From the Desk of...

Matt Burnett

Coach Burnett Talks About Week 2, 2000

September 10, 2000

Crosby Game

     I"ve always said I'll take a win any way we can get it. It never has mattered to me how many points we win by. We won by one touchdown, but the main thing is we won.

     Offensively, we had two turnovers and also fumbled a punt return, and those things had something to do with the way things came out. Plus Crosby is a good football team. They won 10 games last year. They did a good job defending us. We had a little setback before the game. Center Justin Mercer had a high fever and did not play. We missed some assignments and some blocks up front. We didn't do it all at one time. It was a typical first game with an inexperienced offense. With some of those things corrected, we would have continued our drives and scored more points. I'm comfortable that we can correct those things.

     Defensively, it was an outstanding performance on a night we needed it. We forced them into nine punts and held them after we fumbled a punt return. We held them to five first downs. Crosby had most of their guys back on defense from the year before, and we had most of ours.

     The main thing is the expectation for our program is very high, and we realize that. We enjoy getting the victories.

On Jacksonville

     Offensively Jacksonville has a wide open attack. They use a lot of formations. Sometimes they will have no backs in the backfield. They're very dangerous and explosive. They will isolate one of their good players on one person and throw to him.

     They have a lot of tradition. Crosby was like playing a playoff game. Now Jacksonville is the same. That's the price we have to pay for being successful.  Last year everybody on our pre-district schedule dropped us. We're matching up against some very good football teams.

     Defensively they have a 300 lb defensive tackle and a 250 lb defensive end. Their linebackers run real well. We're going to have to do a better job offensively, because we can't be exposedto their offense as much as Crosby's. So offensively we've got to maintain some drives and score some points this week.

     The fun thing is we're playing at home and on Saturday. We agreed to play on Saturday because it's a four hour drive from Jacksonville and they would have to turn out school at noon to get down here. It's a 6:00 PM game, so there will still be sunlight when it starts. It will be a good atmosphere...like a college atmosphere.

Injuries

     We came out of the Crosby game healthy. We may get QB Tony Bowser back this week for practice, but he's doubtful for the game. He's coming off orthoscopic surgery on his knee. We're going to get OT Mike Thibodeaux back at practice this week. He's had a muscle strain in his back.

     The Crosby game was very physical, but we got out without many injuries.

Defensive Leaders

     Defensive leaders against Crosby were: