Chris Hatcher Quotations

We've won four conference titles in the last five years, so we've always had that target on our back. We know we have to show up and play the best we can each week. We just hope our best is better than everybody else's, and if that's the case we'll be successful.

We've been in the title hunt before, but last season we just happened to finish it off. Our attitudes as coaches and as a team haven't changed since 2002. We're still the national champions until Aug. 27, and then we become the defending national champions. And hopefully if we play well throughout the course of the season, we'll get a chance to play in Florence on national TV once again.

Maurice is a good player. Maurice is a big play guy for us.

He's a competitor, and he played well. We've got two good (quarterbacks), and both of them deserve to play, but you can only play one at a time at that position.

I thought he did really well. He didn't get to play last week. (Saturday) he came back and ran the offense extremely well.

I thought we dominated pretty much the whole game except for two plays in the second quarter. I really didn't say much (in the locker room), just to take it one play at a time. It felt like we were winning the ballgame. We played well in the first half, and being down was kind of hard to swallow.

We've got some good players that are waiting in the wings to be the starters. But they are going to have to prove themselves early.

We went into the game expecting to win. We feel like we play in a very difficult conference, and that our regional play is among the best in the country. So we were pretty much ready for just about everyone.

No two teams are ever the same. It's just the start of a new season. And as a coach, if you don't look forward to the start of a new season then you're in the wrong business.

It was a good team-building experience for us, as well. The coaches were out there with the players. That was one thing that we did that really brought our team together.

It was good to see us get the block. We practice that all the time. It was really nice to see us finally get back there.

It was good to see our offense finally get on track. Our special teams made some big plays, and our defense is still playing solid.

I know that I'm the kind of guy that I can remember things if I relate it to a story,

If the kids find them funny, they seem to remember them better. That goes a long ways in teaching people what you want them to do.

I don't think we can get that one in the paper.