GAINESVILLE — Gainesville escaped a tough opening game against rival West Hall last week with a 20-10 victory.
There were some bright spots for the Red Elephants, like holding the Spartans to just three points on offense, and new quarterback DJ Irons throwing for 277 yards and one touchdown without an interception in his first start.
But there also were plenty of questions to be answered. A new offensive line gave up five sacks and the Red Elephants committed more than a dozen penalties for nearly 150 yards. AccessWDUN's Jeff Hart sat down with Gainesville coach Bruce Miller this week to ask him what they are doing to prepare to take on Alpharetta on Friday at City Park Stadium.
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. and you will be able to hear the action on 1240AM ESPN Radio.
Question: Coach, what did you learn after watching film of the West Hall game from last week?
Answer: First of all, if (this week’s opponent) Alpharetta was anything like us, we had a hard time finding a game and I want to thank (West Hall coach) Tony Lotti and those guys for playing us. That kept a good rivalry in town going. About film the first thing I noticed was that it was just good for us to get into a game condition and see how it played out. I thought our special teams played extremely well. I thought (kicker) Brandon Reyna did a good job. Defensively we only gave up three points all night; (West Hall’s) other score was on a defensive touchdown. Offensively, we did some things really well. We've just got to cut out the penalties and and not give up the sack, just stay in the positive yardage.
Q: You mentioned some good things the offense did, but the offensive line is new and gave up five sacks to West Hall. And there were a ton of penalties. Is the line going to be a work in progress early in the season and what can you do to correct penalties, if anything?
A: West Hall played well. They gave us trouble. I think the line may be a work in progress most of the season, but I also think there's some things that we can do this week to help us eliminate the sacks. We talked about the penalties, and we get on the guys in practice for doing some of the things they did the other night. So hopefully we can learn from what we did in the first game and get better.
Q: With a couple of bye weeks coming up after this week, what do you think y’all are going to need to do to get better?
A: Well, you know we try to do the normal preparations. On Monday we sat down and went over mistakes we made in the West Hall game. We showed them film to see the things that maybe they did wrong and then late Monday we started our preparations for Alpharetta. It's been kind of a difficult start. The offense had a bad day Monday and the defense had a bad day Tuesday, but you just try to come back and have a better day the next day.
Q: What has been the focus this week as y’all prepare to take on Alpharetta?
A: Alpharetta is very athletic, and we're gonna have to match up with their athleticism and hopefully stop some of their big playmakers. Offensively we’re going to have to be able to move the ball. Alpharetta does a good job on defense. We would like to make sure we move the ball and don't just move it to the 20-yard line and then stop. We need to get it into the end zone and score touchdowns and not field goals.
Q: Is red zone efficiency an area you felt like y’all should have had a little better production last week? [5 trips, 2 TDs, 2 FGs]
A: I did not think we executed as well as we needed to. That’s where some of the bigger breakdowns started taking place, and we need make sure that we keep that from happening this week.
Q: Alpharetta dropped down from the largest classification and y’all moved up to Class AAAAAA. But, Alpharetta and Region 7-AAAAAA went a combined 0-6 last week. What do you know specifically about Alpharetta? You talk about their athleticism but what do you think is going to be the key to the game?
A: Like I said, they're very athletic and they’ve got a big, tall receiver, he must be 6-foot-6, and they've got a quarterback that can get him the ball, and they've got a running back that runs the ball well. Defensively they they look pretty sound across the board. It’s going to be a tough matchup for us. We were lucky to get this game scheduled so I don't know a lot about them other than what I’ve seen on film. I do know they are needing a victory so I’m sure they’ll be coming (into City Park Stadium) hungry to get one so we better be ready to play.
Q: Do you feel like it is going to become another defensive struggle or do you feel like there will be some points scored?
A: I think there’s going to be some points scored because they are so explosive on offense. I feel like we’ll be better on offense this week if we can get our red zone mistakes cleaned up. However, there will be two good defenses out there as well. It’s still a little hard to tell at this point of the season where everybody kind of stands since it’s only been one game. I’m hoping we’ll know a lot more about ourselves after this week.
