Latest / Houston County Football Coach's Show Jeremy Edwards / 2023: We’re Fast Football

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2023: We’re Fast Football · Houston County Football Coach's Show Jeremy Edwards

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  All right, guys, welcome in to another week of talking Hoko football.
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  Of course, we visit with the head coach of the Housing County Bears every
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  week, and so without further ado, let's bring in Jeremy Edwards. Coach.
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  Thanks so much for doing this. We look forward to our weekly conversation
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  with you. Yes, sir Phil, thank you for having me absolutely well.
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  Coach. So far, so good, and on the twenty twenty three
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  season. Yeah, yeah, we uh, we feel good about where we're
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  at right now. Obviously we're not we're not finished. You know, we
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  talk every day about you know, this year, about keep chopping wood and
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  you know, if we get complacent and things are things won't be good for
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  us. We got a lot of football left to play, a lot of
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  good opponents coming up, and we just got to try to get a little
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  bit better every day and practice and and keep that mindset going forward. Yeah.
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  And that's the thing that I've noticed with you guys off to a three
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  and a start, and it looks like, you know, you guys have
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  come out really uh, you know, supercharged every game. Uh. There
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  doesn't seem to be any law in the performance now that comes from a distance,
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  but you're the coach. You see it, Uh, you know up
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  close better than anybody. Would you agree with that assessment of your team after
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  this three and our start. I mean, I think we feel pretty good
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  about what we've accomplished to this point. But we always talk about being humble
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  and hungry and and you know, again, we try to fight against being
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  complacent, you know, regardless of who we're playing. Uh, We've we've
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  got to try to get better every day in practice. And we we still
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  have some things we need to get better at. Uh, several things we
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  need to get better at and be honest with you, and you know,
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  we got to eliminate some turnovers and things, uh, you know, holding
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  onto the ball a little better. And you know, offensively, uh special
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  teams, there are a few things we need to clean up. Defensively,
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  you know, we need to try to create some takeaways. And you know,
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  really we challenge our young guys when we get them in the game,
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  which we've been fortunate in two games to get them in at halftime and get
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  let them play a whole half. They've got to be just as hungry as
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  our as our first group comes out. You know, again, they play
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  a lot of those guys play the night before on a Thursday night, so
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  you got to think that you know, they're they're still trying to recover from
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  a game the evening before. But at the same time, you know,
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  you got an opportunity to play in front of the Friday night lights last week,
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  you know, at Freedom Field and big crowd, and so it's,
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  uh, we we just got to try to encourage them to to have no
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  drop off from our from our first group to our second group. Absolutely,
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  so again quick glance a big one over Sumter County. Of course, the
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  Perry game got into a bit of a shootout. You guys came out on
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  top there and then of course, uh this last week's upon it West Lawrence.
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  And again you know, to me, the advantage that you guys have
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  had, like you did Friday night, able to really play these guys most
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  of your starters one half and able to aid get those guys you know,
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  a much needed rest and be take a look at some of the younger guys
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  who obviously are the future of your program. Talk about that absolutely. You
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  know, I think in order to sustain success, you've got to put a
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  big emphasis on your on your feeder, and uh, you know, this
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  county is a little bit different with their structure with our middle schools to where
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  we don't have direct feats, and so, you know, we have to
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  do a great job from our ninth grade up ninth grade JV groups of getting
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  those guys coached up and getting them valuable reps and preparing them for the future.
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  And so if I think if you're not spending time with those guys as
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  much as with your with your ones per se, then you're doing your program
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  at the service. So whether Thursday nights, my entire coaching staff, including
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  myself, we're out there coaching just as hard on Thursday night as we are
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  on Friday nights. And in addition to my night grade staff, and so
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  we we we really want to try to develop our players to be the best
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  that they can be. And we know that some of these guys that are
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  sophomores and even some juniors that have to play on that get to play on
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  Thursday night, you know, to get more reps. Eventually they're going to
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  be out there taking meaningful snaps and so we've got to get them ready through
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  our day to day preparation. Absolutely, we're talking with Jeremy Edward's, head
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  coach of the Houston County Bears, off to a great start three and zero
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  on this early twenty twenty three season. All right, coach, let's still
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  turn our attention to the next opponent coming up on the schedule. It's going
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  to be Locust Grove, who I think one and one on the season,
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  a five eight team. But what can you tell us about Locust Grove the
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  Wildcats. Well, Locust Grove is in five A. They're in the same
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  region up there with Joe's a lot of those Henry County teams. Warner Robbins
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  is in there with them, right. You know last year we played them
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  obviously at home, so we got to go up there this week. This
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  week we'll go on the road, which is good. It's gonna be maybe
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  quite possibly our longest road game of the season, depending on how the traffic
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  works out, as you know, but I got to go down to Tift
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  as well, so I'm imagining this one will probably be a little longer because
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  you know, there's never a time you drive by the the outlet balls up
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  there that there's not traffic. So well, all that and uh, but
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  you know, they gotta win. Last week they get beat mL King,
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  which was their first win they had. I think it's twenty one, yea,
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  all that, you're right, So you know, uh, you know,
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  they're they're gonna they're just like us. They're gonna put their pants on
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  the same way, and they're gonna try to play us hard. And we
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  got to target on our back and you know, we we can't have any
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  letdowns, and so we we approached them just as like we would any other
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  opponent. We got in here Sunday, we watched the film of the week
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  before, put it to rest, start a game play, and put a
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  play together. And so far to two days of practice here this week.
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  We went both mornings and things are We've had two good days of practice.
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  So I feel like our guys are doing a great job staying locked in,
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  staying prepared for anything. And we know that, you know, we're gonna
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  get everybody's best shot, so we got to be ready for it. Yeah,
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  and that's that's the thing about it. You know, you kind of
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  take the words right out of the mouth there. You are definitely can expect
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  to get everybody's best when they know you've got the you know, one of
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  the top quarterbacks in the state top receiving Corps, you know in the state.
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  I mean, you know, it's like you know, they don't know
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  what you know, which opponent is going to be, you know, coming
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  out of next So obviously they want to try to prepare. And you're right,
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  you know you're gonna get everybody's best and I'm sure you can expect that
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  from Locust grow Friday night. Absolutely, absolutely, and uh you know,
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  again, we we've got to handle the travel part up you know, eventually
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  if you want to try to play to the last game, that one's on
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  the road, and so getting a meaningful you know travel, you know experience
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  for our guys is good. Obviously we went up to uh, we went
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  over to Perry, we went to to Married Persons, and so now we
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  get a chance to go to Locust Grove and you know, hope we will
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  bring a good crowd. Our community has been great, you know, with
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  the support of our kids, and we're hoping to bring a good crowd up
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  there to Locust Grove to support our Hoco bears. Absolutely, And you know,
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  Coach, the thing about it, you start to take a look and
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  I know you're not not one to look ahead, and that's not my my
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  point, but I can tell you, and I'm sure you've looked at it.
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  You know, after this Locust Grove game, you know things are gonna
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  get substantially tougher for your for your bears. Uh. And again you've got
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  what I say, the meat of the the meeting of your twenty twenty three
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  schedule is going to be coming up. It's hard not to take a sneak
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  peek ahead when I know you're only focused, as it should be, is
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  the next game, next man up. I get that. But somewhere,
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  somehow, coach, you've gotta be taking a sneak peek at what's ahead.
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  Right. Absolutely not. Well, the fortunately, when when I took this
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  job a year ago, I guess some change now. The schedule was really
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  really good. When I say that, because you know we're we're challenged early
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  with Perry, We play West Lawrence, Locust Groves, then we get a
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  big before we go and play you know, pretty much a gauntlet. We
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  got one of Robbins, which you'll be our last region or non region game
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  in county rival you know, myself and both coordinators obviously coach there and so
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  we haven't been back to the back since so that'll be time. Yeah,
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  so it'll be an experience there. But you know, after them, we
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  get right into to our our region, you know, and we go lead
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  North Side, Thomas County, Central, Tift and Veteran, so with a
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  buy in between the North Side and the Thomas County game. So it's you
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  know, we've got we like you said, we've got a lot of football
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  left, a lot of really really good opponents that we're you know, continue
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  to get, you know, their best shot. I mean that's what we're
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  gonna get. And uh, you know, we just want to try to
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  keep getting better and and uh, staying hungry, and you know, staying
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  healthy is the biggest thing. You know, we got to stay healthy.
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  And in order to to to win a region, in order to win a
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  state championship, it takes a lot of a lot of luck. Really,
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  it takes some luck. You've got to have thinks bounce your way. And
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  you know, we just we're going to try to control a week and control
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  and this week it's uh locked on Locust Grow. Yeah, no doubt.
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  And you know you talked about the health. How is the health of your
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  of your team so far thro these first three games. Yeah, it's been
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  good. You know, we've we've been fortunate to uh again be able to
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  play some young guys and get guys out of the game, you know,
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  and a lot of times they don't like it because you know the two games
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  now at halftime we've shut them down. But you know, again we encourage
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  them, you know when when we go back out after half. They got
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  to be those younger guys biggest cheerleaders, just like they are for them.
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  So we don't want to see any messing around on the sideline and not staying
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  locked in and and so they've done a great job of that. And uh,
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  we got a good bond with our team. We talk about brotherhood all
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  the time and you know, playing for the guy next to you. So
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  it's really cool to watch these guys really love up on each other and show
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  them how much they care about each other and be happy for their successes as
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  well as well, said coach. So so well put. And uh,
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  I'm glad you pointed that out. You know, again, so many benefits
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  of getting out to a nice lead like that. But as you said,
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  you know, starters have got to say focused, they've got to be a
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  big cheerleader. They go from being the big player to the big cheerleader.
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  And again I said it before, I'll say it again. You know that
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  to me is so invaluable those younger players getting that that that that experience,
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  and there's no substitute for experience, coach, and I know you know that
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  better than me. But anyway, Coach, thanks so much for doing this.
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  We appreciate it. Look forward to coming back next week and talking with
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  you about this game coming up against Locust Grove, and then we'll obviously focus
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  on the rest of the season as well. Yes, sir, Phil,
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  I can't wait. Thanks for having me again. Thanks so much, coach.
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  Yes, sir, bye bye. Now all right there he is as
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  Jeremy Edwards, head coach of the Hoko Bears. What a great job he
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  has done since taking over there of the Bears football program. It definitely is
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  up on a completely different level now under Coach Edwards. Watch and we are
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  glad to talk with Coach Edwards every week right here on the Houston County Head
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  Coaches Football Show along with me Phil Jones, right here at ig next be
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  sure to join us next week with more Hoko Bears football talk with Coach Edwards.
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  Until then, you guys have a great week.