Postgame Quotes from App State vs. Georgia Southern

POSTGAME QUOTES
 
App State head coach Eliah Drinkwitz
 
Opening Statement:
"Credit to Georgia Southern and coach Lunsford. They played a good football game. They played a clean football game, a few penalties and no turnovers. They converted their long field goal in the first half. We did not convert our field goal in the third quarter, and at the end of the day, that's going to be the one that we wished we had back."
 
On Corey Sutton's two late touchdowns sparking a comeback scenario: 
"We just kind of abandoned the run, threw it down 17 and tried and get back into it. We kind of threw caution to the wind a little bit in those conditions. Hats off to those guys for making plays."
 
On what needed to be different tonight for a win:
"They started out faster than we did. We didn't convert third and short. I know on three drives in the first half, we started with two drops. We just didn't start fast enough. It took us a two-minute drive at the end of the first half to even score. The second half out in the third quarter, they went down and scored, and we went three-and-out; they scored again. That's just not winning football. We have to be better than that, but at the end of the day, offensively, it came down to third-down conversions, red zone offense, the missed field goal, third-and-shorts in the first half. They are going to be big for us to look at, fix and move forward."
 
On the wind affecting Zac Thomas' accuracy tonight:
"I don't know. We just missed some guys. I don't know if it was the wind or whatever, it was howling down there pretty good. I do think that the wind was a factor as far as our scoring drives, we were with the wind in the second and fourth quarter. So, maybe it had something to do with it."
 
On the possibility of going for it on fourth down earlier in the game:
"The game played out, and we had two opportunities to win the game. In the final two minutes, we didn't get it done. So, it wasn't anything game management or whatever, we had an opportunity to win the game and didn't get it done. That's on me as a play caller. I've got to put our guys in a situation to be more successful, and then as players, we have to convert. We have to take advantage of opportunities, and that's on both sides of the ball. We didn't get a turnover on defense."
 
On preparing for next week's game at South Carolina and beyond:
"No games are easy. There are no easy games in football. Regardless of who the opponent is, we'll come back and work on Sunday. We'll do what we've talked about every single week, which is to focus on being 1-0. We'll put this behind us and keep moving forward. There's a lot of season left. There are a lot of things still to play for. Obviously, we don't control our own fate. They have the tiebreaker over us, but there's a lot of conference games left to be played."
 
On trying to rebound from a loss:
"We'll move forward. It's all about being 1-0 and all about those things we preach when we win. We have to keep preaching them when things don't go in our favor, and we have to keep believing in them. That's what our team will do."

 
App State quarterback Zac Thomas
 
On losing their first game of the season:
"It hurts. At the end of the day, I don't think the ranking defines a team. I wish we would have went higher, but obviously now we're going to fall. I think it doesn't matter at this point. We have to keep coming in and keep fighting. We still have a lot of ballgames left to play. We have to go 1-0 each week like Coach Drink preaches and try to do the little things right and keep fighting."


App State safety Josh Thomas

On losing their first game of the season:
"The locker room is pretty tough, but we'll bounce back and be fine. We have to move on. We didn't go 1-0 this week, but that doesn't mean we can't go 1-0 next week. That's all we have to focus on."

On what didn't go right on defense:
"We just have to do our job on big plays. You see what happens when we don't do it, and we didn't do it on big plays and you see what happens."

On losing to an in-conference rival:
"It sucks. I can't lie to you, but it happens. It's football. They have a really good team. They played well on the road, so you have to give props to them. I'll just take it on the chin and keep moving forward."


App State wide receiver Thomas Hennigan

On the offense gaining momentum in the fourth quarter:
"Coach always says to keep swinging, and that's what we did tonight. We ran out of time at the end."

On receivers making plays:
"Everyone started to get involved, we were able to beat them in zone coverage and they had a tough time adjusting to it, we just ran out of time towards the end."


Georgia Southern head coach Chad Lunsford

Thoughts on the win:
"I'm very proud of our guys and staff. They did a tremendous job on a short week. We said we wanted a 60-minute dog fight, and we got one. For a while we thought we were going to pull away, but they ended up coming back and getting in the game. Hats off to them for playing their butts off, but our guys just proved that they could finish in the end and get that victory."
 
On the difference from last year to this year:
"The big piece is now that we did this last year when they were ranked 25, now they are ranked 20. We can't drink the cool aid, we have to be 0-0 and figure out how to go 1-0 next week."
 
On lessons learned from last year let-down after a big win:
"They understand the difference between good and great. It's not about getting 10 or 12 wins, but as our program grows it is about getting better in these type of situations. We're in a situation right now where it's going to be so easy to hear everyone tell us how good we are. What we have to do is drown out all the good stuff just like the negative stuff and understand we have to be 0-0 going after 1-0. That's how you go from good to great."