“I thought we played pretty well in the first half and I thought we played pretty (poorly) in the second half. We kind of got ’em reversed. The first two games, it was kind of the opposite. We’ve got to keep working and try to put two halves together.”
Coach Paul Johnson
“It was a heck of a game. It was a lot more exciting than it needed to be, but you have to give them credit. I thought they fought back hard and they never quit and they played hard. At the end, we finally found a way to make a play on offense. So, a lot of stuff to work on. 3-0, that’s the good thing.”
Johnson
“I wanted to go slow, so I think it worked out about perfectly. Justin (Thomas) made a great play. We turned a blitzing linebacker loose, he made him miss. We had a delayed drag on and Deon (Hill) made a nice catch and got in the end zone.”
Johnson on the game-winning drive
“Even though the way the second half had gone, I was pretty confident we could take it down and score if we didn’t get a penalty or stop ourselves and get down behind (on down and distance). We had good matchups on the outside. They had a hard time covering ’em.”
Johnson on the last drive
“The long runs, we’ve got guys unblocked. It should be negative plays. We’ve got two guys for two guys, but they can’t decide who’s got who. You look like you’re silly.”
Johnson on defending Georgia Southern
“The official told me that ’40 swung at somebody.’ That’s what he told me. I said, ‘What happened?’ He said he swung and missed. That’s what he told me. Now, I didn’t see it, so I have no idea.”
“I think a lot of guys, we got kind of complacent. We’ve just got to do a better job of, like Justin said, getting everybody up, putting two halves together and keeping the intensity level up. We do that, I think we can be a lot better than we’ve been showing the past few weeks.”
A-back Deon Hill on the second half
“Those guys came out the second half with the will to win. Normally, we have a bad time of starting good, but we came out rocking from the jump, and we got complacent and those guys kept fighting. Next thing you know, they’re back in the ballgame and on top. We picked it up and made a big stop, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to get better.”
Linebacker Quayshawn Nealy
“The second half, we laid a dud. I kind of felt like we didn’t come out with the same type of intensity, and Southern did. They wanted the game bad and we came out there and we just weren’t as intense as they were. They just came out and kicked our butts. Fortunate to get away with a win and just have to go back and see what we messed up on.”
B-back Zach Laskey
“We have not one on our team who was offered (a scholarship) by Georgia tech. I told them after the ballgame that, after they look at the game, they’ll think they should have offered about 50 of those guys. I’m very proud of where we’re at right now.”
Georgia Southern coach Willie Fritz
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