HELENA — As No. 14 Carroll College prepares to finish out its two-game road stretch against No. 8 Montana Western on Saturday, MTN Sports' Jonny Walker sat down with Fighting Saints head coach Troy Purcell.
A full transcript from the video interview with Purcell is available below:
MTN Sports: You’ve got a really pivotal matchup coming up against Montana Western. You two look like the top two teams on your half of the Frontier Conference. Just how pivotal is this game?
Troy Purcell: Every one of these conference games are tough games, and anyone could be in a championship-type situation. It happens to be the next game. It happens to be Western. We haven’t won down there in a while. And (Western coach Ryan) Nourse and those guys do a great job down there, so it should be a great contest.
MTN Sports: Montana Western is the second opponent you’ll have played this season that is currently ranked in the top 10. How big of an impact on how people view this team do you think it would be if you could pick up a top-10 win?
Troy Purcell: Yeah, it'd be huge. Everything's about placement and ranking. And the higher you can stay in the rankings, the better the opportunity you have — if you don't win the conference, that is — to get an at-large bid and head off into the playoffs. And so, it's huge.
MTN Sports: It's been the storyline of the season, watching your offense continue to get more explosive. Kaden Huot continues to get more comfortable. Where would you say your offense is right now?
Troy Purcell: We're not there yet. We’ve still got a lot of improvement to go, which is very encouraging. And I think the more experience you have with these, if they might be older, transfer-type guys like Kaden Huot. But he hadn't played a lot of football games in the last three years. And so, the more he plays the better feel he has, the faster the pass concepts develop and then the faster you can get to his throw. So, it's exciting.
MTN Sports: This week will be the second of this two-game road stretch. Obviously, going into Dillon is not the same as going to Arizona as you were last week. But do you think this team is getting more comfortable playing on the road?
Troy Purcell: Gosh, we were just talking about that. It seems like we've been on the road for quite a bit now. But, it's fun being able to go down that same day where it's not planes, trains and automobiles to get down to Arizona, or to Medford (Ore.), which we're taking that trip here in a couple of weeks. So, it kind of feels like a home game a little bit because we're going to do all our Friday night preparation, ... have breakfast, get on the bus early and take off.
