Chattanooga Football Postgame Quotes
No. 18 Chattanooga at The Citadel
Johnson Hagood Stadium – Charleston, S.C.
Saturday – March 6, 2021

Head Coach Rusty Wright
Opening thoughts, scoring on the first play from scrimmage:
"They lined up that we thought they would and Drayton made a good read. We actually practiced it that way all week in practice and Juwan was open the whole time. It's just crazy how it worked out. Drayton made a good read, good throw. It worked out.

"I think that's the second time I've been down here and we scored on the first play on offense. I think Jacob (Huesman – assistant coach) and CJ Board (currently with the NY Giants) hit a pass down here in 14. 

"I'm good with that.  We got to figure out a way score some more along the way after that to help us out. It was a great start.

"They took the ball. I thought we came out well, defensively, I think we played well defensively all day. That's that's the thing. I think we played well defensively all day.

"You couldn't have scripted the first quarter, first half any better for us against this. Just had opportunities and just couldn't take advantage of them later."

On scoring on the second possession:
"We got good players, we got to do more of that.  We can't wait to do it in spurts. We got to be a little more consistent. I knew we would struggle a little bit longer. When you start off with 14 points that fast, I was like, well, I guess it that bus ride wasn't that bad coming down here? I thought we'd done a lot of things to help them out that way.

"We missed some.  We busted a coverage. We missed a read down here running a route, we had chance to get some points in the drive before the field goal.  A couple other times we had chances to get points and in didn't. Some of that's on me. I went for it down here on fourth down because I'm like, well, field goal does us no good. It's still two scores. I need another score, so that's why we did that."

On getting points at the end of the half:
"It was huge. I'm sitting there thinking … we punt … I knew he didn't have any timeouts and I had to talk myself into it. I was like, he doesn't have any time outs, so it would be 20 something 25, 30 seconds left … we will be okay. That's why I was like, alright Joe (Pizzo – OC), let's bring let's bring the offense back out here. Let's just take a shot. See if we get a first down.  See if we can make something out of this and that's what we did.  Dray made a good throw and Kanore made a good catch.  It worked out for us."

On the turnovers in the turnovers in the fourth quarter:
"We turned somebody loose, quick and we just can't.  We just we have to do a better job of understanding situations and know when that's getting ready to happen. It's third down, know when that's getting ready to happen, somebody's gonna be in your face. They're not gonna let you sit there and throw it.  Things happen.

"It goes back to practice, honestly. It goes back to practice because we're not practicing some of those situations because you can't physically do it all the time. We just got to be better teachers and understand, those are things that are going to happen.  To that young man he's never had that  happen to him in a in a football game because he hadn't played enough.  This stuff will help us I hope in the long run."

On the overtime period and going for two:
"As soon as they scored and kicked the extra point, I told Pizzo you get four plays and a two-point conversion. Let's go."

"I think we played well enough defensively all day to be fine. We couldn't continue to play defensively and be okay. The sooner you can get these option teams over with, the better off you're gonna be. We got some bumps and bruises, maybe a sprained ankle.  Everybody's healthy, everybody's where they ae supposed to be, it was time for us to get on the bus and go."

"I don't call the plays.  That's why I hired two guys to do that. As soon as we got on offense, I said figure out a way to get in the end zone, go for two and let's roll.  We let them line up. Thankfully, we called that timeout, because they didn't line up the way we thought they were going to line up.  The next time we got them in it, and it worked out."

On the close games with The Citadel:
"It's always hard to wind down here. It's been hard since 1991 (his freshman year at UTC) to win down here. It's just always been hard. Those kids are gonna play hard, it's their first home game. They hadn't won in a while.  They were gonna play hard.

"A lot of times when you play this they take our athleticism and our ability to run out of it and condense the game and make it hard and difficult on us.  I'm so pleased that we won for those kids.

"Now, we got to handle some situations better and do some things better. Year and a half ago, I'm not sure we win this game. I'm not sure when things start going bad for us, I'm not sure we step up and make plays and slow momentum down and do those things. I hope all that stuff is building these guys the right way and we and we learn from these lessons and we keep adding to ourselves and we keep doing things right."

On the play of Quarterback Drayton Arnold:
"Drayton is seeing things for the first time.  Things are coming at him for the first time and he has to continue to do that and settle in there. He got a little quick on a couple of throws because they were hitting him up you know.  Now he knows, you know what I'm standing there and can get hit. I'm going to get hit that's just part of it. We knew that was part of what they did and we knew it was coming.  We actually had a guy open, had the H running down the hash.  If he just hangs on to it just a little longer instead of just trying to throw it up to Reggie, we're gonna be that much better off but.

"We do have a lot of older guys that have played in the secondary.  Drayton Arnold hasn't plaed much football to be a senior quarterback.  He has to learn.  That O line has to take care of him.  Jay Gibson hadn't played a whole lot of football at tight end.  Juwan Tyus was a wideout the last time we played down here.  There's guys and pieces that we have to grow along the way and we're getting there."

On the play of Jerrell Lawson and the secondary:
"That's just how it kind of works out, you got to have your track shoes on back there at safety when you play in these games.  Those kids are so good. Him and Brandon back there and, and CaMiron and Jordan. I don't really worry about them.  We talked about it all week. Their eyes were really good today. They're in the right spots, and those kids are good players. If they're locked in, and we were locked in yesterday during the walkthrough, I feel pretty good about coming down here today."

On improving as a football team today:
"There's no question. Even if we lost it, we improved as a football team today. That's the thing because he would have shown some growth somehow, someway. We didn't handle situations well. We let these guys get back in the football game instead of putting the game away. Those are things that you can't simulate in a scrimmage in the spring.  Hopefully we learn from those things and it grows this football team."

Harrison Moon – Sr.-OL
On playing The Citadel:
"They're a tough group.  They're very disciplined and you know you are always going to get their best.  They do a lot of things to try to get you, but we can fight too.  Ultimately, we got the win and there is no better feeling."

On what it says about the toughness of the team getting a win in overtime:
"It does.  Coach Wright has completely changed this program and we are all about mental toughness.  We all fight.  I know everyone on offense, defense, all of us, I know we are going to go to bat and we are going to go down swinging.  We have a good bunch here."

On lack of scoring in the second half:
"As the offensive line, we have to take pride in that. We could have finished that game earlier. We have to clean some things up, but at the end of the day, a win is a win and it feels good."

On the upcoming bye-week:
"We will take the bye week.  For us older guys, it will feel good.  Couldn't be going into the bye week feeling better. 

Jay Gibson – So.TE
On the two-point conversion play:
"I was honestly for Chris James, but Chris wasn't able to play, so luckily they gave me a shot to run it and it worked out for the best."

On the play of The Citadel:
"We knew that they might be a little more physical than Wofford and we knew that we were going to have to fight, no matter how much we were up.  We knew they weren't going to lay over and quit.  Sure enough, we had to fight literally to the last play to win.  We came out lucky to get the win.  We could have done a lot better, obviously."

On figuring out the offense in the second half:
"We started out drives well and we got the ball moving.  Then we get 6-8 plays into the drive and fatigue sets in a little bit.  That has to do with us not practicing as long as we would have liked to coming into the season. I think we will get that corrected going forward and it will help us be even better. 

Devonnsha Maxwell – Jr.-DL
On the celebration in the locker room:
"It never gets old. It's like it is new every time we come in there after a win. That's fun."

On the difficulties of playing the triple-option of The Citadel:
"Preparation and practice all week.  It might not look the same as the game, but those guys on the scout team give us a good look.  Knowing how the game was going to go, I knew what I had to do a practice."  

On stopping the run up the middle:
"We had a lot of guys doing what they were supposed to do.  Great eyes.  Reading what they were supposed to read.  Squeeze when they are supposed to squeeze.  Coming off the ball and taking on double teams and taking on the cutout block and not getting cut.  We took away the dive and everything else just fell in line."

On getting to the QB when he dropped back:
"We knew once we stopped them from running the ball and stopped the run, we knew we were going to get them in the passing situations.  From there, we got the call green, and when it is green, it is time to go."