October 18: The Kingston Game

Note: This week's WLIL Saturday Morning High School Report started a bit off schedule for Russell Mayes. He was unable to make contact with Coach Harig until later on in the broadcast and was, therefore, forced to "wing it" or extemporaneously, if you will, produce a short talk about the Region 2 3A playoff situation. I stopped taping and started again in mid-sentence, hence the left out comments at the beginning. Murphy's law reasserted itself in Loudon.

Russell Mayes: ...[We now have] on the phone from the fieldhouse at Loudon High School the head coach of the Loudon Redskins Coach Harig. Jeff, good morning.

Jeff Harig: Good morning.

Mayes: Well, we've talked about on this Saturday morning show that the Redskins don't need anymore moral victories. I don't know if you call last night a moral victory, but I think its a game where you leave out of there disappointed that you'd lost; but, on the other hand, you can hang your head high because the Redskins played well; they played tough last night; and they were in a position to win that game.

Harig: We were in a position to win that game. We just got outcoached. Coach King made a great call there at the end with three minutes to go. [He] caught us unprepared for a play, and they executed to perfection.

Mayes: Well, that's just one play, but I'll go back and say it looked like you made them look kind of foolish on the fake field goal which the Redskins took the lead in the football game on. So I don't think you can take that much blame.

Harig: Well, it was a great play by Chase Randolph. You hate to stand up in front of your team in a game like that when one game decides it. We had our chances to win; we had the ball with three minutes to go at the thirty yard line. We didn't execute in our chances and had to punt it back to them; and anytime you give a team a chance, its fifty-fifty [in that] a good thing or bad thing can happen. It just so happened that a bad thing did happen.

Mayes: And that might have been, I guess, the critical turning point in the football game. You get a big, long run for a first down. Jake Brantley had a great night for the Redskins. He had a big kick return. You have the football, I guess, about the forty [or] thirty-five yard line, somewhere in that neighborhood [with] five minutes left. The Redskins had been able to move the football, to move the chains, and it looked like it would be one of those situations where, basically, you could run out the clock, maybe get a first down, maybe have a chance for a field goal, or just run the clock out and go into overtime. [You] just weren't able to get a first down in that situation, and that's what set up the big play for Kingston.

Harig: We got our offense in a bad position. We're not a very good football team when we're third-and-ten. We didn't execute and run the football on those two football plays. When we're third-and-ten, that puts a lot of pressure on our young quarterback. We're not an offense that can handle those situations time and time again.

Mayes: Well, going back to the beginning of the football game, two things that I know we talked about, a big play in the passing game would probably decide the football game, and it did. I was talking to some of the other coaches, and they felt like twenty-one points would be enough to win the game, and it was. This was a game, I guess, [that] kind of played out to expectations.

Harig: It did. We were in a great position to win the game. We couldn't have scripted it any better. It played out just as we thought it would. Two good teams battling it out; and I thought at first they were a little more physical than we were; but our kids, as the game went along, stepped it up; and we had the lead of 14 - 7 and really had control of the game. We couldn't get them stopped defensively; and they got the ball back there at the end and just made the play.

Mayes: The players seemed to make a good adjusment as the game went along because Kingston, on the very first drive, Chad Johnson, their fine sophmore running back, two plays, sixty-nine yards right down the field and, once again, the Redskins are down 7-0 before you can even know the game has started.

Harig: And I wish I had the answer. I thought we were ready to play. I thought our kids had the right frame of mind. For the third, fourth week in a row we're down 7-0. If I had the answer, I would correct it. We've just got to get better of coming out of the locker room ready to play.

Mayes: Well, it seems like once the Redskins get down 7-0, that's when things really get going. Its kind of like a little bit of a wake up call to get started because the Redskins do come back and, probably one of the more controversial plays of the game comes thereaftrer. Patric Johnson breaks a long run and somewhere from somewhere there came a flag and got the Redskins in a bad situation and wasn't able to take advantage of it there. I know that was a tough situation.

Harig: It was. I still don't know what the call was. It seemed to me that it was either holding or blocking in the back, but it was fifteen yards behind the play. So if it was going to be something like that, it should be a personal foul behind the play. It has no bearing on the play, and I don't know how much contact there was. I didn't see the penalty. We knew going down to Kingston [that] you're going to have to be seven to ten points better, and its those kind of calls that year in and year out you know your going to have to be seven to ten points better going down there.

Mayes: Well that's one that you kind of scratch your head on a little bit. We had a chance to take a look at the film and that was just a tough break; but the Redskins, even after that adversity, do fight back. You put together a fourteen play, seventy-nine yard drive that takes about eight minutes off the clock, and you get a touchdown run from Patric Johnson. That is what you're wanting to accomplish with Loudon football.

Harig: No question. We want to control the clock, control the football; and if their team doesn't have the ball, they can't score. We've got to keep the positive things above the chains. We can't be third-and-ten. As long as were third-and-three, we can manage that. We're not above going for it on fourth-and-one. But when its getting to be fourth-and-five, fourth-and-six, you've got to punt the football. So, that is Loudon football this year, yes.

Mayes: Consistently this year in this last stretch of games, third-down-and-short, fourth-down-and-short, you've been able to get it just about every time. That's a credit to the offensive football team to be able to pound out those yardage when they need it.

Harig: No question. Coach Roberts did a good job of calling the plays last night, and the kids executed. When we were successful, we had hats on people, linemen running their feet; and when we didn't execute, we had blown assignments. What you try to do as a coach is limit those blown assignments, making sure the kids are fundamentally sound; and for the most part, we were that last night.

Mayes: You go into the third quarter down 7-6. The extra point was blocked. How big was it right at halftime to, I don't know if that field goal was blocked, but that was a chip shot for an outstanding field goal kicker. Kingston misses it, and I think that was a big momentum swing going into halftime.

Harig: It sure was. Coach King always has a great kicker. That's the way you can get to Kingston. You can get in their kicker's head or make a play in special teams. That's a big thing in a game where two teams are evenly matched. I think Chase Randolph did get a hand on that kick off the edge. It was a big lift for us only going into the locker room down 7-6.

Mayes: You stop Kingston on the first drive of the third quarter. You put together an eleven-play, sixty-one yard drive. It looked like the Redskins were going to have to settle for a field goal to take the lead, but you come back with the fake field goal. Kingston had ten men up on the line of scrimmage, so you run Chase around the end. Tell us a little bit about that play, and it was one of the more exciting plays in Loudon football that I've seen in quite a while.

Harig: Well, you know. Our kicker has a little stutter step as he approaches the ball. It takes him a little longer to get the kick off. So teams are really loading up on the outside on us coming off the edge. They're able to get there. Most times you want your kickoff in 1.2 seconds, and hopefully your going to face a team that has enough speed [that] they can get it from the edge. We're about 1.5 to 1.6. That three-tenths of a second is getting our kicks blocked. Those angles that they are coming at are headed right for the kicker's foot. We saw last week that Scott County did it; and I told Chase, if he sees it out there, he has the greenlight to pick that ball, roll out to his left and go. On our first extra point that was blocked, I told him it was there and look for it. When he approached the ball there again, the snap was a little high; and I think, rather than put it down, he just reacted, took it around the left end and it was a great play.

Mayes: And it was and it really got a lot of excitement. The momentum was on the Redskins side. You get the two-point conversion as Cody, I think, ran the option in. Fourteen to seven - that's a great spot to be in; but Kingston at home is always tough. They put together a quick drive with Johnson to tie it up; and then, of course, that sets up the last touchdown of the game with Gurny on the ninety-one yard pass. Talk a little bit about the mood of the team after the game.

Harig: They were very dejected. We put a lot of stock in this football game, and this was week two of the playoffs. So now were faced with a situation where we just have to play out the schedule. Our seniors are resilient; they know what was at stake. They want to leave their legacy. We've lost two years in a row to Lenoir City. We lost last year to Gibbs. So their still...(inaudible section of tape)...There are still two football games left. We've got some paybacks due for last year. My mindset is that we're going back to work; we're going to continue to get better; and we're going to play hard these last two games and represent Loudon well because we have a prideful tradition. There's no excuse for us not going out and playing hard.

Mayes: Gibbs is a football team that always seems to play some of their best football against Loudon. Tell us a little bit about what you expect to see from the Eagles.

Harig: They're going to run right at us. Coach Carroll always has teams that are big. They're physical. The good thing is [that] last year they had those two big backs, and they were really able to play smash-mouth, tar football. This year I think they've been a little limited in their ability to do that because they don't have those two big backs. I like the way we match up; and, as long as we'll come to play and in the right frame of mind, we should be ok next Friday night on Senior Night.

Mayes: Well Coach Harig, we hope to see a big crowd at Dukes Field coming up on Friday. I know its been a long week for you and a very tough week. We'll probably cover some of that information a little bit later on down the road. But coach, thanks for calling in, and I look forward to seeing you again next week.

Harig: Thank you Russell.

Mayes: That's Loudon head football coach Jeff Harig. We'll be back with more in just a moment.