Georgia State Head Coach Trent Miles
“That was not the same football team I saw the first five games. It falls on the coaching staff and me as a head coach to get them to play at a certain level. Obviously, today, we did not compete well enough to be able to play with a team like Arkansas State who is a co-champion from last year.”
“We couldn't stop them. We went down and we drop a pass and then they get the ball and go right down and score. We didn't play at the level we are capable of playing at. I never saw it coming this week. Usually as a coach, you have a sense during the week of how they're preparing and I thought we prepared well. Our kids were excited and practiced hard. We executed well in practice. Again, it's the responsibility of me as the head football coach to have them playing at a high level and I failed to do that today.”
Problems on defense…
“We missed tackles, ran out of our gaps, got out-ran. It wasn't so much mistakes as far as not being where you're supposed to be. We did not, as a coaching staff, prepare them well enough to make the plays today.”
Problems on offense…
“Nick [Arbuckle] got hit more today than he did all season. They stuffed us running the ball. We started off on that first series running the ball pretty well, but then they made some adjustments and we tried to attack it but we weren't able to run the ball until later in the game. We turned one-dimensional, we couldn't protect, and we couldn't keep our defense off the field and they rolled up the points.”
On missing OL Michael Ivory…
“Mike Ivory is an excellent football player. He's a guy that two years from now, pro scouts are going to be looking at him. I mean they're already looking at him now so anytime you take him out of the equation that hurts you. We just did not perform. Again, it's the responsibility of the head football coach and the coaching staff to have these guys perform at a high level today and we failed as a staff to do that.”
On having a different approach this week…
There's no reason to change what we do. There's only so many ways to practice. We're very professional in the way we practice. Our format I great. It wasn't in the practice. Again, I never saw this coming. You usually get a sense of a letdown or something and I never saw that in our kids this week. As a coach, I did not get them prepared enough to go out there and compete.”
On the Red Wolves…
“I'm not telling you to take any credit away from Arkansas State. They came in here, they jumped all over us and they deserved to win. They did an outstanding job and we did not. It starts with me.”
Arkansas State Head Coach Blake Anderson
Opening Statement:
"Excited about how the guys played. We have not played a complete game until now and had too many mistakes to be consistent. The guys were extremely nervous about Georgia State's offense. So the defense stepped up early and played well, and the offense got the ball when they needed to. They set the tone for the game. I can say, this was definitely the most complete game that we played. We eliminated some mistakes. There is still some things that we need to work on, but all in all, really proud of the way the guys played, and really hammered down to have a great second half as well.
After putting an emphasis on being slow offensively, how important was that touchdown for you?
For them to take the ball and to get the ball without any points and put seven on the board, that was a huge victory. We wanted to take the ball, and we didn't want Georgia State to get that start because they are already dangerous offensively. So, for us to score the ball early and run the ball that was huge for us. It gave us the confidence and the relief, and it was the momentum that we needed and wanted. And it wasn't just the offense, it was also the defense. The defense made plays and the offense responded.
You didn't have a great week of practice and even before the game, it wasn't good either.
I got on to the guys on Tuesday and stared the practice on Wednesday. I just tried everything that I could to show that I was concerned that we were not taking our opponent seriously. We weren't preparing the right way which was different from the way we used to. I am going to be honest with you, we had guys that were running late to the meetings which is not typical. However, I also need to learn who they are and just let them be who they are, but I gave them what they needed, and they responded. It wasn't a pretty week, but they responded, so I guess they are growing up.
Your ground game was phenomenal today. Michael Gordon is a tough runner.
He is good to have back in the line-up. We missed him for a couple weeks. You could tell we had to scrap for every yard. He is explosive. He is probably the fastest guy on our team. He is starting to see things which makes the field bigger for us. We throw and catch the ball well from the perimeter, and with that run game, it gives us what we want. It creates space for us. Fredie also did the same thing. I like the way we are headed. We need to still fix some mistakes, but our offense was great and a huge step from where we have been.
