NO. 5 APPALACHIAN STATE 20, NO. 7 SOUTH CAROLINA STATE 13
NCAA DIVISION I FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP FIRST ROUND
NOV. 28, 2009 • BOONE, N.C. (KIDD BREWER STADIUM)
POSTGAME QUOTES


South Carolina State Head Coach Buddy Pough
“That's a tough way to lose a ballgame right there. I thought we played pretty good for most of the game, we had our moments on both sides of the ball but we didn't do enough on offense at the end of the game to secure to deal.”

(On the botched field goal)
“I think it was a miscommunication. The holder gave the ready call and while he was checking to see if everyone was in the right place, the snapper thought he heard the rest of the cadence. So not only was the snap early, nobody was even looking so it was by both of them before they even realized the ball had been snapped.”

“We needed to be more effective offensively, we struggled in some of our conversion situations. Their defense is improved and they gave us some tough looks with their secondary at times with some late movement that took away a lot of what we try to do with our running game.”

“They do a good job of moving Legree around and putting him in places to make big plays for their defense.”

“We just didn't do quite enough offensively to win a ballgame like this, whether it be controlling the ball more or scoring a touchdown. We had a defensive touchdown and two field goals and that's not going to be enough to beat these guys.”

South Carolina State Quarterback Malcolm Long
“They gave us several different looks and moved guys into position to make big plays on us.”

“We're going to build on the mistakes that we made this year and use it to be a better football team next year.”

South Carolina Defensive back Devonne Quattlebaum
“We had a great week of prepartation defensively and our coaches did a great job of getting us in the right positions to make plays and I was able to do that on the two interceptions.”

(on how Edwards' injury affected their preparation)
“We knew as a defense that their plan was based around Armanti Edwards, so our plan was try to keep him contained even though he wasn't running the ball but it really didn't affect our preparation because you know he's going to make a play somehow.”


Appalachian State Defensive back Dominique McDuffie
“On the field goal, I noticed that the kicker and the holder weren't paying attention when the ball was snapped, so I ran back there and a couple people dove on it but they couldn't get to it and somehow I ended up with it and got a few blocks and was able to coast in to the end zone.”


Appalachian State Head Coach Jerry Moore
“It was a good fight, and I told Buddy after the game that they might be the best team we played this year. They had a great plan and when you watch them on tape you can see how good of a football team they are.”

“We played hard, they played hard, we both made a good number of mistakes that are uncharacteristic of both of our teams that's a testament to how hard we both played.”

“I was pleased with our players' effort and tenactity. When things start going bad and you have some bad luck its easy to self-destruct and we had the opportunity to do that today but we didn't and I'm proud of our players for their effort and the coaches for holding everything together.”

“I think most people realize Armanti's not at full strength. But he showed a great deal of courage today out there doing what he did and he's getting better every day.”

“When you get down into playoff time you have to be good enough and you have to be lucky enough. Both of those things worked out in our favor today.”

“Our defense has gotten a lot better in the last month, they've really been a difference maker for us in the last few ball games and they really stepped up today and did a good job on the Ford kid.”

“After a while I think they realized Armanti wasn't going to run the ball and that really freed them up to get after us with their blitz packages.”


Appalachian State Defensive tackle Anthony Williams
“All month long, the defense has been making some changes in practices. We've been more intense and more focused and the results of that have been evident on game day.”


Appalachian State Quarterback Armanti Edwards
“They did a good job of confusing our offense, we knew what was coming but we would always shift the protection to the opposite side of where the blitz was coming from and that allowed them to get in the back field on us.”

(on the final third down conversion)
“They were out of time outs but if they stopped us right there they would have had time to run some offense so that first down was huge. We knew they wouldn't be able to stop the clock again and that pretty much sealed the deal.”