GBK Exclusive Q&A with Fullback Coach, Mike Viti

In the past here at GoBlackKnights.com, we’ve written several articles highlighting the importance of the B-back (aka fullback) in the triple option offense, and we noted that head coach Jeff Monken put even greater importance on that position after he arrived in 2014.

Monken inherited one of the best fullbacks in Army history with Larry Dixon, who was a team captain and leading rusher on that 2014 team, but the fullback in Monken’s offense absorbs a pounding on every play, and Dixon’s performance suffered from having to play through injuries most of the year.

There weren’t a lot of fullbacks in the pipeline at the time; so Monken ended up converting a couple of linebackers, Andy Davidson and Calen Holt to play fullback. Davidson became Army’s leading rusher the following season, running for over 1,000 yards, but he may be the last of the 1000 yard rushers at that position because of changes in the system that made it the deepest position on the team last year. Darnell Woolfolk, a player who played B-back at USMAPS, came into his own as a sophomore, and the senior trio of Woolfolk, Davidson, and Holt combined for 320 carries and 1,477 yards last season. With the graduation of those three productive seniors, one might expect a big drop-off in the 2019 season, but those three were only 3 of the 5 players who saw playing time at that position last year.

Another change Monken made was to hire former Army fullback Mike Viti to be his B-back coach, and we at GBK believe that coach Viti has played a major role in developing the depth and quality at that position. So he seemed to be the ideal person to interview about what we should expect from the B-backs this coming season. We got our chance to interview him and we think you will be as impressed with the response as we were.

GBK: The quality and depth at fullback has increased substantially since you took over as the fullbacks coach. When you first arrived, you had to develop players converted from other positions. How would you rate the quality and depth at fullback at this point compared to last season?

Viti: You know, I know most people look at losing Darnell, Andy and Calen as a significant drop off. But I think, and I would say that to them if they were sitting in the room, we might have a little bit more depth and talent at the position than we ever had. We just don’t have the experience. Those three guys had to play earlier in their careers and if you take those three guys, especially Andy and Darnell and go back to their sophomore year ... I don’t know if those guys as sophomores would see the field with the depth here right now. And honestly, that’s a compliment to them at the end of the day. The legacy that they left behind, they left behind better than how they found it.

I think the feeling of Connor [Slomka], Sandon [McCoy], Rashaad [Bolton], Cade Barnard collectively is probably higher, but we just don’t have that experience, where you have three seniors that you can hang your hat on, where you know what you are going to get every single rep of every single game. So it’s not just getting them the experience, as they have been in countless scrimmages. Connor has played significantly, Sandon has played significantly, Rashaad is a guy who came up from the prep school so he’s been in the program going on his 5th year. So, we probably aren’t experienced from an attempts, yards, or production stand point; but their experience is far to the right compared to the core group of guys were when they started off their careers here.

GBK: Five fullbacks saw significant playing time last year. How many fullbacks can we expect to see get playing time this year?

Viti: It’s going to be the same. The percentage might look a little bit different, but Connor Slomka is going to be our guy ... you know what I mean? He’s going to fill that void that Darnell left us and the next guy up, who is 100% with him is Sandon McCoy. Those two guys are going to see significant action and that 3rd B-back is between Rashaad and Cade Barnard and they left spring ball are pretty much in a dead heat and we are going to let them play it out and see who becomes that 3rd guy.

We are really high on Anthony Adkins (2019 incoming frosh). He’s got to get brought up to speed on the offense and the same thing with Jacobi Buchanan (from USMAPS).

That’s a philosophy we believe in. That’s how we recruit them and that’s how we are going to play. It’s not just ... the offense has evolved to a very heavy power run game, triple option through the B-Back, through the Quarterback as our starting point and be married with that offensive line. If we are going to play that brand of ball, then it’s not just going to be one guy.

So, Coach Monken and Coach [Brent] Davis (offensive coordinator) and myself and we really believe in that philosophy. It’s a 3-4 people position. It’s like the offensive line where we look at the O-line as a unit, we look at that fullback stable as a unit, except that it’s a one guy position ... meaning that there is only one guy who can be on the field at a time. Even from a recruiting standpoint, when we’re making our recruiting board, this guy brings this side of what we need to the offense, this guy brings that side .... because we know what games are going to look like and how we are going to practice and develop them. So that’s more of a philosophy now that we have kind of brought forward than just positional thing.

GBK: What particular strengths do you see in each of the potential fullbacks (Slomka, McCoy, Barnard, Bolton, etc.) bring to the job in terms of acceleration, breakaway speed, power, blocking etc.?

Viti: Start off with Connor and he has THE best get-off and 10-yard time on the team. That’s a really important time for us. Many guys talk about 40 times, but I really put a lot into that 10-yard time. They are getting to the line to get a 5-yard running head start and we are expecting that group to average 4-5 yards collectively to have the team we want. So, Slomka has one of the best 10’s in the entire program and so his explosiveness and get-off, and his yards after contact and once he gets that bout with a guy, he’s really a powerful dude. He’s 240 pounds and he is one of the strongest guys on the team and he is tough to bring down.

McCoy is probably ... he is in that same mold of Calen Holt as far as being a violent guy, a lot of edge, a lot twitch and probably the best guy in the program without the ball. What he does and his understanding and treating that extra gap on the perimeter when we are running our lead zone option game, he understands that very well. His twitch ... he’s a more explosive player than Slomka, as far as that moment of impact and that’s where he’s best.

Bolton, is a guy who is built like an Avenger {laughing} ... he looks the part. He has just developed himself into a really sound player. Athletically, he is a little behind where Sandon and Connor are, but his complete repertoire ... I mean he is literally one of the most powerful guys and he’s going to be at 245-250 pounds and he is going to fill in some of that smash mouth, zone dive, get hard yards because he is just hard to stop. He now understands how to fit everything, he understands conceptionally what we need on each run.

Cade Barnard compares most similarly to Andy Davidson. Davidson and a little bit of Slomka. He’s a little bigger guy. Bigger than Davidson, heavier and taller, but Cade’s going to make his money because he can play on every special team. I mean he was a big time linebacker coming out of high school.

To me, the best B-Back that was never a B-Back was James Nachtigal. You know what I mean? Those guys look very close in the same mold. The B-Backs and Inside Linebackers on our Friday walk through always play this football game together and it’s kind of the biggest toughest meathead that I have seen in college football. It’s hilarious. We had Cole Christiansen, Arik Smith, Kemonte Yow, James Nachtigal who are playing against Slomka, Davidson, Holt and Woolfolk. Cade is kind of built like that, where he can be a utility guy and do a lot of different things. He’s the rawest of them all ... he came in as a direct freshman, so he just getting the core understanding of the offense. I am really high on him.

I like where the group is at because of the distribution. We have two senior, a solid junior, a solid sophomore and we know what we have with those guys. We are transitioning where it’s not going to be so 3-4 in one class, but are never going to lose that experience and that is something that we wanted to lock up moving forward.

GBK: Do any of the B-backs have the kind of versatility we saw with Calen Holt last season, where he could be used in multiple roles and formations.

Viti: Sandon is that guy for us and who will cross train with some of the (shot)gun stuff, be able to do multiple things. Maybe not as versatile, because I would be doing a dis-service to Calen, because he is one of the most versatile guys we had. So I don’t know if he can do everything that Calen did, but Sandon is that guy.

Sandon actually had ... when Calen Holt tore his ACL and meniscus before the Army-Navy game last year and that was going to be a big part of our game and the guy who back-filled him was Sandon. A lot of people don’t know this, but Sandon hurt his knee on the opening kickoff, so we had to adjust a little bit on what we were doing.

GBK: How is the rotation managed, and what is your role in getting the right man in on each play?

Viti: So we know the foundation ... we know what each guy does. The standard philosophy is oh these guys just run a trap or triple option and if you really break it down, it’s not. It’s a triple option formation and make a defense line up a certain way, but we have a power running game as much as we are a triple option offense.

So each one of those guys is a different type of back. So we look at them just like any back from any other offense, where one guy might be your 3rd down back, another guy might be your Iso back or this guy might be your zone guy. So each guy, we know who does what well and as we go into a game plan I kind of give each guy that this is going to be your plays going into the game. To me that is really important the expectation management of what the game is going to look like and we are watching it very closely. We have to self scout ourselves to make sure that there’s no “okay when this guy goes in it’s only these plays;” so we do that by changing it week to week.

So each guy will have a set of plays that they have as a package and they know it going in. When we are going through the game, some guys will have a primary role with a back-up and I’m communicating with them because there are certain guys and we are very efficient on 3rd and 4th down, so we know that we see many of those downs and those are winning downs for us in the game and so is the red-zone and goal line, so I’m communicating with those guys, the drive is moving and they probably will not be able to stop us. I always talk about those linebackers (opposition) that are in the game that in there for a 15 play drive which is like a 15-round fight. So now you put a fresh Sandon McCoy in round 8 and Connor has been busting them up for 7 rounds and then you get Rashaad Bolton in for 11 and 12 and closing back up with Slomka against that same linebacker who has been in there for the whole 15 rounds/15 play drive.

We make a big emphasis that the yards are our yards; the touchdowns are everybody’s touchdowns; and whoever landed that knockout blow ... that’s not just you, but it’s the collective group.

How we manage that in the game is Coach Monken and Coach Davis leave that up to me. We are all on the same page, but we all have different things in the game that we have to be managing. So that’s my job on game day ... personnel and substitutions.

Bottom-line is that you are letting your guys know what we are thinking next… and we are talking about that as the drive unfolds with our offensive staff ... like ‘this is there if you want it Coach Davis’ or asking us for feedback. So I am kind of saving those guys for those critical moments when I know it needs to happen. I’m not saying that every play is not the most important in the game, but let’s be honest, 1st & 10 versus 3rd or 4th & short or goal line situation, those are winning times in the game. We are trying to always be at our best with guys we want to be in the game at those moments.

GBK thanks Coach Viti for an enlightening response to our Q&A

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