AC Week 3 99

Each week, pngfootball.com will interview an assistant coach off the PN-G staff. The assistant coach works very hard week in and week out to prepare the Indians to play on Friday nights. Their hard work and intense preparation are important to PN-G's success. Many times they are the ones who develop close relationships with their football pupils, and their coaching duties put them on the front lines in game preparation.

Many times the assistant coach goes unrecognized in his contribution to Indian football. At pngfootball.com, we appreciate and recognize the work done by the assistant coaches. This is their page.

September 13, 1999

This week's featured assistant coach:

Mike Long, Offensive Coordinator

Coach Long's Background

	2 Years Graduate Assistant at Lamar University under Larry Keenan
	5 Years at Galveston Ball, Last 3 Years as Offensive Coordinator
	8 Years at Clear Creek, Last 6 Years as Offensive Coordinator
	4 Years at PN-G as Offensive Coordinator
	*Since Mike Long has been at PN-G, the Indians are 28-7*

On the Ozen Game

Offensively, we decided to open it up a little bit more. We have Dustin at quarterback, two fine receivers (Joey Price and Justin Baxter), and two weapons in the backfield (Bo Wortham and Jeff Bergeron) that are better than a lot of teams have. There’s a third runningback we have, Thomas Baxter, that is real good also, but has been sitting the bench. In the Ozen game we put him in at wingback and he scored 2 times on the tackle trap. One was called back.

We try to differentiate our formations. We did that a lot, and we used motion too, changing the strength of the formation. The deep pass we threw down the middle to Joey Price for a touchdown came from a formation Ozen had never seen.

On Silsbee

Silsbee’s good. They got started slow like we did. Against West Orange they looked pretty good. Their best defensive lineman is back from last year. They’re big and physical. Their secondary’s quick. Their skill people are good.

On Dustin Long and Receiver Corps

The first week he had an average game and got mad. He got re-focused, and played this week like a man possessed. He worked harder. I worried about him getting complacent--it’s hard. He’s realizing he has to show up everyday.

His strengths are his decision making and his arm strength. He’s run this offense for three years. He knows what we’re trying to do in the passing game and the running game also. His running the option has gotten a lot better. He’s a little stronger this year than last year, and he’s good at throwing the deep ball.

Joey Price is our flanker, or "Z". He has good speed, 4.6, and great hands. Justin Baxter is the other wideout, or "X". He’s 6’3". We also use Bo Wortham as a receiver. Wortham’s a great athlete. We’re also throwing to Bergeron out of the backfield. We diversify our offense.