Aug. 27, 2004

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WSSU 32, Carson-Newman 48
August 26th, 2004
Post Game Quotes

WSSU Head Football Coach Kermit Blount

Coach, what is your feeling on tonight? Well, we scored 32 [points] but we gave up the things that we shouldn't have given up, and I have said before that we couldn't allow the big play, and we gave up more big plays than I anticipated us giving up.

Was it just the confusion of the split veer offense? What happened? We never closed on the dive and they continued to run the dive. Our linebackers wouldn't step up and we didn't squeeze in with our tackles and we just couldn't find an answer tonight.

And the passing game of theirs, the little screen passes, the dive opened that up?
Yeah, I think that the one big touchdown that they scored, I think that Dion [Thompson] came off of him, and I think he should have stayed on him, but that is no excuse for us...We just did not play well on the defensive side. And really, we didn't play all that well on the offensive side either, we were just able to make some big plays.

How do you come back after this?
We have just got to revamp and come back and get ready for Fort Valley State. We have just got to go back and make sure that we aren't making the same mistakes over again. It definitely doesn't get any easier.

Are you frustrated with this? They are a very good football team.
I'm just kind of disappointed that we didn't play better. But at the same time, it is our first one out of the box, but I am a little upset that we didn't play better.

Coach, even though this was a tough loss, what can you take from this game?
Well, I am always going to find something positive. You know, we have to go back and look at the film, and we will definitely be able to bring the positives of tonight's game out. You know, this is one of ten ball games we have this year. Right now, we are 0-1, and we wanted to be 1-0 coming out, and we just did not play the best that we could, and I am a little frustrated with that, but I thought that we did play hard on one side of the ball. And to our credit, I think that we did continue to play hard, so that's a plus, that is one positive thing.

Speaking of playing hard, Jed Bines played very well in the second half and he turned out some grinding, hard runs, how do you feel about his performance?
Well, that is what we expect out of him, and out of all of our backs. Jed is just one of the many that we have and you know, he is trying to step up his level of play because these guys, they want to win...we didn't come out here to lose a ball game, we came to win, and just didn't get it done tonight, but at the same time, I expect guys like Jed Bines, and Pedie Byrd and Martin Hicks to step up and run the ball hard.