HELENA — With No. 17-ranked Carroll College preparing for a two-game road stretch that begins with Saturday's Frontier Conference matchup at Arizona Christian, MTN Sports' Jonny Walker sat down with Fighting Saints head coach Troy Purcell.
A full transcript from the video interview wit Purcell is available below:
MTN Sports: You’re coming off a 27-13 homecoming win over Rocky Mountain College. Just what went well for you in that game?
Troy Purcell: You know, we just started fast. There was a lot of excitement around here with homecoming and the four-peat documentary showing that highlighted some of the history of Carroll football along the way. So, really exciting times.
MTN Sports: This weekend you're going on the road to Arizona Christian. It starts your longest road stretch of the season, back-to-back games on the road. Is there anything you do differently to prepare for these extended road stretches?
Troy Purcell: No, just coaching-staff wise. We've just got to get ourselves just for the long trips. The preparation for three different flights, you know, one out of Bozeman, one out of Helena, one out of Butte, where we can't charter stuff. So, we've got to go commercial, and there's a lot of a lot of moving parts of that to get everybody down there and get everybody back.
The U-Haul just left this morning with all the pads and equipment. To get all that stuff down there, it's about a 16, 17-hour trip driving. So, there’s just a lot more moving parts to get to a game and make sure everything's clean.
MTN Sports: Now, outside of the travel logistics, what challenges on the field does this Arizona Christian team present?
Troy Purcell: Wing-T offense. You know, they do a great job. And it's something we don't see as much. And so, it'll take a whole quarter probably to get into it, to understand it and the speed. You can never replicate the speed. We try in practice, but scout teams — they just don't run it as well as they're going to run it.
MTN Sports: Arizona Christian is part of this expanding Frontier Conference footprint where now the Frontier’s in California, the Frontier's in Arizona, the Frontier's in the Dakotas. How does the expansion of the Frontier affect what you do here at Carroll College?
Troy Purcell: Recruiting wise, we’re in the Northwest of the United States. We're all over to that. And so, it does give us a little more exposure down there for the kids maybe in Arizona or Nevada or anybody that's close. The talent level increases also when you get more teams to play. And you don't have to play people twice. And so, that's been a huge benefit.
