HELENA — As No. 14 Carroll College hopes to cement its case for an at-large bid to the NAIA playoffs with a win over Eastern Oregon Saturday, MTN Sports' Jonny Walker sat down with Fighting Saints coach Troy Purcell.
A full transcript from the video interview with Purcell is available below:
MTN Sports: We have to talk about it: Last week, College of Idaho comes here with a share of the Frontier Conference West division title and the automatic playoff berth on the line. And they beat you 36-13. What happened?
Troy Purcell: Yeah I don't know — it's quicksand. Hats off to head coach Mike Moroski and that group. They came in there with a purpose and a "why.” And you know, they played better than us that day. We got out-coached, outplayed. We got punched in the face.
So, it’s an opportunity to bounce back with a great test this weekend also versus Eastern Oregon. And we still have a chance to be a regular-season co-champion if Southern Oregon can help us out a little bit at the end.
But, we just got to bounce back, get to that next play and get ready for Eastern Oregon.
MTN Sports: In the six-game win streak leading up to last week, you guys were averaging over 35 points a game. Against C of I, you only scored 13 points on offense in that game. Why wasn't the offense able to get it going?
Troy Purcell: Great question. To me, it was about efficient first downs. Their run game was very, very efficient on first down, and ours wasn't. So we ended up in some third-and-long scenarios, second-and-long. Whereas they had more second-and-short, third-and-short opportunities. And they took advantage of it. And to me, that was the difference in the game.
MTN Sports: I know on the mental side, you always like to say not too high, not too low. Coming off of a loss like this — you still have another regular season game to go, a chance possibly to get into the postseason — how do you make sure the guys have the right mindset for this last regular-season game?
Troy Purcell: It's a playoff game. So we just tell them that's the mindset right now. If you win, you get to keep going. If you don't, then this will be the end of the season. And so, it’s a playoff opportunity and an opportunity to be great; 7-3 last year was a good season, 7-3 the year before that was a good season, 8-2 the year before that was a great season -- win the conference, go to the playoffs.
This year you got a chance to be 8-2, possible conference co-champs and an opportunity to host a playoff game. So, that would be a great season. So let's be great.
