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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss vs. Alabama Postgame Quotes
10/15/2005 | Football
Oct. 15, 2005
Head Coach Ed Orgeron
"The guys fought hard, but we still made mistakes at the end. We have to find a way to win these types of games. The missed field goals were chip shots, and we need to find a way to make those. We have to keep fighting. I am proud of our team. We were close, but not good enough. I came here to win. We got close, but we let it slip away from us.
On the play of the defense
"I am proud of our defense. They played really well. We were able to stop the run and we had good pass coverage. Some blitzes worked and some didn't. They didn't run that much. They just had the one big run on a busted play. We came ready to play on defense.
On the delay of game penalties
"There is no excuse for that to happen. We need to find out if we need to change to some plays that the guys can understand. I don't know if it was a miscommunication in the huddle or what, but we will fix it."
On the crowd
"This was a great crowd. It was good to see everybody fired up. It was a great game."
On the touchdown by Alabama RB Kenneth Darby
"We were playing man coverage. We had great coverage, but we just let him run up the middle.
On play of Alabama
"We played a very good football team today. We played them really close. Their running game is excellent, and their quarterback played well. They were a very good team.
On the two missed field goals
"We should have made those two field goals. They were easy field goals. We needed momentum at the time, but we missed them.
Ole Miss Players
#16 QB Micheal Spurlock
On the back-to-back delay of game penalties
"That was on me. I've just got to look at the clock and know, if you have to, take a timeout. I just blame it on myself not looking at the clock. I got it on time. I've just got to rush them up to the line. That's my job as the leader, to rush them up to the line knowing we're in a situation like that. To move from the two (yard line) to the 12 makes it hard."
On the offensive line
"They did a great job. And it's all about trust. Me trusting them, them trusting me, knowing that all 11 have to get the job done. We just went out there and practiced hard this week. We knew everyone was going to take care of their business and that's what happens when you go out and execute. You've just got to keep going. We were right there close, but close isn't good enough. You've got to go out there and get the job done."
On next week's game
"We're going to try hard. We'll look at the film on Monday, work hard in practice and just look to the future."
#40 RB Mico McSwain
On the game
"There's nothing really to say. (Alabama) is a good team. We're a good team. It came down to the end and they just won. It's not that we didn't want it bad enough, we just had a couple of mistakes we need to fix. We're going to come out next game and hopefully get a big win."
On the improvement of the offensive line
"All the credit goes to the offensive line, because if they don't do their job then that means I can't do my job. As long as the offensive line goes out and does their best and I'm able to do my best, good things will happen."
#49 LB Patrick Willis
"It's always tough to come close and lose. We knew we could play with them all along, but we just made some key mistakes. We have to watch the film, correct our mistakes and come out next week ready for Kentucky."
On holding Alabama to 121 yards rushing
"We went out there and played good defense for most of the game, but it wasn't quite good enough."
#72 NT Michael Bozeman
"We played good, but it would have been better if we had won."
On holding Alabama to 121 yards rushing
"It felt good out there, we just have to correct our mistakes. We need to come out and play ball, because we should have won this game. We let one play, the scramble, cost us the game."
On the Alabama offensive line
"They weren't as physical as I expected. They have great athletes. They played good and hard. It was a good game."
How do you build on this game, playing well against a top team
"We know we can play with anybody in the country today. If everybody plays then we can stop anybody in the country."
#13 SS Jamarca Sanford
"He (Brodie Croyle) is a pretty good quarterback. He played really hard.
On the fumble recovery
"I was thinking about scooping it up and scoring, but the last fumble I missed, so I had to just fall on the ball.
Alabama Head Coach Mike Shula
"This was a great win and a great way to win. We had not executed well throughout the game, but in the two minute drive we gave ourselves a chance to win."On the 2nd half TD drive "We made plays. We protected better and caught the ball better. We tried some little things that we had worked on during the half. We just made plays."
On Brodie Croyle
"Brodie is just a clam guy. He is the same guy in meetings, at practice and on the field. He is not a real `rah-rah' guy, so when he talks on the field, everybody listens."
On Ole Miss
"Ole Miss ran the ball well. Spurlock made smart decisions. They made some plays, but didn't finish others. Defensively they blitzed from both the strong and weak side, and we didn't do a great job of picking them up."
Alabama Player Quotes
#34 Kenneth Darby RB
On run to set up the game-winning field goal
"I had faith in my center. I read his block, saw a lot of ground, then did what I could to get us into field-goal range."
On the absence of Tyrone Prothro
"We miss him because he was a big playmaker for our team, but we have other great guys at wide receiver. He will be missed but it has given other guys an opportunity to step up."
On the Ole Miss defense
"We have to give them credit. We expected them to come out hard, but they surprised us by how hard they came out. They did a lot of formations, blitzes and blitz-switches. We have to give them a lot of credit."
#12 Brodie Croyle QB
On what was said in the huddle on the final drive with two minutes left
"This is what it's all about, this is what we live for. It was time for a game-winning drive. We haven't had one in a while. We didn't play good all day, so to be able to drive it down the field like we did felt great."
On the absence of Tyrone Prothro
"We miss him because most of his yards came after the catch, that's where he made his money, he's a great player. We started out slow today but we had people step up especially on the game-winning drive. (Matt) Miller stepped up to get his first catch of the year."
On his emotions going into the game-winning drive
"I felt good. That's what we're here for. We can't reach our dreams if we don't have confidence in ourselves to get the win."