Chattanooga Football - Postgame Quotes
No. 3 Appalachian State at Chattanooga
Finley Stadium - Chattanooga, Tenn.
September 4, 2010

Chattanooga Head Coach Russ Huesman
Opening statement:
"Yea, there are no moral victories. We came to win this football, and we thought we could win this football game. I told our team I don't care who comes into this stadium we are going to win, but they played way better than us in the second half. I give Appalachian State all the credit in the world, they did not quit. When it was 35-14 in the fourth quarter, I told our kickoff team that if you cover and get this guy on the ground. We will win this football game. You give them all the credit in the world, they came back, played hard and outplayed us in the second half. We had a lot of guys play great too."

Comprehending what happened:
"It was a pretty weird game, you can see on the sideline when they tied us at 35 we just didn't respond the way we should have.  We were all hanging our heads a little bit.  It was a great game for the crowd and the fans.  It was a loss and it hurts and we had a great opportunity to win."

On the kicking game:
"I told Sat [Marcus Satterfield] the drive before we scored that we will go for two to win it. There was no doubt in my mind or anybody else's that we needed to go for two right there. I did not make this decision because we missed three PAT's, I did it because we had De'Markus Lee who could barely even walk and we had Buster [Skrine] out and I said that we are going to win it right there. I just didn't think we could stop them on defense at all in overtime."

On the play when Buster got hurt:
"He took a shot, and we harp on ball security all the time. I don't think Jim Brown would have held on to that ball. He took a shot right on the forearm and I don't fault him for fumbling. They put it right on him and maybe it was a guy that we didn't block, but that one didn't lose the game for us. Appalachian State fumbled twice and we capitalized on them so it evened out. We had a chance to win the game."

What to learn from the game:
"You can learn that it hurts and I hope it hurts our team. We thought we could win this game coming in. I don't think this was a fluke what so ever. We felt coming in that we could win this game. I take this as a loss because we felt like we could win."

On the play variety:
"It was fun to watch. We had one play where we had Bradford wide open and B.J.[Coleman] gets hit and has to throw a floater out or that's a huge 90 yard play. We lost to a good football team. I don't think there is any question about that."

On the impact of Appalachian State defensive lineman Jabari Fletcher:
"He's an All-American. He was probably pretty fresh in the fourth quarter, and we weren't.  I don't know how fresh we were, but we weren't rushing the passer like he was. He's an All-American and just a great player."

Appalachian State Head Coach Jerry Moore
On the crowd:
"The crowd surprised me today, but I knew Chattanooga was trying to do this. I just didn't know whether it would be a reality or not. I thought they might have 15 or 16,000 people here, and I told our players about it. I told them there would be a lot of hype. Instead of trying to take the crowd out of it, we just made the crowd that much hotter and that much more involved. But it's great for Chattanooga and college football. I told Russ Huesman and Joel Bradford that what they did today is great for their program and this town. Chattanooga had a great turnout, and it speaks volumes for this city. Their players never quit. They came back from a situation that is pretty tough. They used the clock well. We couldn't make the clock run during the last minute and half."

On the progress Chattanooga has made:
"We've had games with Marshall, Georgia Southern and Furman that, when they started to mature, were like Chattanooga. We have won games against Chattanooga in the past that were like this, but they didn't have the fan support back then like they do today. Today was an awesome day for Chattanooga. I am happy for Russ Huesman, his players and the city. They just got slapped in the face [with the leaving of the FCS National Championship game], but then they turn around and say "well we'll just show you." This is only the first game of the season. These fans could have been home watching Florida and Miami of Ohio, but they were out here watching their hometown team play. That is a great tribute to this team."

On changes made at the half:
"We talked about the mistakes we made while we were in the locker room at halftime. They had a +50 yard kickoff return, and we had two fumbles. That's 21 points that we just gave them, but we had enough fight in us to come back. The momentum really changed in our favor when we started to be on the receiving end of some turnovers. We knocked a ball loose on kickoff, had the quarterback sacked and fumbled, and when that happened we began to get the momentum like they had. We capitalized on them and scored."