“Anytime you are a coach and you are playing the No. 1 team in the nation in your first year in the FBS, one of the thoughts you have in your mind is that you don’t want to lose anybody. Our kids held up well. At one time I looked up out there and four true freshman defensive linemen were going up against their ones and they held their ground, so I’m proud of the way they went out there and fought.”
— Georgia State coach Trent Miles
“We are making strides, and I am very pleased in the attitudes of our young men. I’m disappointed in the loss obviously. We play to win games. We didn’t come out here just to play a game. We came out here to win.”
— Miles
“Second half, I was proud of the way our kids went out. At halftime we told them to play it like it’s 0-0. And it was 7-3 in the second half, so that’s something for us to build on and move on to conference play.
— Miles on what's next
“I don’t know what it was, but some guys were playing one call and some guys were playing other calls.”
— Miles on the play in the first half
“They need to execute on every play.”
— Miles on the lesson he hopes his team learned from playing the nation's No. 1 team
“It doesn’t matter if it’s No. 1 or No. 125, you have to execute, and that’s what we have to take from this.”
— Miles
“I think a lot of it had to with the fact that they had some (eventual first-round draft picks) breathing down their throat. The pressure was on. It’s not practice. I don’t think it was just mental mistakes. The mental mistakes such as not snapping the ball and the illegal procedures have a lot do with No. 99 that far from your face.”
— Miles on the mistakes
“They got to the ball very fast, which got us to play faster. So when we get into competition with the Sun Belt, then we’ll play faster.”
— Quarterback Ronnie Bell on Alabama's defense
“Nothing new. What they showed on film, they brought that.”
— Bell on Alabama's scheme
“I can’t give enough credit to my field-goal line, my snapper and my holder. I’ve never had a field goal blocked here.”
— Wil Lutz on his 53-yard field goal
“We didn’t do what we were supposed to do. Kudos to Alabama. They’re a good team, and we can’t take anything away from them. We were out of place with too many mental mistakes on our part.”
— Cornerback Brent McClendon
“I had some good ones. I wanted the ‘W’ more than anything so my good plays don’t mean too much.”
— McClendon on any good plays he made
“We have to prepare better. We have to be more serious. What I mean by serious I mean better on little things: setting the edge, getting the right calls out. Coming with a fire to prepare every day.”
— Linebacker Tarris Batiste
“Heart. Heart to make that tackle. Heart to want to make that tackle. See it, want to make it. That’s how you make the tackle.”
— Batiste on improving Georgia State's tackling
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