GoBlackKnights.com Can you talk a little bit about your role as defensive line coach?

Clarence Holmes: This will be my eighth season since I graduated, and I have coached the defensive line the whole time. I played defensive line for Army, so it is a natural fit.

GoBlackKnights.com Going into Navy, you've seen them as a player and a coach, they run the option as good as anyone, the have a decent shot up the middle on the dive but the real weapon is Dobbs and his ability to get to the outside. How has the preparation for Navy been for you guys?

Clarence Holmes: We've taken a thorough approach, making sure that we take care of what we need to do. We can't focus too much on what they are doing outside of the schemes and being worried about Dobbs. We know we have to stop him. He makes the machine go. He has over 20 rushing touchdowns which put's him as one of the national leaders. We have been harping on execution of our assignments within the defense. When you face the option, it comes down to execution, and it's a back and forth battle about who is going to out-execute the other. The tug-of-war continues until somebody breaks. It's definitely going to be an assignment football game on both sides, but we just continue to focus on ourselves and make sure that each guy takes care of his own assignment. If we do that and trust each other, we'll always have a chance when the ball is snapped.

GoBlackKnights.com You are very active on gameday, working the sidelines and managing the defense when they are off the field and the offense is playing. Can you talk a little bit about your approach to gameday and what you are doing play-by-play during the game?

Clarence Holmes: My job is definitely to have eyes on blocking schemes and also managing my guys on the defensive front and making sure they are in the right position and executing their assignments on the defensive calls. I am a very active coach, I guess just having that fire for the game, and also understanding from film study what we're getting and how we need to defend that play. Film study and the interaction in practice lets us know, not only as coaches, but as players, they can see the schemes and we do a good job of relating that when they come to the sideline, either in between plays or in between series. That's where most of that interaction or that activity comes from. You see something, and you want to make sure that your guys see the same things so if you did make a mistake, you don't make it again.

GoBlackKnights.com You were a great player at Army and now you are a coach. How does that help you relate to the players, and how does that help with game preparation?

Clarence Holmes: I probably have a bit of a different bond with the players, just having been there. I wore the black and gold. I was a two-time captain for my team my junior and senior years, so the coaching transition was a pretty smooth one for me, and the guys understand me. I can take a bit of a different approach because I have been there and I can relate and share that with them. I come at them from the standpoint that I am still a Black Knight, I still bleed the black and gold. I have a passion for what we stand for here, and there is no bigger thing than Army-Navy. When it comes to game preparation for this one, I am very hard on the guys, but they know it is all out of love and a desire to succeed. I want them to have more success than the teams I played for. These guys have worked really hard and I know that they are capable, we just need to go out there and get it. From a mental standpoint, these kids are at a place that we can put the program back where it needs to be.

GoBlackKnights.com That seems to be the predominant theme that I keep hearing, that from a mental preparation perspective, you are in a better place than you have been in years past. Do you get that feeling?

Clarence Holmes: It's not so much mental preparation. It's more a general mental state, mental condition. It's a confidence factor. We have always had the toughness, the tenacity, the intensity. It's a matter of throwing all of those things together and keep the belief. Once you do that, you are able to continue to do the things that are driving you. It will drive you to complete tasks, play hard, and when you are faced with the adversity, to keep pushing through until the clock strikes all zeroes, and not just fifty or sixty minutes. We have been harping on that all season. The mind and the spirit around the football just have to be right. That's what we have been working on.

GoBlackKnights.com You have been a player and coach and have been there before, but you are going into a Navy game with a lot on the line. You can break the losing streak, you can get into a bowl. How do you feel going into it, how does the team look, and how do you think it will go Saturday?

Clarence Holmes: Personally, there is not a better stage for us to meet the goals we have left to achieve - beating Navy and going to a bowl game. We can't get the Commander-in-Chief's trophy, but we can still make a great statement for our program and for the Army as a whole, the troops around the world. It's a game of high emotion and very high expectations. We need to keep that under control. As far as preparing the players, we just have to make sure they know that it's all about playing the game. It's not about all the pomp and circumstance and the things that are going on around you, all the hoopla. We have to be focused on the very next play, stay in the moment, and just make sure that we deal with all the things we are prepared to do. If we are able to focus and keep our mind on the things we need to do - execution of assignments and doing our jobs, we'll be very happy with the result at the end. We can't worry about the emotional side. It's going to be there, we just have to make sure we control it.