Army Head Coach Jeff Monken tends to go through a lot of quarterbacks. In his 11 years as the head coach at Army he has had 11 different quarterbacks who have started 2 or more games, and Army has seen 2 or more quarterbacks start games in all but 3 seasons under Monken. Ahmad Bradshaw is the only quarterback of the Monken Era to start every game in back to back seasons in 2016 and 2017; and the only other quarterback to start every game in a season was Kelvin Hopkins in 2018. Monken had 4 different starting quarterbacks in 2020 and 3 different quarterbacks in 2015 and 2019. Every other season had 2 different starters.
In this article we look at the records and statistics for Army quarterbacks in the Monken Years.
The Ellerson Holdovers- 2014 -2015
There were only two quarterbacks of note in the Rich Ellerson Era, Trent Steelman who started most of the games in his 4 year career at West Point and Angel Santiago who took over when /Steelman graduated. Monken inherited two experienced QBs from Ellerson in 2014.
Angel Santiago - 22 career starts
Santiago was best known for his durability. He got his first career start as a plebe against Rutgers in 2011 after Steelman was injured in the Vanderbilt game. He played in all 12 games in 2014 with 10 starts and 635 of the 780 offensive snaps and led the team to a 4-8 record in Monken’s inaugural season.
The Bradshaw Years - 2015 to 2017
Ahmad Bradshaw was recruited by Ellerson and attended USMAPS in 2013 before entering West Point in 2014. He did not play in his plebe season but was named the starting QB coming out of fall camp in 2015. He had some injuries in his sophomore season but still started 7 games in 2015 and then started all 25 games in his junior and senior seasons.
Ahmad Bradshaw - 29 career starts
AJ Schurr - 6 career starts (5 for Monken)
Schurr was a junior when Monken arrived at West Point. He started 2 games for Monken in 2014 and got 3 starts as a senior in 2015 when Bradshaw experienced injury problems.
Chris Carter - 2 career starts
Carter got his only two career starts in 2015 when both Bradshaw and Schurr were lost to injuries. He was the backup for Bradshaw with limited playing time in 2016.
Bradshaw’s Successors
Army fans were worried about who would take Bradshaw’s place after he graduated, and it was Kelvin Hopkins who moved into the starting role. He had made his debut against Temple in 2017 when the Black Knights found themselves trailing and needing a passing QB in a 2-minute drill. Hopkins is the only quarterback other than Bradshaw to have started every game in a season, which he did in 2018. Hopkins was a better passer than Bradshaw and became the first player in program history to throw and rush for over 1,000 yards in a single season. The 2018 season was the most successful season of Monken’s tenure at West Point with 11 wins and 2 losses, and it included capturing the CiC trophy and dominating Houston 70-14 in the Armed Forces Bowl along with taking Oklahoma to the wire in a 28-27 loss to the #5 ranked Sooners.
Kelvin Hopkins - 17 career starts
First of the Multiple Quarterback Years - 2019
Army entered the 2019 season looking forward to a continuation of the team’s success with Hopkins at the helm, and the team started out well with 3 wins in its first 4 games, along with a near upset of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Following the Michigan game, Hopkins was sidelined for the next two games against UTSA and Morgan State, and Jabari Laws filled in. Laws ended up making 5 starts on the season, but he too was sidelined for the final two games, leaving Christian Anderson in the starting role in the final game against Navy. Hopkins ended up playing 464 snaps in 2019, Laws played 212, and Anderson played 196. Army finished with a 5-8 record in 2019, in part due to the problems of keeping quarterbacks healthy.
Jabari Laws - 5 career starts
Laws was arguably the best passing quarterback of the Monken era, but he was plagued with injuries, sat out the entire 2020 season, and saw only limited action as a backup in 2021.
Christian Anderson -15 career starts
Made his college debut in 2019, and got his first start against Navy that year. Made major improvements in passing between his junior and senior seasons. He had his best season in 2021, leading Army to a 9-4 record.
The Covid Season 2020 - 4 starters at QB
Army was one of very few teams who ended up playing a complete schedule in 2020, and they did it by inviting teams to play at West Point where they were able to adhere to the CDC guidelines to control the pandemic. Keeping players eligible for games that season was a problem for all teams, and Army did better than most but ended up starting 4 quarterbacks in the season. Anderson started 5 games that season, Cade Ballard had two starts while sharing playing time with Tyhier Tyler vs UTSA and Mercer. Tyler started the last 4 games and Jemel Jones had his first career start against the Citadel. Army finished with a 9-3 record.
Cade Ballard - 2 career starts
Ballard arrived at West Point with a solid reputation as Mr Tennessee Football, but his performance as a Black Knight never lived up to his advanced billing.
Tyhier Tyler - 18 career starts
Tyler had his college debut in the Covid season with 4 starts, had 4 more starts in 2021 when he shared QB starts with Anderson, and he had 10 starts in 2022. He was a poor passing quarterback and was better at running the zone read out of the shotgun than he was in running the traditional triple option from under center.
Jemel Jones - 4 career starts
A solid backup quarterback, Jones was proficient at running the option and was a better passing quarterback than Tyler, but he never rose to the top, playing just 484 snaps in his 4 years at West Point. He had 1 start in 2020 and 3 starts in his senior year, 2022
Bryson Daily Takes The Reins Of A New Offense
The NCAA adopted stringent restrictions on blocking below the waist; so Coach Monken decided to run a different offense in 2023 and brought in a new offensive coordinator. Army had been recruiting quarterbacks for the triple option and really didn’t have a true dual threat quarterback needed to run the new offense; so Bryson Daily got the job. Daily had demonstrated his ability to run Monken’s version of the triple option in 2022, but fans were rightfully concerned about whether he had the passing skills required to run the new offense.
Bryson Daily - 12 career starts to date
How Do They Stack Up?
Let’s start by admitting that Army is unlikely to ever be thought of as Quarterback U. Nor is it likely that an Army QB will ever get serious consideration for the Davey O'Brien award for the country’s best QB. It was a bit amusing to see Ahmad Bradshaw on the watchlist for the Johnny Unitas Golden Arm award until we discovered that passing skills were not a major consideration.
We have seen the Monken offense evolve over the years in part to optimize the skill sets of the players they had at quarterback. The 2021 offense that featured Tyhier Tyler was significantly different from what we saw Santiago or Bradshaw running the first few years of the Monken Era.
Ahmad Bradshaw was probably the best traditional option quarterback and the best rushing QB of the Monken Era. He holds Army's all-time single-season rushing record with 1,746 yards, and the single-game record for a QB at 265 yards against Air Force in 2017. He will be most remembered for being the QB who broke the losing streak vs Navy in 2016.
If we consider passing skills in our ratings, we have to go with either Kelvin Hopkins Jr or Jabari Laws. Both of them had injury problems that kept them from achieving their best potential over their careers. Hopkins holds the honor of leading Army to its best record in the Monken Era.
How does Daily stack up against the other Army QBs since 2014? It’s a bit early to tell, but if he keeps healthy, he stands to rank up there with Bradshaw and Hopkins.
Only time will tell.
**To chat with other Army fans about this article and more, please visit The 12th Knight message board**
• WATCH the latest videos from GoBlackKnights.com and subscribe to our YouTube channel
