Richard Pettus Quotations

We're asking an awful lot of Derrick to contribute to the varsity team as a sophomore. But he's our future. He's going to be our No. 1 tailback the next two years. And you're going to see him play a lot this year. We're certainly excited to have him in our program.

I'd like to be in a couple of years where they are now.

Michael Kelly has earned that spot. He's still not where I want him to be. But through games and practices he's been the most consistent guy we have there.

We have to play mistake-free football to be competitive in the game. I've been preaching mental toughness all week. That's going to be the key for us.

They have a lot of speed on defense. There's no doubt that they have more athletes than we've got, especially at the skill positions. We just need to come out with more heart and more desire to win.

It's a great opening game. It will let us know early on where we stand. Regardless of the outcome, it's going to prepare us for Bronson and Nature Coast and more importantly our first district game against Trinity Prep.

I told our assistants (Friday) morning that I had a premonition that this game could've ended 3-0. I told them if it came to that, I'd take that win. Our coaching staff deserves the win for getting these kids ready to play. Give Crescent City a lot of credit for hanging in there ... they've got a great football team. They're just a little banged up.

I truly believe that we don't miss a beat when Derrick's in the backfield. He's very capable of doing as much as Ricardo. It's nice as a coach to have two backs of that caliber.

Derrick brings a lot to our team. He's a very explosive player. He can make things happen every time he touches the ball. He had about our only big play the other night.

I'm real anxious to see how we're going to do offensively. We struggled a little last week (in the preseason Fall Classic against Harmony) and I hope we got all of those kinks out.