2023 Chattanooga Mocs Football
vs. #17 Western Carolina – Oct. 7
Finley Stadium – Chattanooga, Tenn.
Postgame Quotes
Rusty Wright, Head Coach
Opening statement following 52-50 loss to WCU.
"That's a good football team over there, give them a lot of credit. They stayed the course and played, and they made one more play than we did. I know it's hard in that locker room right now; our kids battled all night and I'm proud of that group in there. Better days will be ahead, we've got some things we can fix, but that was a much better team that took the field tonight than the one that did last Saturday in Spartanburg. That's where we've got to continue to go."
On WCU's offense.
"They're good on offense. Their running back is a good player, they're big and athletic up front. They give you trouble, always have. The corner route they threw down here, they had too much time [and they have] good wideouts. They're going to score a bunch of points on a lot of people. Thankfully, tonight offensively, we scored to keep up with them."
On Chase Artopoeus' level-headedness.
"I think that's how the whole group played. They just kept going out there and battling, making plays. For the ones he threw bad, he threw a bunch good. I'm not going to take that away from that kid, he gave us an opportunity to go win a football game. Could we be better? Sure. He played his tail off. I'm sure he'd like to make a couple different throws, not even on the interceptions, I'm talking about throws that we had them beat on. But that's just him. He goes out there and plays and competes, does what he's supposed to."
On Javin Whatley's performance.
"We knew there was a matchup issue on their safety. We knew there would be a problem with their safety on him. We were having to take some shots and get some stuff done with him. We liked that matchup going in, and he's a good player. He makes things happen and he gave us a chance."
On next steps.
"A month ago, we were dead. Now we're sitting here at 4-2, 3-1 in the league with a pretty good football team. We've got an opportunity to keep playing and go finish this thing out. If we had won it, we would've shown up tomorrow and Monday to try and go get it figured out. I know they're hurting; they've got every right to be. I have a feeling this league is going to get crazy before it's over, so we've just got to keep playing and keep ourselves alive in it."
Javin Whatley, R-So-WR
On his big numbers.
"It was a good performance, but at the end of the day, it doesn't matter. All that matters is the team getting the win, and we came up just a little short today. We'll go back out there Monday and work."
On the offense's success.
"I feel like the offense has a great connection; we've been working so [well] together, so it just translates from practice into the game."
On the emphasis next week.
"Go back out there and work. We still have a [few] more games left, and they're not the last three we're going to play. It's not the end of the world, we've got other opponents we have to go play. At the end of the day, we're going to drive down to Mercer next week and go play."
Alex Mitchell, So.-LB
On the defensive efforts tonight.
"There was a lot of long plays that just shouldn't happen, so we've got to get it fixed next week. We'll be prepared next week for Mercer, and we'll get back to it on Monday."
Chase Artopoeus, Jr-QB
On the offensive performance.
"Our offense did pretty well, our goal is to get better every week and I think we were definitely better than we were last week, so that's a positive. At the end of the day, we still fell short, and we wish we had a couple plays back there."
On Javin Whatley's play.
"Nunu's [Javin] my guy. I think we have many great receivers on offense, so it's any given Saturday with them. You never know who's going to be getting the ball with them. It happened to be Nunu tonight and he did a great job, so I'm really proud of him."
