In the realm of recruiting, it's no secret that coaches sacrifice a lot of time and pour a lot of themselves into the process of building relationships with high school kids and illustrating to those prospects why their specific school is the right fit for them.
But as coaches and programs compete for kids, the choices of some coaches and programs to recruit from a negative stance tends to get under the skin of a lot of those in the business.
That topic came up during Army coach Jeff Monken's presser today. Army had their game with Air Force called off last weekend due to a rise of COVID cases within the Falcons program, and Monken had a bone to pick with the program, as Sal Interdonato tweets.
"I probably was mad and upset about it because I think there's frankly intent to deceive in a lot of areas coming out of that camp at times. Recruiting, the things that they say to our prospects. The inaccuracies about the Army. Frankly, I can go on for a long time about some of the stuff that is said and it upsets me and it bothers me that if we are going to be about the military, then let's be about the military and not tell a young man that he's making a poor decision because he wants to serve his country in one way different than another."
Monken went on to share that negative recruiting among the service academies - three places where things should certainly be viewed differently among those involved because of the commitment to ones country in a way that is a lot different than simply choosing the Buckeyes over Wolverines or Tide over War Eagle - and Army's head coach didn't pull any punches.
"I'm upset in general with them pretty much 365 days a year. It's not just this. It's multiple things, and it's not unique to me. I coached at the Naval Academy and the same stuff was happening when I was an assistant there. It's nothing new. Over years and years of having to deal with the same stuff, sometimes enough is enough."
Look, we'll never be able to purge all of negative recruiting. That's an impossible ask. But to expect service academies to treat each other with decorum and respect isn't a crazy thing to ask, and based on Monken's comments, that's something that hasn't been observed by the three football-playing FBS academies in quite some time.
Asked if the game vs. Air Force could be made up in January, or perhaps in spring, Monken shared; "Why should we do that? Football season is right now. Everybody is playing the football season right now. Why can't we play it now? I think there's a lot of things that could be worked out. Like I said, we can do it next Wednesday as far as I'm concerned. We want to play the game."