CHATTANOOGA FOOTBALL QUOTES
Oct. 25, 2014 | #14 Mocs vs. Mercer
Head Coach Russ Huesman
Opening statement
“First off, you have to give Mercer, Bobby Lamb and his staff credit. They had an unbelievable offensive game plan. Their kids played hard on both sides of the ball. They came in planning on winning this football game, and that's a credit to their coaches and their players. They've got good players. They've gotten there in a hurry.
"I was proud of our offense. Our offense made plays. Jacob (Huesman), obviously other than the interception, played really well. Derrick Craine continues to run hard. Our offensive line is getting better, so offensively I'm proud of them.
"Defensively, it could be one of the worst defensive performances in a long time. Not only could we not tackle, but we couldn't fit gaps, couldn't cover the right people and got personal foul penalties. We have to get it fixed. But a lot of it had to do with how Mercer attacked us and the things that they did.
"I thought the kicking game was solid today. (Henrique) made another one (field goal). Nick (Pollard) did a great job for the most part with his kickoffs. We didn't hurt ourselves in the kicking game today.”
On Derrick Craine's effort
“He's been really good. I grabbed him after the game and told him, 'he's solid, breaks tackles, makes the right cuts, hangs on to the football, catches the football when its thrown to him'. He's about as solid as they get. I'm proud of him.”
Thoughts on Mercer exposing the secondary
“I think they exposed that we didn't tackle. We've been tackling, but today we just weren't tackling. We had two big play blown coverages. If we don't improve defensively, they're going to get a taste of how we're going to practice from here on out defensively.”
Thoughts on 4-0 in SoCon for 1st time in school history
“It's a huge positive. That's what I told our kids in there. 4-0…I told them to enjoy it. Wins are hard. I don't care who you're playing, when you're playing, where you're playing; to get a win in college football, or high school football, or the NFL is hard.”
Senior Defensive End Davis Tull
On the defense's play today
“I think we could have played better on defense.”
Thoughts on Mercer's play
“I think they had a good scheme against us. They came out and ran some stuff we hadn't seen before. Also we played a little sloppy on defense, missed some tackles. Getting a win in the conference is always a good day.”
Thoughts on next week's game
“They're up there at the top of the conference, I don't think they've lost a game yet. It's a huge game next week. We have to come out and play a lot better than we did today.”
Junior Quarterback Jacob Huesman
Thoughts on the wide receivers' play
“I say this all the time every single one of those guys is a weapon. Whether we get it to them on a bubble or you can throw it up to them and let them go. They'll make a play like Xavier (Borishade) did, and I think C.J. (Board) did it before. So any of those guys can go up there and make a play at any point in time.”
Thoughts on the team's expectations
“I think the win was kind of clouded by some mistakes we made on both sides of the ball. We expect perfection from ourselves offensively and defensively. So that was a little of a downer. A win is a win especially against a team like Mercer.“
Thoughts on next week's game
“I'm interested to see how that Western Carolina game ends up today. We'll just go back to work tomorrow and prepare our rear-ends off.”
