Malakoff faces familiar foe for Area Round game

Hannigan's Notebook

0:00

-19:38

Malakoff faces familiar foe for Area Round game

Tigers play Pottsboro Cardinals Thursday

Nov 17, 2021

This interview was recorded Tuesday, Nov. 15, at Malakoff High School.

(NOTE: Coach Driskell and I spend some time talking about X's and O's before getting into this week's game. We discuss the importance of different formations both on offense and defense. Listen to that from 1:15 to 10:30.)

The Malakoff Tigers will face a familiar opponent in their Area Round playoff game this week.

Malakoff will play Pottsboro in the postseason for the fourth consecutive year -- the fifth time under Coach Jamie Driskell -- 7 p.m. Thursday night in Sulphur Springs.

The playoff series stands at 2-2.

"It's kind of been back and forth," said Coach Driskell. "They do a great job. It's gotten to the point where we know each other pretty good, the staffs and what schemes they try to do and we try to do."

The Pottsboro Cardinals are more of a running team than they have been in the past, according to Coach Driskell, although they aren't afraid to throw the ball.

"They have some big offensive and defensive linemen," he said. "Of course, everybody is usually bigger than us, we're not real big, and so it's a concern."

Defensively, the Cardinals present a challenge because they will line up in multiple ways.

"They're going to give us an even front, an odd front," said Coach Driskell. "We've seen five different coverages from them in the secondary."

"They do that to confuse your offense and to confuse your blocking schemes," he said.

This will be a battle between two battle-tested teams with plenty of playoff experience.

"It's pretty neat that we've played in so many playoff games now that our kids kind of understand the steps and what it's going to take," said Coach Driskell. "Hopefully we perform Thursday night."

Here's a link to online tickets for the game. https://www.ssisd.net/page/Tickets