October 26, 2002 WLIL Saturday
High School Football Report

Interview with coach Jeff Harig concerning the Loudon vs. Gibbs game which was played on the previous Thursday

Mayes: . . .and joining us this morning is the head coach of the Loudon Redskins -- Coach Jeff Harig.  Coach Harig, good morning.

Harig:  Good morning.

Mayes:  Coach, I know everyone in Redskins country has to be extremely disappointed, as on Thursday night the Redskins traveled up to [Gibbs] and lose in double overtime to the Gibbs Eagles by the final score of 25-22  And Coach Harig I know for you, and the coaching staff, and the team that was a game that really just has to sting right now.

Harig:  It does. . .and a football game is about execution. And you can play hard and hustle all over the field, but if you're not going in the right direction and doing the things you've been coached to do, you're not going to be successful.  And that was the case Thursday evening.

Mayes:  Was the fact that you played on Thursday night. . .did that have any affect on the way you played do you think or were the Redskins in a pretty good rotation or, I guess, in their routine coming into the game?

Harig:  You would like to think that by this point in the season that your fundamentals, if you just touch on them quickly, you're doing good; but we didn't play very fundamental, and part of that reason was my fault [in] not [making them] practicing those things.  At the same time, I thought we had a pretty good grasp of those things, and that you didn't have to spend as much time on them, especially playing on Thursday.  Its obvious that we need to spend more time working on those little things that separate us from being a pretty good team to being fairly average.

Mayes:  And the Redskins were able to get on the board first in this football game, as it was kind of opposite of last week when the Redskins had some bad snaps on the punt and allowed Kingston to score.  In this game, it was a bad snap back to the punter, and Loudon recovers on the fifteen yard line.  And then three plays later the Redskins are in the end zone, and you're ahead 7-0.

Harig:  [In] our fragile state of mind, not being in this position before, with being already out of the playoffs before, it was important for us to get off to a good start.  And it sure happened the way we wanted the game to start, and we just didn't carry that momentum on for the rest of the game.

Mayes:  And, of course, turnovers were a key in this football game.  The Redskins lost three turnovers, and really you have to consider [when] you go into the half-time locker room ahead 7-0, you  get the football, you drive down the field, and it looks like its going to be 14-0; but that fumble there when you had a first-down-and-goal to go from the three -- that may have been the turning point in the football game.

Harig:  Umh, it was.  Our player tried to make a play; he was trying to pitch the ball to the quarterback who was standing there.  It backfired on us.  Had it worked, we probably would have jumped him, given him a big hug, and said "Great play, but don't ever do that again."  Unfortunately, he didn't get the ball out clean enough; and they scooped it up and got possession of the ball.  And that really did turn the game around. 

Mayes:  You have to consider [the fact that] Gibbs came off a big win against Lenoir City, but uh, if they're down 14-0 in that ballgame, you just wonder in the Redskins might be able to go on and get the victory.  Then basically, the second half was basically [a situation where] the offenses took charge as Gibbs put together a long drive.  It was 7-7, and all of a sudden, we had us a ballgame.

Harig:  Umh, I have to give them credit.  They hung in there and they kept on playing.  They kept pounding and pounding; and I was real impressed with their two big backs.  They are hard runners and tough players to bring down, and that wore on us. . .they eventually wore us down in the second half.

Mayes:  They tied it up 7-7 there at the end of three quarters.  And then the Redskins take the lead on a touchdown pass from Oody to Patric Johnson; and then Gibbs is able to come back and get a touchdown on a long run.  And I guess a big play in the game was [when] you're able to block the extra point and keep the game from being won in regulation.

Harig:  Their kicker has a great leg; but umh, he takes a little while addressing the football.  He waits for the ball to get on the tee, then he makes his motion.  That allowed us to get a little pressure on him; and luckily, one of our guys got a hand on that, and it just barely missed.

Mayes:  And talk a little bit about overtime.  For the Redskins, it was the first time they had been in overtime since 1997.  For Gibbs, it was the third time this year.  And I know overtime is a completely different beast than playing the regular football game.

Harig:  It is.  We had trouble stopping them running the football.  And I knew that in overtime . . .four plays to get ten yards, they were able to do that the whole second half.  And we needed something big to happen on first and second downs to get them behind the chains a little, and we didn't get that done.  Offensively, I thought we did a good job.  We came off the back and put the ball in the end zone and drew them off sides on the extra point.  Knowing that we hadn't done a very good job stopping them, first and goal from the one-and-a-half yard line, we decided to go for two. Unfortunately, we didn't get that.  At the same time, he missed his extra point.  So, yeah, in hindsight, it would have been great to kick that extra point and go up seven and have them miss it, and we would have won.  The pressure would have been off that kid then, and then maybe he wouldn't have missed it.  So we decided to go for two and try to get the win in the first overtime.  

Mayes:  Well, obviously, in a lot of cases when the team does jump off side,s that's the first decision is to go for two.  So that's probably the right call right there to do it.  But unfortunately, it didn't work out, but it was good fortune that he missed his second extra point.  And they were telling us up in the press box that, up to that point that year, he had only missed one extra point all year long, and against Loudon he missed two.  So that was certainly two good breaks for the Redskins.  But then the Redskins get the ball in the second overtime, kick the field goal, and Gibbs scored to win the football game.  I know the kids had to be disappointed.  What did you tell them after the game?

Harig:  I was not happy.  It wasn't so much with the way we played.  I thought we played hard, but some of our actions on the sidelines, some of our actions after the game, really were not team oriented.  Its one thing to lose a game and play hard.  There's honor [in that].  But to do things to draw attention to yourself and single yourself out.  I was embarrassed for us as  Redskins.  I just challenged them, myself, and the coaching staff.  We have to keep the fight, and we have to stay focused.  We're not in the playoffs, but that's no excuse to prepare any less.  I felt like we didn't prepare the way we should have for this ball game.  That goes for the entire team and staff.  We didn't prepare ourselves to play this ball game, and that all rests on my shoulders.  When I was  talking to them, I told the players that I was talking to myself too.  We learned a big lesson on how to handle things this week, and this is a learning process, and people aren't perfect.  As long as you learn from your mistakes and not repeat them again, you're making progress.  Unfortunately, we can't have that game back.  If we could have had that week back, a lot of things would have been done differently, and maybe we could have taken care of business.  We're going to kind of put that one behind us now, and we're going to focus on this last week of the season.

Mayes:  Well, that's the good news, that you do have one more football game, and you can have an opportunity to get that bitter taste out of your mouth from Thursday night. And the good news is that its the Lenoir City Panthers; its the "Battle of the Bridge," and its going to be a very exciting football game Friday night.  I know the kids will probably really be up for this football game. 

Harig:  If we're not up, then we're not making the trip because for these seniors this is the last chance.  This is one they'll carry with them for the rest of their lives, and they can look back on it with pride that they won the Lenoir City game.  I'm going to get after them this week, and I fully expect our kids to be focused; and I look for a good ball game on Friday. 

Mayes:  Well Coach Harig, thank you so much for joining us this morning. . .

Harig:  Well, thank you for having me.

Mayes:  . . .and best of luck against Lenoir City.

Harig:  Thank you.