Georgia Tech Head Coaching Candidate Profile: Jeff Monken
From 2008-2018, Paul Johnson had a very successful tenure as the head coach at Georgia Tech running the triple option. The Yellow Jackets made three ACC Championship game appearances under Johnson, winning the conference in 2009. It was a good run of winning football until Johnson retired after the 2018 season.
Georgia Tech has been trying to transition away from the option since Geoff Collins was hired in 2019, but has been unsuccessful, for a variety of reasons. While I think it is unlikely that the Yellow Jackets opt to go back to the option, I also don't think it can be completely ruled out. Johnson had a lot of success while at Tech and the decision-makers might decide they want to go back to what worked.
One guy to look at might be a former assistant under Johnson while he was at Georgia Southern, Navy, and here in Atlanta at Georgia Tech.
Army head coach Jeff Monken has had a lot of success running the option
If Georgia Tech wants to go back to running the option, the top candidate to look at would be Army's Jeff Monken. Monken has been the head coach of the Black Knights since 2014 and has had success while he has been the head coach.
Monken bounced around as an assistant coach at various places like Hawaii (1989-1990), Arizona State (1991), and Buffalo (1992-1994). He was a high school coach at Morton High School in Illinois in 1995 and then returned to the collegiate ranks in 1996 at Concordia.
Monken then was the running backs coach under Johnson at Georgia Southern from 1997-2001. He would follow Johnson to Navy to be the running backs coach there from 2002-2007 and he added the title of special teams coach during his last two years with the Midshipmen.
Once Johnson packed up to be the Georgia Tech head coach in 2008, Monken once again went with him and was the running backs coach and special teams coach from 2008-2009 and was a part of the ACC Championship-winning team in 2009.
Jeff Monken led Georgia Southern to a 38-16 record while the Eagle's head coach
Monken's first head coaching job would come at Georgia Southern in 2010. In his return to Statesboro, Monken won double-digit games in three of his four seasons and got to the FCS semifinals in his first three seasons as the head coach of the Eagles. He led Georgia Southern into Florida in 2013 and the Eagles upset the Gators and did not even need to complete a pass to do so.
Georgia Southern went 38-16 while Monken was the head coach before he left to be the head coach at Army in 2014.
It took a little bit for the Black Knights to get rolling under Monken and they suffered through a 4-8 record in 2014 and a 2-10 season in 2015. In 2016, the breakthrough came and Army went 8-5, got their first win over Navy since 2001, and got a bowl win. Two double-digit win seasons came in 2017 and 2018, as well as two more bowl wins.
Army would go 5-8 in 2019 but rebounded with back-to-back nine-win seasons in 2020 and 2021. Monken has Army at 3-4 so far this season.
Would Georgia Tech be interested in bringing back Jeff Monken?
So should Monken be a target for Georgia Tech and would he leave Army if offered the job?
Those are both tough questions to answer. I don't think that Monken will be Georgia Tech's first choice and I am not under the impression that they are eager to revert back to the option so quickly. Monken has been rumored as a potential candidate for other power five jobs, but schools seem to be resistant to hiring a triple option coach. He seems to be comfortable at Army and would probably only for what he deemed to be the right opportunity. He could view a return to Atlanta as the right opportunity.
Monken has done an amazing job at Army and is winning against Air Force and Navy consistently, as well as winning four bowl games. If Tech wants to run the option again and have the type of schematic advantage that they had under Johnson, there is no better choice out there than Monken.
It will be interesting to see which direction new athletic director J Batt wants to go in his first major hire at Georgia Tech. He could do worse than Monken, although I have a feeling that would not be the most popular hire.
Stay tuned for any coaching search updates and rumors.
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