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Post-Game Quotes
Western Carolina 33, Presbyterian 21
E.J. Whitmire Stadium / Bob Waters Field

Western Carolina head coach Mark Speir:
Opening Statement:
“Number one, I’m awful proud of our football team. It’s been a long time since we’ve been back in Cullowhee and sitting there with three weeks – two weeks of losing and an open date – it was good to get back home and on the winning side against a good football team. I know their record is not what people might not call a good football team, but that is a team that had two bowl subdivision games and battled Chattanooga to a better ball game than that score indicated. So, No. 1, we are excited to beat a good football team.”

“We made a concerted effort after the Tennessee game that we were going to run the football, and I’m awful proud of how we ran the ball tonight regardless of the weather. We came into this game to establish the running game and I thought we did that really well tonight. Detrez Newsome and that offensive line are really gelling, and Troy (Mitchell) made a couple of big runs. Troy got back into a rhythm and this was Troy’s best game of the year. He threw the ball well tonight. Karnorris Benson had a big night and that is what’s got to happen when we are running the ball. It is going to open the big receivers up.

“I thought our defense played well for most of the night. The kicking game, I thought, was in our favor and I am proud of Logan Howard – a true freshman from East Forsyth – he went in there with rainy conditions. Him, Chandler Addertion, and our holder Wes Holcombe, you can’t take that for granted during this kind of weather we had. They were right on. He had some big kicks to give us confidence that we can score points if we get stalled out in the red zone or somewhere.”

“The biggest disappointment tonight were all the penalties we had. We cannot go win the Southern Conference – or very many ball games – with the penalties we had tonight and we’ve got to get that cleaned up. Overall, I am excited to be on the winning end, got an excellent team in Mercer coming to town for a Southern Conference game and a string of Southern Conference games we got to get ready for.”

On the fans braving the elements on Saturday:
“The fans are hard rocks, I hope we gave them two ‘Prove Your Purple’ T-shirts. We had the new speaker sound system, adding to our environment. When we get the place packed with 16 to 17,000, standing room only, it’s going to be a great environment here. We appreciate the faithful that came out – rain, shine or hurricane. Next week, we start conference play and we are asking these student-athletes to be champions – and we are asking the Catamount faithful to come out. We need to pack E.J. Whitmire for the Mercer game. Let’s make this environment electric. But we appreciate everybody that was out today, you guys are true fans, thank you.”

Sophomore RB Detrez Newsome
On his role in the offense with senior RB Darius Ramsey sidelined:
“Yes, I felt the need to step up because Darius plays a big role in the offense. He is a good guy on-and-off the field, and I felt like I had to step up and take his place.”

On what led to his career rushing performance:
“I give all the thanks to my offensive line, if it wasn’t for them I wouldn’t have had that.”

On the importance of getting a win:
“It feels good and very important because like Coach Speir always says, ‘we don’t lose in the ‘Whee.’ But to bounce back after the two tough losses we had at The Citadel and Tennessee, it was pretty good to have that win tonight.”

On the playing conditions during Saturday’s game:
“It was pretty tough, but we practiced in it all week, so coach said just hold the ball.”

Redshirt sophomore LB Daniel Riddle:
On the importance of getting a win before SoCon play resumes:
“It was real important. We want to go ahead and get a win back to go on this run, and to get some confidence going because we’ve got six or seven conference games back-to-back, and it was good to get the train rolling.”

On the playing conditions during Saturday’s game:
“I thought it was going to hold off the whole game, but then it started pouring. On defense, it doesn’t matter to us really. We come in and play whatever it is.”

Presbyterian head coach Harold Nichols:
Statement on Saturday’s game
“I thought both teams played hard. Western Carolina has a good football team. They have a lot guys that can make plays out wide, especially offensively; and we gave up a couple of deep balls that hurt us. Their backs are as good as advertised. We had a hard time tackling them and gave up way too many yards on first down.”

“Offensively, I thought we did a little bit better and moved the football a little bit better today. We still struggled a little bit to make plays down the field, and that has to get better if we are going to be able to compliment a running game with the passing game.”

“Two good football teams playing against each other in the rain on the road in a hostile environment; they’ve got a neat place to play here. Coach (Mark) Speir and his staff have done a good job here building a program, so a lot of credit goes to them. You’ve got to have balance and that is something we have been working on in the past couple of weeks, we didn’t match plays that Western did down the field and that hurt us.”