Todd Monken

Todd Robert Monken (born February 5, 1966) is an American professional football coach and former quarterback who is the head coach for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the head coach at the University of Southern Mississippi from 2013 to 2015. Monken played college football at Knox College, in Galesburg, Illinois from 1986 to 1988.

Monken was born in Wheaton, Illinois. His father, Bob Monken, was a high school football coach in Illinois. He attended high school in Wheaton, when his father was an assistant coach at Lake Park High School in Roselle, Illinois. After graduation from high school in 1985, Monken enrolled at the Knox College and played quarterback for the Old Siwash, starting for two seasons, in addition he played on the baseball team. As a senior in 1988, he was named All-Midwest Conference South Division First Team and NCAA Division III All-American.

From 1989 to 1992, Monken was a graduate assistant coach at Grand Valley State University, and the University of Notre Dame under Tom Beck. In 1993, he joined the Eastern Michigan University football staff as a defensive backs coach under Ron Cooper, whom Monken worked with at Notre Dame. When Cooper left, he stayed on under the new coaching staff, eventually being elevated to offensive coordinator in 1998. Monken took a job at Louisiana Tech University as the wide receivers coach in 2000, before moving onto the same position at the Oklahoma State University in 2002. He followed head coach Les Miles to Louisiana State University in 2005 and 2006, he moved to the NFL in 2007, where he led the Jacksonville Jaguars wide receivers for four seasons. Monken returned to the college ranks in 2011 as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach for two seasons.

Monken accepted the job as head football coach for the University of Southern Mississippi in 2013. Monken led the team to three consecutive improved seasons, culminating at a Conference USA Championship Game berth in 2015, where the Golden Eagles lost 28–45 to the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers.

On January 24, 2016, Monken left Southern Miss to return to the NFL, joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as their offensive coordinator. In 2019, he joined the Cleveland Browns as their offensive coordinator, when Freddie Kitchens was dismissed after a single season; Monken was named the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of Georgia, helping lead the team to consecutive berths in the College Football Playoff in the 2021 and 2022 season, winning back-to-back national championships in 2022 and 2022: the school's first since 1980. He then returned to the NFL as the offensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens from 2023 to 2025.

On January 28, 2026, Monken was named the head coach of the Cleveland Browns.

Early life and education

Born in Wheaton, Illinois, on February 5, 1966, Monken is the son of Jo Ellen (née Stewart) and Bob Monken. Both Todd and his brothers Tony and Ted were born in Wheaton, while his father was a football coach at nearby Lake Park High School in Roselle. Todd and his brothers attended Wheaton North High School, where he played quarterback as well as shortstop on the Falcons baseball team.

In February 1985, Monken committed to play football for Bruce Craddock's Western Illinois Leathernecks football team as a preferred walk-on. With the arrival of Paul Singer the same season for Western Illinois, Monken decided it would be best if he left Western Illinois, and transferred to the College of DuPage, where he played as an outfielder for the College of DuPage in the spring of 1986.

In the fall of 1986, Monken transferred to play football for Randy Oberembt's Knox Old Siwash football team. As a sophomore in 1986 Monken, age 20, was a backup to quarterback Bob Monroe who had broken Knox's single season record with 2,365 yards of total offense in 1985. In the 1986 season, Monroe started all 8 games, and was an All-Midwest Conference selection and an Honorable Mention All-American, while Monken backed him up and completed eleven of twenty-eight passes for 97 yards in limited action.

In the spring of 1987, Monken was in a competition for Knox's starting quarterback job. Three-year starter Bob Monroe and Monken battled, and the coaching staff designed a time-share at the position due to both of their great play, with Monroe playing the first and third quarter, while Monken would play the second and fourth quarters. With Monroe being left-handed and Monken being right-handed, their unique shared playing time also came with confusion for other teams to scheme against defensively. Monken completed 107 of 195 passes for 1,430 yards, fourteen touchdowns and six interceptions during his halved 1987 season.

In 1988, his final season at Knox, Monken started all 9 games at quarterback for Knox Old Siwash football team that compiled an 5–4 record, lost to Monmouth College in the 1988 Midwest Conference South Division. In the fifth game of the season, Monken led Knox to a 30–27 victory over Cornell College. Monken completed 41 of 62 passes for 462 yards and four touchdowns. Setting a record that still stands for most completions in a game for the Old Siwash. In the seventh game of the season, he broke his own Knox school record with 64 passing attempts, in a 30–37 defeat to Illinois College.

For the season, Monken completed 218 of 358 passes for 2,400 yards, 23 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions. His 23 passing touchdowns set a Knox season record that still stands. He also finished lead the country in pass attempts, completions, and completion percentage. Monken won numerous honors in 1988 including the following:

• He was selected as the first-team quarterback on the 1988 All-Midwest Conference football team.
• He was selected by Pizza Hut as the first-team quarterback on the 1988 College Football All-America Team for Division III.

Monken was also on the Knox baseball team, being named All-Midwest Conference as a junior and senior in 1987 and 1988 respectively.

While attending Knox, he was a member of the Xi Chapter of Beta Theta Pi. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Knox and a master's degree in education leadership from Grand Valley State University.

Statistics

Coaching career

Early years

Monken got his start in coaching at Grand Valley State as a graduate assistant under head coach, Tom Beck. During his two years at Grand Valley (1989–1990), Monken coached with defensive coordinator, Brian Kelly. When Beck moved to Notre Dame as offensive coordinator in 1991, Monken also joined the staff as a graduate assistant.

Eastern Michigan

When Notre Dame assistant coach Ron Cooper was named the head coach of the Eastern Michigan football program, he hired Monken to join his staff as a full-time assistant, earning $28,000 a year. Monken's role with the Eagles in 1993 and 1994 was as the defensive backs coach, helping tutor players like Vashone Adams and Ron Rice. In 1995, when Cooper moved on to coach at Louisville, new Eastern Michigan head coach Rick Rasnick kept Monken on staff but moved him to the offensive side of the ball, where he coached wide receivers. Under Monken the receivers saw several records broken, the first one by Steve Clay for receiving yards in a single season with 999, earning First Team All-Mid-American Conference (MAC). Clay's big season also allowed him to leave the career leader in receiver yards as well. The following year, Ontario Pryor broke Clay's record for single-season receiving yards with 1,031. In 1997, Monken helped mentor Jermaine Sheffield, who over the next three years, would leave EMU as their career receiving yards leader, and Savon Edwards would set the records for most receptions for a career, both of which have since been broken. Monken was promoted to offensive coordinator in 1998, where he was tasked with having to replace Charlie Batch at quarterback in his first season. This proved to be a difficult task, as Walter Church was named the starting quarterback, and the Eagles offense scored over 10 points less per game than they did in 1997. The following season, the offense saw a marginal improvement over the pervious, scoring 2 points per game more than the previous season. Rasnick was fired with one game remaining in the season, leading to Monken's tenure coming to an end with the Eagles.

Louisiana Tech

In 2000, Monken joined Jack Bicknell Jr. as the running backs coach at Louisiana Tech University. While the Bulldogs running attack wasn't very effective, John Simon managed to be the Bulldogs second leading receiver, with 711 yards on 72 receptions, while also leading the team in rushing yards with 565. The following season, Monken moved to wide receivers coach, and Simon moved to wide receiver for his senior season. With Simon leading the team in receiving yards in 2001, the Bulldogs offense ranked 8th in the nation in passing offense, while winning the Western Athletic Conference title.