Postgame Quotes
Wofford at Chattanooga
Chattanooga, Tenn. - Finley Stadium
Nov. 19, 2011
Chattanooga Head Coach Russ Huesman
On struggling to defend the pitch on the option:
"They moved the ball on everybody this year and they got the pitch out on everybody this year. We were trying to survive. We were playing good enough on defense to survive. We stopped them on fourth down twice. Whether the pitch was there or not, they moved the ball on everybody. That's the bottom line. They're number one in the country. Our kids on defense fought and they fought all year. It's hard."
On the senior class:
"What a great senior class. Those guys fought. That's a great group. They helped start this thing and for us to lose 28-27 three times is ridiculous. We had so many opportunities to win all those games. It's tough to swallow."
On the inability to score in the redzone:
"We got the ball first and goal and we've got to punch it in. It's 31 at that point. It would have been over. If we punch it in against Citadel, we win that game. If we do it today, we win this game. You don't realize how valuable those yards and points are. We can't put it in the end zone and we're taking field goals."
On the running game:
"We actually played pretty decent today. We got good yards. I thought Marquis Green did a good job. We ran it probably as good as we needed to run it to win this game."
Wofford Head Coach Mike Ayers
Thoughts on the come-from-behind win:
"It was a revival. We go in at half and we got a lot of things that didn't go right for us. The thing that we kept trying to preach to them was that we have thirty more minutes and we've shown we can do when we want to when we execute. We played better defense, we played better offense and made some plays. The key in the game was once we closed the gap and there was pressure on them. B.J. Coleman had a highlight tape on us during the first half. Everything he threw was right on the money. They guessed right with us as far as the coverage was and stuff like that. In the second half, we changed up a little bit and did a little bit better job as far as disguising. All of a sudden, we worked into getting some turnovers."
Thoughts on Wofford's offense:
"I am very proud of the offense. We were down to the few, the proud and the brave. When Bryan Youman went out we were playing with Donovan Johnson as a half back and Eric Breitenstein as a full back. It was a great win. It was a team win. The staff did a great job of getting ready. I know this; 8-3 sounds a lot better than 7-4. I hope we have an opportunity to get into the playoffs."
On Chattanooga's football team:
"To Chattanooga and Russ's crew: they're a great football team. Those guys coach as well as anybody in the country and those guys play hard. They've got players, playmakers and it was a great challenge for us. Praise God for this one. It was a blessing."
On the turning point in the game:
"The big thing that gave us that flavor of 'Hey, we've got a shot' was all of a sudden defensively we started slowing them down. We started making them kick or kick field goals. It was interesting, probably with about nine minutes to go in the game after they kicked that last field goal, I said, 'What's the difference between us and the Citadel? We might as well do the same score.' With two scores, we had a shot. Time wise, we had to make some plays."
On Donovan Johnson's long run:
"I think we had like forty seconds, and bam, we had scored on them. As soon as that happened, right there, it was like someone took an air hose and inflated everybody on our sideline. We were fired up, and it just gives you that energy that you need."
On holding Chattanooga's offense to field goals rather than TD's:
"It was kind of interesting. We were talking back-and-forth on the phone saying if we hold them to a field goal we still have a shot. All of a sudden the defense comes up with a play, they kick a field goal and we're still in it. We were talking to the kids telling we were still in it, we still had a shot and we could make it happen."
