2024 Chattanooga Football
Postgame Quotes
Nov. 9, 2024 – at The Citadel – Johnson Hagood Stadium
Rusty Wright, head coach
On getting a road conference win
We played like we were capable of playing. Made them do some things. They gave us one, the very first play of the game, we had never seen. Never seen, and that was the longest play of the day. But I thought those guys settled in and did a phenomenal job and played like they were capable of playing. That's what you have to do. Defense travels. We've got to play that way on the road and do those things. Super proud of those kids and those coaches."
On defending The Citadel offense
"There's no question about that. They try to make it ugly, slow it down and make it ugly and not let you do what you want to do. Feel like you got to press to do things and that kind of stuff. But our guys, I thought did just a super job. It's hard. It's a hard trip, man. I thought our kids responded well and did well."
On keeping The Citadel one-dimensional
"You hold somebody to less than 250 yards in a conference football game, you're going to win a bunch of football games. That's the thing. We were in the right places a lot. We talk about that all the time defensively about eyes and eyes being in the right spot and us being in the right spots."
On the onside kick
"It looked like we were moving in slow motion trying to get to it. We had just told them to be ready for that because they had done some of that on film and you could see it coming. We got to better in those situations and doing those things situationally. But defense responded like they were supposed to."
On Reggie Davis and Justus Durant each going over 100 yards
"We blocked it up a couple of times, but he ran well on that touchdown down there in the far end zone and got it done. Those are things we have to be able to do. We have to be able to run the football and we have to be able to play defense and we've got to throw it a little better. Make better decisions at times."
On Schomberg's play
"I think he's just got to settle in. I think he tries to hard too early to want to be good and want to make something happen. He's got to let the game come to him, you know. Make good decisions. Sometimes the best completion is an incompletion."
Justus Durant, Jr., RB
On the team having such a great day on the ground.
"It was great. We had put this game plan in all week long and we came out here and executed it."
On providing Luke Schomberg with a running game that allowed him to get the passing game going too.
"It was his second start for us this season since he came in last week, so we knew we had to get this thing rolling early, and we did."
On the running backs not turning over the football.
"The football is our first priority, and without that we can't do anything. We gotta make sure we're taking care of the football."
On what the focus was in practice coming off the loss at Western Carolina.
"Really just executing and being perfect in the fine details. We wanted to stay true to what we know."
Quay Wiggles, Sr., DT
On the defense bottling up The Citadel's offense for a majority of the game.
"When you play Citadel you've gotta have your eyes in the right spots and everybody's gotta be in the right gap. That's a sound football team and they play the option, so eventually they're gonna pop. As long as you have your eyes in the right spot and everybody is doing their job, you should be just fine."
On the secondary locking down The Citadel's passing attack.
"You've definitely gotta make them one dimensional. Just keep them doing one thing and make that one thing the main thing. Our secondary did a good job so shout out to them coming to play."
On the team's tackling improving this week.
"It was all about the right pursuit angles and just wrapping up. We had a big emphasis on that this week. Coach Yeager was hard on us about that and yelling at us all week about having the proper hips. It's all about the little things. The little things are what separates teams from being great from just being average. We want to be great so we've gotta do the little things right."
On forcing multiple fumbles in the third quarter.
"We don't ride momentum, we just carry it our own way. No matter what happens at the end of the day we know that we've gotta go out there and do our job and get the ball back to the offense."
