HELENA — Ahead of Carroll College’s homecoming matchup Saturday afternoon against Simpson (Calif.), MTN Sports' Jonny Walker sat down with Fighting Saints head coach Troy Purcell.
A full transcript from the video interview is available below:
MTN Sports: Simpson is going to be your first non-Frontier Conference opponent this season. What can you take away from these non-Frontier teams and apply it to Frontier play?
Troy Purcell: Well, they're going to be into (the Frontier) next year. Again, how you prepare, how you get ready for games is (it) doesn't matter if it's Frontier or not. All games are important when you come to the rankings, national rankings and things like that.
So, be consistent and continue to grow, continue to get better as an offense, defense, special teams throughout is going to help us set up for the remaining games once we get back into the conference.
MTN Sports: When you're looking at this matchup with Simpson, what are the keys? The things you guys really need to take care of, people to watch for?
Troy Purcell: Again, there's four phases. The football offense, defense, special teams and turnovers. When you win three out of the four, you know, you're going to win the game.
But taking care of ourselves, like I said, these last couple games there's been too many mistakes. Being more efficient -- 11 guys on a positive, offense and defense. And then we're going to be okay. We don't do that, we're going to be in for a long day.
MTN Sports: We've been talking about how the offense needs to be more explosive. Why are you guys not able to have consistent, productive, explosive offense?
Troy Purcell: That is a great question. If you have the answer, I would love to buy it from you, and you can put it out on the field. But yeah, I'd love to have huge plays, and I love to take huge chunks of land and have an opportunity to get quick touchdowns, but the third downs need to get better.
We weren't very good on third down. And that's something where you got to keep the chains on that, keep your defense off the field. And that results in points.
MTN Sports: Homecoming game coming up — I know that probably means maybe more for the student athletes and the students and not the coaches, but what does the homecoming game mean for you?
Troy Purcell: You know, it's a great opportunity to put your best foot forward and build up because it's usually a great crowd at a homecoming game. And your job is to win the game as a collective group.
It's up to everybody else because they have the party and have the fun, and then you can celebrate after the game with the victory.
