Chattanooga Football Postgame Quotes
No. 6 Chattanooga at VMI
Alumni Memorial Field at Foster Stadium – VMI
Saturday – Oct. 17, 2015

UTC Head Coach Russ Huesman: 
On overcoming the early deficit for the win:
"I told our guys that it was a great win and we're 3-0 in the league. When you go play a game, the only thing you should worry about is if you won or lost the football game … right now. Tomorrow, we'll look and see where the issues are and where we have to get better. Give VMI a lot of credit. They played really well and have unbelievable players. 

"Their coaches did an incredible job of changing their mindset. They play to win; they don't play to survive anymore and we saw that today. It was a great job by them."

On the overall effort of the defense:
"It didn't look good in the first half, but they (VMI) had 113 yards passing and 100 of it was on two plays. They had the one 69-yarder and the one we should have picked but their guy went up and made a play on us. We have to make those plays. They had 59 yards rushing in the first half which isn't awful." 

On Alphonso Stewart's big play on the last drive:
"We actually started out with Xavier Borishade's catch for about 18 yards of the 19 that we needed, and that was huge. That was a nice play on that one and then on the play at the end, you had Jacob with the ball throwing to Alphonso Stewart and that was huge for us. I thought about kicking it and we went back and forth, but we took our shot and went for it, and thank goodness we made it."

Senior Sema'je Kendall
On preparing for VMI's passing attack:
"We scouted them pretty well and they did some things like running the ball that we didn't expect. They came out cracking our linebackers and safeties and really made our defensive backs come down to make plays. They really gave us their best shot." 

On getting road wins against conference opponents:
"It was rough and it was a dog fight, especially when you're at the top of the conference and everybody gives you their best shot. We just have to be ready every single week." 

On his pick-six:
"I was actually supposed to drive my guy first, and if he goes under, jump back out. So he threw it right to me and it was a big play." 

On VMI's intensity level early in the game:
"They come out and they played hard. They're physical, they do their assignments and that's what you're going to get against a team that comes out and plays hard." 

Junior Keionta Davis
On going up against the offensive attack of VMI:
"We knew about the offense and what they are capable of doing. Their quarterbacks and receivers are really good, and we knew that we would have to play a complete game. All week we focused on getting after the quarterback, playing our keys, staying focused and getting to the ball." 

On knowing how many opportunities defense will have against a passing team:
"With the preparation Coach West gave us, we knew our opportunities. I felt like we took advantage of most of them and left a few out there. There are some things that we will have to clean up, but for the most part I'm proud of our guys." 

On the defense's ability to turn big plays into scores:
"It's big because when the offense isn't doing that well, then we can have that big play to get us going. When you've had our safeties and linemen come in and make a play to turn it into six points, it's a big reliever to go back and breathe. When we get a stop, it gives our offense an opportunity to get the ball and pound it in." 

On the second-half performance:
"We came in and made a few adjustments. We knew what they were trying to do to us and our coaches did a nice job of coming in and making adjustments. We played hard and we didn't want to lose this game. That's what we did. I felt like we did a good job in the first half, but we did an even better job in the second half." 

On VMI's rushing attack:
"It changes your mindset a bit because you have to respect it, but we had to go out there and stop whatever they threw at us. It's our job as a defense to go stop and we stiffened up in the second half, and everything was alright after that." 

On overcoming the early deficit:
"It's just our fight. It's about getting up and playing hard again. We have to come out faster, especially early in games on their home field." 

Senior Jacob Huesman
On the team's performance against VMI:
"VMI is a good team, they're well coached and their guys fought until the bitter end of that game." 
 
On how much the running game has helped the team:
"It sure has and that's kind of what we've built ourselves on a little bit. We were able to throw the ball too a little bit especially in situations at the end of the game, where it was big time. I'm not sure why we've started slow. We had a couple of holding calls early and made it tough to complete those drives, but that's something we'll figure out." 

On Wil Young stepping up:
"Wil had a great game. I was very impressed. C.J. (Board) got a little banged up early and Wil had to step up at the X position, and he fit right in out there. He made a couple of really good catches too. One that put us inside the 10 and a great one on the sidelines. I threw a tough one and he had great field awareness by keeping both of his feet in bounds. I was really impressed with him today." 

On Alphonso Stewart's big play:
"We were talking about it and there were really three things we could have done. We could have tried for the long field goal, we could have tried to punt, which would have put them relatively deeper, and if we get it on fourth down, then that's the ball game. We decided to try and end the game right then and there. It was a good play call and I don't think they were expecting that. Alphonso made a great catch and read a great route." 

Freshman Wil Young
On how much he's been waiting for a big performance:
"I've been preparing myself every week and Coach (Huesman) always says that you have to have that 'next man up' mentality, so on your opportunity you have to be ready to step up." 

On his sideline catch:
"It takes a lot (of focus). We practice that a lot with toe-touch or toe-tapping. I really just scrambled and somebody had to make a play." 

On being the next man up in his position and the opportunity:
"It feels great and even better that we got the win with it. I just have to keep continuing in practice because you never know when you'll have to be that next man up." 

On the team's second-half performance:
"We didn't really make too much adjustments on offense coming out of halftime. A key emphasis was actually finishing and we wanted to get touchdown instead of field goals, so that's something that we're going to have to focus on. It's tough to score in the red zone, and we have to keep working." 

Junior Derrick Craine
On team maintaining focus:
"VMI plays very hard and right there at the end things started to get a little antsy, but the big thing with us is that we never panicked. We just went out there and played and luckily we had the huge fourth down play at the end." 

On overcoming a deficit:
"I think the beauty of it is that we've been there before. We've been in a lot of adversity situations and we've been able to overcome a lot of those. Just like today, we were down but really didn't panic. We just focused on putting some points on the board and that's just how we are. Coach (Huesman) always tells us to play like champions because we are champions. Just like today, when you are in those situations you have to be able to overcome them, and that's what we were able to do."