Head Coach Russ Huesman
Opening statement.

"Great job by our football team. I think all three phases, especially offense. We challenged them. We challenged the offensive line this week and they responded. Great job our offense. Defensively to hold that offense to 283 yards was really good. We let the quarterback out some, but he's a great athlete. He's tough to defend. We tried to practice it, but when he get out in space he's really good. He's an excellent player. Great game, excited for our guys, and I'm looking forward to playing next week.

"I'm actually pretty excited about how we played. I think all the way across the board, we played well. We didn't have any turnovers. They had two. The fumble down there was huge. The missed field goal was big. So we had a pretty comfortable lead going into the second half. We played good. I told our guys I don't think, not today but leading up to today, I didn't think we played that good of football coming in. It was good to see this kind of game by our guys today."

How do the long drives by the offense help the defense?

"The one thing is obviously the long drives are big, but we had some big plays. We had some explosive plays. I was proud of our guys because we haven't been having many explosive plays, and we got them today. It was a really good day. Jacob ran for 168 yards but there weren't many called quarterback runs. He ran the ball 20 times, but I'd say out of those twenty, five were actually called quarterback runs. He kept it off the read. That's our offense. You're either going to change your offense or you're going to say there's a possibility that he can run the ball 20 times and he ran the ball good today."

Did you expect to have as much success as you did running the ball?

"I never know what to expect to be honest.  I've been doing this for 30-something years, and I haven't figured it out yet what to expect. Sometimes I think yea, we're going to maul them, and we don't gain an inch. And other time I think we can't gain an inch and we maul them. It's pretty scary every week, but I'm proud of our guys and how well they played."

Jacob Huesman, quarterback, senior
Thoughts on game.
"Everything we were doing was working. The defense was playing great. Our offensive line was opening up holes bigger than I've ever seen. I was very impressed with those guys. How good was Derrick Craine? How about that one where he broke three tackles? That was unbelievable. He's a tough guy to tackle. I was impressed with that one."

On running the football well.
"We always believe we can run the ball. That's the mentality our offensive line is taking, and our coaches listen. That's what we want to be able to do, especially with running backs like Craine and Richardre Bagley."

On passing game.
"Our wide receivers did a great job and ran some good routes. We have some playmakers at those positions so it should be that way."

Nakevion Leslie, linebacker, junior
On coming into today's game.
"Coming into this week of practice we really wanted to emphasize playing a full game. I felt like recently we hadn't played our best. We wanted to put together a complete game today."

On second half.
"We can't settle on being up in the first half and assuming the games over. Most of the teams we play in the SoCon they're going to be after us all game long. We're going to have to be able to retaliate. We have to commit to the entire four quarters."

On Western Carolina's quarterback and how the team prepared.
"We tried to keep an eye on Troy the best we can. We knew he was going to be able to keep plays going by scrambling in and out of the pocket. He had us a couple times in the first half. But in the second half we came out and tried to calm him down."

On impact of having Terrell Owens on campus and at practice this week.
"It's pretty cool. He brought a lot of excitement and energy. Terrell being back and seeing us makes it seem like he's proud of us. We want that to be us one day so we're going to try our hardest to keep playing."

Cedric Nettles, defensive back, junior
On today's game.
"We knew they were going to come in with a chip on their shoulders. We just had to play our kind of football. We had to execute in all three phases of the game so that's what we did."

On containing Western Carolina's quarterback.
"We have a great D-line. Our linebackers, they fly around real fast. We do our job in the back end to make their job easier."

On next week's game.
"With Mercer, it's always a big game for us going back to Georgia, well for me anyway. We have to work hard all week to have good preparation."

Derrick Craine, running back, junior
On being the first Moc to have four touchdowns in one game since 1982.
"It's an outstanding honor. You can't do something like that, like I say every week, without that front five. They're just incredible. We switched things up this week, so we got a new look.  We worked some new things out in practice, really just got the feel of how they work."

How big is the first drive of the game opening touchdown.
"I think it sets you up for success later in the game. To be able to come out in the first drive and put points on the board, that's huge. That's one thing we need to do every week. Coming out two weeks in a row doing that, it seems like we're getting better at it. I think we really started to click today. We look good on both sides of the ball."

"Offensively, Jacob (Huesman), Synjen (Herren), those guys were incredible. Jacob had some outstanding runs today. The receivers made some crucial catches. It really set us up for success on offense.  Defensively they were flying to the ball. They were everywhere. Sitting down and then getting up to watch those guys on the field, they were everywhere."

Western Carolina head coach Mark Speir
Thoughts on game.
"We got our butts kicked today in all three phases. Coach Huesman had his team prepared. They're an excellent football team to begin with. We had way too many penalties on offense. We didn't come with the same intensity as they did. When you play the No. 4 team in the country, a Coach Huesman football team, a really physical team, if you don't bring it, that's what happens.

"I did a poor job preparing our team. Our coaches, we did a poor job this week. We just weren't prepared to play. Our university deserves better than what they got today. We had no mental intensity. They wore us out. We're going to try to regroup and find a way to beat Furman at home this Saturday."

Do you think the Catamounts played better in the second half?
"Not really. It was a poor ball game overall. There weren't a lot of positives. We're going to watch the film and man up. Coaches are going to man up. I'm going to man up. Players are going to man up.

"We're going to find ways to regroup and bring the mental intensity every day to practice. That doesn't mean hitting each other. I mean the mental part. Nothing good came out of this ball game. We got our butts kicked, and Chattanooga did a great job. They imposed their will on us."