2024 Chattanooga Football
Postgame Quotes
October 19, 2024 – Wofford
Finley Stadium – Chattanooga, Tenn.

Rusty Wright, Head Coach
Opening statement after 37-5 victory.
"That's a good football team we just played. The score didn't indicate that, but I told the guys, when we practiced Tuesday, I thought it was the most physical practice we had in six years. When you go and prepare, do things right, prepare the right way, you have a chance to be pretty good. Our kids prepared extremely well this week, and they knew there was a good football team coming in here. I thought our staff did a great job this week on coming up with a game plan."
 
On getting guys in and utilizing depth.
"It's that time of year. You have to find guys that can play. We talk about it all the time and it's happened in the last couple weeks. You have to prepare like you're going to play 70 snaps. I think our kids see that happen to another guy in another spot and they bought in to trying to prepare as much as they can. I think we're doing a good job in getting these guys in the right spots and getting the most out of them as we can."
 
On tight first half score despite dominant performance.
"You have to make people beat you and you can't beat yourself. I was nervous after the first half because we had played so well and were only up 10-5. I challenged them in the halftime locker room to come out and play the best third quarter they could, and it showed. Good things just kept happening and we kept doing the things we were supposed to do."
 
On game planning each week.
"Too many times in this day in age in college football, I think, it's about coaches who want to run a certain system, do certain things, but at the end of the day, you have to do what your kids can do. You have to put them in a position to win. Every Saturday we play is different. It's a different game plan every time. Sometimes we get into it, and coach [Joe] Pizzo knows we have to score 40, sometimes we get into it and are playing good defense like today, the worst thing you can do is take shots and turn it over. I have two really good coordinators that are really smart, have seen a lot of football, and they aren't arrogant enough to not put our kids in positions to not win. I'm so thankful to have them."

Quay Wiggles, Sr., DT
On keys for the team to win
"Me personally, I think it has been Coach Yaeger. He's been tough on us, just reading our keys, doing our assignments, everybody getting to the ball, D-line playing physical. I just want to say 'thank you, Coach Yaeger, being the DC he's supposed to be.' Calling the plays right and just getting us into the right spots to make plays.
 
On getting hands up and into the passing lanes today
"That's just Coach Miller and Coach T Ward telling us to stay active, keep rushing. You know, stay in our pass rushing lanes. Keep an eye in the air and everybody just do their job. As you see we can pick bat balls, we can pick them off. We can do whatever we want."
 
On the play in the third quarter
"That was probably one of the best third quarters we ever played since I've been here. Just sound offense and defense. Everybody's just doing their job. Everybody keeping each other accountable. Everybody just playing for one another. It was a blessing to see. It was good."

Chase Artopoeus, Sr., QB
On taking advantage of field position.
"I think some of that comes with the short fields we're given by our defense, if I'm being honest with you. And you know, it was definitely a ground and pound game where we just had to take what they were giving us. This defense has been good against the pass all year. We knew that coming in. I think that my main goal is keep the ball moving, keep the chains moving and thankfully, our defensively give us some short fields to work with, and we were able to capitalize."
 
On effective redzone play.
"You get a third down, you got to be really efficient on third downs. And the games that we've lost, we've struggled with that. So that's been definitely a point of emphasis. You know, especially in practice, we've been doing a lot more than maybe we're used to, similar to the red zone. So I think it's definitely been showing itself on the field."
 
On the defense's effort.
"I mean, it's tough defense to face. I don't enjoy facing them in practice. Thankfully, I don't get hit by them. It's fun to see them really excel on the field. And finally, see some of the stuff that I've seen in fall camp come to the games. You know, I don't feel great for those other quarterbacks to have to play this defense, but I think they just really show up with a lot of intensity."

Reuben Lowery III, Sr., CB
On the pick-six.
"It's always fun to get a pick-six and an opportunity to kind of change the game and bring momentum to the whole team. To play a good team like that, it's really hard to get takeaways so it's really nice to get one and it's sound. It was a lot of fun."

On the team culture and depth of roster.
"It's huge. It's a team game. You can see the culture being passed down and we've tried to build a culture on both sides of the ball. It's a culture here. The next guy up will always be accountable that your role might change or your time might come. It's great to have guys ready to go, cheering on their teammates on the sidelines, being in the game no matter what. It's awesome to see the culture coach [Rusty] Wright has implemented and we've bought into it. We hope we can keep boosting that and keep this depth."