CRESTVIEW — Crestview High School Coach Tim Hatten remains calm, although his football team is coming off back-to-back losses against Mosley and St. Martin.
The veteran coach knows the season is young, and he isn’t ready to give up as the Bulldogs prepare for The International School of Broward on Friday. The Pumas, in their first football season, are 0-1 after a 56-8 loss to Miami Westminster Christian on Sept. 11.
“We are not a great, great football team, but we are certainly not a poor football team,” Hatten said. "Friday night’s performance (a 46-13 loss to St. Martin) is no indication of how bad we are. We are not that bad.
“We have to come in here and do what we do. We can’t worry about who we are playing and what they do. We have to execute our offense and our defense.”
Hatten said the Bulldogs have had trouble in several aspects of the game against the Yellow Jackets. “We have to have some semblance of a running game to be able to keep our defense off the field,” he said. “I think our defense needs to make some stops.
“I think it’s kind of a double-edge sword. They converted third downs on us and then we didn’t keep the ball very long.”
Hatten accepts responsibility for Crestview’s poor performance Friday. “I didn’t do a good job (coaching) offensively when they were in the box of protecting the guys (quarterbacks) better,” he said. “We are going to do a better job of making sure when they come off the edge on us that we protect them.
“And we are going to man our good players up with their good players. We are going to try to make it a little more manageable for our quarterbacks. I didn’t really give them a good opportunity Friday night.”
Hatten said the Pumas operate a spread offense and work out of multiple defensive sets, and preparation will be Crestview's key to end the two-game losing streak.
“We have to make sure we do a good job with (quarterbacks) Corey (Armstrong), a good job with Keenan (Redd), and teach them some adjustments to make according to the defenses they see,” Hatten said. “We just have to work and get better now.”
UPCOMING
WHAT: High school football, The International School of Broward at Crestview
WHEN: 7 p.m. Friday
WHERE: Crestview High School, Jack Foster Stadium
Crestview High School football
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview's Hatten: 'We have to work and get better now'