HELENA — Ahead of Carroll College’s season-opening football game Saturday night against Frontier Conference rival Montana Tech, MTN Sports’ Jonny Walker spoke with Fighting Saints head coach Troy Purcell.

Below is the full transcript of the video interview:

MTN Sports: It’s football season. We’re coming up and I can see right through you. It’s not just football. You’re excited about that new grass field.

Troy Purcell: Yeah, absolutely. You know the season is here and you know, fall camp is finally over and you get a chance to go out there and play an opponent. And the grass and the lights, man. And it’s been a whole different experience for our guys.

MTN Sports: Montana Tech is a familiar opponent. They’re the team you played your last game against last season. From a coaching standpoint, I know the message is, “That was last season. This is a different team. We’ve got to move on.” But there are a lot of players who came back to this team last year. From a player’s perspective, can you really mentally get over that?

Troy Purcell: You know, it’s tough for those guys, the seniors, they had a bad taste in their mouth. The guys that were in the team have a bad taste, and it should motivate you and give you an extra incentive to be at your best when you need to be. And that’s what it’s going to cost you on Saturday.

MTN Sports: One thing we talked about with your opponent, they have to play a game already. Is that good for them? Is that bad for them?

Troy Purcell: Because they bring in a new defensive coordinator, it was vital for us that they play a game for us. So we have the opportunity to see at least one game with the new defensive coordinator and understand what they are going to do.

MTN Sports: You don’t have to name names, coach, but when you’re preparing for a game, are there guys that you focus on? You sit in meetings and you’re circling around like, hey, this, this is a guy we need to pay attention to?

Troy Purcell: Yeah, absolutely. On the offense and defensive side. Landers Smith is a baller. He’s got 36 carries. I was at his house when I was recruiting him. So they’ve got a lot of talented tools there.

But we’ve got to get our bodies on Landers. (He) won them the game last week. And I expect us to hit him 36 times this week as well. And so we just have to make sure we get some bodies on him and don’t let him fall forward.