Assistant coaching career After graduating from
Millikin University in
Decatur, Illinois in 1989, Monken took his first coaching position as a
graduate assistant at
Hawaii. It was during his tenure at Hawaii he first worked under
Paul Johnson, who was the Rainbows'
offensive coordinator at the time. From Hawaii, Monken coached for one season at
Arizona State and three seasons at
Buffalo. He was hired as a head coach for the first time at
J. Sterling Morton High School for the 1995 season. From Morton, Monken spent one season at
Concordia before being hired by Johnson as a
running backs coach at Georgia Southern in 1997. In his first season with the Georgia Southern, Monken led the Eagles to an overall record of 10–5 and to the
2010 FCS Playoffs Semifinals, defeating top-ranked and previously undefeated Appalachian State to begin a streak of six consecutive wins. In 2011, Monken led the Eagles to an overall record of 11–3, the Southern Conference championship and a second-straight trip to the
2011 FCS Playoffs Semifinals. In 2012, Monken again led the Eagles to a Southern Conference Championship with a 10–4 overall record, a third consecutive FCS Semifinal Game appearance and final No. 3 national ranking. Georgia Southern accepted an invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference in March 2013 and subsequently made the move to FBS. In its first transition year in 2013, the Eagles were not eligible for the NCAA playoffs and ended their FCS history with a 26–20 victory over
Florida in the season finale.
Army On December 30, 2013, Monken was introduced as the 37th head coach of the
Army Black Knights football program. Monken's Army tenure started slow, with a 4–8 2014 season and 2–10 2015 season, including a loss to
Joe Moorhead's
FCS Fordham Rams. In 2018, he became the first head coach to lead Army to three consecutive bowl appearances, consecutive 10-win seasons, and its first ever 11-win season. These resulted in a final
AP Poll ranking of No. 19 and final
Coaches Poll ranking of No. 20 for Monken's 2018 Black Knights, the highest the Black Knights had finished in the final polls since legendary Army coach
Earl 'Red' Blaik's
1958 squad. It also resulted in the Cadets winning their eighth
Lambert Trophy (signifying the Black Knights as the best team in the East in Division I FBS), but their first since that 1958 team. Following his team's 2018 accomplishments, Coach Monken was awarded the
George Munger Collegiate Coach of the Year Award by the
Maxwell Football Club, the Vince Lombardi College Football Coach of the Year Award by the Lombardi Foundation, and the
President's Award by the
Touchdown Club of Columbus. In 2021, Monken was awarded the ECAC Division I FBS Football Coach of the Year Award. ==Personal life==