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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss vs. Auburn Postgame Quotes
10/29/2011 | Football
Oct. 29, 2011
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Ole Miss Head Coach Houston Nutt
Opening statement
"I was proud of how hard they played. You just can't turn the ball over, especially away from home in this kind of environment. You can't turn the ball over and give them gifts of field position. The way we started the game was exactly the way we didn't want to start the game. I thought we weathered the storm though. We started moving the ball, running the ball and getting movement. Once we got back on the board, at halftime we were right there. The second half, the fumble when Brandon slips that really hurt us. One thing we thought that we could do is run the ball on these guys. These guys did a good job of coming off the ball, but again you can't turn the ball over. We took a couple double moves where they got three or four touchdown passes on us. We have to get pressure and not give up easy touchdowns. Our effort was good, you just can't turn the ball over."
On Michael Dyer
"He is a tough runner. We know how good he is. We missed some tackles too as well. We can't have that many against a good back like that. If you miss a tackle that means extra yards and that is exactly what he did."
If Auburn did anything different defensively coming into the second half
"No, the same thing. Cover four with a four-man front and three linebackers. The same thing.
On Clint Moseley
"He did a good job, but when you've got a running game going like that you try to respect the running game by getting seven or eight guys in the box. Then, you get easy throws for touchdowns and that's what he was able to do. He threw the ball over our heads a couple times and had a double move on Damien that one time. It looked like a dig and then he went over the top with it. I was hoping to get a couple pressures there that we didn't get."
Defensive End Kentrell Lockett
On his performance
"Coach and I have been talking all week and he said I was going to play today. I wanted a couple of plays to get into a groove. That's what happened and I was able to be productive."
On Auburn's second half
"They were pretty much doing the same thing they did in the first half. They were just outplaying us and they wanted it more than we did."
On Ole Miss' third quarter struggles
"We are just not matching the intensity we enter the game with. We play the first half trying to set the standards of the game, but when we come out at halftime, we just can't get back on that level. Once we learn to match it, we will be able to finish games."
Running Back Brandon Bolden
On the running game overall
"It showed its face again. Everybody did a good job holding the ball. There was a fumble early in the game, it is something not to get down on him. He just has to build on it and not do it again. The offensive line was coming off the ball and creating more than one lane. The hardest part of running the ball was picking which lane to run through."
On the fumble in the second half
"They have a grass field and it was kind of wet, so when I stepped, I just slipped and my head knocked the ball loose."
On the slow third quarter
"I do not know what it is. We just need to get going faster. We started moving the ball at the end, but that is too late. It is not a mental thing, it is on the players. It is on us, we just have to execute."
Auburn Head Coach Gene Chizik
Opening Comments
"Well, that was a big win for us, and I am really proud of our football team. The question that I get asked a lot is 'how does your team respond after a loss?' I said earlier in the week, I am just really proud because we haven't always played well, and when we've lost, our team is very resilient. They come back and they work extremely hard. I can't say that we've had any bad days of practice, and I feel like it is carrying over into the game. This is a good football team that we beat tonight, and I truly believe … I said going into the game this is the best 2-5 team in the country, and I believe that. I think that they are extremely talented, but we played well tonight. We didn't play well in all spots all night long, but our coaches did some great jobs making adjustments when things weren't going great. At halftime, we made a lot of great adjustments, adjusting defensively to some of the run game that we needed to get under control that in the first half got away from us a little bit. Coach (Ted) Roof and the defensive staff did a really nice job with that.
Offensively I felt like at that point we really kind of understood what their game plan was and really knew how to attack them in the second half both running and throwing the football. We are going to take a lot of positives away from the game. I don't think there is any question that we have a lot of learning moments as you go back and look at everything, but defensively again, getting turnovers … that's huge with the field position issues and just giving our offense more opportunities. We were disappointed that we turned the ball over twice ourselves, and we can't do that very much and win. I think we negated by getting turnovers by our defense.
Kicking game I thought was good again tonight. Cody Parkey was off the charts with his kickoffs again. He is just an incredible weapon for us when it comes to field position issues, but very proud of our coaching staff, very proud of our team coming off a very difficult loss. The great thing about our team up to this point is that we haven't lost twice in a row. We have not let one loss beat us twice in a row and for a young football team, I think that speaks highly of them. Coaches did a great job. Players did a great job. We have an upcoming bye week which is going to be well-needed. We need some rest. We are beat up. We are a little bit of a tired team right now, and that's another reason that I am extremely proud of the way that these guys fought, and they played in a very, very physical football game and was able to win it. Again, win it in a pretty big way. I am very proud of our coaches and our team."
On Clint Moseley throwing four touchdown passes
"I am really proud of him. He didn't turn the ball over. I thought tonight, again, us throwing the ball vertically down the field, Emory (Blake) being back in the game and you can see the impact certainly that he has with our offense. Philip Lutzenkirchen did a great job, and he scored two touchdowns tonight on different things but just being able to have the ability to throw the ball some down the field, and Emory is not 100 percent right now. He still has a long way to go to get to 100 percent, but I have to give him a lot of credit because you could see out there he still playing a little bit beat up and banged up, but he was ready to go. Clint did a great job of getting the ball where he needed to get it most of the time, and I am not sure what his completion percentage is (80 percent), but I know it was pretty good and he never turned the ball over which again for our offense not throwing interceptions, throwing the ball away when you need to. I think he took one sack tonight so certainly it was a better night for Clint. Anytime you throw four touchdowns, you have to look at it and say it was a very productive night."
Wide Receiver Emory Blake
On Auburn's win over Ole Miss
"It was a great first game back. We had a lot of fun out there and the offense was able to move the ball. We hurt ourselves in the first half with turnovers but overall I thought we played very well."
Quarterback Clint Moseley
On tonight's game
"Some of those passes were really ugly. I don't want to say that's how it's always been for me, but they got there nonetheless. On the touchdown to Emory (Blake), it was an awful ball but he was so open and made the adjustment. There were some things I could have done better, there were a few balls I wish I had back.
"Overall, I thought I did a good job running the offense. That's something I've been focusing on. They don't want to put too much stress on me. It was a pretty good night for me and I feel great."
Running Back Michael Dyer
On 178-yard rushing performance
"The offensive line did a tremendous job blocking tonight creating holes and giving us room to run. We were able to come out and run the ball effectively. The passing game really opened the running game up for us, so it was pretty easy."
On his 48-yard run
"We were able to get hats on hats and I was able to read the open spaces. I was able to break through and get some yards."
On the offense's rushing performance
"It was time for us to come out and put a complete offensive game together. It wasn't always good. We came out and played better than we did last week. It gives us some momentum heading into the off week so hopefully in two weeks we'll be able to do the same thing again."