Chattanooga Football Postgame Notes
No. 13 Chattanooga at No. 3 Appalachian State
Kidd Brewer Stadium (23,150) - Boone, N.C.
Saturday - Sept. 24, 2011
Chattanooga head coach Russ Huesman
Thoughts on the game
"The defense played how we thought they could play. They played good and they played hard. I told the team UTC lost this game. I'm not going to sit here and brag on the defense. The defense played good and we could have stopped them with three minutes to go, but we didn't. You can't let them punt the ball with 52 seconds to go. You have to go three-and-out and we told them that, but they played good and they played hard. I think our whole football team played hard. We've got a bunch of guys that play hard, love the game of football and love UTC. That's what's important. We should have never lost this football game. No way."
This season's game compared to last season's
"This loss hurts a million times worse than last year's loss. We are so much better than last year's football game it isn't even close. We've got a better football team. This one is a thousand times worse than last year."
On the players' reactions to the loss
"There are a bunch of sad faces in the locker room. I just kept looking at Ryan Consiglio and he's dying in there right now. He's hurting and a bunch of them are. These guys put their heart and souls into this game, but the bottom line is we didn't execute in some situations today. We didn't execute and that comes back to bite you. That's on the coaches and that's on me. That's on us as coaches if we let one little thing slide. It's ridiculous and we can't let that go. We have to come back tomorrow, get focused and get ready to play The Citadel. We have to make every little itty bitty thing right."
Jeff Veres, junior, wide receiver
On the interception
"I had a dry route called, B.J. was getting pressured and I put my hand up. It caught me a little off guard and I tipped it up. He threw it pretty good. It touched my hand and I should have caught it."
On the team's feelings after the game
"This is the worst I have ever felt after a game. We just didn't finish when we needed to. We kept our composure on the sidelines, and we have been in tight positions already early in the season. They prepared us and last year's game prepared us for it. We just have to come back to work tomorrow and be ready for the rest of the year."
Ryan Consiglio, senior, linebacker
His thoughts on the game
"It's is a great feeling defensively to be clicking as well as we were. We had prepared for their offense all week and we had the offense figured out. We knew what we were going to get. They're a great offense. They are very prolific and notorious for being a big time offensive team. Coming in here we knew who we needed to stop, and we got turnovers and three-and-outs. It's kind of a tough pill to swallow."
On dwelling on this loss
"I would go play right now if I had the opportunity. I feel like everybody is kind of on the same page as far as using this as a learning tool. As much as you hate to say it, it's a tough one to swallow. We're going to learn from it and get back to work tomorrow. We'll see what we need to get corrected on tape. Work out, get healthy and come in ready to work on Tuesday."
Appalachian State Postgame Quotes
#2, Quarterback, DeAndre Presley:
Question: How big was the play for the defense?(referring to the fumble recovery that led to a touchdown)
"Coach always tells us that games like this there are 4 or 5 plays that make a difference and that was one of those plays that shifted the moment. It was a play we needed".
Question: is it better to win ugly than lose pretty?
"Defense played well. At times when we needed stops they gave them to us. It will be times like that when defense is going to carry the offense and the offense carries the defense. Today was one of those times that the defense carried us and I sure thank God for them boys."
#33, Linebacker, Jeremy Kimbrough:
Question: How big was the game for defense?
"It was a big game for us. This game really set the tempo for the defense for the rest of the conference"
Head Coach Jerry Moore:
Opening statement; "I'm really really proud of our defense. I do believe that we have found some things out about ourselves tonight, and I think that we can be a really good football team."
Question: With lack of offense how important was the defense play?
"Oh we couldn't have won if the defense hadn't played like they played. The things that we lacked today are correctable, as far as our offense is concerned"
Question: How much was it your offense? or how much was it UTC defense?
"I think they've played the roughest schedule in our league." We don't know what kind of football team we got. We haven't played a football team that really pressed us until today."
