Sept. 26, 2009

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Post-game quotes:

Western Carolina Head Coach Dennis Wagner

Opening Statement:
"I didn't feel we played well in the first half. On offense, we had a lot of mistakes. I am really concerned with our execution in regards to getting plays off on time and not wasting timeouts. Our quarterback is just not doing a good job in the field management part of the game. That is something that we will address in practice."

"We have some issues with injuries right now at running back. Michael Johnson went down early in the first half. As the game went on Dion (Wilson) and Nate (Harris) started to get beat up. We had to go get one of guys dressed in the third quarter. Next week, we are going to have to make sure we are healthy in that position. We challenged (the team) at half time, saying we have to be able to run the football to try to get back in the game. The defense had to stop (Furman) and get off the field and the defense just couldn't do it."

On offensive woes in the first half:
"Part of the problem is we have some success by moving the ball right down the field, then we jump offsides, we get a holding call, or we don't get the play off on time. It's about us. We challenged them all week about making no excuses. Look in the mirror and look at yourself and ask yourself to see if you played the best you could play. That's still my thing tonight. You're going to look in the mirror tomorrow and ask yourself if you played the best you can play. You can't beat a team like Furman from where we played in the first half on offense. I'm not happy in how we played on defense the entire game."

On the turnover battle:
"If you remember a year ago, we were a top teams in our conference, let alone in the country in turnover margin. This year, we might be the worst. We turn the ball over way too many times on offense. Defensively, we are not getting the ball back. We had some opportunities. The ball was on the ground and we didn't get the recoveries. You can't turn the ball over against a good football team. In the Southern Conference, every team will take advantage of turnovers."

Quarterback Zack Jaynes
On the offense's play in the first half:
"In the first half, we were shooting ourselves in the foot. It was the same old thing. Offsides penalties, interceptions, false starts; we've got to eliminate those if we are going to compete in the first half. We've got to come out and drive the ball. We have still not scored a touchdown in the first half. We are going to have to do that to get that monkey off our back."

On the offense's play in the second half:
"I felt the line stepped up and did a good job. They definitely increased their effort from last week. They played really hard. We were able to run the ball in the second half. Our running backs run the ball really hard. I was proud of the effort we gave in the second half."