Quotes by James Blankenship

“We started out with a good number of folks, and then some of the hotels nearby couldnt support the people coming in. ... There is a lot of overflow.”

“Gibson Southern was committing eight in the box to try to stop our running game, kind of daring us to pass. We had some kids make some big plays, but I still dont think we are even close to where we should be on the offensive line.”

“We had to start expanding our offense. We had been too simple for too long, and we had to open ourselves up. We felt like this was a very important game for us.”

“Jasper is a little bit more multidimensional this year. That came from the fact that they got the fullback involved, having split backs and being able to cross things up a little bit. And I thought they really wore us down from the second quarter on.”

“We played well for about a quarter and a half, but after that we didnt play well at all. When we didnt protect on that punt in the second quarter and gave them a short field, that really started to turn things. And then, when we got tired, we started making mental mistakes.”

“We were real happy with our play early. The kids were really coming off the ball, playing excited on defense and offense.”

“It seemed like we played the last two and a half quarters from our two-yard line and in. We couldnt get it out, and we were giving Jasper a short field time after time.”

“The next four weeks are huge for us, in terms of trying to have a winning season. Gibson Southern (1-2) is playing real good football right now. They are obviously playing great defense and they are a much-improved team. We are going to have to get a lot better real quick.”

“We told the kids at halftime that the first thing we wanted to see was for them to compete in this kind of situation. We didnt want to hang our heads. We wanted to go out and play as a team.”

“We wanted to come out and win the second half. That is an old cliche, but sometimes youve got to resort to that. And thats where we were at halftime.”