Postgame Quotes

Sept. 1, 2001

MURRAY STATE HEAD COACH JOE PANNUNZIO
Opening Comment: "A lot of people thought this was a money game. We didn't come up here for that, we came here for a win. We didn't get that done. So we are disappointed in that. I am proud of our kids. I thought they played hard the whole game. I knew Eli Manning was going to be a great quarterback. I just thought it was going to be a little bit down the road. Obviously it wasn't. He did a tremendous job. He is going to be a great quarterback. They had some weapons on the outside we couldn't contain."

On the Game Plan:
"I had hoped we could shake Eli up. David Cuttcliffe is a great coach. He did a good job with his schemes and a good job of protecting Eli. We never could get a clean shot at Eli, and when we did, he did a good job of dishing the ball off to his running backs or the hot receivers. That's why he is a great quarterback. We thought if we could make them throw the football-put the ball in a new kids hands-maybe we'd have a chance. He answered that question"

On Eli:
" To me its like basketball. He is a good shooter and he got hot. Guess we should have fouled him."

On this year's team:
"I think we have a good offense. I'm disappointed that we didn't finish some drives. I think we are still a little bit rusty, and we're playing a lot of new receivers. Marquise Grissom looks like he is going to be a good receiver for us, and Desmond Collins showed some promise. I like the competitiveness of Garner Byers, and Billy Blanchard is going to be a nice addition for us too."

"I could tell we're a tough football team. I've got kids that won't quit. We stayed in there and fought. We made them drive the ball and make plays. We did't lay down and that will win a lot of football games -- if you've got character. I think we've got that."

On Turnovers:
"I'm glad I wasn't in Tunica. There were six fumbles and we got one. That's the way the ball bounces. It shows we were hitting them."

Next Week against Illinois State:
"One of the top 15 in NCAA Division I-AA. They played a tough team in Western Michigan, and got beat pretty good. We got beat pretty good, so we will both have to pick ourselves up."

On coming back to Oxford:
"This is a really neat place. You don't know how special it is. The specialness of Ole Miss, The Grove, the class they have, and the facility additions. Some of my fondness memories are right here."

MURRAY STATE PLAYER QUOTES
,QUARTERBACK STEWART CHILDRESS
"We started off playing well on our opening drive that had a lot of positives. We got a few first downs, but mostly we killed ourselves by not finishing drives. That put us in a bad situation."

On Playing Ole Miss:
"That is the best defense that we will see all year. It is a good start for us having them as our first game. We will get a lot of things that we can learn from the game film tomorrow. We won't see anything this tough all season. It was a great experience for us."

TAILBACK GARNER BYARS
"We came out real good and played well at first, scoring on our first drive. We have a lot to work on as a team, and we know that. That's what's good about playing our first game against a good SEC team. We can do a lot as long as we stick together and keep playing ball."

"We could have done a little better than we did tonight, but hindsight is 20/20. We will learn a lot from this game. There are a lot of good teams out there and we feel like we are one of them."

SPLIT END MICHAEL SLATER
"I think we played pretty good and had a couple of good chances at making something happen. We just don't have much depth and the game got away from us. This game will stick with us throughout the season because it shows us how good we can be and will be."

On Coming Back to Mississippi
"It's always fun coming back to Mississippi. I have been waiting for this game since I first heard that we would be playing Ole Miss to open the season. It's a good feeling to come home and play in front of my family and at the school I grew up watching."

CORNERBACK MALCOLM MOORE
"This game is going to build more unity within our team. We have now gone through the toughest things we can go through with two-a-day practices and coming here to play a good SEC team in Ole Miss for our first game. Unfortunately we didn't come out with the victory."

DEFENSIVE END ED JOHNSON
"This game was a great experience for me, especially because I got to line up opposite an All-America (Terrence Metcalf). This game helped us know what our kinks are, and how to straighten them out to have a good season. It will help us get closer to our goal of winning the Ohio Valley Conference."

LINEBACKER STANJUAN LEE
"We played hard as a team tonight and wanted to earn Ole Miss' respect. I think we did that. We will win the Ohio Valley Conference as long as we play as a team. If we do that nothing can stop us. This was a big game and I am proud of everyone on my team. Coach wanted us to stop them from scoring late in the 3rd quarter and the 4th quarter and we pretty much did that. We couldn't have without everyone hustling on each play."

,OLE MISS HEAD COACH DAVID CUTCLIFFE
"I want to congratulate our team on the win. They were very prepared for this game. They have been looking forward to this since January. It was interesting to see how we reacted to being behind 7-0 in the first quarter. I think they responded well to being in that position."

"Our fans were great. It was really great to see how many fans we had and how they stayed for the whole game."

"Next week is a different arena. It will be a challenge to go on the road and face an SEC opponent. We have to work on some things to get prepared for next week."

On Eli Manning's performance:
"Eli did an outstanding job. I was very proud of him. He was very focused and you could see that in his performance. There were a lot of expectations placed on him by a lot of different people but he responded well to everything."

On teams performance:
"I think a lot of people really stepped up tonight. Joe Gunn and Robert Williams really did well in the backfield. Matt Grier had a great effort to stop the touchdown on the run. I think we had a great team effort tonight."

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS' QUARTERBACK PEYTON MANNING
On Eli's performance:
"I am very proud of Eli tonight. I was excited to be here and see the game in person. Again, I am very proud of him."

OLE MISS PLAYER QUOTES
Ole Miss Quarterback Eli Manning:
On his first start: "I didn't know what exactly to expect tonight. I was really just having fun out there. I was a little bit nervous, but really I was just excited about my first start."

On the game: "My receivers made it easy for me, because they were catching everything I threw. I think we played well."

,Ole Miss Fullback Charles Stackhouse:
On Auburn next week:
"It's our first SEC game, it's going to be fast and against a good opponent, we've got to go in next week and keep our focus."

On the offensive line:
"Those guys really did a great job, they went out and blocked well. They opened the holes up."

Ole Miss Wide Receiver Chris Collins:
On playing with Eli Manning:
"We're kind of on the same page. We do this all the time in practice."

On his (Collins') performance:
"Going against our defensive backs, they give us a lot of trouble all the time, so if we can compete with them, we can compete with anyone in the league" ,

Redshirt Freshman Receiver Trey Fryfogle
On the offense's performance:
"We did pretty well, we didn't show too much. We have a lot to open up next week."

On Eli Manning:
"Eli is everything you want in a quarterback, he reads the field incredibly well. We, as a unit, looked good tonight, but there is more to come."

Sophomore Defensive Back Marcus Woodson
On the defense:
"We came out and did what was expected. Coach Lindsey said he wanted a shut-out, but we had some first-game nervousness and lack of experience that gave up some points."

Senior Defensive Tackle Anthony Sims
On the defense:
"We played pretty well for our first field test. We were a little shaky with the new defense, but the coaches prepared us really well and we made the proper adjustments. This week in practice we will try to correct our mistakes and get ready for Auburn."

Junior Defensive Back Matt Grier
On his first-game experience:
"It was a different experience for me. I had to adjust to the speed of the game at first."

On his role on the team:
"I will do whatever they ask me to do, whether it is play special teams or being out there on defense. I will just do my best every chance I get to be on the field."

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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