Sports editor Josh Havard held a question-and-answer session with Lufkin head coach John Outlaw on Tuesday afternoon. The Panthers rolled to a 51-20 win over the College Park Cavaliers on Saturday afternoon at Woodforest Bank Stadium in The Woodlands. Lufkin hosts No. 3 The Woodlands Highlanders on Friday night at 7:30.
Q What is the team's injury situation coming out of Saturday afternoon's game at College Park?
A Kendall Byerly boogered up his ankle and he's going to be out this week. Glenn Hunt had a bruised shoulder but he should be able to be out there on Friday night. Blane McBride actually got on the field some Saturday. That was good because after missing a few weeks, that gave him the chance to get back into some kind of rhythm.
Q What was the major difference in the team's strong performance after College Park scored just a minute into the contest?
A After the first drive, I wasn't concerned at all. They did a reverse that we hadn't seen all year and took advantage of the good field position. But I just wanted to see us go out and execute and we did offensively. We only had one punt the whole game and I think that was in the fourth quarter. We did some good things in the kicking game other than that one return at the beginning.
Q How important was Glenn Hunt's return for a touchdown on the opening kickoff of the second half?
A Glenn was a defensive back for us both in the spring and the fall. But we decided that we needed him at running back. He hasn't had much of a chance this year, but he got his opportunity and made the most of it. That was actually a pretty big play for us. We had talked at half about going out there and putting them away. I didn't expect for it to be on the first play of the half. That made it 31-7. With the type of offense they run, they're not a dangerous team when you can get ahead of them by that much because they don't like to throw.
Q The defense allowed 430 total yards but only 20 points. What was your overall impression of the defense?
A It wasn't one of the better performances by the defense this season. I know that Coach (Todd) Quick will address it and they will fix it. I knew they would get their yards but the most important thing is they didn't get a lot of points. The key against their offense is just to try to get them in some long yardage situations. When they have to throw is when they can make some mistakes.
Q What was your overall impression of the offense in a game that Deauntre Smiley accounted for 388 yards and five touchdowns?
A I'm proud of Bush and the way he played. But that's something that should happen every Friday. If we're focused on the offensive line, if our receivers focus on catching it and if he throws it accurately, we're a dangerous team. What I was most pleased with is how he spread the ball around. We had five guys that had at least two catches so he wasn't keying in on any one guy.
Q What was your overall impression of the offensive line's play against College Park Saturday?
A They didn't play well against Conroe and they know that. They've got a lot of pride and they weren't happy after that. They played much better on Saturday. But as a team we still haven't put it all together yet. That's still what we need to do to make a run.
