JSU GAME NOTES (.pdf)

Opening Comments:
“We expected to play a very talented football team in Arkansas, based on the information that we had, and we were not disappointed.  They were as talented as they were suppose to be and we knew that our biggest challenge was to start off in the frame of mind that we would play fast and physical to establish the competitiveness, and we did.  We came out of the locker room with a lot of competitiveness.  We do think we can play as fast as a Southeastern Conference school and we did.  I am very proud that our offensive line provided room for our running backs, even though we lost our best back early on in the contest.  The running backs that did carry the load for the day were very credible.  I think the offensive line was key to that.  We started four sophomores upfront for the game, which I think they deserve the credit for those guys getting that yardage. On the other side of the ball, I just thought we gave them too short of a field in the second quarter and we got miss-matched with the vertical part of their passing game.  When I look at it, those are NFL type passes and catches.  I think we got better toward the end of the game and came out better than we arrived.  We have a few bumps and bruises to get over, but we left the game better off from an injury standpoint.”
 
On Chattanooga
“Moving forward, we are playing a great defensive football team in Chattanooga.  They led the Southern Conference in every defensive category.  We had trouble with them last year and it's the same team from a year ago.  I think we are potentially a better football team right now than when we played them this time last year.  I expect us to better on offense and defensively, we are making progress.  We had some first-time guys that gave us every indication that we can handle this assignment."
 
“It's hard to take an evaluation of them out of the South Florida game from an offensive standpoint, because they were doing a lot of new things.  They are playing two quarterbacks just like us, but it looked like they are evolving toward (Jacob) Huesman, who is a red-shirt freshman and the son of the head coach.  South Florida has some outstanding defensive linemen and they have had a pipeline to the NFL.  There are probably some things that they will do that we won't know about till we get there, so we will have to scout them as we go.  We will see the same things from them defensively that we saw last year."
 
“From what I understand, we have had a pretty good response from ticket sales and I promise we are a lot better when we have all of our folks here.”



 
Washaun Ealey, Sr., Running back
On his injury
“It is fine and it is getting better day by day.  I have been getting treatment for it and have been doing all the things the trainers have asked me to do.  It was feeling better after the game on Saturday.  Hopefully, I can get back to running this week, I am just taking everything slow this week.”
 
On this injury being a setback
“My goals are the team goals and I don't really look at it from a personal setback.  I am just trying to help my team anyway I can.  I want us to win as many games as possible and want to do everything I can to accomplish that.”
 
On returning to the Arkansas game after his injury
“I just felt like I could help the team.  I knew I could not run the ball, but I was able to block and help Marques (Ivory) as much as I could and give him time to get the ball down the field.  I try to do whatever it takes to get the win.”
 
Max Holcombe. So., Center
On the offensive line performance at Arkansas
“I have confidence in everyone in our group.  Every linemen that traveled to the game, played in the game.  We had ten guys that could play and all performed well.  We are going to go out there and block and give the running backs every opportunity to get yards.  I think we played pretty well at Arkansas and gave Marques (Ivory) enough time to get the ball down the field.  We had a few miscues when they did something different, but that was some miscommunication.  Overall, I was pleased with our performance because we were able to average 5.5 yards with two different running backs against an SEC defense.”