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 Western Carolina head coach Kent Briggs leads his squad to Statesboro, Ga., looking for the program's first-ever win in Paulson Stadium. |
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Sept. 25, 2007
Catamount Club Statesboro Tailgate Information
Western Carolina at Georgia Southern Game Notes
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Cullowhee, N.C. - Western Carolina head coach Kent Briggs joined the seven other league head coaches in speaking with the media during Tuesday morning's Southern Conference Football Coaches' Teleconference. Briggs talked about the win over Presbyterian, as well as looked ahead to this week's conference opener.
Western (1-3, 0-0) travels to Statesboro, Ga., this Saturday, Sept. 29, for a 3:30 pm kickoff against Georgia Southern (2-1, 0-1) in Paulson Stadium. The Catamounts, who trail in the all-time series 2-15, have dropped 12-straight to the Eagles and are 0-8 all-time in Statesboro. WCU's last win in the series came back in 1994, a 35-31 victory in Cullowhee.
Saturday's game will be televised by Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (CSS) marking WCU's third appearance on TV this fall. The game will also be broadcast by the Catamount Sports Network and can be heard over five radio stations in Western North Carolina: WWCU-FM, Power 90dot5 in Cullowhee; 680 AM WRGC in Sylva; 1480 AM WPFJ in Franklin; 1590 AM WBHN in Bryson City; and 1600 AM WTZQ in Hendersonville. There are also several online options: www.CatamountSports.com, www.WWCUFM.com and www.WRGC.com.
Air time on Saturday is set for 2:30 pm, with the kickoff slated for just after 3:30 pm. Here are excerpts of both Briggs and GSU head coach Chris Hatcher:
Western Carolina head coach, Kent Briggs:
On the win over Presbyterian:
"All wins are nice. (The win) is a fresh start. We approached the game as a new beginning. Everyone knows about the tough stretch we had at the beginning of the year. But, we considered ourselves 0-0 going into that game and needed to be undefeated at the end of the day. We learned how to play through adversity. No matter who you're playing, if you go out there and execute, you can be successful. If you don't execute, you're probably going to get beat."
"We did not take advantage of opportunities to put the game away and win easily over a good Presbyterian team. We hadn't won in a long time and sometimes in your head you think `what's going to happen now.' But we had a solid fourth quarter during a game we were supposed to win and we made it happen. I was pleased with the way we hung tough."
On the health of the team:
"We are not as healthy as we would like to be, but at the same time, it is something that is out of our control. We need guys to step up and to rally as a team to overcome those injuries."
On first impressions of Georgia Southern:
"Jayson Foster, Jayson Foster, Jayson Foster. He is unbelievable with what he can. Chattanooga put two guys on him at time and he still was able to get up the field. He's a play maker and they're putting the ball in his hands. But they also have some great players in key positions around him. Defensively, they play hard, use their hands well and have good athletes in the secondary. They're young, but overall, they're a typical Georgia Southern football team."
On Chattanooga defeating GSU in Paulson Stadium:
"(With our players), we talked about if we can play our game, anyone can win any game and it doesn't matter who you're playing or where the game is being played. They (Chattanooga) were opportunistic with taking advantage of turnovers in an otherwise evenly played game. I was impressed with the way Chattanooga ran to the ball.
On how to beat Georgia Southern:
"The biggest thing is stopping Foster, or at least containing him. That's a tremendous challenge and nobody has stopped him so far this year. I'm sure they're scheming to make sure he gets the ball in good position. That's going to be a challenge for our defense. But also for our offense. We have to control the football as to not give him too many snaps to make plays. It is going to take a total team effort."
Georgia Southern head coach, Chris Hatcher:
On quarterback Jayson Foster:
"He's been playing pretty good. I thought that the other night (versus Chattanooga) at times, he tried to do too much because of our situation there at running back, playing a freshman. But overall, he is what makes us go. He means a lot to this football team and is one of the better players I've every had the opportunity to coach."
On injury situation for GSU:
"We don't know right now. We're like everybody - day by day. We are very thin and don't have a lot of depth. We have several guys that are probable-to-doubtful. We don't' have the rule of having to practice to play
On impressions of Western Carolina:
"They've got a good running back with a great scheme on offense and formation you to death, which makes it tough to defend. Defensively, they have two of their interior defensive lineman are good and strong safeties and strong corner back that I'd like to have. They kept it close with Georgia for a long time with a quick drive right before the half (by Georgia) to push that game over the top. We're expecting another tough battle and it is a very important game - a conference game, they're all important."
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