Question1: Opening statement about North Greenville.
Sparks: Well North Greenville really is a good football team. North Greenville has three defeats, but they are to quality teams. They beat Wingate who beat us a couple of weeks ago. It's pretty obivious that we are the underdog, and we're going to have to play a lot more consistent football to win this ball game.
Question 2: What makes Will Hunter a talented Quarterback?
Sparks: He may have better presence in the pocket than the Quarterback they had last year. He is certainly doing a good job of not throwing picks, which for a Freshman that's kind of unusual. He does a great job, they got a running back who is a good football player, a big wide receiver, and there offensive line has been very consistent for them all year. Offensively they got the total package.
Question 3: What's the challenge going against a team that only lost it's Quarterback on offense last year?
Sparks: The challenge is can we play fundamental football, can we get off of blocks and make tackles? We are still very inconsistent and have a tendency to give up that third down and long. So we got a challenge.
Question 4: What can you build on from the Limestone game?
Sparks: The first half defensively was real exciting we only gave up 68 yards at halftime to a team that had gotten a lot of yards on a lot of people. The second half though we gave up 270 yards, once again it is the story of inconsistency. We're playing with a limited squad because of injuries and we get tired. This game on Saturday was one with a lot of snaps, about 80 on offense and 75 on defense. So that makes it tough.
Question 5: How do you hope this team approaches this game mentally trying to end with a winning season?
Sparks: I hope not any differently, I have no complaints about our kids responding to us. It's been a good group, are they frustrating to coach sometimes? Yes. Are they good people? Yes. Would we like to finish with three wins? Yes. Doing something the next couple of weeks will be fun.
Question 6: How is Noah Suber able to bounce back after some of the turnovers the past couple of weeks?
Sparks: He knows it takes a eleven people to create a turnover most of the time. If we block at the line of scrimmage and the receiver runs the right route we eliminate that turnover. He knows that it's not all him, but if you ask him he'll take all the credit for it. Noah is a leader and with that comes responsibility, he's the Quarterback and is responsible for the other ten, and the other ten are responsible for him, but we're working on that. We're starting a different offensive line every week and will start a different one this week.
Question 7: How have the special teams performed this season?
Sparks: Which one, which day? Sometimes we like what we see and other days it looks like we have never been coached before. The day before we did drills not to do those things. I don't know it's been an interesting team to coach to become more effective.
Question 8: What has Dan Gallman meant to this program the last four years?
Sparks: Well Dan, has been a great success story because he has grown so much. I think he's had a lot of questions about what the Lord wants out of him. I think he has a good heart and he's still looking for ways that honor the Lord.
Question 9: How has Gallman responded to the injury at the start of the season?
Sparks: Well not very good at times, he's really had to battle with the mentality of can my body do what my mind wants to do? I think the answer is that most times our bodies will do what our minds want us to do. That's the battle for Dan, he had a very serious injury and started playing a little sooner than maybe he thought he could do. The last couple of ballgames he is back to knocking people down like he has in the past.
Question 10: What is enabling there middle linebacker to make so many tackles?
Sparks: There a linebacker defensive, the fact that they lineup in the 50 defense and that they slant or gap almost every time, that has a tendency to free up linebackers. We had a famous linebacker here by the name of Eric Cain who said, "If you keep people off of me, I will make every tackle." That's what we do with linebackers, if we keep people off of them then they will make tackles and North Greenville has done a good job of that.
Question 11: Is there extra importance of getting the lineman up the field this week?
Sparks: It's what we've been talking about every week, if we can get our guys get helments on there guys, then we'll be okay. It's been a challenge for us in a lot of differnt ways, but Saturday was an improvement and we hope to get better from it.
Question 12: How has Aaron Seward imporved as a player over the past four years?
Sparks: Aaron is a very talented kid, and recevier. He can run, he's got hands, and he's been a good blocker. He's been hampered the past few weeks with injuries, but when he's on, he's a good on. He's a good taltent that we have been able to take some advantage of and we're glad to have him.