Georgia State Head Coach Shawn Elliott
Opening Statement:
“Well, first of all, I’d like to thank our players for a tremendous effort. I told them before we stepped onto the field that the team that wants it the most will win this thing today. There was no doubt in our eyes when we left our locker room, both before the game and at halftime, we were the team that wanted it and we were going win it. That was in our heart, in our mind, in our spirit we have in our team and we never questioned it. There wasn’t a lull. There wasn’t any down-ness towards our sideline.
“To win this bowl, the first bowl win in school history, and to set the standard with the most wins in school history, with a great group of seniors going out, to set the standards that will be delivered to the rest of the programs history, that’s amazing. Just what they accomplished. I told our guys in there that we are a bunch of misfit coaches with a bunch of misfit players that learned to work hard and love one another, and go out and fight every single day. And when you do that, you have a chance to be successful. And we were successful tonight.”
Georgia State Players R-Senior QB Conner Manning, R-Sr. DE Mackendy Cheridor, Gr. S Bryan Williams
On the emotions of winning the Cure Bowl:
Williams: “We came here two years ago. We didn’t get the victory, but this victory means a lot. For other players to come in and a new coaching staff with Coach Elliott and his staff, they do a great job. We bought into the system. Our players had to buy into the system. They didn’t sell us anything, but we just had to buy in. And this means everything to the players, to the coaches, to everybody that’s behind Georgia State. The donors, the media people it means a lot, and we are just building up the foundation. You know this a new program, so we’re just building the foundation faster with more bricks to the foundation. This means everything.”
On leading the team to victory and being MVP:
Manning: “For me, it’s really a credit to all the guys around me. This game, we came in just trying to focus on playing a clean game. Besides my fumble, I thought we did that for the most part, but credit to guys around me. I mean a lot of guys stepped up and made tremendous plays, and I couldn’t be prouder.”
On playing with an injured hand and being disruptive:
Cheridor: “Well, I knew this was my last ride at Georgia State and I had to go out with a bang. I was going do everything I can in my power to do that.”
On the motivation of playing a team who had been in postseason four years in a row:
Williams: “It wasn’t. It wasn’t about them at all. We weren’t thinking about Western Kentucky. We just had to do it for ourselves, especially for these coaches. We put a lot of hours, and we put our body on the line. It paid off and all thanks go to God and everybody that has something to do with his program.”
On playing for Coach Elliott:
Williams: “It was his energy. Coach Elliott came in and just started yelling, got everybody‘s attention, but everything he was saying made sense, so we just had to buy in. Everybody, the coaches came in with their game plan how they want to do us. We basically had to like retrain ourselves, learn a new defense. For Conner, he had to learn a new offense and just….I’m speechless man. We just got this victory and it means everything.”
Cheridor: “When Coach Elliott first came, I thought he was the realest coach I’ve ever been around. I mean he kept it real with us from day one. His energy was electric. Like it gave me energy even though I didn’t show it a lot, but I really did appreciate everything he did leading up to this bowl game win and I really, I really do appreciate it.”
Manning: “I think coming into this year, a lot of us believed we could have a special year, and then with this coaching staff, you know, the energy. They brought the systems, whether we liked them or not, that was the situation we were in. So, if you want to be successful you’ve got to buy in and our players did a tremendous job and it started in the winter. We were out there working early and credit goes to these coaches for getting us right and we knew we could do something special if we truly just believed and bought in.”
Georgia State Head Coach Shawn Elliott:
On what’s it like to have Conner, Mackendy and Bryan leading your team throughout this year? “Good football teams, successful football teams, have great leadership; especially when you have older leadership. When you have older leadership it really rises, and you can see it too. You saw it out there. It’s just a great opportunity for those guys, they set a standard. They set a standard that’s never been done before. When you do things that have never been done before you remember them the rest of your life. We talked about it all year, you will remember for the rest of your life – the first bowl win ever, most wins in school history. You don’t think those guys will remember that the rest of their life? I’m going to be sitting here telling my son, sitting right down there, and he’s going to be telling his kids one day where he was when we set the school record and that first bowl win.
