As long as you can stop the running game, you have a chance. They can throw for 400 yards, but if they can't run the ball, you have a good chance. Someone's going to drop the ball or you'll get a knockdown on third down. Stopping the run comes first. As long as we can do that, we'll be successful. |
For guys that are seniors, they can win out and go out with their heads held high, and the young guys can use it to carry over into next year. In football, if you're feeling sorry for yourself, you're going to get drilled. Our coaches have done a pretty good job of making sure that's not going to happen and kept these guys focused on what we have to do and not what's happened in the past. |
He really played well. He did everything except sell popcorn during halftime. |
If Tanner didn't play the way he did, the score probably wouldn't be 16-0. We're starting to see this team gel in some areas and Tanner is getting more confidence in his abilities. Our other players have a lot of confidence in him. |
There will always be a new challenge for Tanner. Last week it was, 'Is he any good?' This week, it'll be, 'Well, was he just a flash in the pan?' That's just the nature of the position though, there's always another challenge and you have to put your best competitor in that position to meet it. |
They're going to get tested sooner than later, so I'd rather have it sooner than later so we can see what we need to adjust. The key is to not make any big mistakes back there. Don't allow them to get past us for touchdowns. They're going to get catches. We just need to stay away from the big mistake. |
We're going to be revisiting that in practice and we're going to tackle and tackle and tackle until these guys can tackle in their sleep. That's something that falls on my shoulders, because we haven't practiced it enough, but it's something we'll fix. |