Rick Darlington Quotations

I think the key to the game was we stopped their running game. Then they had to throw it. When they had to throw it, we kept them in front of us.

We can't make mistakes, we can't give up the big plays, we can't turn the ball over. We have to control the ball and the clock. The team that is the most physical and makes the least mistakes is going to win.

We're finally learning how to make some plays on defense, instead of letting (the other team) make plays on us.

Ware's got a good team. Anybody that beats Lowndes is pretty good.

The secondary reason is the pride. From a pragmatic standpoint, (if you win) you're 2-0 in the region, and you just beat a very good team. I think the winner of the game will have the inside track on the region title. It's not decided yet, but they will have the inside track.

Offensively, they're very difficult to defend. They've got an athletic quarterback, and good running schemes. They like to run the one-back shotgun and the two-back shotgun. They like to get in the I formation. They run the power-I with three backs. And now they've added the wing-T to their repertoire. So they do about everything. And the thing that's disheartening about them is they do it all well. They can run it, they can throw it, and they've got good athletes.

This is the best defense they've had since I've been the coach here. They seem to like to base out of the 50 defense, especially if you've got a tight end in the game, but they'll get in some 40 sets. Their defense isn't very big, but they're lightning quick. Any defense that holds Lowndes to 100 yards rushing is impressive.

I'm proud of the kids for staying together through adversity, because they did. They believed in each other, and they believed in the coaches. I think that's what pulled us through tonight.

Answering them after they scored at the beginning of the third quarter was big.

This was probably the best team we've played all season. They were as good as we thought they would be.

They're not that complicated on offense. They don't do a lot of different things. But what they do, they do well. We know what they're going to do. They're going to run the wing-T and give it to those backs, and they're not going to throw it a lot. Now we've got to find a way to stop them.

They're good. But they're always good. They're hard to beat. They've got good players, and they're well-coached.