hello and welcome in to this edition of
the Wildcat weekly coaches report here
with head football coach Joseph Smith of
the 2019 Northwest Conference
championship Wildcats coach thank you
for coming in and joining us
you're welcome great to be here so when we
take a look at last week the Wildcats
take on a very talented George Fox team
the final score of that game was 24 to 17
it was also senior day for the Wildcats
I just wanted to take a second and get
your thoughts on this senior class that
we had here 13 seniors were honored this
last week and they did so much for this
program just your thoughts on their
contributions to Linfield no it's pretty
awesome doing this interview you know on
this field obviously this L's
probably my favorite place in the world
so it's great and talking about our
seniors couldn't be better it's a really
wonderful group in terms of leadership I
really obviously they've got there's
some fine players but as a group they're definitely one of the
stronger leadership just the leadership
they've portrayed and effect they've had
on bringing this team together it's a
very close team very tangible you can
feel the the lack of cliques the lack of
you know not segregation but sometimes
you get that positionally stuff like
that or or age wise you know by class
and and so it's really neat to see those
barriers haven't been broken down and I
think the seniors are 100% responsible
for that so I'm very very proud of them
when you look at the game last week too
Linfield goes up 17 to 10 at the half
scores another touchdown in the second
half George Fox scored with about 50
seconds left there to round it out and
get us to our final score but when you
look at your team performance in that
final regular season game to finish off
the year undefeated in Northwest
Conference what did you think about
their performance
I think the obviously the box score
doesn't really maybe reflect the way in
which we played I felt like we
controlled the game really from probably
second quarter on you know once we got a
lead it was thought our defense played
so well that it was gonna be tough for
them to to probably win unless we made
some mistakes and and then we did make
some mistakes so you know the the block
punt and the missed field goals you know
in terms of the not necessarily missed
field goals but just the coming up empty
on to field goal attempts you know
that's a big deal and obviously the
yardage discrepancy was quite high so
you know our offense production was good
we just obviously did not score the
points that we needed to go with those
to make it a real comfortable game
but going in the playoffs it was a great
game for us I think
you know George Fox's defense was very
stout and and very well coached and gave
us a really good test going into the
playoffs, when you look at it too you know this
is multiple weeks now we spend a lot of
the season talking about the offense and
how good they've been but in multiple
weeks you know defenses have been
getting stops against them and then the
Linfield defense does a great job
getting stops in their own right not
allowing teams to score when the
Wildcats aren't able to as you've seen
them progress here this season what can
you say about your defense and how
they've grown as the years gone on well
I think first and foremost you know
Linfield's should and the intent is to
always be a dominant football program I
think and that starts with defense you
know we are a defensive program as long
as I'm here that's gonna that's going to
be a premium and obviously coach Vaughn
and coach Rombach Coach Funk does those
are very very fine coaches and they're
doing a great job with our plan so there
was no question in my mind that our
defense would become a very dominant
defense it just it's wondering when it
would happen you know in terms of
they've been a little bit not hitting on
all cylinders all year and I feel like
as we're getting closer to the playoffs
they're they're starting to play
together better and we're firing on all
cylinders on that face so you have to
have that playoff football's all about
defense the offense is nice and it's
sexy and cool but
but it's about defense so coach
unfortunately something we've had to
deal with a lot this season is injuries
on both sides of the ball but we've seen
players really step in do a great job of
filling in even when they weren't
expected to have huge rolls this season
what would you attribute that to then
being able to step in and be ready to go
right from the get-go well I would hope
that would be you know the culture of a
program and the the quality of the
programs ability to develop young
players and develop depth I think when
teams are devastated by injuries it's
either a recruiting issue that they
haven't been able to recruit enough kids
and that's oftentimes a culture issue or
they're not working towards that all the
time so I think your strength
conditioning program all of that's so
important and developing kids as fast as
you can so you know if this opportunity
arises they're able to step in and make
the most of it and and in sport it's
it's really an amazing probably like
life to it you don't always get a second
chance
I mean you sometimes you get one chance
in and your opportunities before you and
your numbers called and you step in and
you perform well you stay in that role
you don't perform and sometimes the next
guy is given the opportunity and if they
perform you may never get another one so
those are the sort of things we talk
about a lot and you know we've had a
great history of guys stepping up in
this program ever since I was playing
here so I found myself in that role you
know a long long time ago so I would
hope that that's culture now looking
ahead to this weekend opening up the D3
National Tournament Linfield will
travel down to Southern California and
take on a Chapman team that's had a lot
of first for them this season they've
had a very strong team arguably the best
that they've had in program history
I mean you take a look at that team what
do you want to see out of your guys here
in the first round of the playoffs going
up against a very talented team to open
well I think they're well coached first
of all Bob's a great coach and I really
liked their program a lot they've really
seen it develop over the last four or
five years we've had some history with
them obviously in the playoffs and I've
got a lot of respect for them so I know
they're gonna play hard I know they're
they're very physical they play with
great emotion and I respect that they're
there they fly around on
fens like crazy and they've got a
tremendous running game and some very
very good weapons their offensive line's
very athletic it's gonna be hard to get
off blocks you know off of them so they
certainly have our 100% full respect now
lastly just to wrap things up this will
be your tenth trip to the National
Playoffs as a head coach of the Wildcats
when you look at the team that you have
this season there's a lot of guys that
don't have that college football playoff
experience coming in what's kind of your
your word of advice to all those players
that you have on your team that this is
really their first experience going out
there on the big stage here playoff time
we talked about that a little bit last
night and after practice and the nice
thing about this year's team is we've
sort of been in playoff mode since we
lost that first game so I guess I feel
like we've already been in it you know
and then the guys already feel that way
you know the the Whitworth game was a
tremendous growing up experience for our
team I really felt that we do have so
many youngsters in this program in our
two deeps more than ever before so you
know your your point is very valid
one and so we got to just worry about
the play at hand and I think that's
certainly the the mantra trying to learn
from the previous ones but focusing on
the play at hand and giving that our best
effort well we've seen all this season a
lot of younger players like you said but
they've been very talented and played
very well so Linfield travels down to
Southern California with a matchup
against Chapman to open up the playoffs
coverage will start at 11:30 on the
Linfield Sports Network for a noon kickoff
but we hope you tune in for that one to
cheer on these Wildcats coach thank you
so much best of luck this weekend thank
you
