Ole Miss Vs. Mississippi State Postgame Quotes

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MISSISSIPPI STATE HEAD COACH JACKIE SHERRILL

OPENING COMMENTS
Thanks to all the Bulldog family for giving me an opportunity to be here for 13 years. I?m sorry we could not have finished the way we should have. I have no regrets. Support these young players next season.

(ON HIS EMOTIONS)
"They (my emotions) have been up and down all day. I will probably have a lot of feelings and emotions later."

(ON THE LOSING SEASON)
"I'm still hurting for the players. This is not about the coaches. It's about the players."

(ON HIS LEGACY)
"To a lot of people, it is a lot of things. To me, we were able to do some things no one else had done. We also have the opportunity to continue to move forward. Mississippi State people deserve to win and can win."

(ON HIS BEST MOMENT)
"When we beat Alabama. That was the benchmark. We were able to beat them three years in a row after that."

(ON Eli Manning)
"His brother has worked with him a lot. At this stage, Eli is much farther along than Peyton. There is not another quarterback in the nation as good as him."

(ON THE OLE MISS DEFENSE)
"I thought we moved the ball early. We missed some blocks and did not do a good job catching their movements."

(ON ADVICE TO THE NEW COACH)
"The guy that comes here needs to understand the Mississippi kids."

MSU PLAYER QUOTES

Quarterback Kevin Fant
"The weather is tough for any team. Their defense just really played. I think they just came in to play us really energized"

"The pressure, some of it, was bringing more than we could handle. That is between the receivers and me. I'll take the blame for that. I'll take the blame for this loss. I should have had these guys more prepared for this big game."

"We've been playing under him (coach Sherrill) for five years now. You are around him everyday. Heck, you are around him more than your family. It is just a special bond you have with your coach."

"We have been driving the ball well against the past couple of teams early in the game. We just couldn't get it going too good. We had to use spurts, but we were never consistent."

Linebacker T.J. Mawhinney
"It was frustrating because we wanted to win for him (Sherrill), and we wanted to win for ourselves as well. It doesn?t go that way all the time. You learn from it, and you keep going."

"This team never quit, from the freshman all the way to the fifth-year seniors. We played hard every single play, every single snap. It just wasn't our year. If it went wrong, it went wrong. That's just the way it works. It's just a game."

"We had our chances. We just couldn't capitalize on them offensively. We didn't play sound special teams returning the ball. We didn't play sound punting the ball. You can't blame it all on us, though. They played a good game. They have a good offensive line, a good scheme and a heck of a quarterback."

Split End Justin Jenkins
"We haven't been getting the breaks. We are not use to it, but we always feel like we can get a big play. When the horn blows and we haven't made that big play, we lose and it is back to the drawing board again."

"He (Sherrill) told us to keep our heads up and that he loves us. He said to go out there, have fun and play for ourselves and nobody else. When it comes down to it, you are really playing for yourself and your feelings inside."

OLE MISS HEAD COACH David Cutcliffe

OPENING COMMENTS
I would like to congratulate our team and staff on the performance tonight. I thought we had a tough time getting started. Our team is used to playing on the wet turf at our place. It was a lot of splashing and wet ground when we got down here."

(ON TEAM'S RECORD)
"We are 7-1 now. There are not many teams like that. It's not easy to come by in the SEC. We have not done this in a long time. This gives us some share of the title. I?m proud of the staff for getting the team ready, and the team for getting it done."

(ON DIFFERENCE IN TEAM)
"We got beat a lot early in the season. We didn't play well early. I told our coaches that we wouldn't change goals. Our sights never changed. We kept our sights set on winning the SEC, and that never changed. We could see our team getting better with every game."

(ON EGG BOWL IN 2001)
"My feelings are a lot different this year than they were that year. With a coach, the last game always sets with you a little more. That year we were unsure about our bowl situation, and it turned out not good at all for us."

OLE MISS PLAYER QUOTES

Quarterback Eli Manning
(On his decision to come back for his senior season)
"It was good to get another year of experience on the college level. I've become a smarter quarterback this year. I wanted to come back and be here for my teammates, and it was good to have the great year that we had."

(On the touchdown pass to Tremaine Turner)
"We were trying to hit Bill (Flowers), but they played a different coverage than we thought they were going to. Tremaine's never caught the ball on that play before, but I saw him get open behind their corner and he made a great catch."

(On Head Coach David Cutcliffe)
"He's done a great job, and he's put us in a position to win every game. We were in position to win against LSU in the fourth quarter, but we just didn?t make the plays. Coach Cutcliffe has done a great job of leading us along with our seniors, and it was good to have the year that we had."

Cornerback Von Hutchins
(On the play of the defense)
"It was an outstanding game for the defense and for our seniors. We knew Mississippi State had some great players, but they had just been shooting themselves in the foot all season. We just stayed focused, and it was a total team effort."

(On the legacy that the seniors have left for the program)
"Coach Cutcliffe always talks about leaving a place in a better position than it was when you got there, and I think we are going to do that. We've been to some good bowls in Shreveport and Nashville, but it will be good to get a chance to go to the Capital One Bowl or the Cotton Bowl."

Wide Receiver Bill Flowers
(On how the team responded after the loss to LSU)
"We've had some huge wins coming off disappointing losses in the past, and it was good to do that again. We got our chemistry together tonight and we played well."

Cornerback Travis Johnson
(On playing against one of the top receivers in the SEC)
"We faced some really good receivers last week, and we knew we were going to go up against the same thing tonight. Our defensive line got good pressure, and we were able to stay with the receivers when the quarterback scrambled."

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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