Postgame Quotes from App State's Win vs. Charlotte

POSTGAME QUOTES
 
App State head coach Eliah Drinkwitz
 
Opening Statement:
"Any win is a good win. I'm really proud of some guys stepping up and making some individual great plays. Darrynton Evans was Superman out there, 234 yards rushing plus a kickoff return for a touchdown. Jalen Virgil had three catches, 86 yards and a touchdown. Zac threw three touchdowns. Those three guys stepped up and made some plays. Jolly with the block right before the half was a huge momentum swing and then intercepted the ball at the end of the game. I'm really proud of some of those guys. I'm disappointed in the penalties. Obviously, way too many penalties on our team, both offensive and defensive penalties. They're undisciplined and that comes back to me, and that's going to be addressed and fixed. Missed tackling was sloppy and poor. We gave up almost 300 yards passing. That's not something I expected to happen. We will come back tomorrow and get that corrected and move forward. It's good to be 2-0."
 
On Charlotte's offense in the second half:
"They were just moving the ball. We couldn't get them in behind-the-chains moments, and when we did, we made stupid penalties like pass interference or gave up deep balls. We have to do a better job of keeping the ball in front of us and not letting it get thrown over our head. That's going to be an emphasis this week."
 
On Malik Williams' performance today:
"They were giving us some space, trying to attack our edges or attack our Y with some pressures. When you do that, you leave the field safety one-on-one with your slot receiver, and Malik is a really good football player especially on that ball when we were backed up and caught that wheel route. He went up and made some big-time catches for us. He's a good player, Thomas had his catches, and Jalen did his job. That goes back to Zac taking what the defense gives him."
 
On the blocked punt right before the half:
"That's all coach Link. We had seen it on film, and he had asked me to do it earlier. I didn't feel good about it, but then I just felt like we had three timeouts, we had just scored on that fumble and I thought they might play a little conservative because they would get the ball back to start the second half. I just wanted to use our timeouts. We felt really good about that block, so we wanted to see it. Even if we didn't get it, I felt like we'd have good field position, so we decided to go after it. We dialed it up and practiced it all week and it was executed perfectly."
 
On the performances from the running back group:
"We rushed for 200-something yards. Darrynton really stepped up. We have a lot of faith in those guys and they ran hard and ran behind the pads."
 
On Jalen Virgil's contributions:
"We have a lot of confidence in Jalen, and he just needed his moment and his opportunity. We felt like we had a good matchup for him to the field, and we wanted to be aggressive and take those shots. After that turnover, Zac came over and said 'coach, we need to throw the nine ball to Jalen.' I had a run called and they called timeout, so then I just said let's do it and Zac gave him a nice ball. On the 3rd and 12, we had seen that same formation earlier in the game and we felt like we could get what we call a post route. We felt like we could attack that corner and run by him as long as we suck down the safety. Credit to Zac because he took a shot on that play and got the ball out. It was a great route, but it was just as much the toughness factor."


App State running back Darrynton Evans
 
On today's success with the ground game: 
"Up front, the O-line, they did a good of job of opening up holes and pushing people where they need to be. Then, coaches with the play calls, they saw the right things up top, and relayed it down to the coaches on the field. We made it happen."
 
On the onside kick TD return: 
"I was talking to Thomas and JT and was like if it's hot, let it go. It just took a good bounce, and it was too high for me just to catch it and fall. I looked as I caught it, and it was wide open, might as well keep running. It went from catching and securing to try to put us up more points to help our defense."
 
On the opening-play TD scamper:
"It felt good. Coach Drink, he always emphasizes starting fast, so we needed that to come out. Normally, when we start fast, it's hard to beat us."
 
On Victor Johnson returning mid-game:  
"He makes us play harder. We play for the seniors, and he's been here for a long time. A lot of work, blood, sweat and tears. He always brings great energy. It just makes us play a lot harder."

 
App State wide receiver Jalen Virgil

On connecting with Thomas for the 73-yard TD pass: 
"When we got back to the house, because Zac and I live together, he was like, man, I can't believe that I overthrew you on that post (last week against ETSU). I was like, man, we are going to end up getting it eventually. I just waited on it this week, and we finally connected. So, hopefully we can keep doing it in the future."
 
On Charlotte's defense playing tight coverage:
"Pretty much every time that I lined up in the boundary, their boundary corner, No. 6, he was pressed up on me every time. So we got back in the locker room at halftime and talked about airing it out a little bit more. Whenever I caught that one ball before halftime, Zac was looking out and he noticed how the corner was pressed up. So we decided to take a shot and executed it."
 
On his first kickoff return of his career: 
"It's cool. I'm behind possibly App State's best kick returner of all time. In practice, I'm always right behind Darrynton just watching how he hits the holes and taking notes."
 

App State inside linebacker Jordan Fehr
 
On Demetrius Taylor's strip sack leading to an offensive score:
"Anytime we force a big turnover, especially on their end, it's huge for our offense to give them life. When they went down and scored, that gave us great momentum especially with the situation in the game. Meech (Demetrius Taylor) made a great play off the end, and I was happy to get right there on top of it so our offense can go and score."
 
On Charlotte's offensive success:  
"We were prepared. It was just little things. Little things add up to big things. When we can't get off the field due to penalties, we played really sloppy. Thankfully we got a win, but we have a lot of corrections to make. We just have to get back doing what we do, go back, watch the film and get better."
 
"We know what we are capable of. We just have to communicate and play hard. At the end of the day, we play hard, we play fast, we play physical and we do our job. Sometimes when an error happens, us as leaders, we just have to say next play."


Charlotte head coach Will Healy

What do you do after this game?
"Just go through another week of preparation and watch the battle from this week. We will be prepared."
 
What do you get out of a game like the one today?
"You find out a lot about yourselves. The new staff really got to see what kind of fight the team has after this battle. I think you also learn some lessons the hard way where we definitely made some mistakes we felt like the game could have turned out a little differently. But against great football teams that's what they do. They capitalize, and we knew Appalachian State was really good and very well-coached. We knew we could not do anything to hurt ourselves, and we did it too much in the first half."
 
On the late game onside kick decision
"I felt like with 3:05 and one timeout remaining we needed to go ahead and be aggressive."