Ken Sparks Press Conference 

The following is a written transcript from the Ken Sparks Press Conference. 

Ken Sparks Press Conference

Pre-Valdosta

11-17-15

Sparks: Well, we are excited to be back in the playoffs and we are excited about playing anybody. To make the playoffs and to be one of 28 teams left out of 170 is pretty doggone good.  We are glad to be in it. When we were 3-2, it looked like there wasn't much hope, but these guys reeled off six in a row. Unbelievable compliment to these kids and what they have accomplished and not many games, maybe one, were easy. The rest of them were pretty good challenges. I can't say enough about the coaching staff. Their faithfulness through all of this has been great and they have never lost track of the vision of being better and improving every week to get where we wanted to get to. And the thing of it is, we haven't even gotten there yet. We still have some room to go and still have a lot to improve on. We have not played a 60 minute game all year. We have really been a rollercoaster team at times, maybe a little bit less in the last couple of teams, but still a rollercoaster sometimes. I started it, but I haven't done it because it would probably be a downer for us, but I was going to check to see on any particular play, if all 11 people did their job. If on defense, or an offensive player or on the kicking game play, if all 11 people do their assignments, you are probably going to have some really good success. I have been scared to see if there has been 11 total people that got the job done on any particular play. I think we did that when you [looks at Eric Cain] were here and we graded that a little bit. The percentage was small then, but I bet right now got knot. It takes a lot of time to do that and I haven't done that this year. Mark that down for December this year. We are going to be doing that in December this year. How's that? [Laughs]

Q1: You talked about being 3-2 and going on a run, do you draw any parallels to that 2012 team when you started the year 2-2 and went on that run to make the playoffs?

Sparks: Not much. I am a coach that don't remember too far back. I watched when we played Valdosta in 2012, we got off to a great start, and then we weakened down the stretch. I don't know how many guys were on this team that was on that team. We had 28 seniors last year. We sure didn't respond well down there that year. We didn't. We didn't handle ourselves like we needed to and that always shows up in the results of the ballgame. We got on the macho level a little bit. That suppo macho never works, it always back fires. You may not know it, but it does.   

Q2: Is there anything else you remember about hat 2012 game?

Sparks: I remember some big plays in the kicking game. One that worked for them great with a fake punt. We faked one and it didn't work at all. So, that was a major turning point that I remember for sure.

Q3: Cedric O'Neal. He was on that 2012 team. He is not their all-time leading rusher.  Has 14 touchdowns this season. What makes him tick and what makes him a good back?  

Sparks: He has speed and great vision. I remember one time he started this way [points left] and came back this way [points right] across the grain against us because there was a little crease on the back side. He will find a crease if you give him one.  

Q4: What kind of challenges does a road game, especially where you have to make a long trek all the way down there, present to your team?

Sparks: It's an opportunity, I think. It's an opportunity to spend two days together, to grow together, to enjoy memories together. We are making memories and we are building a decision-making process, I hope in our own minds, that's going to help us for the rest of our lives. That's what football is for. Football is to help you to win life. If it doesn't help you win life, then football doesn't make a whole lot of sense.  It's a great learning laboratory that I hope we can plug in really well this weekend. This is a fun group of kids. There isn't a whole lot of babysitting that you have to do with this bunch. Fact is, they are a cut above most, so that is exciting for me.

Q5: You mentioned the faith of the coaching staff, but what about the faith in your upperclassman after the way last year ended and this year started, to kind of lead this team through a strong stretch to get to the playoffs.

Sparks: Well, I think its unbelievable message about a group of guys that have said we don't die. If we are breathing, we are fighting. That's what they have done and I am so excited for them. Some of the things that they have accomplished this year will go with them the rest of their lives. There's no question about it.

Q6: Valdosta, I think, has only seen the option one time against Shorter a couple of weeks ago. Is there any advantages your offense might have against a defense that doesn't see the option a whole lot?

Sparks: Well, they have seen it twice. Mississippi College is also an option team. It's not our kind of option, though, it's a different kind of option. They did a good job of playing assignment football in both of those ballgames. If they are disciplined enough to do assignment football, then that's what defending option football is all about.

Q7: Jerry Miclease said the other day that Valdosta's offense is something that they have seen a lot lately and is particularly the strength of the defense to go against that type of offense. Do you see it the same way?

Sparks: The biggest difference is that we haven't seen speed the way we are about to see it. Speed is one of those things that makes things happen, so we have to really play good defensive football assignment gap-control football to be successful against this group.

Q8: Obviously, when you get into the playoffs, a couple of things are magnified. Turnovers are magnified. You didn't cause any last week and then also special teams, which has been up and done this season in being great at times and then bad at times giving up some kickoff returns. Any adjustments or any extra time given to working on those phases of the football game?

Sparks: We spend a whole lot of time on it right now and that's the reason it's so frustrating to be probably leading a Carson-Newman record of allowing kickoff returns for a touchdown. I think we have given up five of them. Whoever heard of that? I mean, you know, if you allow one a year you're doing some things wrong. We sure have anguished a whole lot over our kickoff coverage. It seems like a victory, victory, victory, and then total defeat and that's the way it's been this year. Saturday, we were only giving up about five yards a return until ['poof' sound effect] touchdown. I don't know. Its like everything else, you get one guy that gets out of his lane, or one guy that runs around the block instead of taking the block on, and it develops a crease. With those guys that are back there that can run north and south, there it goes. On kickoff return, just Saturday, and we have returned two or three for a touchdown, but Saturday we got three for touchdowns minus one guy that missed a block. And that's all that was left. It was like the red seas had opened up and then one guy misses a block. It happened three times Saturday and it was three different guys. Come on. This Saturday, we better make some of those plays or we are going to be in trouble against a team that can really run. 

Q9: Phalen Booker has really settled into his own in his first season in the program. What has he done to position himself to lead that group of newcomers on the defensive side of the ball?

Sparks: I think he has taken on the role of a leader. Phalen is a smart guy and has a lot going for him.  I think he has finally accepted the fact that the Lord had a plan for him to be here besides just him. It was for some other people too. He has been an encouragement to watch him grow and develop as a person. When you develop as a person, you develop into a pretty good football player, and that is what he has done.

Q10: You mention Valdosta's team speed. Is there a certain area, a certain position, or a certain person that really jumps out at you?

Sparks: Yeah. The running back, the receivers, the defensive backs and linebackers run really, really, well. You can't even leave out the defensive lineman. They run well. The two defensive ends are outstanding. The overall team speed is different from what we have seen. We will have to adjust to it.

Q11: E.J. Hilliard, their quarterback, seems like a mobile threat. He is the second-leading rusher. How do you deal with him?

Sparks: Before the game starts, we are going to ask him if he won't put on some weights on his ankles for us. We will ask him if he wouldn't do that for us so that he won't hardly be as quick. He is quick. He is tough.     

-CN-