The Buddy Teevens Award was created to honor those coaches who’ve been innovators in growing and improving the game of college football. Named after the legendary Dartmouth College coach, the award recognizes outstanding achievement on the field, as well exceptional leadership that leaves a lasting impact on players, other coaches, and the sport at large.

Throughout the season, the Maxwell Football Club will showcase current coaches who have led, innovated, and positively impacted the game in the spirit of Coach Teevens.

Army Head Coach Jeff Monken

A little over a decade ago, Army sought a head coach who could lead its once-proud football program out of the abyss. By the end of 2013, the Black Knights were mired in a 17-year slump marked by 16 losing seasons and a widening gap with rival Navy.

With no end in sight to the struggles, the Academy hired Jeff Monken away from Georgia Southern and gave him a clear order: change the entire direction of the program and break through against the Midshipmen.

Nearly 11 seasons later, Monken has proven to be a perfect fit at West Point.

Monken is 79-56 at Army, hitting a high note in 2018 by going 11-2, winning the Armed Forces Bowl, and leading the team to its first Top 25 finish in more than two decades.

Even better, Army caught up with and passed Navy. The Black Knights had lost 12 straight in the series when Monken arrived but are 6-4 under his watch.

This season, the 9-1 Black Knights are ranked and have already earned a spot in the American Athletic Conference title game in just their first year in the league.

Relying on his four core principles of humility, toughness, effort, and execution, Monken has successfully resurrected Army football, one of the most difficult places to win consistently.

Perhaps Monken’s most important trait is his adaptability, particularly since he coaches at a service academy. Smaller athletic programs, such as Army, don’t have the luxury of being change-makers. When seismic shifts occur in the game, Group of Five schools are forced to adjust on the fly. Over the past few years, adapting properly has become a job necessity.

While every school can fill roster holes through the transfer portal, that is not an option for Army. Monken celebrates it as an opportunity for greater cohesion and less turnover.

With NIL exploding into a pay-for-play tool to attract top recruits and transfers, the three FBS service academies are prohibited from accepting other forms of compensation. Monken hails it as one less distraction for cadets who already manage a crush of responsibilities.

When the NCAA cracked down harder in 2023 on cut blocks, a staple in any triple-option attack, Monken tweaked and retooled his offense to incorporate elements of the spread and tackle the new reality head on.

The result? After a brief learning curve in 2023, Army’s revamped offense far and away leads the nation in rushing this season and is having its best scoring campaign in generations.

Assess the situation. Improvise. Do your job. It’s the Monken way and it has been working ever since the coach navigated through the requisite two-year rebuilding period after his arrival.

Monken’s unique brand of motivational leadership, character development, and commitment to excellence reverberates far beyond Michie Stadium. While it’s often easy to forget, Monken isn’t just a leader of football players. He’s a leader of young cadets whose mission after football isn’t the NFL, but rather to protect our nation both here and abroad.

When Monken teaches, molds, and inspires, the Army Black Knights win. But on a much deeper and profound level, so does the country. His kids play football and attend class today, however tomorrow they’ll be military officers.

Monken’s ability to cultivate discipline, resilience, teamwork, and character prepares cadets to lead effectively and uphold the highest standards of the United States Army. By fostering these qualities, Monken contributes significantly to the development of competent, ethical, and inspired military leaders, which will be impactful for generations to come.

Army hired Monken in 2013 to completely revamp and revitalize the culture and the on-field performance at Army. More than a decade later, it’s been mission accomplished on the banks of the Hudson River.