Mike Ferda Quotes (15 Quotes)

It's homecoming. There will be a lot of activities to occupy the kids time and attention, but we need to take care of business on the field.

Our running backs really took care of the football (with only one Bulldog fumble). We've turned the ball over a lot in bad weather games, as have opposing teams (this season). We took care of business in that regard, and Ronan didn't.

Despite the weather (rain was prevalent throughout the night) and the field being muddy, I thought our running game established our offense on the night. Our offensive line played a great game.

Our plan is to get ourselves ready for the conference schedule with these early games.

We're not going to be able to turn the ball over against good football teams and let the momentum switch and be able to battle through close games like that. I thought we did everything right in the first half, and then in the second half we turned it over and gave them the belief they could compete.

The last time we played them there, they got us and went on to win the conference championship. If we want to be a good football team, we need to compete and play well against the other top teams in the league, and it starts right there.

Libby likes to run the veer option game by pounding it with their fullback. Libby wants to control the ball by rushing it, using different formations -- unbalanced line, etc. -- to try and force you to adjust. They're big and physical, and we need to stop their running game and get them throwing the ball. If we do that, we'll be doing the right things defensively.

I thought we responded well after the Libby game (a 49-6 loss in Libby on Oct. 7) and came out and played the caliber of football, at least emotion-wise, that we can play.

We told the kids at halftime (with Whitefish leading 20-6) that Polson had comeback in previous games and was a quality team. They were up for it, but some miscues (four offensive plays) ended up being big turning points in the game.

The penalty on Hicks' reverse was a big one, but we did get a new series of downs with plenty of time left.

I thought we were OK after we got that score in gaining some of the momentum back. The way things went in the third quarter, I wasn't sure how we would respond.

Because of the weather (rain) in the previous contests versus Hamilton and Browning, we weren't able to run the option that much. It opens the outside running game when teams load that many defenders near the line of scrimmage. It's the part of our offense that we need to run.

They've got one of the better defenses in the conference. Everybody has had a difficult time scoring against them. I expect a low scoring game.

Offensively, I thought we clicked. We were able to keep things going by not committing mistakes. It was our best game so far.

The games are only going to get tougher as we make the stretch drive of our conference schedule. There's more on the line, and teams with better records than those we've faced thus far are also going after the same goal we are.