Army head football coach Jeff Monken met the media yesterday in West Point and discussed his team's meeting with UTEP this weekend as well as his reaction to the death of sophomore cornerback Brandon Jackson early Sunday morning.

The Black Knights chose to play Saturday's game in El Paso against the Miners despite the tragic death of Jackson just three days ago. Monken explained the team's thought process at his press conference.

"We have some things going on internally that are helping us cope with the loss and helping the young men who, after Brandon's family, are our greatest concern. We will continue to do that as we prepare to play the game this Saturday, and we will play. That is a decision that the team was adamant about; they wanted to play. We decided that, as a group, if we were going to play then we were going to do it in the best way possible by preparing."

As for the Miners, Monken knows that their opponent will offer is defense all that they can handle. "They do a lot of things on offense," Monken said. "They run a lot of motion and distractions that trouble defenses. They do a good job. It's very interesting to watch them play and see all of the different things that they do. There are some unique challenges to playing UTEP. They have a great running back in Aaron Jones. He's tremendously talented and tough to stop. He had over 100 yards in the first half last week against Texas, and that's pretty impressive against a team that a lot of people recognize as a great program. They've had some different quarterbacks due to some injury issues, but have continued to be able to do a bunch of different things on offense. They can make it a long night for you."

The pregame show for the UTEP-Army game will begin at 4:40pm on Saturday and features performances by the UTEP and Fort Bliss (1AD) bands, an American flag covering the entire Sun Bowl field, an Apache Helicopter flyover and a Parachute Jump Team delivering the game ball. A moment of silence will be observed for Jackson. Tickets are available by calling 915-747-5234 or online at ticketmaster.com. Discounted military tickets are available starting at $10. Student tickets available through www.sportslottery.utep.edu.

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