University of Tennessee at Chattanooga football coach Russ Huesman spoke about the Mocs’ most recent heartbreaker, dealing with disappointment, his dog, Saturday’s game against Eastern Kentucky and more during Tuesday’s weekly media luncheon.
Here’s some of what he had to say:
On last Saturday’s 21-17 loss at Jacksonville State …
“It was a great environment down there to play in. Great crowd. I think our guys came out ready to play and I feel good about our football. I like our football team, I feel good about how they’re playing – don’t feel good about being 0-2. That’s not where we want to be, but I think we’ve got a chance to be really good this year.”
On losing close games to No. 1 Appalachian State and No. 4 Jacksonville State …
“What we take out of these first two games is that we played two pretty good football teams and I think we played pretty well. I think when our guys watch the film and see our performance, they can look at things and see that ‘man, we were close’ or ‘if we just made this play.’ And that’s why we’re 0-2, because we didn’t make some of those plays.”
On this week’s game against Eastern Kentucky, which is also 0-2 …
“We’ve got to get a win, and they’re in the same situation. They’re 0-2 right now and coming in hungry. … We’re in for a dogfight; we’ve got a hungry team coming in here and a team that’s not real happy.”
On injuries …
“We can’t take anymore hits. We came into the season thin and we’re surviving right now, but we can’t take anymore hits. … This week we can’t take a hit, so if anybody’s got some wood to knock on, please start knocking. We’ve got to stay healthy.”
On dealing with close losses …
“I try really hard to not take it out on my family. You’ve got to make a [conscious] effort to not do that. I have to work hard to not take it out on them. It’s hard.
I kind of woke up on Sunday and come in and I had a good feeling about our football team. And I had a good feeling about what I was going to see on film, too. I kind of had a good feeling that we played good.”
For more on the Mocs, see tomorrow’s Times Free Press.
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