UTC Coach Russ Huesman discusses Mocs' finale

Arkansas-SEMO Live Blog

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Russ Huesman met with the media today and discussed being off last week and finishing the season Saturday against No. 12 Wofford.

The Mocs need a victory to finish 6-5 for the third year in a row, while the Terriers have to win to become eligible for the FCS playoffs. Here's some of what he had to say:

On being off last week ...

The off week was big for us. We've had some kids banged up, it gave us an opportunity to get healthy, but it also gave us a chance to get away from football a little bit. We'd been grinding it since the beginning of August, with no time off.

On playing Wofford in the finale ...

I think everybody knows it's a big week, big game for us and it's a big game for Wofford, too. They've got a lot riding on it, as do we. They're going to come ready to play. We know it.

On last season's 45-14 blowout loss at Wofford, which ended UTC's playoff hopes ...

The only thing I remember about that game last year was immediately following the game I was looking for the nearest bridge - couldn't find one, so I'm still here. That's how ugly that game was.

We didn't play good, either side of the ball, and it was one of those, you get out of there and you don't know what hit you and you don't know why.

On whether Wofford is better this season ...

I think they're good every year. Our first year here they were really banged up and had some injuries throughout the season that really killed them.

They're good, they're always good, I don't know if they're better this year or not. I know they're playing well - you go to Clemson and almost beat Clemson, you've got a pretty good football team.

On talking about the fact that UTC can keep Wofford out of the playoffs with a win ...

We haven't talked about it. I don't want to use that as motivation. What they did to us last year means nothing. ... It hasn't been brought up by me and I haven't heard our players talk about it.

On if he lights up at the chance for UTC's SoCon-leading defense to go up against Wofford's SoCon-leading offense ...

I don't light up, I usually throw up. I'd rather be playing a bad football team, a bad offensive football team, but we're not.

I like playing teams we know we can stop or we're better than. That makes it more fun during the course of the week.

For more Mocs coverage, see tomorrow's Times Free Press. You can also follow beat writer John Frierson on Twitter at twitter.com/mocsbeatCTFP.

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