Georgia State Head Coach Trent Miles
Opening Statement:
I’m very excited for our young men, I thought it was an outstanding game especially on the defensive side of the ball. We started off a little tough with a first series touchdown but our kids responded and we battled. Not every game will be 45-42. Sometimes there will be defensive struggles and our offense showed resolve to be able to come back and get some scores to take the lead. I’m proud of the way they stuck together. It’s good for them to get the monkey off their back and get a home win. It’s good for everybody. I’m happy for our fans and alumni who come out and support us, they were loud a group today and we’re looking forward to Troy next Friday. It’s good for everybody to see the development and we’re proud of these guys who can now finish out a game and get the win. We’re 3-3 in conference so we still control our own destiny.
Is this the best defensive game you’ve seen in you tenure and discuss the improvements in the second half in stopping third downs
This is our best defensive performance we’ve had and it’s also the most experience we’ve seen on the field. These guys are getting better and better with every game and we’re deeper than we’ve ever been. The execution, depth and the talent level are definitely all better. But the best part is we’ve got two more games to improve. We’ve got almost everyone back next year so we’re very excited for the defense.
Talk about those long scoring drives.
They were huge for us, it got the victory building off the defense. But it also showed the mental toughness of the offense. Everyone knows we’re a big play offense and we score in big chunks. South Alabama did a good job of not giving up a lot of big plays, and it showed the execution of the offense to be able to pick them underneath and run the ball. We didn’t run it like we wanted but it showed the mental toughness of our guys to focus and go out and win the game. We kept control of the ball and didn’t turn it over and that shows the development we’ve had from past games. It shows where we’re going.
Did it help having everyone back for the run game?
It helped a great deal. When you can shuffle in Taz and Glenn and Demarcus and Kyler Neal and keep them all fresh, it helps a great deal.
Discuss Arbuckle’s ability to move the ball between receivers.
He understands what we’re trying to do. He studies it and gets everybody on the same page then goes out and executes. He doesn’t zero in on one person, he makes his reads and then finds his guy. Not many players around the country can do that.
When you got near the goal line and did three straight run/pass plays, what was that based off of?
The defense and trying to change it up a little. They gave us certain looks so we had to respond. We knew that sometimes they would try to make us throw it and other times we said that we were going to run it. We trusted our guys and Demarcus Kirk and the line and we got it in there on power.
Describe the locker room post game.
It was definitely a winning locker room, but it’s not a Super Bowl win locker room because our expectation is to win home games. The guys have experienced it and they know now what it takes to win at home. Winning at the D-1 level is extremely difficult but we expect to win so it’s a controlled emotion.
Georgia State Safety Bobby Baker
How he described his performance during the game
“My performance specifically was solid. If you look at the stats, you are not going to see much, but my job was to make sure that (South Alabama) didn’t get in the end zone. I think I did a pretty solid job. We knew that they were going to take shots, and that’s what we made sure that they didn’t do successfully.”
On the defense’s improvement throughout the season
“The improvement is huge! I watched a lot of film before I made the decision to come here, so I’ve seen what we had to clean up on. It was really just mental errors. A lot of eye discipline; that was an issue, but the scheme is there. The scheme is perfect for what we are trying to do. That was never a problem, and I knew that coming in. But we worked on those little things that we needed to do.
On coming back from a 10-0 deficit
“A lot of the season has been like that. We’ve had to come out of a hole that we dug for ourselves. We knew that as a defense and we weren’t worried. We didn’t panic. We knew what we had to do. We came out there with the intensity that we needed to have, and it definitely showed.”
What adjustments were needed at halftime
“We didn’t need to make too many adjustments. We knew what we wanted, we knew what they were trying to do. It was just a matter of ‘OK, now it’s halftime. We know that they are going to start taking shots. Let’s make sure that they don’t get any.’ That’s what we did. We knew that we didn’t have to make any major adjustments because they didn’t do anything that we didn’t expect, and we were successful.”
Georgia State Quarterback Nick Arbuckle
His emotions after winning over South Alabama
“I’m feeling great! This was our first win this season in the Dome, and right now, I can’t wait to be back at the facility. I’m going to turn on some film for Troy and start preparing for their defense tonight.”
On the success of the passing game
“Our offensive coordinator (Jeff Jagodzinski) does a great job of utilizing matchups and being able to get guys in different positions and creating mismatches, especially when we know that (the receivers) are going to get man coverage. Defensive coordinators have their tendencies, and we play pretty well with them. Our receivers do a phenomenal job, because any of them can beat coverage on any route, and it’s great to have so many great guys.”
Whether running for a touchdown or passing for one is more fun
“Passing for a touchdown. It is so exhilarating to see some of the receivers catch touchdowns. I played tight end in high school, and it is the best feeling in the world to run 30 routes a game and then to finally catch the ball and score a touchdown because you do so much running every single play, and you don’t always get rewarded. I know how great it feels for those guys to catch touchdowns, and that’s why I am always the first guy sprinting down there and trying to celebrate with them, because I know how great that feels.”
On breaking his own single season passing record which he set last season
“I really didn’t know I broke my own passing record.”
South Alabama Head Coach Joey Jones
On Georgia State:
“They are a good team and much improved, my hat’s off to them. I knew good and well that their quarterback was good and defensively they are much better. They outplayed us.”
On the second half:
“Obviously they took over offensively and scored 17 points, and they had long drives where they kept the ball. Offensively we didn’t really do a lot, we had chances in the first half but dropped four or five passes so we didn’t take advantage of our changes to go up more. We didn’t play well at all on offense in the second half; we didn’t have the ball much, but still didn’t move it down the field when we got it.”
On the team’s defensive performance:
“We gave up a lot of third-down conversions, and on third-and-long too; whether it was third-and-12, third-and-11 or third-and-nine, they were converting. They had a lot of long drives — we only had the ball once offensively in the third quarter — so they controlled the ball and did what they had to do. That’s the way you win football games. That’s the way we have won football game, we just didn’t do it tonight.”
Safety Antonio Carter
On the Georgia State offense:
“In the beginning we executed, but we struggled with their offensive line. They really can run the ball as well as pass.”
On being on the field for so long in the second half:
“It was hard. They executed their plays and had great play calling. They took what we gave them.”
Offensive Lineman Chris May
On the Georgia State defense:
“Up front the way they lined up was a little different, it gave us some problems. But we have to pick that up; we have to figure out how to block that scheme better. We practiced against their looks, but we didn’t make the plays when they needed to be made.”
On the South Alabama offense:
“It seemed like we were playing really well. I don’t really know what changed, it felt like we were a little dead when we came out of halftime — not physically, but mentally. That’s on us, the coaches had a great game plan and put us in positions, we just didn’t execute.”
