2024 Chattanooga Football
Postgame Quotes
September 28, 2024 – vs. Portland State – Finley Stadium
Rusty Wright, head coach
Opening Statement
"I thought the coaches and players did a nice job bouncing back after a tough, crazy month. Winning is hard. I don't care where you're at, what you're doing. It's hard, even when you do things well. I thought we played well. We played a good football game tonight. Offensively we played well. Anytime you score 45 points, you got to have an opportunity to win a football game. I thought we ran the football a little better tonight, gave ourselves an opportunity to do some things that way. Played just well enough defensively to get out of our own way. We did a good job stopping them when we had to stop them."
On how the team played after the first three games
"Played like we were capable of playing. Biggest thing was, we were efficient with the ball. We ran the ball like we're capable of running the ball. I think the biggest thing was we ran a bit differently, blocked a little differently. It goes back to those guys doing it, but we did the things we're capable of doing."
On the turnaround on 3rd down conversions
"The biggest thing was we were different on first and second downs which gives you the chance to stay out of a bunch of third and longs. When you do that, success rate goes up. We still converted some third and longs tonight, but that's the biggest thing. We stayed out of second and 10 a lot. Even if it was a three-yard gain, those are the things we have to do offensively to give ourselves a chance."
On what he got out of the game besides a win
"That is the only thing that I care about. I want to see a group go out there and play like they are capable of playing. I think we did on one side and maybe half the time on the other. So we know we got things we need to get better at, but you know, at the end of the day, we've got to figure out a way to make stops when we have to have stops. But we had fun. It's been a while since we won a football game."
Chase Artopoeus, Sr., QB
"You can believe you can win as much as you want, but to actually do it is a whole other thing. College football...it's not easy to win by any means. Getting this one tonight kind of instilled a belief in this team, once again, that we are a winning team."
On how refreshing the first half was after the first three games
"It's big, you know. We talked about it all throughout the bye week, all throughout this week. It's tough. We haven't really been about to get into the flow of the game. Whether it was getting guys touches early or just getting positive yards on first and second downs. Not making ourselves have to deal with third and longs. I think tonight we were able to do that. I think that everybody got their touches early on. Everybody got into the flow. I felt good after the first couple of drives."
On the difference between playing Mercer two weeks ago to now.
"Like I said, the flow. I think there's a different energy tonight. We kind of had a chip on our shoulder tonight especially. You know, you're 0-3. You got to kind of climb our way out of that pit we dug. I think that we were able to do that. I think we had more fight than we may have had against Mercer."
Reuben Lowery, III, Sr., DB
On getting the win and the result you want but still need to work on the game
"It's great. It's another chance to define some weaknesses, a process where we can clean up and get better as a whole team. We love to see complimentary football, you know, both sides compliment each other and then one side picking each other up. So that's where we can clean up and get better as a whole team. That's what we love about the game. You can learn from wins, you can learn from losses. It's just great to learn from wins."
On how Portland State's offense will help the rest of the season
"Incredible athlete (#17). They have a really good program out there and they played very well. You see those athletes all over the field, spreading the ball out and having a spread offense. It'll be really good for us down the stretch. You focus on angles to the ball with good athletes and tackling. Just a big point of emphasis. We can learn from that on film, we can grow as a defense."
