Hagerty Family Football Head Coach Willie Taggart
On preparing for the first road game
“I think that’s another challenge that we have to overcome. I thought in the first ballgame, one of our challenges was to overcome adversity when things happen to us in the game. This is one of those challenges that we have to overcome in order to become a championship football team. I think any championship football teamfinds a way to win on the road. That’s what this football team’s going to have to do, be able to go on the road and play smart and play tough, physical football and not beat ourselves. I like our team. I like our mindset. I think our guys are going to be up for the challenge as we talk throughout the week of the things it’s going to take and then the guys are going to go out and get it done.”
On Ohio
“They’ve got a lot of experience back. I know on defense, there’s a lot of guys that have played a lot of football and started a lot of games. They have some guys back on offense as well. I know they have a new defensive coordinator, so for our offense it’s kind of similar to last week where we really don’t know exactly what we’re going to get, so we have to be ready to adjust when we get into the ball game. Offensively, I think you’ll see a lot of similar stuff that they did last year. I do think with them all being back, that usually helps, but we can’t go off of last year. We have to go out there and play the team that we’re going to have to face this year.”
On players stepping up with guys out
“It was really good to see our guys go out and play the way they did knowing that we had some guys out of the game as well. When you have depth, you can do those things and it has made everyone better. It’s so important to have that depth because injuries are going to happen. If injuries don’t happen, you need them just to be able to stay fresh. We have to stay fresh throughout the season so we can finish games in the season the way we need to.”
On the next step for the offense
“We left a lot of points out on the field. We threw the ball down the field quite a bit and didn’t execute as much as we would like to. We have to be consistent with our execution when throwing the ball down the field. I think we have some guys that can run and take the top off of defense, so we want to be able to execute on those plays more often than what we did this past week. I think in the run game, there are some things we felt we could have done a lot better in the ball game that we need to correct. There are a lot of fundamental and technical things that we can do better and just like any other first ball game, just minimizing missed assignments.”
On Morgan Suarez kicking 3/3 on field goals
“Our kicking position went from a concern to being a weapon for us. It was good to see Morgan come in and step up. We all knew what Morgan was capable of doing. The one thing I love about the kid is he never gets rattled. He is a mentally tough individual, and you have to be that being a kicker. As much as I try to make it a competition in practice, he was staying the same, he was hungry. He was very competitive and you love that because he has the same competitive edge as his teammates that are playing other positions. If you go back and watch that game, you can see how excited all of his teammates were for him to go out and execute the way that he did on Saturday. That was big for Morgan, but more importantly that was big for our entire football team.”
On the packed student section
“Even before we got on the field, when we drove up from the hotel, the vibe that we had on campus was totally different. You saw tents everywhere. We were over by the students tailgate, and that was packed like it was a concert. Then you walk out for pregame and you start to see the student section pile up and then seeing how many students we had over there before the game started was big time. To me, that’s where it’s going to start. We want to pack the stadium, and it starts with the students. That environment and that energy that they brought in that stadium, that’s what brings everybody else back. I think it played a big factor in our football team in the way they played. That was one heck of a student section that night, and we hope to continue that throughout the year.”
On challenges of playing on the road
“I think part of it is just believing in each other and believing in the plan. I think experience plays a factor as well. We have a team with a lot of experience now. They’ve been on the road, been at home, they’ve seen the highs and lows. It’s just playing winning football. We can’t help other teams beat us.”
On QB Willie Taggart Jr, taking the final snap
“It was pretty cool watching him play. He’s had a good offseason and he’s really developed and gotten better. It was great that he was able to get in and get some reps along with some other young guys out there.”
