.png&width=32&height=32&type=webp)
The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Postgame Quotes
9/11/2004 | Football
Sept. 11, 2004
OLE MISS HEAD COACH DAVID CUTCLIFFE
"We blew some opportunities early in this game. We tried to get some momentum going. We had field position and maybe an opportunity to go up in the ballgame but we didn't take advantage of it and from there it just got worse."
"We were anemic offensively again. I think the biggest issue was hurting ourselves with penalties and miscues. Defensively we held our own early, but again we asked too much of our defense. We didn't play as well in second half as we did in the first half."
"But give Alabama credit, they had a good plan and beat us in every phase."
On the Quarterback change
"We just weren't doing much. Michael just didn't get it done. We had talked about going in if we were inconsistent again we would just let Michael see it from the sidelines. Ethan came in and did a good job so we decided to stay with him. We have thought about it all spring and all fall and we thought that we might want to play another quarterback some, particularly since we didn't have another quarterback behind Michael with game experience. We just wanted to take a little pressure off Michael at that time and let him see it from the sideline and settle down. It doesn't mean anything at this time (for next week). We're going to evaluate the tape and we'll talk about it as a staff and examine the situation. We'll make decisions as we practice next week.
OLE MISS PLAYER QUOTES
Quarterback Michael Spurlock
On Consistency
"We should have converted after the turnovers. We needed to get the points off of the turnovers."
On Ethan Flatt
"He did a great job coming in. He had great rhythm. That was the coach's decision."
On Alabama's Defense
"They knew how to make us react."
On His Experience So Far
"It hurts. You want to get into a good rhythm and a good flow, and we haven't had that in the first two games."
On Penalties
"It's easy to convert first and ten rather than first and twenty. We just couldn't do that tonight."
Quarterback Ethan Flatt
"It was my role to be prepared. I came in to my first SEC game, and it was fast, but my teammates and coaches made it easier for me."
"You always expect (to mess up) in the back of your mind, but its Alabama and you have to put that aside."
On the Running Game
"It helped a lot, I didn't have to throw. I was pleased we could move the ball and the running backs were making plays."
"We need to improve on the little things, penalties, a drive here and a drive there. We've just got to work on the little things."
Defensive Lineman McKinley Boykin
"The defense got tired and everybody had their heads down. We've got to push through it."
"Alabama has a good offensive line and it's normal to expect that from them."
Defensive Back Kelvin Robinson
"We missed assignments. We had the effort, but just missed our assignments. We have to get better on both sides of the ball and we have to score points.
On Playing Alabama
"It felt great, we had a chance against the run but they just ran through the defense."
ALABAMA HEAD COACH MIKE SHULA
"It was a good win. I thought our defense played very hard. They played very aggressive, kind of set the tone for the game. Offensively, we moved it, got the first touchdown and got the turnover, got the second touchdown. We wanted to try and get a lead on these guys and try to make them play catch-up a little bit. We were a bit concerned about Spurlock, especially with him running the football. We wanted to make sure we did everything we could to keep him from running the ball."
"Our defense and Coach Kines did a good job of mixing the calls up and making some plays when they had the opportunity." "We were focused on what we had to do this week. There's a lot of preparation that goes into each week, especially when you play SEC teams. Ole Miss, as we know from last year, they're a quality football team. They are well coached. They've got weapons on offense. They do a great job defensively with their scheme. That's kind of where our focus was, on everyone doing their job. Our players were focused before the game. And that's what we asked them to do. They prepared a long time for this game, for every game and I was glad to see it go well."
"It feels good to get a win here again. Brodie Croyle did a good job tonight and he's only going to get better."
"It was a good win. Our guys fought hard. We knew it was going to be a physical game. I'm happy about the way our defense played. They really set the tempo. We struggled early offensively. We had two turnovers but we got the lead at halftime. We felt good about that."
On the drive that went 98 yards for a touchdown
"When you kick the ball out of bounds and they get good field position it's hard to get out of bad field position (for us). We had a couple of good plays and a couple of penalties. We know if we do our job we can get down the field and eventually make some plays."
On Bo Freeland
"He had five punts, hung the ball up there well, averaged 43 yards and the coverage team on the kicks were very good."
ALABAMA PLAYER QUOTES
Quarterack Brodie Croyle
"This (win) gave us confidence going into the season. They (Ole Miss) are a good defense, but we made good plays and long drives."
On Alabama's Running Backs
"They all bring something different. They all have a different role. There is no "me-me" with any of them. Whoever is fresh, whoever is hot does the job."
"(Last Year) that (Ole Miss game) was the most embarrassing loss I have ever been a part off, it was probably the lowest point of my career. To come back with a good performance as a team made it worthwhile."
Safety Roman Harper
"We knew we had to fight. We came out strong and established a hit game."
On the turnover
"We were blitzing from the outside. We switched and called my number from the middle. I didn't know what happened until I saw guys diving for the ball."
"We put last season behind us on January 15, when off-season practice started. We know we have to keep fighting and we will keep our eyes on the future."
Safety Charlie Peprah
"This game was monumental. It gave us momentum for down the road. It was a big SEC game."
"The team was motivated and hungry. We were embarrassed last season (by Ole Miss). Last year we would have given up and fallen back. This year we are a different team and are ready to fight."