Chattanooga Basketball Postgame Notes
Chattanooga at Samford
Seibert Stadium – Birmingham, Ala.
Saturday – Nov. 9, 2019

Head coach Rusty Wright
Update on the Ailym Ford injury:
"He hurt his knee.  I don't know.  I have not see him since he got hurt, so we will look at that tomorrow and see what the deal is.  He has to go to the doctor so I am not sure."

On what it says about a team responding when a high-profile player gets hurt:
"I hope it is a sign of growth and us becoming a football team the whole way.  We had some adversity there in the second half where some things did not go our way.  It is going to take all 60, whatever we brought on this trip, it is going to take all of them to go win it.  To those kids' credit, they did that.  We found a way to win a football game on the road, which is a big deal. 

On the play of Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks:
"He played well.  That one fumble is not like him and he knows that.  That gave them some more momentum and I knew it was going to be what it was to start the second half.  We fought and gave ourselves an opportunity to win it and it was good." 

On rushing for 275 yards today:
"We could have run for a lot more.  That was huge as far as winning this football game.  I knew it would be us being able to control the clock some and keep their offense off the field.  It is hard to score when you are not out there.  That is what we did in the first half and gave ourselves an opportunity to finish it off." 

On bouncing back after two scores to start the second half:
"We talked about that at halftime.  The score was 28-7 and we talked about the growth of this team I wanted to see in the second half.  I knew it was going to be difficult for us to finish because I knew they could do some things.  There was about a three-minute stretch there we didn't handle it very well, but we found a way to win it.  We have to continue to grow and understand, everything matters.  It doesn't matter what point in the game it is.  It is the growth that has to happen and make that work." 

On the play of Chris James:
"He is getting better every week. Got to do a little better job in the blocking aspect.  He didn't have his best game blocking today, but he is a kid who is 6-3, 225 pounds and can move around and make things happen.  He is hard for people to defend."

On bouncing back after two tough SoCon losses: 
"Wins are always tough to come by this time of year.  I told them in the locker room, five sounds a whole lot better than four and six is going to sound a whole lot better than five if we can figure it out.

On the play of the defense:
"We knew coming in here, we should be able to do those things.  Not with a group that throws it every snap, but when people decide to throw it we have to be able to do that. It is hard rushing the passer all day.  It is not like going in there and playing the triple option.  I thought those guys did a good job all day of trying to keep that guy in the pocket.  We made them bench a starter, so we were doing something right.  They couldn't get anything going so that was a good thing. Penalties drive me nuts.  They drive me absolutely insane, but they did a good job all day."

On Nick Tiano's 100 rushing yards:
"It was there and they covered us up a couple of times in the throwing game.  He is 6-5, 240 and taking a chance and puling it down.  He can run and can do some things.  We are going to have to be creative to get these last two and finish this out the right way." 

Chris James – Sr.-TE
The key to his play today:
"The offensive line, they have been blocking well up front in the run game and I think that opened some stuff up for me in the pass game.  I have to credit those guys up front and the running bacs for opening that stuff up." 

On Ailym Ford going down:
"He is a great kid.  He works his butt off and he is a big-time talent, but you have to have the next man up mentality and I think we have that.  We have EB and Stovall who came in and I think they ran the ball really, really well."

On Nick Tiano rushing for 100 yards:
"He is a great athlete and I had no doubt he could rush for 100 yards."

On the play of the offense when Ford went down:
"It is our O-line.  There are some big hogs up there.  They eat up space, they are mean and they finish their blocks.  It is fun playing with them." 

Getting a win after losing two tough SoCon games:
"Those were two tough games and we knew this was going to be a tough game.  We knew they usually have an explosive offense so our offense was going to have to score points too.  I think we did.  I think we all wish we would have capitalized on a couple more opportunities." 

What do you like about this team?
"We fight.  We fight our butts off every day at practice.  We fight every game for four quarters.  That is a credit to Coach Wright an the culture he has brought here and the culture he has instilled in us.  We don't give up.  It is pretty cool." 

Elijah Ibitokun-Hanks – Sr.-RB
Thoughts on the Ailym Ford injury:
"I just told him to keep his head up and gave him some words of encouragement … I have been there before.  To see him go down hurt, but I knew what I had to do for our running back crew to make sure we go out the right way."

On getting his name called throughout the game:
"It felt good, it has been a while since I had almost 30 carries in a game.  Just to be back out with those guys to show I am here to do whatever I have to do to contribute to the program." 

On the play of the offense after losing a key player:
"It says so much.  We have so much talent on this team, the most I have ever been a part of.  So to see that one can go down and others can pick up the slack says a lot about our offense."