HELENA — Ahead of Carroll College’s road test Saturday afternoon with Frontier Conference foe and 12th-ranked College of Idaho, 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're coming into this stretch where you have four straight games against top-15 teams in the country, starting with No. 12 College of Idaho. What makes them the 12th-best team in the country?
Troy Purcell: They're very good, coach and that staff, and they went all the way to the semifinals last year. They came in here and whipped our butts when they had our game here at Nelson (Stadium). And so, yeah, they're very good. They're very well coached. They're very, you know, they got tremendous athletes, great facilities.
And they got the formula to have a successful team. And they believe they're good. And, you know, if you come in believing that you have an opportunity to win, it gives you a better chance to win the game.
MTN Sports: I think there's a lot to unpack from last week's game against Eastern Oregon. Let's start with the good. What went well for you guys?
Troy Purcell: Yeah, I think the first series coming down there was outstanding. You know, the offense was really clicking. They're coming off a bye. You don't know sometimes if you did the bye successfully or not. And, when you come away with the win, then it ends up being a very productive day. I thought our kids played well, and they played very, very hard.
MTN Sports: When we talk about some of the mistakes you guys made that allowed last week to be a close game — penalties, a blocked punt, a fumble in a critical situation — can you afford to make those same types of mistakes and still beat a team like College of Idaho?
Troy Purcell: No. Definitely not. You know, you can't make those mistakes. We've got to hold our composure. And again, we've got to get a little more technically sound with some alignment issues and some things like that that we've got to get better at as a staff and as players. But you can't do that here.
And if you have any turnovers and it's a lot of, you know, the penalty battle, or us making mistakes: holdings, pass interference, you know, things like that. Create those situations that you don't want to be. And it's all being a disciplined football team is what we strive for. You know, high quality, high character, being disciplined.
And usually disciplined teams win games. And so that's what we we strive to be.
