Eagle Eye: Bellefonte was a strong and healthy team, how do you think your team faired against the force?

Coach Franco: “Well, I didn’t like how we played. We didn’t play hard enough or tough enough. I know we were down with injuries and I know we were hurting but that doesn’t explain why we shouldn’t be playing harder. One thing I have to do is get our guys playing harder every play and that’s what we’re working on right now.”

EE: Any moments you thought the team really excelled during the game?

CF: “Yeah, there were several times I thought we had a nice offensive drive and we had some big plays on offense. Defensively we had a safety on them and that was a big time play. There were flashes of good play, which tells me that if we can play well here and there we should be able to do it all the time, and that’s what we need to correct.”

EE: Bald Eagle comes to Tyrone with a very similar war scarred team, how do you plan to deal with their running and passing combinations?

CF: “We have to attack on defense, and we have to have eleven players attacking them every play. Our defensive backs have got to take away the deep pass but we say that every week anyway and that’s a number one in our defensive game-plan. They have two outstanding quarterbacks, number 11 and 12, both of them present slightly different problems but both of them run the ball really well.

Number twelve, even though he’s been banged up this year, he played a third of the game last week and I think he’ll play more this week. We definitely have got to shut down the pass with him because he’s really effective at getting outside and making plays.

Number eleven will run right at you. He is a really good runner and presents a little bit of a different challenge. They are more of a quickness finesse team while Bellefonte was more of a power run team so they’re different but the results are similar.”

EE: The team has yet to fully come into their own, how do you think this can be pushed?

CF: “We just have keep practicing hard. We must practice harder and we have to get more focused. Again, these are things we’ve been saying. We’ve got to grow up as a team.  We have a lot of new players this year and I don’t think we’ve jelled yet. I don’t think we’ve matured yet and we just got to keep pushing it. We’re the underdogs nobody gives us a chance. We’ve got use that as motivation to help us to play at a higher level.”

EE: Anything you want to specifically work on? 

CF: “We have got to work on our defensive line to improve their techniques against both run and pass. The linebackers have to make their reads and attack the ball better. Whoever has contain on defense has to get away from their blockers and start making plays on the outside. We’re not bad at covering the deep pass but we seem to always let one or two a game go.  A Tyrone team should always be a really good defensive team. We did that one game this year against Central and we are still waiting for that team to come back.”

EE: Is there anything coming into this game you’re concerned with?

CF: “Well, I’m concerned about the quarterbacks.  I think that their two defensive ends are [also] really good and I think we just have to play harder. I just really think we have to play every play as hard as possible. We have to play every down like it’s the last play of the state championship and we have to make that play. Until we play with that kind of intensity, I won’t be satisfied.”

EE: What is your favorite song?

CF: “What’s my favorite song? Anything rock and roll from the 70’s and anything from Billy Joel.”