Q&A with Greg Nation, Norman High Head Football Coach

You have 2 games left and have a chance to end the season on a great note, what do you need to do to win out?

I feel that we have always had a competitive team of kids.  Our biggest problem all season has been turnovers.  We have got to cut out turnovers and capitalize on the opportunity when we get in the Red Zone.  We have to put points on the board, regardless if it is three or six.

Turnovers have been a problem and it's a plague that hits high school, college and pro teams, what drills do you think help players the most in practice?

We take our ball carriers through a spring loaded device called a Gauntlet.  It puts stress on the ball carriers arms pounding the ball and encouraging proper ball holding technique.  We do a strip drill where players are trying to pull the ball away from the runner as he makes cuts through a group of defenders.

Midwest City is a major rival for Norman High School and even though they are one of the top teams in the state, they can be beat.  Have you treated this like any other week or have you put in some special wrinkles to prepare the players for this rivalry?

We really feel that we have been our own worst enemy all season with mental errors as well as physical.  We just continue to work on fundamentals and try to iron out the deficiencies that our offense may have.  Defensively we like to try to find a weakness in their offense so we try and cause problems in that area.

You have a lot of young talent on the Varsity squad, how do you think they've responded to the challenge?

Our young players have been a pleasant surprise.  In 6A football in most programs you depend on your sophomores to get you ready for the team that you are going to face.  Most are scout team members that as they get better, they improve the level of play for our starters.  In our case, many of our younger  players have found themselves right in the middle of our game planning and have had to grow up fast and take on the role as a starter.  And in some cases, as a two-way starter.

Zach Ladner broke his leg a few weeks ago, how have the linebackers responded since he's been out?

I would say that is probably one of our stronger areas of our defense.  Losing a player like Zach Ladner puts a kink in anyone's defense.  Zach has not only been a great player, but a player that every one of our young kids looks up to.  He has been a mainstay on the defense since he was a sophomore.  Our other senior linebacker Dalton Gaither, along with Zach, have been great in bringing our younger core of LB's as Greg Offenberger, Michael Barret and David Nelson along.  Their level of play has increased throughout the entire season.

You came from the East side of the state where there are many great high school football teams, do you think the West is comparable and if not, do you think it ever will be?

The difference I see is how fully supportive the community is of what is going on with the football programs.  In the Jenks, Union, Owasso districts, you see kids from the first grade on dressed up in their school's jersey attending every game.  The programs receive full support from the fans as well as the administration.  Whether you are 10-0 or 0-10, the fans are still at the games every Friday night in support of the program.  They know that the football team represents them as a community and school. 

What are your biggest surprises since coming to Norman and Norman High School?

I think it's the number of kids that don't play football.  We have lost a lot of kids that for one reason or another just quit playing, or they decided to specialize in one sport.  I can't tell you how that bothers me.  Kids need to participate in as many sports as they can. This opportunity only comes up once.  I can't tell you how many kids have come up to me after they have graduated and said how they wished they would have continued to play football.  You only get this opportunity once.