MOBILE, AL (WNSP) — McGill-Toolen is one game away from school history—the second state championship and the first set of back-to-back titles.
McGill football coach Josh Niblett joined Prep Spotlight Wednesday morning to talk about the 7A championship game against Hoover later that evening. He said the rain shouldn’t be an issue for the game.
“I’d be lying to sit there and say it’s not gonna affect your playcalling,” Ross said. “You’re not going to be able to throw it around as much as you normally would, but… we’re so used to having a wet ball. It also affects footing.”
The opposing Buccaneers have only lost two games this year—25-7 at Allen (TX) and 36-14 at Greyson (GA) in a nationally-televised game. McGill, the defending state champion, hasn’t lost a game since the Blount game last year.
“I know this sounds like coach speak, but we have not said three words to our kids this week,” Ross said. “We’ve not said Hoover. We’ve said ‘they’ and ‘our opponents.’ Our kids are not gonna be intimidated by Hoover.
“They (the players) respect them, we (the coaches) respect them, and they’re (Hoover) a good program. We haven’t mentioned Hoover, and we haven’t mentioned the two words ‘state championship.’ We’ve just said ‘it’s our next game.'”
Ross said he didn’t want the team “to be any more excited for this game” or “think they have to play any harder” than a regular season game.
“To me, it’s all about competition,” he said. “Don’t make the moment any bigger than it already is. The kids already know.”
Check out the full interview below.
The game at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn starts at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast live on WNSP, WNSP.com and the WNSP app.
For more, listen to Prep Spotlight featuring AL.com’s Ben Thomas, WNSP’s Randy Kennedy and Pigskin Pete Wednesdays at noon.
