Seg 2 - FB Show Nov 11 w Jim Mora

More on the Duke win

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're back with Jim Moore of the Yukon Football Coaches Show.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Huskies go to.

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Seven and three with air Force at home Senior Day
on the weekend Saturday Coach. Early in the season, we
talked about this, Yukon hadn't been taking them all away,
hadn't turned it over all year, which is a fabulous number.
Only one fumble, but the takeaway category starting to be
a factor now pretty much every week. Interceptions, fumble recoveries,

(00:29):
and that combined with the home field, the juice that
gets into a stadium, the energy from stuff like that
is something you can really carry around with you can't you.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Yeah, I mean, listen, I'm not typically cognizant of the
crowd during a game because your focusing so much on
what's happening on the field. But when your defense gets
a big stop on fourth down, or they get a
takeaway or there, you know, the offense is about our
opponent's about to snap the ball, and the crowd comes
to life because they recognize it's an important situation. I mean, listen,

(01:03):
that's what home field advantage is, you know. I mean,
it's it's partnering with the crowd to make the environment
really really difficult for your opponent and then take an
advantage of it, you know, and then the energy that's
created when you do get a stop or you do
take the football away, and just how the crowd noise
elevates and the excitement in the stadium increases and your

(01:24):
players feel it. It's a partnership, you know. I mean,
it's me sound crazy, but it really is. And so
just a fun environment. But you know, Bob, Bob, sorry, Mike, Mike,
it's the number one critical variable to winning football games

(01:48):
is turnover ratio, you know, and so you have to
you have to hold the ball and hold on to
the ball, and you have to try to take it away.
And you know, that's just always a point emphasis for us.

Speaker 1 (01:57):
Yeah, it came to mind because that last play was
a defensive stop and a turnover, because you lost three
times on the road and I felt like, you know,
their home crowd, even though Rice didn't have a lot
of folks there, Delaware had a pretty good crowd and
Syracuse too. I mean, it matters you have those home
fans behind you, and then you get a little momentum

(02:18):
and you're the visitor. It's tough to overcome that. I
thought dude had trouble with that because they had the
lead so many times in the game, but they couldn't
finish it.

Speaker 2 (02:27):
I think they did. I think that, I think, you know,
and I don't know how they feel, but I know
how I feel is that as you went through that game,
and like I said, I can't concentrate on the crowd
per se, but you do feel them. Is like, I
never felt like our players and I never felt like
our crowd had any doubt. And I felt like our

(02:52):
crowd realized that they were helping us win, they were
helping us overcome, like you said, the deficits that we
were facing in the second half, and that was pretty
freaking awesome. Okay, I mean that was pretty freaking awesome,
and it really matters, you know, And I tell you
this that you know, after the game, we were driving

(03:12):
home and Kathy said, I can't even believe the crowd
and I go, yeah, they really came alive there at
the end of the game. And he goes, she goes,
you're crazy. She goes, they were incredible the whole game. Incredible.
She goes, the band, the band was incredible the whole game.
I mean, they were so into it, and I'm like, god,
you know, I just I kind of noticed it that
last drive. But she always, she always kind of gives

(03:32):
me the vibe of the game, and she was like,
you know, she said, it couldn't have been any better.
It couldn't have been.

Speaker 1 (03:38):
An It sounded about the rent. I mean, you put
thirty thousand in there. It sounds like fifty. I don't
know why. It's just the way the acoustics are in
that place. The takeaways obviously plus fourteen now number two
in the country. That's valuable. But sometimes, coach, you got
to make a call, and you did with a fake
punch that Alex Hanig took twenty six yards for a

(04:01):
big first down in the game. Is that a split
second decision? I mean, did you sit there and go, oh,
fourth down? All right, now we're going to try to
fake punt. It's got to be a split second kind
of a thought, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
No. I mean, it's you have to make that decision
in that instance, but you're thinking about it really throughout
the game, Like when is the we know we have
an opportunity here to convert a fake We felt like
we had it if we wanted it. Versus particular looks,

(04:35):
so you're trying to anticipate when they might give you
the look that you want. It's something that we've worked
on really all season, and so our players had a
high degree of confidence that they'd make it work, that
they'd execute, and the time just presented itself perfectly for
us to go ahead and give it a shot. And
our guys executed it. And that's just a credit to
Doug Share, our special teams coordinator, and it's a huge

(04:58):
credit to the players out on the field that made
it happen. Like like I said, they owned that situation
and they made it happen and it was pretty cool.
And then you know, you see six foot six, two
hundred and sixty eight pounds running at you, I don't
think you're really anxious to tackle that. So Alex, Alex
did a great job.

Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah, the uh that play was huge. It really was
to me and I said this on the air. It
was like you pushing your chips to the center of
the table and telling the team we're here to win today.
We're not here to play field position now, We're here
to win. And it worked.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
It was one of those things, Mike, like you talked
about you know, game management and knowing when I didn't
want the game to get to a two score game,
and I felt like at that point in time, had
we punted, there was an opportunity because they had some momentum.
Their quarterback was starting to play well, he's a damn
good quarterback, but he was starting to really kind of
catch fire. I was like, God, dang, cannot let it
at this point in the game and get to a

(05:54):
two score game. It's going to be really tough on
us if it does. And it's like, okay, let's roll,
and they gave us the look we wanted and executed
it was it was. It was a nice, nice deal.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Your offense we talked about Joe Fernano continues to spread
it around, Jim, that is that's classic. I mean, when
you can do that, that just puts so much pressure
on defenses, doesn't it. Six receivers caught balls as Joe
Fernano completed twenty seven passes.

Speaker 2 (06:23):
Yeah, and you know that's down for us. I think
Mike you can correct me if I'm wrong, but I
think UAB we had twelve different targets at least, so
you know, six guys catching it. That's pretty good, but
just you know through the year that our ability to
spread the ball around and yet still see Skyler have
the success that he's having. I think it says a
lot about the creativity of the offense. But I also

(06:44):
think it says a lot about Joe. Our offensive line,
certainly our tight ends and backs blocking, but Joe and
our receivers just developing a real chemistry amongst each other
to have the confidence, Joe being able to read through
progression and get it where it's supposed to go.

Speaker 1 (07:02):
And he had some pressure on him in that game.
Duke got to him. I think three times it felt
like early. We'll talk about that when we return Quick
Time Out on the Yukon Football Coaches Show with Jim
Moore on Liar Field