Kish draws on experience to prepare team for Army

NORMAN — This week, Oklahoma linebackers coach Tim Kish got up and gave the entire Sooners team the scouting report on Army.

He broke down what the Black Knights do on each side of the ball — from their unique triple-option offensive attack to their defensive schemes.

Then he also did something unique — he told the Sooners exactly what a day in the life of a West Point Cadet football

player is like, from the 6 a.m. wake-up calls, to classes that begin just after 7 a.m. to team meetings during lunch hour to post-practice weightlifting.

“I just wanted them to have a better understanding of what a cadet is and what a day in the life of a cadet would be and just to expose them a little bit more to the mentality that they’re going to be facing on Saturday,” Kish said.

He should know. Kish spent eight seasons as an

assistant coach at West Point, coaching defensive ends and outside linebackers and being exposed to a completely different world of college football.

“You’ve got to understand when you go through the regiment of the day that they go through, for them to come to football practice, that was their release,” Kish said. “That was their time to have fun and enjoy the camaraderie of being a part of a team. They play the game of football because they love the game of football.”

West Point remains a special place for Kish.

He keeps in touch with his former players from there as much as any other stop he’s been on throughout his career.

His wife, Angela, is from Highland Falls, New York, about three miles south of West Point on the Hudson River.

They met when Kish was an assistant at Army.

Before Jim Young hired him as an assistant at West Point, Kish had never been to a military academy.

He didn’t know exactly what to expect.

“But you’re looking at one of the most prestigious places in the country,” Kish said. “It’s a great setting. The

tradition there is unlike any other. You think of the people who passed through those gates and were part of that system, it’s pretty remarkable.”

Jeff Monken’s resurgence at Army over the last four seasons has emulated what Young did when he took over the Black Knights in 1983.

After a 2-9 first year, he brought Kish aboard and things quickly improved.

Army went to backto-back bowls in Kish’s first two seasons, beating Michigan State and Illinois in bowl games. They also went to the 1988 Sun Bowl, where they lost to Alabama.

During Kish’s stint at

West Point, Army tied Tennessee in 1984 and beat the Volunteers in 1986.

“Coach Young, his first year was trying to throw the ball a little bit, then he watched Air Force and Navy running the wishbone and the next year we went to the wishbone,” Kish said. “He knew the type of athletes that we had and the type of talent that we had and it just fit it perfectly for us.

“That turned the whole program around when coach decided to go use the triple option.”