The jigsaw puzzle that is the Army 2026 football team begins in earnest Friday afternoon when the Black Knights take the field for their first spring practice.
While Army coach Jeff Monken is quick to say that all college football teams enter their next season with a lot of questions, it is extremely clear that this has been an unusually active offseason for his program. And, there’s a lot of questions to be answered before the Black Knights open up against Bryant Sept. 5 at the newly-renovated Michie Stadium.
About to start his 13th year at Army, Monken said, at a press conference Wednesday, that, as always, he is eager to get back to the practice field and start putting the pieces together for his football team.
Coming off a 7-6 season, which saw the Black Knights defeat UConn in the Fenway Bowl just weeks after losing to arch-rival Navy in a heartbreaking one-point defeat, Monken will have nine starters back on offense, including most of his offensive line and quarterback Cale Hellums. Defensively, though, Army returns just three starters from a unit that gave up only 21.6 points per game, ranked 40th amongst the 138 FBS teams.
“New positions and new players, that is every spring, that is college football and, in this day and age, every school in the country has a new team,” Monken said. “We have far more starters returning on offense than we do on defense. It cycles like that. One of the great things about this program is that our guys grow up in this program, developed under the tutelage of these coaches, and in our systems, which remain the same.
Monken added, “I am confident we will have guys that will grow into those positions.”
The 15-day spring practice, which culminates with the Black/Gold spring game on April 17, allows the Army coaching staff to work with veterans without being concerned about freshman players, who are not yet familiar with the team playbook and culture.
“The spring is all veterans and I think we are evaluating and finding out who the starters are potentially and who are the clear backups are potentially,” Monken said. “It allows us to use a lot of guys, cycle in a lot of lines of players.
“They get a chance to go out there and compete, see them in a competitive situation and see them go against another player and those evaluations are important.”
On top of that, Monken has had to fill six assistant coaching spots since the end of the season, including defensive coordinator Nate Woody, who left for the University of Cincinnati, and, in the last week, long-time offensive line coach and former Army football captain Mike Viti, who went to the University of Miami, and defensive line coach Allen Smith, who left to join the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. Daryl Dixon was promoted to defensive coordinator from cornerbacks coach and pass game coordinator in January, “Coach Viti is a terrific guy, a great coach, an ambassador for this institution and program,” Monken said. “This is a guy who is a West Point graduate, a team captain here as a football player, a combat veteran and has been on our staff for 11 years. He has been a key part of our success and the growth and development of this program overall.”
While Monken said the process to find replacements for the other two coaches has commenced. He said there’s no rush to fill the two openings before Friday’s start of spring ball.
“We will use coaches we got on staff to fill those positions for the moment and work at filling those positions on more of a full-time basis,” Monken said. “It is not ideal but it’s this profession. We will vet candidates and be very calculated on who we hire and who we bring in. The culture of this program is important and we want to bring someone who is a fit and a great teacher. I am confident we will.”
