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Thanks to all who made the Champions Challenge preseason game a success for the Tigers. Having never played a preseason game before, I really did not know what to expect. But the players prepared hard, played hard and handle the trip very well. I thought that the crowd of T.R. Miller people at the game was tremendous. I appreciate all of those who traveled from different places to come and support the team. It is one of the things that makes T.R. Miller special.
I said before the game that the toughest thing we would have to do would be to recover from the game with Leeds and get ready physically and emotionally to play Escambia County in 6 days. That has proven to be true. We know they have an outstanding team led by a strong QB and a tough and fast defense. Everyone has events and situations in their lives that causes them to step back from football and deal with other things. But we come back in focus with our team because of the commitment we have to our school, team and teammates. It is part of growing up and it is something we all have to do. Hearing what a great job you did in beating Leeds is nice to hear, but it will not help at all in our quest to win our first game. I told the team on Monday that our ability to handle the adversity of the week and still prepare for such a good team would be a great challenge. But it is the hard things that makes you grow as a person and as a team. If we want to grow to become a special team, we must meet those challenges head on and if we do not conquer them, at least learn from them so that next time you might have greater success.
A win over Escambia County would be a great victory. We have played two very tough physical games with them in the last two years, and both games could have gone either way. This game will neither make nor break our season, but it will be a very tough test that will tell us some things about our team. What will make or break the season will be the attitudes and work done on the Tuesday afternoons of the next few weeks more than in the games on Friday nights. Only time will tell.
