Post-Game Quotes at Appalachian State, Nov. 8, 2014
ULM Head Coach Todd Berry
Opening Statement
“Obviously a disappointing loss. I thought we played hard, but congratulations to Appalachian in relation to they made some plays whenever they needed to make plays and we've got to be able to do the same.”
On the ejection of Justin Backus being a turning point
“Well, obviously, when you lose a starter, that hurts. But there were way too many other plays after that to say that that was a critical point.”
On what Appalachian State did well
“I think, obviously, their receivers came up big, their quarterback came up big. And I think their offensive line came up big. Generally, we get some sacks and we didn't get that today. We never broke their protection. Most of the time we can break their protection, but we didn't get their protection broke tonight and relation to how they were getting there.”
“We didn't see anything from them that we haven't seen from them in the past. There wasn't any new schemes or any of those kinds of things.”
“We knew they were going to try and draw us off on third down; they've done that all year to everyone else. And then right off the bat, on the first drive, we jump offsides. Even though we've gone over it multiple times, the reality of it is, it hasn't been taught. If it had been taught, we wouldn't have done it.”
CB Lenzy Pipkins
On the secondary's play
“We had some careless penalties, I know I had a pass interference where I jammed the guy up at on the line and he was going down and I pushed him and I didn't see the ball coming my way. Trey Caldwell had one. He had good coverage but sometimes you get those calls. Those two plays shouldn't have determined the outcome of the game and we got to better on defense. We didn't get off the field a lot today then we usually do.”
WR Rashon Ceaser
On fighting the whole game
“We just had the mindset that we weren't going to leave tonight with an L. And apparently it didn't turn out how we wanted it to. And all we could do was just keep pushing and keep fighting for the rest of the season just to turn this thing around and give us some enthusiasm and hope going into next season.”
On the elements and their mentality coming off of last week
“We had the same mentality, it was just the weather, it was cold. So I mean it was hard to really be upheld. I think we just messed up and we basically just tried to focus on staying warm and we kind of let that get to us also. At the end of the day, we just got to come together and fight for the W. We just can't give up.”
Appalachian State Head Coach Scott Satterfield
Opening Statement
“Wow what a football game, a great back and forth battle. I thought our kids really fought hard during the second quarter. We hit a little snag offensively, couldn't get anything going, then we threw an interception that led to a score on the next play. We were down at least two scores and we had to battle back and scoring before the half was huge for us. The second half was just a back and forth battle. We need to win a game like this, the way we won this game. We have been here before with Liberty and Southern Miss and we couldn't finish those games. We needed to win this game, this way.”
On the performance of Bentlee Critcher
“We needed to win this game this way with Bentlee stepping up and kicking that big field goal. We have all the confidence in the world in him because he does so much for us with punting, kicking and the kickoffs. He makes half the tackles on the kickoffs and he saved one tonight. To do that and kick the game-winning field goal was a huge confidence builder for him and he needed that.”
On his confidence and belief in his team
“Over the past four weeks the players have gained confidence and belief in each other and I think it has shown more-so tonight. We got down 20-7 and they didn't falter, we fought and got back into it. There are several building blocks to a team and that is one of them: the ability to fight back into a game. It was an emotional roller coaster: we were winning then we weren't and then we were again and that was huge for this team.”
On the team's offensive production
“They (ULM) had a lot of guys around the football on defense and it's hard to run the ball against that. Marcus had 94 yards, I thought he had a solid night. Our receivers made some tough contested catches tonight against them and in the first part of the season we weren't doing that as much. I'm proud of them tonight. On some key third downs we had big catches. Offensively I don't think there was really anything awesome but we moved the ball when we needed to. We were 4-for-4 in the red zone and we had some touchdowns and I believe that was the difference.”
On his team's defensive pressure:
“Six sacks tonight, that's the most we've had in one game in the past two years. That brings us to 13 sacks in the past three games. We weren't doing that in the first half of the season and it has been huge for our defense.”
