season, the United States Air Force Academy (Air Force) and the United States Naval Academy (Navy) were the last major remnants of flexbone football in FBS football and testaments to the formation's ability to use key offensive players effectively when a team has significantly less talent on the field. But with the hiring of former Navy head coach Paul Johnson (who also coached at Georgia Southern) in 2008, Georgia Tech became the first BCS conference school in approximately two decades to use a flexbone offense. In Johnson's first year at Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets shared the ACC Coastal Division title with Virginia Tech. In 2009, the Jackets beat Clemson in the ACC Championship game to get to the Capital One Orange Bowl. In 2014, Army hired Jeff Monken, who coached under Johnson, to run the flexbone in hopes of resurrecting the program as he'd done at Georgia Southern in 2010. In 2016 and just his 3rd season, Monken lead the Black Knights to an 8 win season and victory over Navy for the first time in 15 straight tries. In 2017, Army won 10 games including a back-to-back win over Navy, both of which hadn't happened since 1996. In the late 1980s, the University of Arkansas ran a version of the flexbone under coach Ken Hatfield and won two consecutive Southwest Conference titles. Schools at the FCS (formerly I-AA) level that currently run the Flexbone include Wofford, The Citadel, and more recently the upstart program of the Kennesaw State Owls coached by Brian Bohannon who in 2017 lead the Owls to a 12–2 record and appearance in FCS playoffs in only the 3rd year of the program's existence. The flexbone offense is also popular at the high school football level. Famous Flexbone coaches Fisher DeBerry – Air Force Paul Johnson – Georgia Southern, Navy, Georgia Tech Erk Russell – Georgia Southern Jeff Monken – Georgia Southern, Army Kelley Lee-Eastern New Mexico University Ken Niumatalolo – Navy Ken Hatfield – Air Force, Arkansas, Clemson, Rice Kenny Wheaton - Harding University References Important Georgia Southern Statistics Flexbone history American football formations