James Blankenship Quotations

We started out with a good number of folks, and then some of the hotels nearby couldn't support the people coming in. ... There is a lot of overflow.

My first year here I had to do a lot more running around campus to get registered,

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 don't think we are even close to where we should be on the offensive line.

Gribble's return was huge. But even that was weird, because he had a guy hanging on his leg, and then all of a sudden he breaks free and he goes running down the sideline. But that kept us from playing from behind in the second half.

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 didn't want to hang our heads. We wanted to go out and play as a team.

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.

Matt is a playmaker. Once he stopped worrying about what was going on around him, he did a great job of throwing the ball.

We'd run a play, and our tailback would get a cramp. So we'd put another tailback in, and he'd get a cramp. We just had to limit what we did in the second half, and we tried to use the clock and control the ball.

We have some kids capable of running the ball, ... Tonight, Sammy was obviously running very, very well. We were just going to keep putting the ball in his hands. He did have some holes, and once he got in the secondary he was pretty tough to bring down.

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.

We played well for about a quarter and a half, but after that we didn't play well at all. When we didn't 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 wanted to come out and win the second half. That is an old cliche, but sometimes you've got to resort to that. And that's where we were at halftime.

We just got rid of the bells and whistles and just played football. Our offensive line really started coming off the ball and making holes. There was nothing fancy in what we did for the last quarter and a half.

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

As tight as the game was for a while there, we felt we could control the clock and control the line of scrimmage, ... We didn't want to do anything that would give Tell City a potential big play going the other way.

Tell City has obviously improved quite a bit from the beginning of the season, ... They are going to be pretty good in the 2A sectional. In the first couple of drives of the second half, they did a great job. But we just finally started stepping it up.

Colby Davis and Michael Cheshire, the two returning linemen from last year who were in there tonight, I think they really took charge of the young kids.

They physically handled us up front on both sides of the ball, and we weren't ready for that. A lot of our kids hadn't been exposed to that kind of varsity football. But we have talked to the kids, and we are going to be a team that gets better as the season goes along.

It started out weird, and then it just kept getting more weird as the night went on. I don't know of much that didn't happen in that game. Even when we kicked off, it was an adventure. I was just happy that our kids did eventually take control. I was waiting for them to play circus music at any time over the loud speaker, because that is what it seemed like.

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.

It seemed like we played the last two and a half quarters from our two-yard line and in. We couldn't get it out, and we were giving Jasper a short field time after time.

These kids gave a great effort tonight. We were proud of them in the second half. And I think the kids feel a lot better about themselves after the way they came out in the second half. We have some positives to take away from this.