When Josiah Bartlet, the fictional president portrayed by Martin Sheen in Aaron Sorkin's brilliantly written series, 'The West Wing,' was finished talking about a subject, he would look at his staff and say, "what's next?"
On Saturday, one could hardly have blamed Army football coach Jeff Monken if he had walked into his team's locker room at halftime and said simply, 'what's next?'
After all, it was pretty clear that the Black Knights had done what they needed to do, leading Morgan State, 29-3 at intermission, on their way to what would be a 60-3 rout on senior day at Michie Stadium.
If, however, you are a betting person, you would have been well-advised to put a lot of money on Monken saying anything BUT 'what's next?' Monken's answer to the first question in his halftime TV interview made it pretty clear what his mood was after the opening 30 minutes.
As TV interviewers do, the questioner, looking to stay upbeat, asked Monken what Army had seen in the Morgan State defense that led to the flurry (flurry being a relative word) of passes late in the second quarter. Monken looked at the questioner as if to say, 'were you watching the game?' then said—in a voice cold as ice—"what we saw was that we couldn't run the fullback. Our offensive line wasn't opening up holes." He paused to listen to another question and then went on about how sloppy his team had been and how unhappy he was with what he had just seen.
If those were his comments on television, it's pretty easy to imagine what he said—though probably not repeatable here—in the locker room.
That's because, truth be told, Monken WAS thinking about what's next: Navy.
Morgan State was a game scheduled to be a win and it was exactly that. That said, there were coaches and players on the Army sideline with memories of games against Fordham and Yale that had been scheduled as wins in the recent past. Among the 16 seniors, there were also memories of the season opener in 2013 when a 28-12 win over the Bears wasn't wrapped up until late in the fourth quarter.
That's why Monken was seething when he looked up with a little more than five minutes left in the half and saw his team leading by only 13-3.
The first eight minutes of the game had gone exactly as scripted: Morgan State, three-and-out; Army drives 60-yards in eight plays, capped by a 23-yard run by a healthy Andy Davidson. Then: Morgan State four-and-out; Army goes 47-yards in just three plays, Ahmad Bradshawgoing five-yards to make it 13-0 with 6:58 left in the first quarter.
That was when Monken's nightmare began. The extra- point was messed up by a miscommunication on the snap, continuing the Cadets special teams misadventures that started with the first punt of the season (blocked) against Temple on opening night.
Then came a fumble on a punt return that led to Morgan State's only points and a nine-yard Army punt. The very fact that the offense had to punt the ball away—that lack of blocking Monken referenced—on two occasions, infuriated Monken. Only the fact that the defense held the Bears to a field goal after the fumble and forced them off the field on downs after the short punt, kept the game from being closer.
Army then began to get its act together with a quick 73-yard drive capped by a 50-yard Jordan Asberry sprint around the right side—keyed by a superb block by Edgar Poe—and then, helped by a bit of luck, scored on a 31-yard Bradshaw to Poe pass to cap off the half. The luck came when a Bradshaw interception on an ill-advised (to be kind) back-foot, across the field pass was waved off by a pass interference call. On the next play, Poe outleaped a defender for a spectacular touchdown.
The second half was more like what Monken was looking for, even when he cleared the bench in the fourth quarter. There was even a successful field goal—Blake Wilson making a career-long 47-yarder—along the way.
All of which led to a couple of major 'what's next?' questions.
The first one will be answered in two weeks when Army finds out if it is going to play postseason for the first time since 2010 and for the second time since 1996. The Black Knights are now 6-5, but are 5-5 in terms of bowl eligibility because only one win over an FCS team can count, meaning last month's 62-7 victory over Lafayette is officially looked at as a bye.
Once the College Football Committee makes its selections on December 4th, picking four teams for the playoffs and designating eight others to play in the other four so-called, 'New Year's Six,' bowls, the second-tier bowls will quickly fill their dance cards—almost all of them based on conference tie-ins.
There's a reasonable chance though, that there won't be 80 bowl eligible teams to fill out all 40 bowls. A year ago, the bowls came up three teams short and three 5-7 teams went to bowls. The ever-image-conscious NCAA decided the best way to decide WHICH 5-7 teams would get bids would be based on APR—Academic Progress Rate.
That means, if there aren't 80 bowl-eligible teams, Army SHOULD be right at the front of the line, based on APR and—perhaps—that it would be sitting at 5-5 in the eyes of the bowls when the bids go out, not 5-7.
So, what are the chances that there won't be 80 bowl-eligible teams? Decent. By one un-official count (mine) there are, as of Sunday, 64 teams that are bowl eligible and 19 more that could become bowl eligible. It doesn't seem likely all 19 will get there. That could open the door for Army.
Regardless, the truly important, 'what-next,' will take place on December 10th in Baltimore. That's when Army will attempt to end, 'The Streak,' Navy's 14-game skein in the Army-Navy game.
In Monken's first two years, Army teams that won a combined six games, had legitimate chances to win the game in the final minutes. This is clearly a better team then either of those two squads.
Navy, of course, is very good again. In fact, the Mids clinched a spot in the American Athletic Conference championship game Saturday with a 66-31 bulldozing of East Carolina, raising their record to 8-2.
While that victory may be intoxicating in Annapolis, it means Navy will play on December 3d in the AAC title game. As a result, the following Saturday will be the eighth straight Saturday the Mids will play a game. Army will be, if nothing else, the more rested team.
Perhaps the Black Knights will go on from there to a bowl game. Either way, there is no question that the winter months will feel considerably warmer around the post if 'The Streak,' can be broken. Which is why Monken can be forgiven for worrying not about the halftime score on Saturday but about what's next.
Because, especially for this Army team, there's nothing more important than what's next.
