The University of Mississippi Athletics
Alabama at Ole Miss Postgame Quotes
10/18/2003 | Football
Oct. 18, 2003
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ALABAMA HEAD COACH MIKE SHULA
"Obviously we are disappointed. We played poorly. We made mistakes. We had turnovers. We put ourselves in a hole. One thing you cannot do is turn the ball over early. We will have to go back to the drawing board and will be looking at everything. We have to mature. We have to execute better. We have to believe we can make things happen."
"Intensity or execution or both ... none was satisfactory. It is hard to be intense when you make costly mistakes. The opening kickoff was out of bounds. On the second play a receiver falls down and leads to an interception. I'm not pointing fingers. That starts with me. We have to find ways to coach not falling down and not kicking the ball out of bounds. We will be making sure we have the right players on the field. The team has worked hard and done all we've asked of them. We do have to develop an urgency to get things done."
"We would play well defensively and put Ole Miss in a third and long and they would make a big play with a touch down or a play that kept them on the field. Northern Illinois ran on us. Arkansas did too. But Ole Miss did a nice job with their schemes and coming off the ball. And Ole Miss has a QB that can wear a defense down. "
(On comparing Manning to Oklahoma's Josh White and Georgia's David Green)
"He is a lot better. He's the best we've seen. Eli is a good player. He is a good quarterback with a good quick release and wide receivers that catch well. We gave up some very big plays today, maybe more than we've had against us all season."
(On starting Brodie Croyle and leaving him in at the end)
"He felt good each day in practice. He practiced well and felt fine. He is a tough kid. Hopefully he is not hurt too bad. We were trying to win at the end and had a chance. He did a good job with the quick score. In spreading the offense out like that you know he is going to take a few shots. He seems ok. He might have been rusty, but he made some good plays and some smart decisions. He made some good throws and Dre Fulgham made some good catches. He also made some bad decisions. In the pass right before the half, he might have been a little greedy. There was just not enough consistency"
(On finishing out the season)
"We are in the thick of the SEC. Tennessee sells itself in motivation. But we have to talk about ourselves first and fix what is wrong. And we will do it as a team as I've said all year that we will do. It is a long season. You can't get too high or too low."
ALABAMA PLAYER QUOTES
Brodie Croyle (Soph., QB)
(On his shoulder)
"It's good. I went almost the whole game without getting hit. On that last drive, someone came free and hit me, but that's part of football. It's going to hurt every time I get hit or fall on it."
(On the first interception)
"Dre Fulgham just lost his footing. This was the first time we have played on this surface, and that may have been one of the things that happened. We have that stuff in our practice facility, but it's different to actually play a game on it. It's not a big enough difference to excuse getting beat like we did."
(On getting down early in the first quarter)
"I wasn't worried. We knew we could move the ball and score. We were just looking for that spark. We never got it. It's a tough loss for us, but you have to give credit to Ole Miss."
(On playing Tennessee next week)
"It's good to follow up a loss like this with a rivalry game. Alabama-Tennessee is one of the biggest rivalries in the nation. What better way for us to get back on track than beating Tennessee."
Juwan Garth (Fr., SLB)
(On the speed of Ole Miss' offense)
"They are very fast and hit a lot of long passes. Eli Manning is so smart. He can read a defense as well as anybody I have played against. He doesn't take sacks.'
(On Ole Miss' ability to control things in the second half)
"I guess it was (a little surprising). We didn't expect them to control the line of scrimmage in the second half. I guess we were surprised to see them continue to control things."
(On Ole Miss' ability to run the ball)
"I guess it surprised us. We were more worried about the pass. They hit us with those two big plays early and we didn't want that to happen again. While we worried about that, they started to run the ball. That's not to take anything away from Ole Miss, they have great backs."
Dre Fulgham (Sr., WR)
(On getting down early)
"We gave up some big plays early and we made a lot of little mistakes. It's frustrating to come out after preparing all week and not finish things. On offense, we are going to have to execute better."
(On the interception in the first quarter and if the turf affected him)
"I just lost my footing. Brodie Croyle made a great throw and had great protection. That was a bad play on my part. I won't make any excuses about the turf, I just lost my footing."
(On fighting back after getting down early)
"When you get down like that in the first quarter it's tough. You can't get your head down. We had Arkansas down like that and they came back. We've got to keep our heads up and keep playing."
Ole Miss Head Coach David Cutcliffe
"First, I want to congratulate our players and our staff. We had an outstanding week of preparation and this is something to build on. We are looking forward to more challenges, and again, I can't say enough about preparation from our players and our staff."
"Early on that's as good as we've played. There are certainly some things that we need to correct, as there always are. From the early part of the first quarter we played about as good as we have played."
When did you know that Jesse Mitchell was going to play?
"He kept doing better each day in his rehab. He told me yesterday that he wanted to warm-up. He said he felt better than he did before the surgery. He said he was further ahead than where he was before surger. He came to me during team warm-ups and flipped his thumb up. I knew then he was ready to play. I don't know how well he felt, you'll have to ask him, but I am sure he was effective. It was good to have him around."
Start of the third quarter - first drive
"It was huge to stop them first. Then we did a tremendous job on offense. The offensive line did a great job. Vashon Pearson was in there for most of that drive, and we ran the ball effectively. We also threw the ball effectively and finished the drive. We've been a good third quarter team, and we have to continue on that path. That was significant."
On shutting down Shaud Williams
"He's an outstanding player. I don't know if you can ever shut him down, but we slowed him down at times. We weren't able to do that a year ago with their running game, so it was a challenge for our team, hoping we could at least slow them down. We were able to do that for the most part."
OLE MISS OFFENSIVE PLAYERS
Eli Manning (Sr., QB)
On the offensive execution:
"It was a great performance by the offense today. The line definitely deserves a lot of credit. Rushing the ball put us in good situations, and we were able to do some play-action. The receivers made great catches, and you need all that to win big games."
On the play calling:
"We had good plays whenever we needed them. We ran play action, they dropped to man-to-man, and when you have Taye Biddle one-on-one, he's so fast no one can stop him."
On the 88-yard drive early in the second half:
"It's the offensive line doing its job. We were running the ball, they were blocking and we were getting about eight yards per carry. We mixed in some passes. We really didn't have to throw a lot in the second half. We were able to run the ball, control the clock and control the game."
On the confidence in Taye Biddle:
"He's so fast, and he gets so open that you've got throw it to him and give him a chance. He makes plays. He made a great catch on the first touchdown. On the long one, he had the defender by eight yards, and I laid it up for him. He ran under it for the easy touchdown. We'll take those all day."
Doug Buckles (Jr., OL)
On play of offensive line:
"I think we need to give credit to the running backs. We just did our job up front and played hard. We remember the whipping we got last year and used that as motivation."
On Manning's protection:
"We need to give our offensive line coach credit. Coach Latina teaches and stresses fundamentals, and we were going against a big, physical team this week. We knew we had to block for a minimum of three and a half seconds. We fought hard for three and a half, and tried to give him a little more time. We went back to our fundamentals and technique, and were able to give him the time he needed."
Taye Biddle (So., WR)
On the scoring:
"We had a great week of preparation. We went over everything in practice, and it came out today."
On personal redemption for early games:
"I'm just playing right now. I'm thinking about redemption or messing up. I'm just playing the game."
On beating Alabama:
"It felt good to come back here and do the same thing to them that they did to us last year."
OLE MISS DEFENSIVE PLAYER QUOTES
Charlie Anderson (Sr., DE)
On the game: "We played awesome. We played as a team. Guys were flying around the field, making plays and having fun. That's what it's all about, having fun."
On pressuring QB Brodie Croyle:
"When you're up on a team and you know they're going to throw the ball, you can just let it all out and go for the quarterback. We held on at the end and got the job done."
On the significance of the win:
"Our record against them was 8-40 (coming into the game), and it's been around 30 years since we last started SEC play 3-0 so it was a huge win and we feel good right now."
Ken Bournes (Jr., LB)
On the defense:
"We could have played better, but we still played pretty good. In the first half, we played pretty good, but in the second half, it seemed like we got a little relaxed. We had to refocus and regroup. On a scale of 1-10, I'd give us a about a six-and-a-half or a seven."
On applying pressure:
"Really, we didn't do anything that different from before. We just ran our scheme. But before the game, Coach (Cutcliffe) said all he wanted was all we had. All we did was run to the ball and hustle. There really wasn't a change to the scheme. Everybody knew where they were supposed to be and got there."
On his two sacks:
"On the first one, they kind of rolled out and I was the play side backer. Charlie Anderson did a good job of taking on the running back, and I just came right off his backside. He tried to cut back and make a move, but I pushed him down. On the second one, it was just a blitz and I had a faked one way on the line then moved to the other side. Then, he (Croyle) was sitting right there. Both of them were kind of gimmies, but I'll take them anyway."
On the win:
"It's really big. We're just going to take it one game at a time as we try to make our way to Atlanta. This is the best start we've had in 30-something years, so we'll take it."
Travis Johnson (So., CB)
On the defense:
"I feel like we came out in the first half and played great. At halftime, Coach told us to keep our heads up and go out there and still play because the game wasn't over. We came out there in the second half and got the job done."
On his interception:
"I broke on the ball and the receiver slipped so I knew I just had to make the catch when I was in the area."
On the win:
"It's a big win for us because it's been so long since we last went 3-0 (in SEC play). This is good for us as we go into next week and try to improve to 4-0."