September 20: The Austin East Game

Russell Mayes: Welcome back to the WLIL Saturday Morning High School Football Scoreboard here on WLIL Radio, and at this time we're joined by the head coach of the Loudon Redskins Jeff Harig after the Redskins lose a tough one last night to Austin East 36 to 19. Coach Harig, good morning.

Jeff Harig: Good morning.

Mayes: Well, looking at that score, most people openining up the newspaper this morning probably think that Austin East probably had an easy win against the Loudon Redskins; but the game last night was much closer than what the score indicated.

Harig: No question. Our kids played hard, and I was excited about their effort last night.

Mayes: Exactly. That was one of the points I had down on my paper. The Redskins, especially after that tough loss last week to Sequoyah, [had created] a lot of questions on how Loudon would bounce back. They bounced back extremely well. The team played with a lot of heart and fire all night long. It looked like they really wanted that game.

Harig: And we felt like that's been missing. The last few weeks we've not played with that passion, that we kind of established last year; and, to be honest with you, I'm getting sick of coming on here on Saturday mornings and talking about moral victories and our kids playing hard. Our kids should play with passion; our kids should play hard because they represent a school that has a tradition of that. But we're looking for wins; and that's the bottom line; and right now we're not getting it done. But I think we're making strides, and we're getting better as a football team.

Mayes: Playing this game at Dukes field, two years ago it was twelve to seven with Austin East coming away with the victory. There's just something about Dukes Field it seems like [that makes] the Redskins play extremely well on their home field.

Harig: That's correct. Our kids have a lot of pride in our facilities in front of the home crowd. We're going to defend our field, and we're going to give great effort.

Mayes: The game opens up, and the Redskins on the first possession of the football game kind of get backed up; and Cody throws an interception to Austin East. The Roadrunners, on the very next play, get a thirteen-yard touchdown run from Cory Brown. And then right of the bat, the team is down 7-0. Tell us a little bit about the mood of the team at that point.

Harig: I thought that kind of deflated us a little bit. We were ready to play. We talked all week long about being ready to play. I didn't feel we were ready to play against Sequoyah. So, I think our kids were in the right frame of mind. We had a Sophmore quarterback make a bad decision, and he's going to make those bad decisions. The thing we've got to work on with him is [that] he's got to bounce back, and just keep playing, and learn from his mistakes; and, hopefully, he doesn't make one again like that. I thought he bounced back from that and directed the team.

Mayes: And then defensively, the next time that the Roadrunners get the football back the Redskins get a big fourth down stop against Austin East, and that really seemed, for the defense, to sort of set a tone and let them know that they could play with Austin East.

Harig: No question. That was a big stop for us. It was fourth and six, in the middle of the field, and that was a big play for us to get them stopped. It kind of gave us some momentum back.

Mayes: And then the Redskins there with nine minutes and twenty seconds remaining in the second quarter put together a nine-play, fifty-three yard drive, culminated by a twenty-three yard field goal by Espinoza. A big drive for the Redskins, and that was a big kick by Espinoza.

Harig: Very big. He's been a great addition to our team this year. He's really helped us out on the special team area. But that was a nice drive by our offense. It kind of set the tone for what we're going to try and do for the rest of the year, and that's be physical, run the football, kind of shrink our offense a little bit, and just try to take advantage of what the defense is giving us.

Mayes: We talked Thursday about the game plan for this game. And it was going to be to try to shorten the game and also try and run right up the middle against Austin East. And it seemed like the game plan almost worked to perfection.

Harig: We felt it did too. The kids had confidence in it; the coaches had confidence in it; and that's the big thing: if you can sell your team on a game plan and they can execute it with enthusiasm and with confidence [then] you're going to be able to win some football games.

Mayes: I've hear a lot of people say this, and I believe it too. I think that's one of the strengths of you and your coaching staff is the fact that you all really do put together excellent game plans.

Harig: Well, you know, we're not blessed with the greatest of athletes; and we have to work extra hard. And its not anything any one coach does. You know every coach is in here right now looking at films, finding ways to make their guys better. We put a lot of time into the game plan because sometimes we don't have the best athletes to just go out and there and say, "run right, run left." We have to find ways to utilize our talent to its fullest.

Mayes: After the Espinoza field goal, you kick off to Austin East. Austin East fumbles, and it looks like you're in business; but, on just a few plays later, you have Patric Johnson running the football. Someone gets a hand on the football, knocks it up in to the air, and its just a typical Austin East play, the kind of play they always seem to expect to happen: a guy ten yards down the field, the ball lands right in his hands, and he runs it in for a touchdown. It had to be another deflating experience for the Redskins.

Harig: It was. We had the momentum. We just kicked that field goal; we had the ball right back with good field position. Patric had two hands on the football. It just busted up in there, and I believe McCallister got a helmet on the ball. That thing popped in the air just like you said ten yards back. There just happened to be an Austin East defender standing there, it bounced right at his feet, he picked it up and it was gone. So, I was proud though of how our kids kept playing after that point.

Mayes: And you talk about McCallister. He is an outstanding football player for Austin East.

Harig: There's no question. He plays from sideline to sideline. And they have him at middle linebacker, and they do a good job of protecting him. He does a good job of reading his keys and getting to the football.

Mayes: You played the strategy game well going into the halftime locker room. Getting a late stop; it looked like you might be content to let the clock run out, and Austin East might be content to run the clock out. But you get a late timeout; force Austin East to punt; they fake the punt; you get the stop; and then you run Espinoza out on the field. Austin East gets a penalty; it closes it up five more yards; and he kicks a big field goal right at halftime. That was a big momentum shift in the game.

Harig: That was. We're going to play and use every second we can. That's something we practiced on Thursday - using our timeouts and trying to get our punt-block team, or make the team have to punt. I thought the Austin East punt team was a weakness of theirs. They didn't protect their punter very well; and we thought if we could make him punt one time, we might be able to get a block. He chose to fake it, to try and run out the clock; and we were able to save two seconds [which was] just enough time to get the field goal team on the field and get us three points.

Mayes: Twenty-one to six [was] the halftime score. You talk about special teams. A little bit later on in the game Chase Randolph comes off the edge and, almost unblocked, gets a punt blocked for the Redskins.

Harig: We watched him on film against Fulton, and [on] that right side he didn't even block Demarcus Stevens from Fulton - number ninety-nine. And he came and blocked twice. So, if they didn't block him, I know they're not going to worry about Chase Randolph. But he got off that edge good on the snap, and it was a perfect block.

Mayes: Second half in the ball game, the Redskins grind together some good drives, get a touchdown from Patric Johnson and also a from Jake Brantley. [There were] a lot of situations where it was third-down-and-short, fourth-down-and-short, and in every situation [it was] just "mono y mono": the Redskin lines and the running backs got the first downs.

Harig: I thought we played physical in the second half. And that was the one thing we talked about at halftime was to stay with the plan. We weren't going to do anything to change; we were going to keep running right at them. Even though we're down a touchdown or two, we're going to keep executing our plan. This is going to be us for the rest of the year.

Mayes: Defensively, a pretty good effort for the Redskins. You give up 239 total yards, and a lot of that came in the fourth quarter when Austin East really seemed to get a hold of things late in the ball game. But again, its a team that's so athletic like Austin East. Overall, it was a pretty good effort.

Harig: It was. Our kids play hard. We have some things we have to get better at. Number one is containing the football. Time after time they would run sweeps, and we just didn't have anybody "setting an edge." And if we don't set edges, we're going to have a hard time stopping people. Giving up thirty-six points is not acceptable. We've just got to get better defensively at stopping the run.

Mayes: Another player who had a big night, just looking at some of the stats. Marty Branum had a couple of good punts for the Redskins. He had an average of forty-seven yards on the punts. That's going to be a weapon for the Redskins in the weeks to come.

Harig: No question. He's been injured for the first part of the year, and he's really playing with a lot of passion for the game. He's been without the game as a senior for three or four weeks now. We've kind of moved on without him, and he's stepped it back up. He started at tackle for us; he's played a lot on defense; and he's going to be a guy who we lean on heavily throughout the rest of the year.

Mayes: Coach, a big game coming up next week. Of course its a rivalry game. But its a game where the Redskins maybe can come with a little bit of confidence after this game. You go on the road to face Sweetwater. Tell us a little bit about the Wildcats.

Harig: It all starts with number 21, their fullback DeLathem Seller. He's a heck of a player: big, elusive, and kind of in the same mold as the Sequoyah fullback. But I think that DeLathem is a little more elusive. Their quarterback number 1 is a real good athlete. They do a lot of things bootleg option. [They] try to get the ball in his hands on the perimeter. We're going to have to step it up defensively and be able to stop the run.

Mayes: Well coach, once again we want to thank you. You and your team and your coaching staff showed a lot of grit last night; and [it was] certainly a good effort by the Redskins; and we look forward to seeing you next week.

Harig: Well, thank you Russell.