HELENA — Ahead of Carroll College’s first road game this season Saturday afternoon against Arizona Christian, 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: You've got Arizona Christian this week, (and you’re) heading down to Glendale — first time this team is going to have a road test, not playing at home. What is that like? Has there been any different messaging to the team this week?
Troy Purcell: Business trip, you know, we're going to go down there and take care of business. It’s not for giggles and whatever and eat Chick-fil-A at the Denver airport, you know what I mean? It's not about that. It's about going down there and, have some juice about you.
And again, the mental. Just be mentally tough and accept the challenges that are put forth to us.
MTN Sports: Arizona Christian's only played two games. When you're watching film, you've only got two games to go off of. What is that dynamic like in terms of preparing for this team?
Troy Purcell: The coaches down in Glendale at Arizona Christian have the same coaching staff. And so, we know what they're going to do. So, it just gives our tendencies a little bit more relevance.
You're going to see a wing-T. Good thing we didn't see that was the first game when they first came out, because the wing-T offense is totally different, so, I'm glad we didn't see it. I'm glad we got two games on it to really dial it in at least, with that wing-T offense.
MTN Sports: Let's talk about last week for a second. You host Simpson. It's a blowout, but something I want to key in on is Jack Prka and him running the ball. Against Simpson, the offense is cooking. He's not running as much. What do you think of the dynamic of this offense when Jack is running versus when he isn't?
Troy Purcell: Well, hopefully it's not running because, I mean, the offense is clicking a little better when he isn’t running. It could have been a situation where he got flushed out of a pocket, which sometimes happens. And, you know, the throws aren't there. So, he's going to make it on his own.
Designed runs for him, you know, he might have one a game. And then that other five or six or seven times and he's got to make a play or extend a play or get a first down. He has to just kind of do it on his own with pure athleticism and hustle.
MTN Sports: And then coming back to this week against Arizona Christian, what makes them unique? What do they do that maybe other teams you've played so far don't do?
Troy Purcell: Well, the wing-T, that's something like I said, it's something that we haven't seen around here in a while. And, so, it's good to have some older coaches on staff too, that have dealt with the wing-T and some stuff that they had success with.
