched a fit and now their team is step by step even with Rutgers with Pruitt. Cacalaky will be used by many coaches just to get a raise and they will have to settle for Bobo in the end cause no good coach in their right mind would want that job.
No comment on what you said, but your handle was probably the best year in Wolf Pack history. Great football team with Lou Holtz, and a National Champion basketball team. I was at the UCLA-NC State game in St. Louis in the middle of the year and thought at the time that Maryland was better than NC St., as the Terps almost beat the Bruins at Pauley Pavilion and got major hosed in the final 30 seconds by the zebras. Lefty almost had a coronary that night when Dave Meyers body-checked John Lucas, forcing him to go out of bounds. The zebras not only didn’t call a foul, they gave the ball to UCLA. Lucas had an unimpeded drive to the basket for the winning layup, as Len Elmore had Bill Walton on his back unable to position for the block. Tom McMillen was in offensive rebounding position on the roll to the basket off the pick. I am still mad about that play 47 years later.
You did such a nice job recounting it, felt like I was there :)
The only fortune of being on the road to becoming a fossil, is that you can relate things to the youngsters that weren’t alive to experience it. The 1973-74 basketball season was one of the best in NCAA history. Maryland played NC State three times that year, and State won all three by tiny margins. State won the national title over Marquette, with UCLA falling to State in double OT in the semis. Maryland might have been the third best team in the nation, but they stayed at home and did not play at all in the postseason.
I was a Lefty Driesell fan when he was the coach at Davidson in the 1960s. They played the most exciting brand of basketball and twice came within a minute of beating North Carolina twice in the Elite 8.
Driesell took the Maryland job when the Terps were perennial bottom feeders in the ACC, and he proclaimed UM to be UCLA East.
I remember when Press Maravich coached NC State before he went to LSU. Had he stayed, Pete might have been on an ACC Championship team in Raleigh. NCSU won the 1970 ACC Tournament.
Of course, the proverbial, “I can remember from 1958 to 1968 much better than I can remember what happened 30 minutes ago” is quite apropos. As Dan Quayle once said when speaking to the United Negro College Fund, “What a waste it is to lose one’s mind.”
No matter who SC hires, it can NEVER be as bad as the Chad Morris hire at Arkansas. Ballonama had quit coaching and took up buffet tours..but Morris was like an A bomb on that program. Historically either the worst HC hire or right up there.
Maybe this is a flier being put out by Monken to see how he would stand in a P5 conference. South Carolina is obviously not the place for him, but if Vanderbilt fired Derek Mason, Vandy would be the one P5 schools other than possible Kansas, that would be willing to go to an Academy-style option offense. The one caveat, is that Ken Seals would transfer, because Mike Wright would be the logical choice to run the option.
Option coaches have moved to bigger schools and Scuttled the option for a conventional offense, but they have not done all that well doing so. The mob has spoken, and they got their point across. That leaves Monken open for the Commodores if the insiders decide to go with that philosophy for the long term.
FWIW, College football experts were on Nashville radio yesterday stating that Shane Beamer is the current favorite to get the job, but only if Justin Fuente keeps the Va. Tech job.
And, the same experts believe that there could be a slightly better than expected list of applicants for the Vanderbilt job if Mason is fired, because Seals will still be a Freshman in 2021, if he stays.
Yeah, you can’t really find any high school recruits anymore who even know how to run a triple option offense anyway. The 80’s was it’s heyday.
There are many high-quality high school QBs that run the read option out of the spread, and going to triple option out of an indirect snap QB position isn’t going to be that much of a learning curve.
What the triple option would allow a school like Vanderbilt or Kansas to do is to have first dibs on the best recruits that run this system. A running fullback rarely gets that chance in college to run the ball. He’s either blocking or his position is replaced by a 3rd receiver.
The ATH player without a real college position becomes a great A-back to run on the pitch and to be a receiver.
Vanderbilt has a decent option-style QB in Wright. Seals would quickly transfer to some place like Baylor or TCU if Vandy went this option. Vandy also has a decent potential A-back who is currently a walk-on, Mitchell Pryor. His running style is a poor man’s Larry Csonka, and even though he has no speed, every carry he has made this year required at least two tacklers to bring him down. He has had plays where he hit the LOS and was hit, but then he gained 3-5 yards.
There are a couple of receiver types that have speed but are a tad small to be consistent possession receivers. But, as an A-back, they could be dangerous as the pitch option.
Most importantly, this style of play could allow a Vanderbilt offense to reduce total scrimmage plays per game by 15-20, and the defense would benefit by about 10 less snaps per game.
Vanderbilt ran the I-Bone offense under Gerry Dinardo, and in his 4 years, they were 8-23 in SEC games. It only takes 2 SEC wins to get to 6-6 and go to a bowl, and that’s about the most consistent goal for Vanderbilt in these times. Monken might be able to consistently win 5 to 7 regular season games a year, and I don’t honestly believe any non option coach can do that. Remember that Paul Johnson took Ga. Tech to two Orange Bowls, and Tech went to 9 bowls in his 11 years. They are 5-14 since.
FWIW, under James Franklin, Vanderbilt ran the spread with a lot of option plays, but they were all regular options and not triples.
Jim McElwain might be interested :)
This can’t be serious. No way Monken leaves West Point for columbia. But he would be a step up from Boom. I also can’t believe so many fans can’t see that.
The space on each side of the line of scrimmage is important. Just one example in a big possible play-book: a quarterback with a long accurate arm and his receivers are wasted scholarships on plays where the ball is inside the 20 yard line. But a program that needs to score a lot of points might need a passing game to keep up with their opponents.
A triple option scheme can be taught by a lot of O-staffs to find out if the opponent can defend that space with adequate numbers, technique, and stamina.
Attacking plans can succeed because of change (big play-book), or precision (detailed and persistent coaching), or stamina (fitness work every day at practice), or a lot of other reasons/combinations. The more limited the use of the play-book the better you have to recruit and teach/maintain it. So it’s not what you teach, it’s how well you recruit and teach it.