Examining Army’s Jeff Monken as WVU Football HC Candidate

While most believe we are in the home stretch of the WVU football head coach search, there’s one name still available in addition to Andy Kotelnicki and Rich Rodriguez – Jeff Monken. Army’s head coach is believed to be the third dark horse candidate still in the mix.

So since so much is already known about Kotelnicki and Rodriguez, it’s time to dive into Monken.

Currently, Monken, 57, has Army (11-1, 8-0) preparing for their annual matchup with Navy and poised to face Marshall in the Independence Bowl. Monken led the Black Knights to the American Athletic Conference title with a 35-14 win over Tulane on Friday night.

Army is ranked No. 19 by the Associated Press.

Putting together a season like 2024 at a program like Army is an incredible accomplishment in and of itself. Monken’s peers are not dealing with the obstacles and circumstances he is at a military academy and he’s the one with the better program right now.

And 2024 is not his only successful season at Army. Prior to back-to-back 6-6 seasons in 2022 and 2023, Monken won nine games in both 2020 and 2021. WVU fans will even remember the Mountaineers played Army in the 2020 Liberty Bowl – West Virginia won 24-21.

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Overall, Monken is 81-56 at Army. Before Army, Monken coached at Georgia Southern, going 38-16 and winning one conference title there. Monken owns a 119-72 career record as a head coach and is 4-1 in bowl games, with his only loss being to West Virginia.

He’s also spent time as an assistant at schools like Arizona State (GA), Buffalo, Georgia Tech, Hawaii (GA) and Navy as well as coaching high school football in Illinois.

While Monken may not be the story a return of Rodriguez would be or even as sexy of a name as Kotelnicki, it makes sense WVU director of athletics Wren Baker would be impressed by him. If you can win at Army, you can likely win anywhere.

For a related story, Marshall hired former WVU assistant Tony Gibson to be their next head coach.