Army West Point Black Knights College Football Pregame Quote, 09/22/2020

Good afternoon everybody. It is so nice to be in here after a win again. The weeks are always more enjoyable coming off of a victory and I am really proud of our team and our staff. And for overcoming some adversity on Saturday. We faced some on Saturday that we probably didn’t face in the opening football game. That second quarter just didn’t go very well for us. We had some three-and-outs, some turnovers and some foolish penalties. Some things didn’t go our way but I was really encouraged to see our guys come out in the second half and play well enough to win the football game and play well in every phase.

I’m proud of our team for the victory. It’s hard to win a game and they’ve got an athletic, well-coached football team and we benefitted from just having had the opportunity to practice and get prepared through preseason camp and get ready for them. We had a win under our belt and I think the guys just felt a bit of confidence after having had a win in the opening game so I am glad to get a win and now it’s time to prepare for Cincinnati a week from this Saturday.

On if the first two games exceeded expectations:

There’s been plenty of things that our team has done well that I have been proud of and we’ve easily recognized getting a lot of takeaways on defense. That’s been really good. I think we’ve got six on the season now. Certainly in the first game, scoring on every drive of that game. In both games control the clock and being able to run the fullback and a power running game, just to chunk away at the defense and keep that clock running and play our brand of football. There’s been things in every phase. I think we’ve for the most part, Saturday was an exception, there was a couple of times where they had some kick returns that we were a little disappointed, but we had guys in position and we missed some tackles on those plays but we have covered kicks well. We had guys in position. Obviously the fake kind of turned the game for us. It was a 10-point game and we were able to execute that fake to put ourselves in scoring position to stretch the lead. So there’s things that they’ve done really well but there’s lots of things that we need to do better and we’re going to have to do all of those things where we’re feeling like we’re falling a little short, a whole lot better against Cincinnati. This is an outstanding football team, a top 25 team, well coached, veteran guys. They’re big. I looked at their defense today and looked at their depth chart that they sent us and holy smokes do they have a great looking football team physically. Very fast, they have skill guys, whether it be offense or the kick returner, just really impressed with their team, Coach Fickell is a great coach.

On if rescheduling BYU has been discussed:

We’ve discussed it but it’s not something we’re committing to right now. I think we’ve got to look at where we’re at here in a couple of weeks down the road and just see what happens with the rest of the football season. There’s certainly a lot of unknowns and a lot of possibilities as we get into the weeks to come ‚Äì we look at the other games, particularly the CIC games, and the effects of what might happen with this virus and what we need to do with each open weekend that we have. I think we’ve kind of got to consider that. We would love to play that game, they’re a great team and it would be a great opportunity for our program to play a team of that caliber. If we can do it, we’ll try to do it but right now we’ve got our schedule pretty set.

On the special teams’ performance:

Special teams is often an afterthought of a lot of people watching the game, but I believe there’s a statistic that one in every 6-7 plays is a special teams play. They are a big part of the game. They aren’t a third of the game necessarily, but they are a big part of the game. When there is a kick off play, when there’s a punt play, the potential is there for those plays to gain 40 yards per play ‚Äì and there aren’t many plays that can gain that many yards ‚Äì so when people talk about it being a field position game, and football is a field position game, the kicking plays become very important. After kicking plays there’s a spot on the field where the ball is placed for the next set of downs. The team that wins the field position battle after kicking plays, often wins the game at a rate of over 70%. It’s really important that we try to win the kicking game and that we try and make that phase of our team a priority. We have a lot of guys that start on offense and defensive positions, but are still in there on special team plays. I think our special teams play has been good these first couple of weeks and has contributed to our success.

On Nolan Cockrill:

He’s always been a really tough guy — strong, determined, very intense player. It’s exciting to see him having the season he is. He plays nose then switches and plays end and is right now one of the most productive guys because he’s been able to play all of those positions. He’s a good football player. There’s a lot of talented guys out there who are taller, bigger, longer maybe, but I don’t know if there’s any tougher. He’s a good football player and I will take a good football player every time over a guy who is super talented and long and doesn’t play as hard. This guy plays hard and is really strong. He knows this position ‚Äì he knows how to play his position in our defense and I think that helps him be productive.

On the decision to delay BYU:

It’s the right thing to do and I think the teams that are making those decisions when they have cases of COVID on their team, they have to quarantine those who have come into close contact with them, it is the right thing to do.