Jeff Monken officially named Army football coach

Jeff Monken coached Georgia Southern to last season's surprising upset of Florida. (AP)

Army has hired Georgia Southern football coach Jeff Monken, athletic director Boo Corrigan announced Tuesday. Corrigan told SI.com's Pete Thamel the deal was for six years.

Monken, whose 38-16 record in four seasons at Georgia Southern included last season's shocking 26-20 upset of Florida, was widely linked to the Army job by media sources, including FootballScoop.com and the Times Herald-Record.

He coached Georgia Southern to the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoffs in all three eligible seasons, advancing to the national semifinals each year with double-digit victories.

Monken led Georgia Southern's transition up to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The school will complete the transition next season.

He replaces Rich Ellerson, who was fired on Dec. 15 after the Black Knights' 12th straight loss to Navy.

Corrigan and U.S. Military Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen said they conducted a thorough national search before selecting Monken.

“We were fortunate to have an excellent pool of candidates to consider,” said Corrigan. “We were very impressed with each of the individuals we interviewed. There was tremendous interest in the position nationally and we felt there were several very qualified candidates, but throughout the process Jeff separated himself from the others. His passion, energy and strong experience in turning around a program immediately helped him rise to the top of our list.”

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Monken will be officially introduced during a press conference on Dec. 30.

“We want a successful head coach who understands the challenges of working at a service academy, one who could help us win immediately and one who understands the importance of West Point’s mission. We found that in Jeff,” said Corrigan. “Jeff has been highly successful at every stop he has made both on the field and off. We expect him to experience that same level of success at West Point. We could not be more excited to have Jeff , his wife Beth, and their three daughters join the West Point family and lead our football program.”