Chattanooga Head Coach Russ Huesman
Thoughts on the game
“That was a great team win. I am proud of the guys for all three phases. The second half we got a couple of penalties that really hurt us because we had two really nice plays. I think Jacob had two runs. I didn't see the first one. It got us back into the game. They got pretty good field position, hit one on us and we didn't move it again. I thought the big one was when we punted it downfield, the defense rose to the occasion and we got the stop. We got better field positon. Then we got the pick. We'll look at the film because I'm sure there were some negatives out there. Our kick cover was great and our punt team was great. We returned a punt for a touchdown. I'd say we won that phase. I thought we got better offensively today. Defensively we had too many throws on us. We'll work hard on that to take that away. Great team win.”
Thoughts on the fast start
“It's always important to get a fast start. We won the coin toss, deferred and elected to play defense first. That didn't work out as good, but we held them to a field goal. We like our defense out there and we like to have a good stop. We got a punt return that made a huge difference. You get a pick in the red zone or on their side of the field and that makes a difference. That's why it was 24-3. It was just enough. Even though the second half got a little scary early, Lucas Webb got that second pick and that was huge. I thought Keon ran the ball extremely hard today. Samford has a good football team. They're going to win a lot of games this year. They have a lot of talent on both sides of the ball. We just kind of got on them and got the punt return. They're going to be a team that will be tough to beat in this league.”
Thoughts on the offensive line
“I thought we did a good job. You could see some things we missed. We didn't stay on blocks long enough on a few occasions. When we finally got Keon some running room, got Jacob a little bit of running room, and I think we got the big run there that was really huge. Obviously, if we're rushing for that, we're doing pretty decent job up front.”
On Nick Pollard's play
“He did a great job by pinning them down there on punts. I don't even know what his average was, but it had to be phenomenal today. His kickoffs were incredible. It's like a bunch of sharks taking the field defensively, and that's tough to overcome for them offensively. Nick, great job again. He's been so valuable for us. He is a great weapon.”
Thoughts on the offense and play calling
"I thought our offensive staff did a great job today. I thought Jeff did a great job. We executed really well. I was more upset with the defense today than I was the offense in certain situations. I only really got onto the offense today during huddles to fire them up and tell them how well they were playing. I went up to Keon and Tommy once to tell them how well they were doing."
Samford Assistant Head Coach Bill D'Ottavio
Thoughts on the game
“We would have liked to have played better, obviously. You have to give credit to Chattanooga. They played a great game. They had a good game plan and did some good things. They made key plays at key moments. We fought back and got some momentum going in the second half, but we weren't able to finish. We shot ourselves in the foot at time, but we have to play better. There are a lot of things we need to work on, but there's a lot of football left to be played this season. We are going to go back to work tomorrow and work to get better.”
What Samford can take from tonight
“We have to build on the positives. We have to study really hard. We have to see where our execution was good and where it wasn't. We have to see which players are doing what needs to be done and go from there. We have to make a total evaluation across the board.”
On preparing for next week
“Right now we have to work on us and get us better. We are going to start there tomorrow and go from there.”
Corey Levin, offensive lineman, sophomore
On moving to left guard
“It was an honor to fill Synjen's shoes at left guard. They wanted to put me there to get a little more experience on the inside because that's where most of our plays come from. We wanted a little more push for blocks and it worked out. It was a good thing that we got in on the bye week.”
Thoughts on Keon Williams' play
“Keon is an easy runner to block for. He is a load, and I think everyone in the Southern Conference knows that. All you have to do is give him a crease and he can hit it. He is going to make you look good.”
On defeating Samford
“It meant a lot to come out here and beat these guys. I think it meant a lot to this team, this community and our fans. We are 1-0 in the SoCon after tonight and that's all we can ask for. Now we have to look to next week.”
Keon Williams, running back, senior
Thoughts on the offensive line's play
“The offensive line played great tonight. My hat is off to them. They had plenty of lanes from me to run, and they played lights-out.”
On defeating Samford
“It was payback. We needed to get them back. They took our playoffs hopes from us last year so we had to get them back.”
On next week's game
“We just have to get it done. We have to come out next week against VMI, execute and go for another win.”
Tommy Hudson, wide receiver, senior
Thoughts on his touchdown return
“They guys up front did an awesome job blocking for me. I saw a block across me before I made the catch, and I figured it gave me plenty of room to run. Credit to my blockers for giving me room to run.”
Thoughts on the game
“I feel like we had a great start. We died down after a while, and I feel like the guys weren't having as much fun. We had to remind ourselves to go out and do what we do. We picked it back up after that.”
