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Prep Confidential

Jackson's 5 Part XV

Posted by: Marcus Jackson

Wednesday, September 17, 2008 11:03 AM

MJ: Tell me a little bit about this truck of yours I’ve been hearing about.
AG: It’s a 1998 blue Dodge Ram 1500. I’ve got 40 inch Toyota tires on 22 inch rims.

MJ: Where did the idea to do that come from?
AG: My brother bought a 1990 Mustang GT and souped it all up and gave it to me for my 16th birthday. After a while I wanted something new and came across the truck on the Internet. The guy said he’d trade me for my Mustang and $800 so I saved up the money, drove all the way to West Virginia and picked it up and drove all the way back.

MJ: Do you get some odd looks in the truck?
AG: Oh it turns heads anywhere I go. It feels great riding in it. It’s like everybody moves right out of the way. It takes up the whole lane.

MJ: Do you ever roll over curbs or other things someone in a normal car might not be able to do?
AG: No. I’m real cautious with it, that’s my baby. I don’t tear her up or anything like that.

MJ: Switching gears, so to speak, you guys are off to a slow start (1-2) by your recent standards. Is it strange being in this position?
AG: Yeah it’s really strange after going 13-1, 13-1. But after the game against Salt Fork, Josh Howard, the defensive end and tight end on the 2005 team came in and talked to us for a while and he just told us that the 1-2 start was the same thing they had in 2005 and the only way to come off of this was to work harder. In the weight room, on the field. We’re having more competition in practice and he said they did that and ended up going to the final four that year for the first time in Tiger history.

MJ: What’s practice been like this week so far?
AG: Game film, game film and a lot more game film. We just had to sit down and realize what we were doing wrong. Now we’re fixing it and the line, if anyone makes a mistake, we have to do five to 10 up-downs, and we’re actually working as a team now. Everything is a lot more intense now.

MJ: Was it tough losing to your big rival Salt Fork on Friday night?
AG: Yeah it was but in the long run it’s going to help us. Seeing them sit and cheer on our field after we hadn’t lost at home since 2005, it really hurt us. But all we can do it take it and learn from it and use it as motivation.

MJ: Leading up to the Salt Fork game, was there any trash talk between your two teams since a lot of you know one another?
AG: No the Salt Fork kids had very good sportsmanship. There really wasn’t any trash talking before the game and after the game. Everyone was telling each other how great they were and everything and all the Salt Fork players could tell me was how good a team we (were). It’s a friendly rivalry but a good one. It’s not as hated as it was a couple years ago.