Chattanooga vs. The Citadel - Nov. 14, 2009

Chattanooga Head Coach Russ Huesman

Opening Statement:
"Obviously, it was a great win. It was an unbelievable effort by our guys to play that way in the second half to come back and win the football game against a good team. The Citadel is a good football team, they are talented. We are going to have to figure out how to start better."

"At half time it was a pretty heated locker room. As soon as I left the field, I told the defensive coaches do not go and try figure out game plans, we've got to catch the football and we've got to throw the football. I told the defense we've got to tackle better. I told the offense don't even try to draw up new plays. Just tell them to catch the ball, throw the ball, and block people."

"We took 45 seconds to make any adjustments we had to make and proceeded to really get the guys motivated. Our coaches did a fantastic job."

"I told our players that the first half is on you, what happened on that football field is on you, not the coaching staff. But I guarantee that when we come back and win this game in the second half, I will tell everyone the same thing that the second half is all on you. So this win has nothing to do with coaching, it's a group of guys that decided that they were going to play football, and they played."

"The season is not even over yet, and I have eight guys coming up and thanking me for barely doing anything. They don't have to thank me. It's pretty neat that a bunch of guys just come up and hug you and thank you. This is a great group of kids, we have great kids."

On a winning season:
"It is great for these guys, it meant a lot to them to get this win. For me, I wasn't going to judge this season based on five or six wins. I was not judging this season rather we won five, six or even seven that is not how you judge a program."

"I told them all we couldn't figure out who to give a game ball to.  So I am buying game balls for every senior and have something for each of them."

On the onside kick:
"It was executed so much better than all the others because they were waiting for it. The had a big tall guy there. It's neat the way everything comes together. We executed and said exactly what happened was going to happen."

"We didn't play defense too well. It was great at the end. Part of the reason I kicked the onside kick was that we were not playing good defense. I didn't know if we could stop them."

"The last touchdown they got was our fault. It was the coaches all the way, a bad call on our part."

"We thought we could run the ball. Obviously, we were not running the ball. We are going to have to figure out ways in the offseason to get a better running game. For us to run the ball better, we are going to have a year in the weight room in the off season."

"Our offensive line battles. The biggest group of all season guys is our offensive line, but with that being said they are the reason we are winning football games."

On B.J. Coleman:
"I think the sky is the limit for him, he is not even close to where he can be."

On Blue Cooper:
"I don't care if he is covered, throw the ball to Blue."

Citadel Head Coach Kevin Higgins

On the good start:

"Our kids had a good week of practice. They came back and we had a good game plan. I felt real good going into this game about attacking what they do from a defensive standpoint, but Chattanooga had good effort and enthusiasm and made some plays."

On Chattanooga's comeback:

"In the second half, they were moving the football. We needed for someone to step up. There were four or five interceptions we should have had. If anybody makes one play on the football, it's probably a different football game. We just didn't do what we needed to do to hold them off. They got the onside kick, which was a critical play. We knew it was coming, we worked on that play all week but our guy went up for the ball with one hand instead of two and didn't make the play."