Ball State Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Jason Candle
On Tuesday’s 28-21 win over Ball State
“I’m really proud of our football team. We had some great individual plays in the second half, especially defensively which helped us get some key stops. I’m proud of the offense for going down the field and getting the game-winning score at the end of the game. I think our team showed great resilience tonight.”
On quarterback Dequan Finn returning to action
“I thought he had moments where he wasn’t at his best, and I think he’d tell you that. But once he got settled in and figured things out, I thought he did a good job of making things happen and getting the ball out on time."
On how to prepare for late-season games
“We’re at a point in the season where you can’t over-prepare, you can’t over-plan, you can’t have too much offense, you can’t have too many plays. You have to settle into what you can do well and do what you’re capable of doing.”
Sophomore Dequan Finn
On the game-winning drive
"Right before we took the field, we huddled up on the sidelines and all preached to each other that this drive was a championship drive to us. We preach that throughout practice, we preach that thought in our everyday meetings as well. Just having that mindset and having all the players buy-in as one and to be unstoppable. “
“It’s like playing backyard football. That imagination in your head of tie game, you have to get the touchdown to win, but in this instance, it was very important to us to just get the job done. We didn’t care about anything else, just get the touchdown. We care about winning more than anything. We don’t care about stats or anything like that."
“Jamal Turner is a really reliable tight end. I enjoy throwing the ball to him, talking to him on the sidelines, seeing what he sees, telling me the stuff he sees on the field, and telling him the stuff I see on the field. We’re on the same page the whole time, and it’s good to have him as a security blanket of making those tough catches or any type of catches really. He’s really diverse in anything and it’s really good to have him.”
Junior Dallas Gant
“I have fun playing football whenever, so it was a fun game. Obviously, their running back is a good player. We wanted to stop the running a little more than we did, but it was a gritty game. Tuesday MAC-tion, I think it’s what we expected. I think our team did a great job responding. We got punched in the face a lot, we were down a little bit, missing assignments and stuff like that. But I think we rallied as a team and as a defense, and it was really fun to see captains leading and see how we came together as a defense to play together in the second half.”
“We know that we get a stop and win the game. We’ve been in that situation at Eastern and then earlier in the season when we were put in the same situation we didn’t get it done. So we know how important it is and that’s how we want it. We want it to be on us, we want to be out there and being the ones to make the stop. I think that everybody out there believes that we can do it, and they’re excited to do it. Going out there, playing together, doing our assignments, nothing crazy different than we usually do and staying together.”
