“Practice has been going real well,” Mahand said. “I think the boys really want to bring this win home for me considering that this is my alma mater. This is where I played football and that is where I truly started my coaching career. They boys are pretty excited about going back and playing on the football field that Coach Mahand played on. They seem very excited about having this opportunity.”
The Talladega Tigers came close to putting an end to their 21-game losing streak as they fell to Shelby County 22-19 last week.
“This was honestly the first time that I felt in my heart that the boys were truly disappointed about a loss,” Mahand said. “I saw the disappointment and the hurt in the kids’ eyes. That is truly the first time that I have seen that. Even though we got the loss, I was proud to see that it meant so much to so many of the guys. Hopefully, that can carry on and they get that hunger in their hearts that they are tired of feeling that way.”
Finishing the game was a problem for the Tigers against Shelby County. Putting together a complete game is something that Mahand has preached to his team.
“We definitely played hard,” Mahand said. “We didn’t play four quarters of football. We gave up 14 points in the first quarter and they pretty much they didn’t score again until the fourth quarter. We have to get to the point where we are playing a whole football game. I think that is around the corner and when we get there we’re going to start doing what we need to do on the football field.”
The Colonels enter Friday’s game looking to get their first win of the season.
“They are athletic,” Mahand said. “We are going to have to get a hold of their athletes. We are going to have to keep them in the pocket and not allow them to run around and make plays off of broken plays. We are going to have to corral their athletes and just play solid football.”
Mahand said if his team plays to their capability they will leave Lawson Field with a victory.
“We are going to have to play the football that we are capable of playing,” Mahand said. “We have not done that all year and the potential is there to have a pretty good football team at Talladega High School. We are just going to have to play the football that we capable of playing. We have yet to do that and hopefully we will do that this Friday night.”
Contact LaVonte Young at lyoung@dailyhome.com
