Just talk about those seniors, the foundation they laid, and what are you looking forward to?

Yeah, man, just, I mean, you can't replace them.

I mean, everything that we're building, they are that.

And, man, to send them out with a win tonight, You know, the growth is what we talk about all year.

And, you know, I think you saw that tonight.

We've let some slip away like that this year.

And to finish the season like that in year two, I'll take this bunch regardless of what anybody's got to say every day of the week.

We'll celebrate.

What's that process look like from a coaching standpoint? I know the kids, some of them scattered different sports, but how fast do you get back at it? And what do you take out of this year that you can change or alter moving forward?

Yeah, I mean, I think for coaches, you do get a little bit of downtime because you're not practicing every day.

We'll pretty much get into it starting next week.

I'll meet with all of our freshmen over the next two days, go ahead and get their end of the year meetings done.

Monday, I'll meet with our upperclassmen, sophomore through juniors.

I'll meet with them individually during the day.

That way they can go on to their other sports or kind of get done with that.

You know, we look like a 6A program because, you know, you've got your few guys and you're coaching against teams with 25 coaches over there.

talk.

But when you're in our shoes, when you've built a staff of guys that are here, that chose to be here, that aren't going anywhere, And you look at the process, the progress in the weight room offseason last year.

That's only one offseason.

Yeah.

And so for our kids, and I gave our kids the same speech on Sunday when we met.

You know, what does year three have to be? What you hope is you've went from year one not knowing how to compete You've learned how to compete at this point in year two.

And then year three is finishing the job.

Things that you can

So, you know, what did you tell them to do? And what did you do with

it? Yeah, man, we, you know, that's our thing.

We've been lucky the last two years to have the bye week on fall break.

And I'm one of those.

I think you still, for us, it was about trying to gain two days on summit.

Like, okay, Monday we brought them in.

You know, we had a – hour and a half practice on the field uh helmets only uh we met as a staff that sunday before uh created the initial game plan for summit so monday was kind of a practice installed a game plan here's who they are here's what we're thinking uh tuesday we went shells got got after a little bit um And then cut them loose Wednesday through Sunday.

What do you tell the team before they take the field for this one?

But how did you think it went?

You know, same thing.

You know, you look at it and...

But for us, everything's been about year two.

Are we closing the gap? You know, are we getting where we need to be? I mean, don't don't get me wrong.

You know, I want to win every game that we play.

These kids do.

That's wild to think about that, isn't

Have you had any

indication? Yeah, like I said, we're very honest with each other as far as coaches and players.

That's one thing I'll say about this group is, they don't, they understand it's not personal.

And so Sunday, we bring our starters and backups in on Sunday.

Sunday wasn't a good day.

We were honest.

And some of the players have been honest with coaches and coaches with players.

When you look at them on film coach, what jumps out at you?

But the 27-yard line or so, look at the

28.

What adjustments need to be made at halftime?

Man, we got to do what we're coached to do, man.

Too many missed tackles.

Mental game ain't there.

We're not locked in.

Our eyes are in the wrong places.

Gotcha.

Um, if you try to single block us up front- Then to get to our linebackers, then we're athletic and, and strong enough up front, now they're making plays.

So it, it's kind of the mindset of if, if you will, if you will play the block in front of you as a D-lineman, you'll make more plays than doing your own thing.

And, and it's hard to understand, uh, you know, it took me in college, man, [laughs] blindsided, you know, starry-eyed before I realized if I'll just play my job, if he down block, squeeze it, if he reaches, fight it.

Like, if I just play my job, we'll be better as a defense.

I'll make more plays individually.

Um, and, and our guys have really bought into that, man.

What's, what do you do to try to get that going early in the first half?

Is that right? It

is, but being a college D-lineman myself, we're not block eaters.

I tell our D-linemen, you're not out there just to eat blocks so other people run free.

But the way defense should be played – D lineman do their job and the offense has to decide what they're going to do.

Okay, if I'm going to double team your D lineman, then that means my linebackers are going to run.

Gotcha.

If you try to single block us up front, then to get to our linebackers, then we're athletic and strong enough up front.

That's probably exactly what you wanted to do and kind of put it away at that point, it felt like, didn't you?

What did you tell the boys after the game?

You know, just really the first words were, there's nothing I can say that's going to take this thing out.

You know, it's one of those situations where two completely separate halves.

Yeah.

I think the first half you saw what we strive to be, what we can be.

And I think we played extremely tight the second half.

And so really just my message to them was, Are we closing the gap? And I think we are.

How do you think that – do you worry about carryover this week?

What did you tell the boys after the game?

You know, just really the first words were, there's nothing I can say that's going to take this thing out.

You know, it's one of those situations where two completely separate halves.

Yeah.

I think the first half you saw what we strive to be, what we can be.

And I think we played extremely tight the second half.

And so really just my message to them was, Are we closing the gap? And I think we are.

How do you think that – do you worry about carryover this week?

You guys adjusted, but talk about the adjustments you had to make in-game after that first drive.

Yeah, just little adjustments.

You know, we do a good job in the summer when we're installing.

We install our entire defense from wing T defense all the way to what you saw the other night where they're an empty sideline to sideline.

And, you know, I tell them all the time, we create a toolbox.

And not every week you go into that game with all the tools, but you have the ability to pull them out.

And so for us, you know, they hadn't shown it at all.

Talk about the importance of having good depth at that position.

What did you like from your team tonight?

Just the resiliency, the way they played the game on both sides, man, making adjustments.

First game, I mean, they're going to come out offenses.

Both offenses came out in things that weren't on film and scrimmages.

That's just the nature of the beast.

We'll get back to work now.

A clear picture of what we've got to get better at on both sides of the ball going into what is next week.

I know maybe not as much in the trenches, but talk about your skill guys coming back and what they're going to mean for your team.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, you know, I think a lot of experience coming back, but when you look at the grade level breakdown, you know, of who's on the field this Friday, still a lot of youth.

You know, we made the decision last year to, you know, play the guys that we felt were at the spot they needed to be.

And so that left a lot of sophomores on the field last year, a lot of first-year juniors on the field.

And so definitely ones that are coming back, you know, Cam Stafford, He's going to be a huge part of everything we're trying to do.

He's just going to be a junior.

What are some improvements you look to make in year two and then any personal goals in this

Just overall, you walk away, the goods and the bads.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I think there was a lot of good, a lot of improvement from the spring scrimmage with Tyner.

You know, one reason we scheduled it with Marion County is just the combination that they're going to put on the field of being physical.

You know, four or five extremely talented athletes on the perimeter.

And, you know, for a first scrimmage of the fall after a long summer, I was pleased with our defense and their mindset.

You know, any time you go into a first scrimmage, long layoff as far as Pads and and and full full speed things.

You've been able to really take some pieces you've got and get creative with them.

And Brandon, if you would answer the question, please.

All righty.

Um, as far as transparency, like not hiding anything, and how do I put it? The public relations part, you know, a lot of the discussions that are had during the meetings, you know, they have during the, uh, study sessions who are, which is also open to the public, and it seems, uh, like you would be more respectful of everybody's time if you leave the de- the debates into the study session and stuff like that, other than bring it up during a meeting.

That's how I think that public relations would improve.

Brandon, you're next.

The Tullahoma Airport unfortunately did have some major hiccups recently.

Um, we do own the Tullahoma Airport, so it does come down to, to taxpayers to foot that bill.

Um, there's been mistakes, and the current BOMA has taken a lot of steps to remedy that, including hiring experts that I can't even scratch the surface of what half of that stuff they talk about means.

what are you, you know, how does that look? Like, where do you want to be week after week after week? Because you don't want to roll up to game week still trying to figure out, you know, how we're going to run on the field to stretch.

And I think, you know, it really starts in January.

You know, we were doing many installs after school in January by position groups and Then you go to spring practice, and you pretty much install everything for the first time as a team in the spring.

And then you get your freshman in the summer.

So I tell our guys, we're on our third install right now.

We spring install, we June install, and then July for us is our third install where it should be old news for these guys.

And by then, there may be some things that we've seen through spring and June, because June is our seven-on-seven.

So when you're saying things like that, that gets me kind of excited because I think, you know, that's kind of what we've needed for a long time.

We definitely got to work on this."

Yeah.

Um, and, and, and I think we, we went into the mindset, like we, we wanna, we wanna play the best that we can, we can find in these situations and, and scrimmages.

And, and you'll see that in our fall scrimmage lineup as well.

Um, you know, Tyner's an, an extremely, uh, talented group, uh, semifinal team from last year.

Uh, and, and we felt like the, the caliber of athlete that they would put on the grass would benefit us in the spring for, like you said, you know, what do we need to address in the summer.

And, um, you know, I know Coach Maynard down there really well.

Talk about the, the changes in the defensive schemes, what that entails, uh, for the layman so they kinda know what to expect in August when they come watch you play football.