September 7  WLIL Saturday
High School Football Report

Interview with coaches Jeff Harig and Ronnie Roberts concerning the Loudon vs. Anderson County game the night before

Part 1:  Head Coach Jeff Harig

Russell Mayes:  Coach Harig, I tell you what, it was one of those ball games where the Redskins fought extremely hard; and, as you were telling me on the phone a few minutes ago [it was] probably not a textbook game offensively or defensively for the Redskins, but I guess the thing that will endure in most people's minds is the way the Redskins fought.

Coach Harig:  We knew early in the week that they were bigger than us and stronger than us, but we thought if we can just compete and play hard no matter the outcome of the game, we as a staff would be satisfied and happy with our players.  And I think they did that, we played as hard as we could play.

Mayes:  You know, starting out at the first of the football game we were noticing that on the broadcast that it seemed like in almost every position Anderson County had bigger players and that was something that was going to be a difference in the ball game and plus Anderson County came into the ball game with that big win over Oak Ridge but to start out the ball it looked like Anderson County was going to be able to tear huge chunks of yardage; but they went to the air and in the first quarter the Redskins are able to intercept three passes, and that was really big for Loudon in the first quarter to get those three interceptions.

Harig:  It was huge; it kept us in the game.  They had the run when they wanted it; but I think the coaches there lost a little patience.  You know, they were gaining five, six, seven yards a pop; so they decided to throw the ball and luckily we matched up in the secondary and some good things happened for us.

Mayes: Well,  I know that you're a defensive coach, and you take a lot of pride in that defensive secondary.  Tell us a little bit about some of those guys back there and a little bit about the big plays that they made last night.

Harig:  Because they didn't play a lot of tight end, we moved Shane Thompson, whose a pretty good athlete for us, as an underneath defender, and him and Jake Brantley were our two underneath guys and they did a good job of forcing the quarterback to throw high a little.  Robbie Kline played whale of a ball game.  He played extremely hard and was in the right place every time.  He had two interception, and Chase Randolph happened to make a big play in the first quarter, and kind of took the ball from a kid and he was in good shape to make that play.  It all centers around Chad Oody.  He plays middle safety for us, and he was matched up all night playing well.  He must have made eleven tackles.  So, its not good that your secondary guys are making tackles, but he was all over the field for us.

Mayes:  And speaking of Chase Randolph again, for the second week in a row he basically just rips the ball out of the offensive receiver's hands.

Harig:  He did.  He made a big play right there. What we need from Chase is for him to be more consistent and more perfect.   He needs to do that every time he gets a chance.

Mayes:  You know, as a coach, I mean, just put yourselves in Anderson County's shoes.  How frustrating do you think that was for them to have that happen.  They know that they can move the football.  I think that was pretty obvious with what they were doing in the running game; but to turn it over three times in the first quarter.  Do you think that this made them to panic a little bit?

Harig:  I think it did.  You know, I said it planted a little seed of doubt, you know.  They started to doubt themselves, and we had some of their players get injured, some of their good lineman to get inured, and what you saw in the second half and toward the end of the first half was that we were able to start moving the football.  Because now, they had to start playing their linemen both ways because they lost some of their depth due to injury, and it kind of evened up the playing field a little there.

Mayes:  And then the Redskins are able to put a drive together and get on the board late in the quarter with a run by Patric Johnson.  Let's talk about that next possession that Anderson County has.  That was going to be a key right there, I know, for your team ...was to keep Anderson County out of the end zone with a minute left.  And its as a lot like last year's game with Anderson County, kind of the same situation -- Anderson County with not a lot of time left of the clock was able to get a couple of scores and, really, to turn that ballgame into a blowout.  The pass interference call down near the goal line really looked like a tough call to us; but certainly, talk a little bit about that and talk about how big it was to hold Anderson County to a field goal and then for them to miss that kick.

Harig:  Uh, you know, our officiating association, for the most part, they do a great job; and I'm never going to say something bad about them because, you know, they were going to be stuck with someone else.  There were a few questionable calls on that side of the field; and if I had to do that all over again, I would put that kid in that same position, and I would ask him to do the same thing.  He did exactly what he was coached to do. . . get your head around, once you run to catch up, get your head around.   Watching it on film, we didn't see it; but that official must have seen something that we didn't, and then he made the call, and he made the call and it was pass interference.  But it was big because we preach to the staff that the next play is the most important play; and it just so happened that toward the end of the half  we got a stop and we were able to force the field goal.  And of  course, as you said, they missed the field goal, and we felt like we had the momentum going in at halftime.

Mayes:  And it was certainly a very exciting atmosphere there on that when they missed the field goal.  It was real fun to see Dukes field get excited like that and see the Redskins fans really getting behind the team as they went in at halftime.  Basically, after halftime the Redskins basically hold the ball for the whole third quarter; and was that something that you all wanted to do to just maybe try to keep the ball out of the hands of Anderson County?

Harig:  Heck yeah, we're going to try to do that for the next eight weeks if we can.  The best defense is a great offense; and if we can get five or six yards and keep the clock moving and keep the chains moving at the same time . . . you know against the good teams, we're not going to bust that big run.   Against speed--Fulton, Austin-East, Sweetwater--you know those kind of teams have great speed so we have to be patient offensively; so, like I said, the best defense is a good offense.  So if we are able to do that, I'm all for it.  We got ourselves in a negative situation there.   We had a holding penalty and then got ourselves into second and thirteen and then, again, third and thirteen; and we're not going to be able to be very good offensively if we get ourselves in those bad situations.

Mayes:  And Anderson County, I think we counted it up, unofficially Loudon had about twenty-six offensive plays in the third quarter and Anderson County only had two or three.  And unfortunately, they had a touchdown run by Sanders.  Sanders is just a outstanding running back; and it seems like there were a lot of times that Loudon had him penned in, and it just seemed like that somehow he could just squirt away.

Harig:  Oh yeah, that kid's a player.  He has a good combination of strength and speed.  As coaches, we blame ourselves.  We've got to be better tacklers.  But that kid, he made some plays and, ultimately, that led to them winning the game.

Mayes:  I guess one of the most exciting plays that we've seen, at least for this year, was the fumble recovery by Oody.  The Redskin defense did a good job on Sanders, and someone got in there on the football, and that ball squirted straight up in the air, and Chad Oody picked it up in stride.  That was a big play coming in the fourth quarter to be able to tie the football game up and the Redskins were right there with an opportunity possibly to win the football game.

Harig:  The players just hung in there ya know and pleading to just make something happen.  Coach Newman told me this morning that Chad just looked up to the skies there and said "Lord, please let something happen to get us the ball back."  And darn if it didn't   That was pretty exciting.  I tell ya, I was standing right there as he came down and we watch the film on Saturday, as you know, and every now and then you'll get a glance of us on the sidelines, and darn if I didn't look like a goofball leading them down to the end zone, but I tell ya' its exciting and it was fun.  I couldn't think of any place I'd would rather have been last night than right there with those players and when they played hard that was just another one of the big plays.  Shane Thompson, by the way, did an excellent  job of running that play down and kind of hitting it from the back side and squirting that ball out.

Mayes: Well, I'm going to say too that if you all got excited down there on the field, I think the whole press box in unison jumped up and it was kind of loud listening to the tape of the ball game.  Just all at once, you hear a big roar when Chad picked that football up.  That was a great play; and, win or lose, that was a great football game last night, and I know that you're probably not proud of execution and the way things went, but I know you're proud of the team and how they fought.

Harig:  That's right.  We can't coach effort; that has to come from them.  I can hopefully inspire it as a staff.  You know, Coach Roberts got the kids kind of inspired this week with a talk Friday afternoon.  Chris Hutchens stayed up one night just thinking about the game and decided he wanted to write something about the lack of respect we thought we were going to get during the week and how we lost a little edge over the past few years of the tradition of Loudon.  And the kids really bought into the speech they heard and the letter he wrote and we were going to show everybody that Loudon is back and hopefully here to stay.  Our challenge now as a coaching staff is the fact that this one game doesn't define our season.  We have to bring this effort for the next eight weeks.  Hopefully, good things will happen for us

Mayes:  Well, coach Harig, congratulations on a great effort last night.  I think everyone went away last night really proud of that Redskin team.  

Harig:  I hope we can keep it up for the next eight weeks.

Mayes:  Thanks a lot coach Harig for joining us.

Part 2:  Offensive Coordinator Ronnie Roberts

Mayes:  And I think we've also got coach Ronnie Roberts on the line.  Coach Roberts, from the offensive side it was kind of a bookend game.  The first part of the game and the end of the game offensively, just didn't seem like things could get together; but in the middle part of the game, the Redskins were able to put some good drives together.

Roberts:  I think early on we had great opportunities, and we couldn't take advantage of them.  We got the turnovers and I think it took our kids a little while to catch up to. . . not necessarily the speed of the game, but we just couldn't simulate Anderson County's offensive front during practices this week.  And the first few times we had the ball, I think maybe we were just a little shell-shocked as to what we were seeing there.  Basically, they. . . stoned us; and we didn't get anything done; and we ended up being able to do something that I really didn't think earlier in the week we could do, and that was we basically turned to a power game out of our wing-t look, and that's where our success ended up coming from offensively.

Mayes:  And earlier in the ball game, we talked about a little bit earlier in the week, about maybe trying to do some things to get Anderson county confused and that was kind of jumping around there and getting into some different sets and some motion and Anderson County pretty much played that pretty well.  So, you get away from that and it really was the power game in the middle portions of the ball game; and that was really what we're used to seeing in Loudon Redskin football -- kind of grinding it our three or four yard at a time, but it really worked well there in the middle parts of the game.

Roberts:  From the fake punt until we fell behind 21 to 14 I thought we did a really good job up front.  We've almost got the film graded out, and the kids up front really good job of [inaudible from tape] and getting a push.  There were a lot of times when our execution was really solid and we were playing -2 interior lineman last night and We really had some kids step up and do some things that we probably hadn't seen this year.  We gave ourselves a chance to be there at the end.  I was just very proud of a couple of kids who stepped in there.  And I guess Anderson County -- well, that's just a tough situation to have to step in there and do something.  But I was just real pleased with what happened up front. 

Mayes:  Well coach Roberts I know our time is just about up, and we appreciate you taking some time out and joining us; and I guess now we turn our attention to Sequoyah, and its an early-season homecoming, and this is going to be a big game this week against the Chiefs. 

Roberts:  I think the biggest think -- Coach Harig said it right -- the biggest thing for us to do is not hang our hat on what happened last night.  I mean, it was a great effort, but it has to be a building block and it has to be a corner stone for what we have to do the rest of the year.  That can't be the highlight of our year.  I think we proved to ourselves that we can compete against a quality football team.  The kids left everything they had on the football field last night.  And that's what its going to take for us to have a successful season, that kind of effort.

Mayes:  Well Coach Roberts, thank you so much for joining us, and I know you all have got some work to get back to; and thank, as always, for taking some time out us this morning on

Roberts:  Thank you Russell

Mayes:  And good luck next week against the Chiefs.

Roberts:  Thanks.

Mayes:  All righty, that's Coach Ronnie Roberts and Coach Jeff Harig joining us from Loudon High School here on our Saturday Morning High School Scoreboard; and we appreciate them so much  for joining us.