ESU Football - Coach Higgins
August 26, 2009
Ask coach Higgins your questions about his 2009 Hornet football team.
Moderator: Garin Higgins is set to begin his third season as Emporia State University’s head football coach. The season opens at home Thursday against Southwest Oklahoma State University. Coach Higgins carved out 30 minutes to answer your questions. We’ll work through the questions submitted in advance, but feel free to submit new ones. We’ll answer them if we have time. Meanwhile, keep hitting your refresh button to keep up with the chat.
okjayhawk: In regards to the depth of your bench, do you feel you will be playing very many freshmen and sophomores?
Garin Higgins: This year we will be able to Redshirt all of our True Freshmen except for about 3 players. But we will play a lot of Redshirt Freshmen and Sophomores.
coachfernandez: There is a lot of good D-II football in the Carolina's area. Will you ever try to play a road game in this area of the South? (ie.: North/South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia?)
Garin Higgins: I know there is good football in that area but the way the economy is and having a DIV II travel budget it would not be in our best interest monetarily to make that trip. Maybe we might get a chance to go down to the south in the future for a playoff game.
beth: I went to autograph day and it looked like you had some very big guys this year. We talked to #70 (who is an enormous person) and he said he was from England. How did he get here?
Garin Higgins: Ayo got here by the way of information getting passed down to us from the KU coaches-- They watched him on film, liked him, and were probably going to ask him to walk-on since it was after signing date. We watched him, thought he was big, athletic, and began the long tedious process of recruiting an international player.
powercat: Do you have the resources you need to be successful? What needs does your program have?
Garin Higgins: I do believe we have the resources here to be successful-- Whenever you lose, I think too many people make excuses to why you lose and resources always seem to be a common excuse. Our talent has increased dramatically over the last two years by getting out on the road and recruiting and working hard. We have never had any obstacles in our way as far as money and not being able to do that
Garin Higgins: I do believe we have the resources here to be successful-- Whenever you lose, I think too many people make excuses to why you lose and resources always seem to be a common excuse. Our talent has increased dramatically over the last two years by getting out on the road and recruiting and working hard. We have never had any obstacles in our way as far as money and not being able to do that
powercat: How has your program evolved over the last couple of years? What is different now?
Garin Higgins: Talent level and recruiting players that fit our system both offensively and defensively
mythoughts: Why is there canned music played during the game when you have a perfectly good band sitting right there? This isn't the CNN NFL show.
Garin Higgins: . I too think that we have a great band and they do a fantastic job. But I do not control that aspect of the game.
moderator: What are your goals for the year?
Garin Higgins: . Well I think you always want to win the conference championship and and compete in the post season.
moderator: What do think your team will struggle with this year?
Garin Higgins: Sometimes being young you still might suffer through some growing pains and mistakes early in the year.
moderator: Who are some players to watch this year?
Garin Higgins: on the defensive side I would start with Angelo Webb a returning all conference performer, Katrel Larkins (leading Tackler ) Travis Lee was all conference in 07’ Casey Finlayson, Danny Webb are all returning starters along with Chris Poston soph free safety. On the offensive side of the ball you have Andre Sloan el (qb), Adrian Abner (rb) Ben McKaigg (ol) Danny McEvoy (wr) . There are a lot of really good players coming back and a lot of new players that have joined in the past year. I think this is what makes this years team exciting and fun to watch.
quarterback: I hear that you put in long hours. What is your typical day like?
Garin Higgins: Sun thru Tues we avg. 12 to 14 hour days Wed thru Fri. it slow down a little from 10 to 12 hour days. Our days usually start at 7 am and end at 9 or 10 pm. Thurs and Friday nights are good nights for coaches to be with their families if we are not recruiting on Fridays. Sundays and Mondays are our busiest days game planning watching film etc... sometimes we might not get home until after 11 pm.
okjayhawk: Why are you starting the season on a Thursday night?
Garin Higgins: I love Thursday night games, for one it is a night game something that we rarely do and that makes it special. Also I would think it would be a great opportunity for our community and student body to get out to a game. Some people work on Sat afternoons sometimes student need to go home on the weekends. Plus the biggest reason is that we are the only game in the state of Kansas that will be playing tomorrow night so what great publicity for our football progam and university.
quarterback: Tell us about your quarterbacks and who will play?
Garin Higgins: This is a posistion that we are very deep at with 6 quarterback on the roster. We are excited about all 6 and the different attributes they bring to the table. The quarterbacks that you will see this year are Andre Sloan el who is a returning starter and Zach Rampy who also played last year in a lot of our games. Sloan el is a dual threat qb who was our leading rusher last year something we would like to stay away from this year.
Moderator: That’s all the time we have right now. Coach Higgins is headed back for today’s practice. Thanks for taking time to ask your questions. Be sure to follow the Hornets tomorrow in their home opener. Tickets remain for the game, and the ticket booths open at 5:30 p.m. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.