Coach Weachter before the Peters Township Game!

Marty Bowman talks with McDevitt Head Coach Jeff Weachter about last week's District title victory over Solanco, his 300th win, and previews the Peters Township game.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you going on with the coach Jeff Pucker richmon
Day coach first, so you get some things autolations.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I couldn't be there as Friday.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Congrats on the three hundred, congrats on the district championship.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
You don't take him for granted. I'm sure share a
little bit about Friday night. Yeah, I mean thanks first,
thank you, uh saying ball is you know, three hundred
wins is nice. But there'll be time maybe in the
off season. I'll think about that. But you know, I
didn't want to take away any of that from you know,
winning the nineteenth district title. I mean, the kids did it.

(00:32):
The players did it, and I'm happy for them that
they that we and I'm happy to coach them for
another at least another week, you know, hopefully it'll be
next week also. But it was a special night. You know,
they came out, they got on top of us early.

(00:53):
You know, as you and I talked last week, is
their safety flew down. I was probably gonna think I
told you a pretty wit along of them. Second possession, yeah,
you know, second, Yeah, the first play, their safety came
flying down, made a tackle on the line of scrimmage.
I'm like I didn't want to be in a uh
you know, run the ball again and get stuffed and

(01:15):
being third and wall deep in our own territory when uh,
they already just scored on us. It's a tough offense
to stop. And and so we went, uh you know,
we went to play action uh really r p O,
but ended up being a play action and we hit
you know, specially made a great throw to John k
Johntay did a great job getting downfield, and you know

(01:36):
Howard Holton did a great job coming back and and
kind of springing him on the last like twenty yards
for a touchdown. So, you know, it took us a
little bit get used to what they're doing. You know,
there were a lot of questionable calls that I think
left them in it. Uh. You know. One of the
things that they were doing I kept on telling the

(01:57):
officials and they wouldn't call it is you know, they
were cutting our cutting our full back and when our
linemen were pulling, they were cutting them, and that's illegal.
The rule is the only time you're allowed to cut
is right as the ball is being snapped and has
to be inside the inside the box. And you know,
so fullback is not starting in the box, so he's

(02:18):
illegally to cut, and they cut him every time. And
then when a lineman polls, they're outside the box so
you can't cut them. They were cutting them, so you know,
they just you know, what it did is forced us
to run outside a little bit more. You know, we
did a good job. Our running backs did a good job.
And then you know, by by the third or fourth possession,

(02:41):
I think our guys got to feel. You know, it's
a hard offense to duplicate. They run it very well.
Just the speed of how quick they make their decisions
you can't, you know, because we don't see it. So
our scout team that only repped at once a little
bit for the OL Tunic game, you know, we got
kind of used to it. We did a good job

(03:02):
and really their only touchdown was you know, we fumbled
late in the fourth quarter and set them up with
a short field. But other than that, I started defense
played real well, and and you know, offense came on
and you know, you scored thirty eight points, and you know,
and they were tough because their kicker was putting all
the kickoff. You know, we've been living off a long
kick returns either for a touchdown or were short fields,

(03:24):
and you know, it seemed like we were going eighty
yards every time. So you know, they give them credit,
but you know, give our guys a lot of credit
because you know they saw some adversity early in the
game and just came back and nobody nobody was you know,
restless or you know, we just we knew we were
gonna come.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Back, just from what I heard listening and then seeing
you see what balance?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Why did you did a great job on Friday night? Yeah,
you know, and said through really well he did. He
threw well, probably his best game. You know, he's gotten
better as of her went on and and you know,
you know with John take getting healthier, I mean still
not one hundred percent, but you know that's help in
the past game a lot. And you know we knew,

(04:08):
you know, we've always said that late in the season,
you know, especially when we get into playoffs, you know,
teams aren't going to just let us run. Well, We're
gonna have to throw the ball a little bit more.
And I thought we did have nice balance.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
I always tease about when you have a new quarterback
about the playbook and how much you can.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Over the course of the year. How much have you
opened that up for Sebastian, you know, a little bit
still not where we were, but this is this is
a team we have and you know that's what coaching
is is trying to get your guys in the position
as Dick Scheiner said, told me many of times, you know,
only put them in a position they got to do it.
And but in the same token is you can't put

(04:45):
them in a position they're not ready for. And so
we we've you know kind of you know, sometimes that's
what your talent tells you to do, and you know
our talent. You know, we have a big, physical offensive line.
We have three really good running backs. You know, that
is what we're doing. And we've done in the passing game,

(05:05):
we've done a lot on play action passes, but you know,
the mechanics per game. When we had you know, right
before the half and went for a field goal, we
had to throw the ball and we went spread. Friday night,
we went spread, and you know it's a shame that,
you know, we tried a fifty five yard field goal
and Aden had plenty of distance. He just looked at left.

(05:28):
But you know, we had to open it up there
and Smashon did a really good job. The receivers did
a good job, you know, getting the ball down the
field because I mean we were I think J. C.
James and Crummell intercepted right around our ten yard line,
and you know, we ran the ball first and see
where we are, and we thought, all right, we got
it out out towards the twenty. You know, let's see

(05:50):
what we can do. And we got the ball down
in the field goal range and you know, just just missed.
So yeah, we're we're getting there differently.

Speaker 1 (05:59):
And a school Wednesday, Thanksgiving Thursday, in a Saturday game,
Just how did that change things for you? I know
you're not a big fan of Saturdays, but how did
that change things for you this week?

Speaker 2 (06:10):
It actually helped, you know. First of all, Friday night's
weather forecast was cold and windy. Yeah, you know, fifteen
mile a hour wind, so Winshield out there looking at
looking at uh was probably in the high teens, you know,
and we're today's game. It's gonna be a little warmer,
but you know, winds oly was hopefully five to ten

(06:33):
miles an hour. You know, it also gave us a
chance to not rush practice, so you know, on Tuesday,
we're banged up. Uh you know, when you when you
play this many games, you're banged up, and we're banged up.
It was a physical game on Friday night. So we
had some guys that really weren't practicing on Monday. So

(06:56):
with the rain on Tuesday last week, we had guys sick,
and we had two starters that didn't that all we
did a walk for on a Thursday morning. They didn't
practice all week, so you know, with the rain, we decided, hey,
you know we got the extra day. Uh and right now,
it's not physical, you know, it's not physical preparation, it's

(07:18):
metal preparation. So we watched film on Tuesday with the offense,
separated the offense and then the defense. You know, they
did their thing and and I think that hopefully that helped. Uh.
You know, we came out Wednesday morning and to practice.
You know, it's always good as a tradition of McDevitt
to you know, get get a quick little walkthrough in

(07:38):
on Thanksgiving Day and then uh, you know, Friday was
a walkthrough. So hopefully we're ready to go today. Okay,
tell us a.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
Little bit about Peters Township. I think most people were
leaning it was going to be, you know, playing again,
and so a little bit about tonight what we're gonna
see and what you're gonna be able to do and.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Not do all this. You're not gonna give you the
game plan, but uh, you know, yeah, I think Pine
Richmond thought they were gonna be playing us also, so
you know, they Pint Richmond was up. I watched the game.
They were up nineteen to nothing at halftime and totally
dominating the game. And we're still dominating the game. They
kind of got a little conservative on offense. Yeah, yeah,

(08:19):
you know, and you know, they didn't do much offense
against Pine Richmond and then they popped a seventy yard
touchdown run and after that it just kind of momentum,
you know, momentum in football. I don't think fans realized
how much that that affects the game. And you know,
it got rolling, it got rolling, and I thought Pint

(08:42):
Richard got even more conservative, and they came back and
won the game. You know, Pine Richland, you know their defenses,
they they've only they're only averaging you up less than
eight points a game. They got two big, physical outside linebackers.
They run out front of three four and uh, you

(09:02):
know one one's going to pit one six four two
thirty five he's going to Pit and the other one's
like six three two twenty. He's going to Stanford. Uh,
that have good secondary. The quarterback, who is a real
good quarterback, plays plays safety and that he might that's
what he might be going to college. I think he's
going to an FCS school. They're very well coached and

(09:25):
they're not out of position, and you know, uh, you
know we're we're gonna have to mix it. You know,
you can't be one side. You can't just run the ball.
You can't just throw the ball against them. They're they're
too good. You know, you want to stay out of
those like we tried all year, is stay out of
those third and lungs, you know, because they'll drop eight.

(09:46):
I mean sometimes they'll blitz, but then sometimes they drop
eight and that's hard to throw into. Offensively, I mean,
they they run a offense similar to us. You know,
they have a receiver number two had a big catch
late in the game against pin Richland going to Villanova.
They got some real good size up front. They're running back.

(10:10):
You know, like I said, he popped a seventy yard
run quarterback. He can spend the ball, he can throw
a ball downfield. He's also a threat to run. He's
not a speed guy, but he's a big, big, strong kid.
So we'll ever work it out for us today.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
And you get the coach all the day in the
four Gates minute and maybe v all right, I know
you enjoyed the coach, and I'm sure you really be
up to touchdowns, but I know you like that channel.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
I you know, doesn't mean it's got to be, but
I expect a real close game and maybe maybe he
loves scoring. Okay, we'll tell you what.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
Lord willing have a good bus ride home later on
and hopefully meet up with you next week.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
Sounds good, all right, Thanks Marty. Thanks catching