2019 Army Black Knights football team

The 2019 Army Black Knights football team represents the United States Military Academy in the 2019 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Black Knights are led by sixth-year head coach Jeff Monken and play their home games at Michie Stadium. They compete as an independent. Due to playing an away game at Hawaii and the NCAA's Hawaii Scheduling Exemption, the Black Knights play a 13-game regular season in 2019.

Previous season
The Black Knights finished the 2018 season with a record of 11–2 and finished ranked No. 19 in the AP Poll and No. 20 in the Coaches' Poll. They won the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy for a second year in a row (first time ever), defeated archrival Navy for the third year in a row (first time since 1992-1996 seasons), played in and won their third straight bowl game (first time ever), finished with consecutive 10-win seasons (first time ever), finished with a second straight unbeaten record (6–0) at home to extend their home winning streak to 13 in a row, won the Lambert Trophy (first time since 1958), and finished with their first 11-win season ever.

Quarterback Kelvin Hopkins Jr. tied the academy records for total number of rushing touchdowns (17) and total number of touchdowns responsible for (23), as well as becoming the first Army player to rush and pass for over 1,000 yards each in a single season (1,017 and 1,026 respectively). Coach Monken was awarded the George Munger Collegiate Coach of the Year Award by the Maxwell Football Club, the Vince Lombardi College Football Coach of the Year Award by the Lombardi Foundation, and the President's Award by the Touchdown Club of Columbus.

Offseason
Defensive coordinator Jay Bateman announced in December 2018 that he would be leaving to become the co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach at North Carolina under newly hired coach Mack Brown. Weeks later, head football strength and conditioning coach Brian Hess was announced as joining Bateman at North Carolina. Assistant football strength and conditioning coach Maurice Sims would also leave for North Carolina within the month. Safeties coach John Loose, after serving as the interim defensive coordinator for the 2018 Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl victory over Houston, was announced as the full-time replacement at defensive coordinator on January 10, 2019.

On January 14, 2019, Army West Point announced a new multi-year contract extension for head coach Jeff Monken through the 2024 season. On the same day Army beat writer for the Times Herald-Record, Sal Interdonato, broke the news that Kansas Wesleyan head coach Matt Drinkall had joined the Army football staff as an offensive analyst. On January 18, Interdonato revealed that defensive line coach Chad Wilt had taken the same position with the Cincinnati Bearcats.

On January 31, the West Point athletics department announced that Matt Hachmann would be joining the football staff as the outside linebackers coach. He had spent the past two years as the linebackers coach at Stony Brook, and before that eight years as defensive coordinator at Towson. Because of his posting as linebackers coach, several defensive assistant coaches changed positions of responsibility. Coach Daryl Dixon, the former outside linebackers coach, is now responsible for cornerbacks, and Coach Christian-Young, the former cornerbacks coach, is now responsible for safeties. Additionally, assistant strength and conditioning coach Conor Hughes was promoted to head football strength and conditioning coach. On February 5, Coach Monken's last assistant coach position was filled with the announcement of the hire of Kevin Lewis as defensive line coach. Lewis had spent the previous five seasons as the defensive line coach at William & Mary

On February 19 it was announced that Rusty Whitt and GC Yerry had been hired to serve as the two assistant football strength and conditioning coaches, filling out the remaining open positions on Monken's staff. Whitt joined the staff after serving as the head football strength and conditioning coach at Texas Tech from 2016−2018, while Yerry joined after serving as the director of athletic performance at Stony Brook, also from 2016−2018.

On March 19, the West Point athletics department announced that Jim Collins would join the staff as the new Director of Player Personnel. Collins brings 25 years of head coaching experience at the Division II and Division III levels, including tenures as the head coach at the University of Dubuque from 1994−1996, Capital University (OH) from 1997−2007, and most recently at Saginaw Valley State from 2008−2018.

The Black Knights began their spring football session on March 7th and concluded it on April 12th with the annual Black and Gold Spring Game, where the Black team completed a fourth quarter comeback to win 35−28 in overtime. Following the conclusion of spring ball, rising firsties Kelvin Hopkins Jr. and Elijah Riley were named team captains in addition to returning 2018 captain Cole Christiansen.

The Black Knights' fall camp began on August 1st and will consist of 14 practices, finishing up on August 17th with an intrasquad scrimmage at Michie Stadium.

Award watch lists
Listed in the order that they were released.

Coaching staff

 * 1) Tucker Waugh also served as the wide receivers coach at Army from 2000 to 2004.
 * 2) John Loose also served as the linebackers coach at Army from 1992 to 1999.
 * 3) Scott Swanson also served as an Assistant Strength & Conditioning coach at Army from 1995 to 1996.


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Roster
The Army football roster one week into the 2019 fall camp (as of Aug 12, 2019):

Depth chart
Depth chart as of April 23, 2019.

Depth Chart 2019 True Freshman Double Position : *

Schedule

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vs. Navy

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