2023 Chattanooga Mocs Football
at Mercer – Oct. 14
Five Star Stadium – Macon, Ga.
Postgame Quotes
Rusty Wright, Head Coach
On holding Mercer to a net zero rushing yard total.
"If you don't give up any rushing yards, that's a pretty good day. We talk about it all the time coming on the road, executing in the game and just not turning the ball over. We went out there and did that. Couldn't be more proud of this group. This is a tough place to play and they've got some pretty good players. The resilience of this group, they're tired and beat up, but they played their hearts out tonight. It was a lot of fun to watch and be around."
On the team relying on field goals early on before finally scoring a TD in the second half.
"I'm taking points whenever I can get points in a game like that. I thought about going for it a couple of times, but at the end of the day you take points when you can get points. We've got a good kicker, so yes we'd like to have touchdowns but we'll take the points."
On today's game being a field position battle.
"It definitely way for a little while, but sometimes it's just one of those days. Regardless you have to figure it out and when it is one of those days, you can't turn it over on offense. You've gotta be smart and you can't give them anything cheap. For the most part our kids did a really great job against two really good wideouts. Those kids were good. I thought they were going to have a hard time running the ball against us this week, I thought they were going to have a hard time blocking our guys in the middle, and both of those things happened."
Jay Person, EDGE, Sr.
On the defense's performance tonight.
"First of all, we were talking about their #1 (Devron Harper) and #13 (Ty James) all week, so we knew we had to get pressure on them. It was a whole lot of one-on-ones, so when we got those we knew we had to win them, and we did a lot of the time. That was a big part of our night tonight.
On not having a bye up to this point.
"It's definitely different, but we eventually will get one the week before Alabama. It sucks that we get it at the end of the year, usually we get it Week 4 or 5 and it helps when we're banged up. It's just different so we just make sure everybody's getting into the training room and getting our bodies right. Just need to make sure we're doing the little things on and off the field."
Chase Artopoeus, QB, Jr.
On the defense's performance tonight.
"Our defense played great, especially after last week. We know we have a great defense so it wasn't really super surprising tonight that they showed out. They stepped up to the challenege this week and I'm really proud of them."
On changing the mindset from putting up a ton of points to just playing mistake-free football.
"We have an expectation as an offense to score a lot of points, and we just weren't really able to do that tonight. Thankfully our defense was there to alleviate some of that pressure on us. I think in the second half we played a lot better and just controlled the line of scrimmage much better."
Clayton Crile, K, Sr.
On his recording-setting five field goal night.
"Honestly I'm a punter first, so the field goal thing for me-- I'm just doing it because we need me to do it. It's not really my forte, but if I can help put us in a position to win then I'm happy to go out there and get those points."
On how crucial his kicks were in a low-scoring game like this one.
"Well really the credit goes to the offense, the guys blocking, Jake (Hall) snapping and Chase (Artopoeus) holding. Big ups to them because then I just kick it."
Kobe Joseph, LB, Sr.
On the team's defensive effort as a whole tonight.
"Last week was a tough one to deal with, but everyone showed up on Monday ready to work, and we worked our a**es off the whole week. We didn't think about what had happened, we thought about where we needed to get better, and we did it. Tonight we showed that we're still a tough defense."
On playing all these big conference games back-to-back-back.
"We can't afford to lose any games, and a big thing we've been doing all week as part of our culture here and to just line up and play regardless of who we're up against this week, next week or last week. We just keep getting better, getting the job done and playing right. We have a workman's mentality that makes me really like this team."
