Blue White Illustrated

J A N U A R Y 3 , 2 0 1 7 B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . c O M 7 C O A C H S P E A K • E X C E R P T S F R O M J A M E S F R A N K L I N ' S P O S T G A M E P R E S S E R Could you discuss the first half, falling behind and then the rally? Yeah, we hate first halves. We hate them. We said we were going to use the second-half game plan in the first half. I really didn't feel like it was our normal problem in first halves, we just turned the ball over. We had a wacky situation on the [kickoff]; they didn't mean to kick it like that. It was a weird squib that got a weird bounce, and that didn't start us out the right way, and then we turned the ball over. But once again, our guys persevere. Getting the three-and-out to start the second half, getting them the punt for the first time in the game was big. We go right down and score, get the mo- mentum back. But, again, they were able to make some plays and swing the momentum back. Basically, it's a home field situation for them. A couple times I think we struggled with the noise on the other end of the field. Our fans came out and supported us and were great. But we've got to be more efficient and more effective in first halves. The things that I thought were going to be significant in the game, that I talked about beforehand, were that we were going to need to win the penalty battle, which I think we did. I just got the stats a second ago, and we were going to have to close the gap on third down. I think in the first half we were winning the third-down battle. So we did the things that we needed to do to win the game. But the turnovers were the difference. Going forward, how do you build off of the success you had this season? It's about continuing to develop the guys that we have in the program in every aspect of their lives – academi- cally, athletically, socially, spiritually, the whole deal. It's about continuing to recruit well. It's keeping our staff intact for as long as we possibly can. We have a lot of work to do, guys. We've got a lot of work to do. There are programs that have been playing like this at this level for a number of years, and we've got a lot of work to do to catch up. It's going to be a long, steady, difficult climb. As difficult as this year was to have, we're going to have to fight even more to be able to sustain it. And there's a lot of things that are going to go into that. But with the young men that we've got in this locker room and the staff that I've been fortunate enough to surround myself with, the support that we've gotten from President [Eric] Barron and Sandy Barbour, our athletic director, if we just realize we've got a great oppor- tunity right now and capitalize on it, keep working, I think we can continue to build this thing and continue to do special things.

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