Georgia State Head Coach Trent Miles
Opening Statement:
“My hat is off to Louisiana-Lafayette. They're the No. 1 team in the conference, and congratulations to them. And the way they performed they performed when they needed to in this game, they've won eight straight games for a reason. And I wish them the best of luck.
“As far as our team goes, I though our kids battled their tails off. Unfortunately you can't turn the ball over twice in the red zone in the first half, but even with that we put ourselves in a position to win a game and just weren't able to do it. We've got to always overcome things, and sometimes it's ourselves that we have to overcome. When we figure that out we'll start winning games, but I'm very proud of our young men. I think they're getting better and better, and they're competing. They believe in what they're doing, and they are not a 0-fer football team. That's my true feeling. I'm very proud of the way they represent Georgia State University and compete. And they are in the process of getting better and better every game, and it's just not resulting in wins right now, but it will. And just the caliber of young men we have out there right now fighting, I'm thrilled with so we'll just keep coaching.
“I thought our offensive staff and defensive staff and special teams called a great game. I thought that we had opportunities, and again I thought I saw some really great things from our team. (We were) just unable to get the win, and that's the most disappointing thing for them, our young men, because they deserve it. Now we've got to learn and go and do it for 60 minutes. We're just worried right now about being 1-0 next week. We want to do a great job, what I talked to them about, making sure they win tonight. And that means taking care of each other, taking care of themselves, making great choices, and getting ready for a great Sunday.”
On whether there was a “stop the run at all costs” defensive approach that led to a couple of big pass plays for Louisiana:
“First thing we're going to do is try to stop the run. I mean that's smart coaching. We also, within the scheme, have it set for them to stop the pass. We got beat a couple of times. One was a freshmen that got beat. Guy ran right by him. And then the other time they threw the ball deep, and they beat us in coverage. It wasn't the fact we were stopping the run at all costs and put them on an island. They won that down.”
On how Albert Wilson was used in the offense:
“We find every which way we can to get him the ball. The only thing left is to snap it directly to him. Oh yeah, we have. He's an asset. He is a very explosive player who will be either drafted or signed with a NFL football team so we're trying to do all we can to get him the football. And our guys stay up late at night drawing up stuff that will work to get him the ball and help the offense.”
On Matt Hubbard's fake punt:
“It's something I told him to do before he went out there. If they gave the right look I told him go take off. I wish just he hadn't lowered his shoulder to run him over and just get the first down and run out of bounds. His leg is crucial for us.”
UL-Lafayette Head Coach Mark Hudspeth
Opening Statement
“Our guys came back in the second half and played much better. I thought Georgia State played awfully hard, I think they have a talented young team and are well coached. I thought our guys in the second half played much better defensively, although one of the touchdowns was on the offense, when we turned it over on our own 10-yard line. But, we still scored 21 points in the first half, which is more than half of our average. Overall, good win on the road, which is hard to do.”
On the big plays
“We felt like we had some matchups with Elijah (McGuire). He is the first player in school history to rush and receive for 100 yards (in one game). He had an incredible night. But, he would not have been able to do that without his teammates, he would be the first one to tell you that.”
On leading the conference and not overlooking GSU
“It's hard, but coming off the field, they realize that that's a good young team. They are just learning how to win right now, but I thought they played hard and they raised their play today and really gave us a tough time at times.”
On game plan when GSU tied it up
“We felt like we haven't utilized a couple matchups with the deep ball and some opportunities with Elijah (McGuire). We were probably being a little conservative, and then we opened it up a little bit and we made some plays.”
On Albert Wilson
“He's a good player, and we took it as a challenge this week. I think I got the point across to the kickoff team, because they did a fairly good job at keeping him in check. He is really talented.”
On the winning streak
“We don't really talk about the winning streak. In the locker room, we just mention that all our goals are still intact. We mention obviously that we won our eighth in a row, but it's not something we harp on. We harp on playing the next game and that's all we've talked about, (and) for us it is trying to keep tunnel vision. It's very important to stay the course one game at a time and just try to do your very best regardless of the opponent or who you are playing.”
Georgia State player quotes
Matt Hubbard
On the fake punt
“All game we noticed they were kind of doing a hold-up, so there's really no pressure. If I chose to end up punting it, I would have plenty of time to make a decision. Coach Miles said if it's there, take it. First thing in my mind is that it's there. So as soon as I went out there, I knew I was going to do it. I took a few steps left and it was there, so I took it.”
On putting his shoulder down at the end of the play…
“I knew I had it. I didn't want to take a big hit, so I started to slow down. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw him, so I put my shoulder down so I wouldn't take a bigger hit.”
On how many faked punts he's run in his career…
“In high school we never ran a fake punt. We didn't punt often, but I never really had the opportunity to do it. Since I've been here, that would be our fourth. I was only involved with two of them. The first one I was involved in was a toss-up to Kelton Hill for three yards for a first down. I'm 2-for-2 right now.”
Keith Rucker
“Coach Miles included me in the game plan this week. I didn't know exactly how big of a role I was going to have, but as the game went on I made one catch, made another catch and just started feeling it. It was just in the moment type of deal.”
On scoring his first Georgia State touchdown…
“That was pretty big. I got a lot of congratulations from the seniors like Albert Wilson and Ulrick John. There was a bunch of people patting me on the back, and Daniel Zeigler who came up to me before the game started and told me this would be the game I scored my first touchdown. It just happened.”
Joseph Peterson
On getting two sacks…
“I give it up to my D-Line to open the gaps up for me to come straight through.”
On how close the team is to getting a victory…
“We are so close. I believe we are really close. We prepare the right way, we believe, and as you see, we continue to fight. We have more fight in each other and we believe in each other.”
On if they were called blitzes on the sacks…
“We had a great scheme all week. Those were definitely called blitzes.”
Albert Wilson
On the records he set
“You don't realize it until after you sit back and look at it. It's a great feeling, but it doesn't really matter right now [without the wins].”
On having success as a running back today…
“The coaches just talk about getting the ball in everyone's hands to make plays, so we just figured out different ways to me the ball. It worked out just like it worked in practice. I'm pretty comfortable (running the ball). I ran the ball a lot in high school before I came to play wide receiver here. I was more comfortable playing running back then instead of wide receiver until I came here.”
Noting the Panthers
Quarterback Ronnie Bell set Georgia State records today for career passing yards and total offense, as well as the GSU season record for total offense.
With 229 yards passing, Bell raised his career total to 2,596, passing Drew Little's mark of 2,497 yards.
With 266 yards of total offense today, Bell became Georgia State's career leader. He now has 2,763 career total offense yards (rushing and passing), moving ahead of Drew Little (2,531, 2010-11). Bell has 2,188 yards of total offense, this season, breaking Little's 2010 mark of 2,078.
With eight receptions today, Albert Wilson tied his career high. He also raised his season total to 58 to break the GSU single-season record set by Danny Williams, who had 54 catches in the inaugural 2010 season. Wilson tied his own season record with his seventh receiving touchdown.
Albert Wilson collected 196 all-purpose yards today to raise his season total to 1,832, breaking the season record of 1,810 that he set last year.
Albert Wilson's 48-yard run in the first quarter is the longest run of his career, one yard longer than his 47-yd run at Texas State. He finished with a career-high 64 yards rushing.
Freshman tight end Keith Rucker recorded his first 100-yard receiving game with career highs of six catches and 121 yards. He also caught his first career touchdown.
Senior Parris Lee had career highs with six catches for 55 yards.
Punter Matt Hubbard, who executed a fake punt with a 12-yard run on 4th-and-10, has punted 23 times in the last four games, with just one punt returned for minus-3 yards.
Junior Sean Jeppesen, the Panthers' starting fullback, played as a backup linebacker for the first time today due to depth issues and recorded one tackle.
Georgia State achieved season highs for total offense (481) and rushing yards (183).
