The Georgia Southern football team fell in a close loss to Minnesota Saturday, losing 35-32 on a fourth quarter drive. Head Coach Chad Lunsford talked with the media after loss: 

On the game overall:

“Tough one. We got ourselves in position to win a football game and we were not able to finish. Tremendous job getting two non-offensive scores in the fourth quarter. But we couldn’t control the clock in the fourth quarter and couldn’t make the stop when we needed to. Disappointing. We expected to win the ball game, and we didn’t.”

On how the players are feeling after the close loss:

“I know what our guys are made of. They’re tough. Adversity is something they like to look in the face and they like to respond to it. They hurt right now, and I hurt for them. I love these dudes, and they’ve been through a lot. They deserved this one, and we didn’t get it done. But again, when we lose a football game, it doesn’t define us. It’s a learning opportunity to stay strong. And we’ll rebound, because that’s what we do.”

On how Minnesota played:

“A whole lot of gutsy effort by them. They made plays when they need to make it. We had it, third down, two yard line. They got to go 98 and they made plays and we didn’t.”

On how they felt during the game:

“Feeling great. There’s no quit in our guys, they’re going to keep playing. They’re not ever going to look at the scoreboard. The score will take care of itself, the way we play. But I felt fine, and our guys felt fine. They never waiver, they never give up. They keep playing.”

On the Eagle’s performance on both sides of the ball:

“We’re sloppy in some areas, we got to clean up some substitution issues on defense. Offense, in opportune times to shoot ourselves in the foot, not being able to establish drives in the second half to keep our defense off the field puts our defense in a bad situation. We still have got a lot of work to do, but our guys will go to work.”

On redshirt-freshman quarterback Justin Tomlin’s performance:

“Tomlin is doing a good job, man. He’s still making some rookie mistakes. He’s got to grow up in a hurry, and he will. We’ve got a good one in him because it matters to him.”