The Pampa Harvesters (0-1) hit the road for Week 2! They will travel to Dalhart to face the Wolves (1-0) at Memorial Stadium at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 4th. As I will do each and every week, I sat down with White to discuss the Caprock game last week as well as preview the game for Friday night.
Caprock
“The positives I took away from it, I felt like defensively we played a pretty good game. The one thing that we talked about as a staff that we needed to improve on was third down. That was an Achilles’ heel last year. We’d get guys into third-and-eight, third-and-seven, third-and-15 or third-and-23, and at times people would just convert,” White said. “Our biggest emphasis was we’ve got to find ways to be able to get off the field. Friday night, they were one of eight on third down. Anytime you can hold teams to one of eight on third down, it really changes the complexion because now you get the ball back to the offense.”
Mindset After Week 1
Pampa unfortunately suffered some injuries to quarterbacks Senior Gage Gamblin and Sophomore Phoenix Lopez. Does that affect the mindset going into week 2?
“It’s kind of all one and the same. We talk about how we’ve got to have the next guy up and ready to go. That’s just got to be our mindset whenever we go into it. We can’t control that. There are so many things in a game that you can’t control. The only thing you can control is how you respond to adversity,” White said. “Our guys know that we’re going to face adversity at some point during the game. One thing that we really talk about—and people say maybe preach about—is that you’ve got to respond the right way. The only way that you can respond is by continuing to give your effort and do the things that you can do to help build the group. That’s one thing that we’re doing better and better every year. We can’t worry about guys that aren’t there. We can’t worry about guys that were there and aren’t there. The guys who are out there right now have got to pull together and pull it out for the guys who aren’t there.”
Growth from Week 1 to Week 2
We have talked a lot in recent years and interviews about the growth you see from Week 1 to Week 2. What are some things the coach is looking for in this week’s game?
“For me, I really want to see us execute better on both sides of the ball. For as well as we executed on both sides of the ball, we still left so much meat on the bone. We had two drives that petered out inside the 20. They should have been scores. Then we had three drives that were 20-plus plays, and two of those three drives resulted in touchdowns. If you can do that, make sure that you execute and don’t turn over the ball, offensively you score 35 points. Instead, we ended up with 12 because we didn’t take care of business there,” White said.
Pampa Offense
“Then on offense, the one thing that I was really pleased with is that we were holding the ball. We held the ball for 35 of the 48 minutes. That’s a pretty impressive stat. Now we’ve got to finish those drives instead of giving those drives back to the opposing team,” White said.
Pampa Defense
“Defensively, we’ve got to make sure we’re finishing plays. We just have to finish. It can’t be, ‘Well, I was almost there, and I feel good about that.’ It’s got to be, ‘Hey, I’m there. I’ve got this play. I’ve got this guy on the ground. Now let’s go ahead and make things happen. We’re going to have to be really solid in what we do. We’ve got to make sure that we get bodies on bodies where we need them, and we’ve got to make sure our angles are right so that we can get edges and use our speed to our advantage,” White said. “My big deal is that I want to make sure that whenever we have situations, we’re ready for those situations. I feel like Coach Henry and our staff did a great job of preparing our kids the other night. We just had one or two blown assignments from kids with their eyes in the wrong places or playing a little bit of the wrong technique. But 95 percent of the game, the kids played really, really well. We gave up 230 yards of offense. That’s pretty good in modern-day football. We gave up 21 points defensively. The other touchdown was a strip. I feel like our guys are starting to really buy into what we’re doing. I felt like that was probably one of our more complete efforts since we’ve been here.”
Injuries
The quarterback for this week will be Junior Jeryn Owens. How will the injuries to the quarterback position affect the offense?
“It’s not going to change the game much. We still have to do what we have to do. We still build our brand as a physical brand, so we’ve got to continue to do the things that we do. We may have to tweak a little bit of stuff here or there, but it’s not going to be anything major because the guy who’s coming in has got to be able to run what we run. It may be a little bit of a scaled-back version of what we do, but it’s not going to be anything too overly difficult,” White said. “The guy at quarterback this week who is going to start off is Jeryn Owens. Then we have another backup, just in case anything happens. We’ve just got to make sure we can get ourselves through the game.”
Dalhart Offense
“The thing about these guys is they’re a little bit different than Caprock in the fact that they’re smaller and not necessarily as big. They can double-team you faster, they can climb, and they get bodies on bodies in a hurry. One thing they do is put bodies on bodies, and once they get on you, they stick on you. They’re really good and really well-coached. Coach Reed and those guys do a great job up there with those guys. We’ve got to make sure that as they’re starting to climb, we can slip and slide underneath people, cage blocks and spill blocks when we have to, and do the things we truly have to do on a consistent basis,” White said. “Everything kind of runs through their quarterback, number six, Kaleb Speer. He does a really good job. He can throw the ball around and run the ball pretty well, so we’re going to have to make sure we keep an eye on him. They have a great running back, number 19, Brett Alver. That young man is definitely a game-changer. If you give him an edge and don’t have bodies around him, he can really make things happen. Plus, he’s a bigger, thicker kid. He does a really, really good job of stretching it. If you get yourself overstretched, all of a sudden he turns his shoulders north and south and can run through an arm tackle. We’ve really got to make sure to put bodies on him. Then they have a receiver, number 11, Bay Wing. He’s good. They use him all over the place. They stick him out at receiver, at tight end and in the slot. He’s their guy. They put him all over the place and do whatever they can to get the ball to him. They do a really good job there.”
Dalhart Defense
“They’re basically in a 4-2-5 or a 4-4, whatever you want to call it. They all have different names for what they do. The one thing they do really well is they can sit in their base defense and defend everything they want within their structure. They’re really good at it. You can motion, move, do this or do that, and it doesn’t really affect them because of the way they play and because of their rules,” White said. “They’re really good. I’m trying to think of numbers right now because I haven’t gotten to watch them as much on defense as I have on offense. I know they have an outside linebacker, number 12, Logan Ball. He can fly around and really make things happen. If he gets a chance and comes up there on the edge, he will strike you. They use the same guys up front on offense as they do on defense. Number 55, Santiago Marin, plays defensive end, and he does a great job. He’ll strike you, and he’s good at setting edges. The crazy thing—and I love it—is they use their quarterback. Their quarterback goes out there and plays defensive end sometimes. He comes off the edge and does those things. I know they use number 11 at times. They use him at high safety and at backer. They use those guys all over the place, and they do a really, really good job.”
First Road Game
“Whenever we get ready to get on the road, we talk to our kids and let them know, ‘Hey, guys, this is a business trip. Everything we do when we get on the road is about business.’ We want to make sure that we represent ourselves right and represent our community right. We don’t want to go out there and act like crazy people on the road,” White said. “Once we get up there, we’ve got to get back into our routine and do our normal stuff. For us, it’s not a whole lot different. Whether we’re at home or on the road, we’re going to continue to keep that same mindset. We don’t want the venue to change who we are. Those are the things that we do to make sure that we take care of business there. There are a lot of things we can’t control when we go out there, but we can control the way we handle our business and the way we mentally prepare ourselves. When we get on the bus, our kids put on their headphones and listen to music. They’re not joking around, laughing or playing. They get in there and want to make sure they’re concentrating on the task at hand.”
Keys to the Game
1. Execution of the scheme: “Once again, execution of the scheme. We’ve got to make sure we can get bodies on bodies where we need them. That’s always key, but probably more so this week than anything because of the way that they play and who they are. We’ve got to get bodies on bodies and move people in a hurry,” White said.
2. Don’t turn over the ball: “The other thing we’ve really got to do is make sure we don’t turn over the ball. When we turn over the ball, it’s normally not a good thing for us. We’ve got to eliminate the turnovers, keep the ball in our possession, continue to eat up the clock, keep the ball away from people and make the game as short as possible,” White said.
3. Eliminate long drives: “On the defensive side, we’ve got to eliminate long drives. If we have long drives and they have long drives, there aren’t very many possessions to be had. We’ve got to get into three-and-out situations or eliminate areas where they can score. Then we’ve got to turn right back around, get the ball back to our offense, continue to chew up the clock and do the things that we do. Those, to me, are huge keys going into the game,” White said.
Final thoughts
I asked Coach White if there were any final thoughts from him.
“I’m excited. I can’t help but walk away from last week’s game and be excited about what we do. I know there are going to be doubters, naysayers and everything else. There always are. I can’t worry about all the internet warriors who don’t know their head from a hole in the ground,” White said. “What I can tell you is that our kids are getting better. They’re competing harder and more so than at any other time we’ve been here. We’ve just got to continue to work with our kids. I can’t worry about any of those other folks. I’ve just got to worry about our 35 kids who are in our locker room and our coaches to make sure that we’re doing right.”
You can find HSN on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@HarvesterSportsNetwork/. You can also follow them on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HarvesterSportsNetwork. Lastly, there is a Twitter/X page: www.x.com/PampaHSN. Mike Mitchell and Troy Schwiegerath will be calling the game. The game will also be broadcast locally on 103.3 FM KRXZ Radio. That station will be piped through the YouTube feed. The pre-game show will begin on YouTube and 103.3 FM at 6:45 p.m. and kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
