Chattanooga Football Postgame Quotes

Chattanooga at Florida State

Doak S. Campbell Stadium—Tallahassee, Fla.

Saturday-Nov. 21, 2015

Head Coach Russ Huesman

Overall thoughts on the game..

"Well, we lost to an excellent football team and there's no question about that, with tremendous athletes. Our kids fought and played hard. They got some tremendous athletes and they are well coached."

On Jacob Huesman and Derrick Craine eclipsing 1,000 yards this season…

"As I began to think about it, I thought it would be pretty cool for (Huesman and Craine) to reach 1,000 yards at Florida State. We put him back in and as soon as we saw him reach it we decided to take them back out."

On the overall experience of the game…

"Our guys fought and you always want to see how you are able to do. Anytime you're playing a team with a tradition and how good Florida State is, you have to be perfect. No turnovers, no penalties, not getting beat in the kicking game and you have to hope that they are able to sleepwalk through a half and make some mistakes. That didn't happen today. They made the one mistake on the kickoff and that was about it, and we made a ton."

On being able to move the ball in the first half despite difficult finding the endzone..

"I'm proud of our offense and we did move. The second time, Jacob missed a read and we had a guy wide open in the endzone. That was his first read, but he said he couldn't see it because there were bodies of the linemen kind of in front of him, so he went backside and threw it incomplete, and we had to kick the field goal. But the guy was wide open."

"We had a screen dialed up (for Richardre Bagley), but we just couldn't get it over the people. We kind of did. Richardre probably wasn't able to see Jacob, and that would have been a big play in the first half. But they outplayed us."

On defense's goal line stand when FSU had first-and-goal from the one…

"That was excellent by our defense. You could give up in that scenario and say that they got us down here and they're bigger than us. But we bowed up and held them to a field goal. I didn't know if we were going to stop them one more time there but we did."

Jacob Huesman, senior, quarterback

On the team being able to make offensive and defensive plays early in the first half…

"Yes we were. Defense got a couple stops and offense moved the ball fairly well. We converted a couple of third downs which is something impressive against a team like Florida State. We didn't capitalize in the redzone which is kind of a disappointing thing, but to say that those guys (FSU) are a good football team is an understatement. To do the things early on was very big time for us."

On overall team effort and playing to compete…

"That's the way you have to come into a game like this. That's really the only thing that will keep you in it, which is playing with a bit of hustle and a bit of heart. I think that playing a team like Florida State, if you come in just kind of quiet and not much emotion, you are going to find yourself down quickly."

On ending the regular season with a tough game and staying healthy for the playoffs…

"To play a game like this late in the season when you've locked up the conference, you want to win and everyone, coaches included, are competitors. You want to play to win the game and at the same time, you want to keep everyone healthy."

On Craine getting 1,000 yards on the season…

"I'm proud of him and I'm glad that he got what he needed to get for the 1,000 yards. He's earned every single yard of that."

On finding out the team's fate for the playoffs…

"(A bye) would be the best case scenario. It would be good for our whole football team to rest up and take a week to prepare, as well as taking the week to get better. It will be a good time tomorrow and hopefully we get a good spot in the playoffs."

Keionta Davis, junior, defensive lineman

On playing in front of a big crowd and Florida State...

"We did a really good job and had really good intensity coming out of the game. We played hard in the game and I'm proud of my teammates for that. Offensive played really well and defense was able to get the stops when we got them."

On Florida State's size and speed..

"(The difference) was keeping up with their size and speed, but I thought we did a good job. We shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times which hurt us, but besides that I felt like we did a really good job keeping up with those guys."

On waiting for the playoffs and potentially earning a bye week..

"Hopefully we are able to get some people rested up and I think getting people's mind off football for a week will really help us. It's an opportunity to get to see some family, eat some good food, replan and be ready to go out and have a good second half of the season in the playoffs."