Some quotes following Georgia State's 32-26 loss to Jacksonville State on Saturday at the Georgia Dome:

Coach Trent Miles

I can’t read the stats. I don’t have my reading glasses and my eyes are a little bit watery.

Tough for all the young men.

As I told them, this isn't about fighting and competing. It’s about execution. Our kids were pounding away. I told them that they should be disappointed, and they are, but to be proud of themselves. We don’t know when that rock is going to break but we are going to shatter it pretty soon.

We almost saw the result today.

Our young men, with the exception of a few plays, we gave ourselves a chance to win that game. I felt so bad for them because it didn’t happen.

They are devastated. At the same time, they are committed to understanding what it takes to keep pounding that rock every day until it breaks.

They fought, fought, fought, fought. Down 14 in the fourth and found a way.
It’s our job as coaches to lead us and get ’em going. I can tell you that we are getting really, really close. Our young men are going to win games.

We have more resolve than ever knowing it’s going to happen. Our young men deserve it. We will keep working the things that we know are right.

Q: Emotionally, is this worse than the UTC loss?

A: Worse than the UTC loss. Anytime you are so close it hurts. It’s a different emotion. UTC was a different emotion because that was going into the thing thinking you are going to win, getting it stuffed down your throat and hanging your head.

This was having your hand on the prize and having it slip off.

You can’t compare the two. It’s different. If I had to pick from two, I’d want this one.

When you look at the young men and they are looking at you, and 80 percent of them are crying, and they are looking at you as a personal figure. But they are looking at you for answers and all you can tell them is to keep working and trust us. You are going to get there. And you see I would say 100 percent of them nodding their head and crying

And then you have to come out and look at your wife in tears and your kids in tears, it’s tough. It’s hard, but being a competitor, and please don’t take this as me being an arrogant person, but I know what’s going to happen here at Georgia State. I have no doubts. I can walk  out of here with my head up, my chin up, my chest out because we have a bunch of kids who believe in what we are doing. I can see the improvement. I haven’t seen the end result of a win, but I can see it. And I’m a very proud of them.

Albert Wilson, wide receiver

Q: The first touchdown, that was put in this morning?

A: Yes. He put it in. It was a double move. He knew that they would bite on it. They are a press team. We knew that move would work. It was something to get us fired up, to give us a chance to play hard.

Q: It appears that y’all are getting closer (to a victory).

A:  Yes, we just have to tighten some things during the week. We make some mistakes during the week that show up during the game. We have to clear them up so they won’t show on Saturday.

C.J. Scott

Q: Describe the play in which you blocked the punt.

A: On that play I was supposed to come off the edge. The wing man released. I just ran up the field and I saw the punter’s head down. I had a chance to block it. I kept chugging along, saw the ball on the ground, picked it up and went into the end zone.

Q: Did you have to slow down because you were so free coming to the punter. You could have gone right past.

A: It was a blur. I jumped, so that slowed me down.

I felt it hit the bottom of my palm. I saw the ball rolling. It was exciting.

Q: Have you ever blocked a punt before?

A: Not that I can recall. I don’t even think back in high school. Back in high school I was returning them.

Q: How did that change the momentum of the game?

A:  Everybody was coming saying that was a momentum swing. Ronnie threw the back-shoulder fade to Robert (Davis). And then we had the forced fumble and went and scored. There was electricity on the sideline. It changed the momentum of the game.

Ronnie Bell

Q: Please talk about how close yall got today.

A: There’s been a lot of improvement. Now we need to take it step by step because we want to improve every week. Once we get the win, everybody will know what it takes to win.

Q: This seemed to potentially be a turning point game for you. There were some throws at the beginning of the game, where I was like, “What’s he doing?” But then instead of forcing things, you began to throw the ball away or pull it down and run. Did something click? Did the game slow down?

A: Everything is starting to slow down. We saw what they were doing on defense. They were worried about our receivers. They didn’t’ have a guy accounting for me. I felt like I could help the team with my feet. Instead of throwing it away, I could make something happen.

Q: That back-shoulder throw to Robert Davis that you hit twice. Have yall been practicing that this week?

A: We’ve been practicing that all week. We knew that the corners like to run man-to-man coverage and turn their backs. We were on the same page. If we work timing with our receivers, they can’t stop us.

Theo Agnew

Q: Coach has preached that yall have to execute on every play to give yourselves a chance to win. The plays were you didn’t were the plays that cost you today.

A: That’s exactly right. It’s not about talent, size or strength or anything like that. It’s about execution, Xs and Os and getting it done. So today was a great example of when we don’t execute what happens. But when we did execute we performed well. We did well when we executed the things we need to. But we still have holes. We still have lapses at time. We took to heart what coach was talking about this week: execute, execute, execute and this is a perfect example of when you don’t execute every single play.

Q: Is the buy-in to Miles’ message increasing?

A: it is increasing. Anytime you have a new staff, a new program essentially, sometimes it takes a while for everything to come together and for everyone to come together. I believe it’s visible on the field, off the field that we are coming together. Coach said just trusts me, and I believe we are, what he is building and what he is turning us into. I have all the faith in the players and support everything coach Miles said. We are moving in the right direction even though we aren’t there yet.

Q: Talk about that stretch early in the fourth quarter that got yall back into the game.

A: Big plays are going to happen. We talked about before the game, don’t be surprised when things go our way. There’s been a lot of instances where they didn’t go our way. The next big thing is a series of events, as coach Minter likes to say. The series of events were in our favor. It fueled us to do everything we had to do. Coach Minter says if you do thing right every time, you will have a chance to win in the fourth quarter. Today we did. Again, we fell short. There are still things that need to be tweaked, things that need to be fixed, things that need to be improved upon

Rashad Stewart

Q: Is getting close to a victory good enough anymore?

A: The team we played was pretty good. They came out and executed really close. We are getting close, we just have to brush up on some things. Make the play when it happen. I feel like we are getting there. Just knocking on the rock.

Q: How painful was this? You could have had it in regulation.

A: Yeah, we could have had it in regulation. That team was very, very good. It just comes down to practice. If we make the big plays in practice we will make them in the game.

Q: Coach Miles has preached the past few weeks that you have to execute every single play to give yourself a chance to win. Was this a perfect example of what happens when you don’t?

A: It is a perfect example. He preaches it every day. We just have to keep going at it, each and every day going hard. Don’t take a play off. If we hadn’t taken a play off we probably could have come out with a victory.

Wil Lutz

Q: What happened on the first point-after attempt?

A: it came off my toe a little bit. I rushed it. It’s the first PAT I’ve ever missed. I don’t know how to react to that.

Q: The 50-yard field-goal attempt, did it leak a little bit on you?

A: It had the outside the whole time. I hit it pretty good. I thought it would curl back in. It’s the second time a 50-yarder has hit the post.

Q: It had plenty of leg.

A: Yeah, it was probably one of the best field goals I’ve hit in a while.

Q: From the long distances, do your kicks naturally hook?

A: When I make solid contact, it usually hooks a little bit. It did. Maybe a 52-yarder it would have gone in.

Q: How painful is this loss?

A: We all k now we played really well. We did what we could. Everyone is down on themselves off course off a tough loss like that. So many positives. We know we are slowly going up.