HELENA — Ahead of Carroll College’s final game of the regular season Saturday afternoon with Frontier Conference foe and No. 8-ranked Montana Tech, MTN Sports' Jonny Walker sat down with the 24rd-ranked Fighting Saints' head coach, Troy Purcell.
A full transcript from the video interview is available below:
MTN Sports: One regular season game left to go. You're going to Tech, the same team that you opened your season against. But in football terms, that was a long time ago. What is different about this football team then versus now?
Troy Purcell: Yeah, you know with it there's some goods and bads, I guess. But now you have nine games under your belt for your rookies that, you know, was their first time in a college football game. Now they can be considered veterans, you know, after nine games. And, so the base, the core, the fundamentals will all still be there.
But some of the different pieces, to play the chess game with, will be a little bit different. But, different venue, you know, we'll be down at Montana Tech in Butte, Montana, and it's going to be a crazy, wild crowd, which is awesome. And a lot of fans on both sides will be there looking to see a great game.
MTN Sports: Montana Tech, it's always a rivalry game. But what's at stake in this game? Is it fair to look at this game as a playoff game?
Troy Purcell: Definitely. Yeah. Either team, you know, we still got a chance to — we win this game, (we've) got a chance to have a share of the conference title. And then the playoffs. You know, three-loss teams aren’t getting in the playoffs. The competition out there in the NAIA with a 100-and-some teams out there, and everybody's fighting to get to those 20 spots.
And each conference has automatic bids getting in. So, there's not very many spots if you're not a conference champion to get into the playoffs. And so, you know that fight is real. A three-loss team is probably not getting in.
MTN Sports: When you look at the amount of senior leadership on this team, it kind of feels like the program's been building to this moment. There's a chance this is their last game as Carroll College Fighting Saints. What are the emotions that come with that?
Troy Purcell: Oh, big time. You know, they were right, after last night's practice, they're overlooking the field. It was Garret Worden and Hunter Peck just kind of looking at everything and taking it in. And, you think it's a long ways away, and then all of a sudden you're at that last game, that last moment in time.
And, after this football game, the next 20 years are going to go by pretty fast. It sure seems like it anyway. So, but, yeah. You leave it on the table. You have no regrets. Either be able to look in the mirror at the end of this game, and to your buddies and your brothers, and say you left it on the field. Have no regrets.
