September 28, 2002  WLIL Saturday
High School Football Report

Interviews with coaches Jeff Harig  and Ronnie Roberts concerning the Loudon vs. Sweetwater Game

Russell Mayes:  We are joined this morning by Coach Jeff Harig.  Coach, good morning.

Jeff Harig:  Good morning.

Mayes:  Well, Coach Harig I know last night had to be kind of a heart-breaking loss for the Redskins against the Sweetwater Wildcats as Sweetwater wins 19-0.  [It was a] scoreless tie going into half-time.  The Redskins really played hard; but the in the end, the breaks just didn't go the Redskins way. 

Harig:  No, and it continues not to go our way.  I really thought we played well enough to win in two parts of the football game; and that's defense and special teams.  But we just didn't execute well enough offensively to beat a Sweetwater team that does a good job defensively.  They bring a lot of people, they try to disrupt what you do, and last night we allowed them to disrupt our offensive plan.

Mayes:  This is a big rivalry between Loudon and Sweetwater.  Sweetwater came into this game very highly touted, but the one thing we noted on the broadcast was [that] Loudon won five games in a row.  So Loudon, I'm sure, just considered Sweetwater as another team that they were going to play; and it looked like they were ready to go from the start.

Harig:  It is. And anytime you have a rivalry game where one team has a streak, mentally, the kids believe they can win no matter how good the other team is.  They believe they can win.  And I  thought we believed we could win last night. And we were definitely as physical, if not more physical then they were; and in the end, we just kind of ran out of gas again.

Mayes:  Sweetwater had a couple of opportunities to score there early in the ball game.  And it was big in both instances that the Redskins defense was able to get a hold.  One time Sweetwater missed a field goal, and the other time Loudon held on a fourth down as Sweetwater was trying a double pass.  I know that had to give your defense a lot of confidence early to keep Sweetwater out of the end zone

Harig:  It did.  We gave up a few big plays there and allowed them to get deep into our territory; and the kids kind of bowed their neck.  And we talked at half time [about how] as long as we [were able to] execute our fundamentals defensively, I thought we were [going to be] in pretty good shape. When we had a break down in fundamentals, they were able to get a big play on us.  Luckily, the big plays didn't result in them going the distance in the first half.

Mayes:  And even without T.J. Brock, who is out of the game with an injury, Sweetwater has a lot of weapons; and it seemed like they used a lot of different people offensively last night that caused some trouble.

Harig:  They did.  And the main guy in that whole thing was the fullback, the Latham boy, he is a tough load.  It takes two or three guys to bring him down.

Mayes:  At halftime it was nothing to nothing.  What was the sense in the halftime locker room.  What did you feel like you were going to have to do to win the ball game?

Harig:    I felt defensively that we could hold them.  As long as we didn't give up the big play, and we continued to execute our fundamentals and tackle, we were fine defensively.  I thought that [in regard to] special teams, we did very good in that phase of the game.  We just needed to execute on offense and find that player who was going to be successful.  And unfortunately, we felt that in the first half, we shot ourselves in the foot.  [We] continued to jump off sides, and put ourselves at a disadvantage as far as the defense is concerned.  You know, first and long, second and long; and right now, were not in a great position to be able to convert. . .offensively convert when were behind and down in distance.    

Mayes:  And then in the third quarter, Sweetwater is able to put a long drive together.  They get down the field and in a situation that looked like any points might win that football game last night.  Whoever scored first was probably going to do it.  Sweetwater went for it there on fourth down.  I felt like that was a pretty tough call; but Sweetwater went with a double pass again, and it looked like on the pitch out there, Baumiea (Webmaster note: I don't know if this is how he spells his name or not -- I don't have a team roster to check it) was fumbling the football, and I really thought we were going to have a chance to make the stop right there, but he found the receiver there in the back of the end zone.  

Harig:  He did.  Our best defensive player kind of bit up on the fake and was going to stop the run, but he saw it late and tried to get back.  And the boy did fumble the ball.  It didn't really take much to get it out there, and he got it out there, and they completed the pass for the score.

Mayes:  And then on the second touchdown, [it] was a long touchdown pass.  I believe it was Parris there.  He caught three touchdowns last week in the win over Wartburg, and he did a good job on a long pass, and it looked like the defensive back fell down on that play.  

Harig:  Um, we did.  He flipped down, and you know we've got to work on our footwork  That's no excuse to give up a long touchdown pass.  We can't be slipping, especially when its a six-nothing ball game.  To give up a big play like that really kind of broke our backs at that point in the game.  

Mayes:  Well Coach, with the wet conditions and all the rain, it certainly looked like the field held up very well and the wet conditions were not as big a factor as it probably was in other places last night.

Harig:  Right.  I didn't think it played a factor in the ball game.  Both teams seemed to be able to do what they wanted to try to do.  I really expected Sweetwater to throw the ball more, but I guess they threw it just enough to win the game.

Mayes:  Well Coach Harig, thank you so much for joining us, and I know next week's going to be a big ballgame as the rest of them are:  five region games coming up, and the Redskins are still very much alive for a shot at the playoffs.  How do you approach this last half of the season?  

Harig:  You know, its frustrating to play so hard against teams and still not be successful; and for young people. . . you know there always taught that if you try hard, you'll be successful; and anytime you don't win, you feel you're a failure.  But failure is not fatal. Mr. Harris, our team pastor, gave us a really good talk about failure is a chance to learn from your mistakes and still be successful. What we've got now is players who are giving effort.  As long as we're giving effort, I think we're going to have a chance to win our share of ballgames.  But its frustrating right now going against teams that are some of the top teams in the state.  I don't think anybody in the state has played a string of the teams that we have played, and what we've got to realize is that we have to learn from each of these games and continue to work to get better.  There's a lot of football left this season.  

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

Harig:  Thank you.  

Part II:  Ronnie Roberts

Mayes:  And we've also got Coach Ronnie Roberts with us this Saturday.  Good morning Coach.

Roberts:  Good morning Russell.

Mayes:  Glad you could be with us this week, and Coach Roberts I know right now on the offensive side of the ball for the Redskins its got to be a very  frustrating time. 

Roberts:  There is a lot of frustration Russell.  We've gone back to look at the film this morning. . . there's a lot of things that are playing in to where we were last night.  In the first half, we were our own worst enemies.  We had a couple of fumbles.  We had three or four motion penalties.  We were having a little bit of trouble. They were making a defensive call to move their front at about the time we snapped, and it sounded a whole lot like our snap count  We weren't very disciplined there and had kids jumping when their guys were making their calls, and in the second half we just didn't execute.  

Mayes:  And one thing Sweetwater was doing, they had a lot of people up there in the box really bunched up and doing a lot of jumping around; and it looked like that got the Redskins a little bit off kilter.

Roberts:  That's the way Sweetwater has played all year there.  Their philosophy is they are going to get to you before you get started, and we knew they were going to do that and really thought we had a chance by cutting down our splits and going foot to foot, that if we had a chance to seal off that penetration and get a couple of key blocks at the point of attack, we would have a chance at a big play.  But there were very few times we were able to execute that.  We ran forty-four ball plays last night; and on twenty-four of those plays, we had three or more assignments that didn't get accomplished.  And you can't move the football against a quality football team when that's happening  We've just got to do a better job of eleven people getting the job done.  It was a very frustrating night.

Mayes:  Well and also the penalties, as you alluded to while ago, the penalties were really big.  When you got some momentum going, and it seemed like there would be a penalty, and [the Redskins would end up] going backwards.  

Roberts:  One of the things were facing right now is we don't have the ability to go the distance anytime we snap the football  We have to be fairly methodical which means, right now, we've got to be pretty close to perfect to move the football, and we're far from that right now.

Mayes:  Well Coach Roberts, I know that you guys are really going to get to work and I know you'll eventually get everything straightened out, and its certainly good now that you get focused on these last five ball games of the year.  The playoffs are still a possibility for the Redskins as it is for several teams in the region, and there is still a lot of football left to be played this year.  

Roberts:  There's a lot of football left, and that's one of the things Coach Harig has stressed to this football team.  And we've just got to try to take what we have and do a much better job and prove ourselves.  We can't really worry about whose on our schedule.  We're in a tough stretch right now.  We're playing some very talented, well-coached football teams, and we've just got to worry about the Loudon Redskins and not worry about, really, what our schedule looks like at this point.  

Mayes:  Well Coach Roberts, once again thank you so much for joining us, and I'll let you all get back to your preparation.  Best of luck next week against Fulton.

Roberts:  Thanks Russell.

Mayes:  That's Coach Ronnie Roberts and Coach Jeff Harig joining us from Loudon High School on the WLIL Saturday Morning High School Football Report, and we'll back with more in just a moment.