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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Postgame Quotes vs. Auburn
10/15/2022 | Football
Ole Miss 48, Auburn 34
| OLE MISS HEAD COACH LANE KIFFIN |
"Really good team win. It was unusual with the delay so I was really proud of just the long time sitting there and just talking to our players about finishing the play off and those guys really rallied and played a close game. I was very pleased on how we finished on offense and defense. You know we stopped them there, got the pick, and shut down the series. Then we gave the ball back to them and then they go those two first downs. We talked about that during the delay and evaluate what happened and we just have to stop them on defense. Those two first downs at the end of the game were good, we haven't been great at that. That was really good to see. Obviously, this is the story of the game but we just had to stop them from running. They had three rushers with over 100 yards and there were a lot of people doing things right. Like I told the guys, we had a cool story on that play when Mingo got that catch. When we have a record setting day, they talk about how well he's doing and how many rushing yards we had so that's really cool when you have selfless people like that."
On concerns about the defense…
"Obviously, that wasn't up to our standards no matter who is in there. Unfortunately our best player tried to go and we already played our best player from an impact stand point. Cedric wasn't able to play at all. He made some excuses but our guys have to step up every time because this is the middle of the season, we're going to have injuries and obviously we don't have Trigg this week and we don't have a bunch of explosive runs. Then we announced that we have lightening eight miles from here and so we have to come up with a defensive play and then I was like well we have thirty minutes to go figure it out."
On the onside kick…
"It was a huge play for the players to make the play. Looks awesome on film. Coach did a great job on finding it and they had been practicing it all week. You know, we were struggling at that point in the game so we got the ball back in the game so I don't think that's what people were anticipating in the game in a high scoring kind of game. We got to that drive so let's do it. We get it and then they're back on the field again so we get twenty straight snaps on defense so the players needed it. Obviously, it helped us in the game a lot."
On conference play this year…
"I actually wasn't one hundred percent coming in to this game. We had to talk through some things so we ran the ball really well. Our tight ends and our receivers remembered to block really well and a lot of those different types of schemes got our ball in the perimeter because our guys will get to the ball in between tackles so we can take the ball around the edge and get around them."
| OLE MISS QUARTERBACK JAXSON DART |
"I think our identity as a team just starts up front with our offensive line. Every game is on their shoulders. I rely on them, and they're just so talented and execute on such a high level. Just happy to be able to have 300-yard rushes every week. It was definitely fun for sure. The best thing is just how every play you field more down yard-by-yard and just getting ready to go out on each and every play."
On being a back-and-forth game…
"You just try to respond each and every time. We knew coming into the game that they were going to give us their best shot. This is a huge game for them to try to get their season back on the path that they wanted it. We knew that we were going to get their best shot and they were going to come out and play all four quarters. Not even for us, we were trying to stick to the things that we were doing. We knew from the get-go that we could put them on their heels a little bit. We just stuck with that the whole time. We saw them score, and we just knew we had to do the same thing."
On getting the ball back from the on-side kick…
"I thought it was huge. Extra possessions are massive, especially in a game like this. It's a huge momentum shift. We were just talking about the previous drives as the quarterbacks, and we looked up on the big screen and saw that we kicked it on-side. That got us all fired up for sure."
On putting up 48 points on 21 passing yards…
"Really just sticking to what was working, I guess. They couldn't stop our running game, and we put it on our O-line's shoulders. Coming into this week, last week we didn't run the ball the way we wanted to so we had to throw it a little bit. I think it just shows how versatile our offense is and how we can do so many different things and put the defense on their heels. We could run it up even when they knew we were running it. It was fun. I think it's pretty immortalizing for defenses. You just get pushed back each and every play. We just put our big guys up front and lean on them."
| OLE MISS RUNNING BACK ZACH EVANS |
"I was focusing on preparation. Finding a way to finish these six minutes. We knew coming out that we would have the ball and we were about two touchdowns ahead, I believe. Just being able to dive at some play, try to stay consistent, and find a way to win and to finish the game."
On the mentality with him and Judkins, and Dart when running…
"As Quinshon plays, he gets way better, the more contact he gets, the harder he run. Watching them boys put together is something together."
On the inconsistency between the offense…
"I think we are shooting ourselves in the foot. Most of our mistakes being us mentally like missing a block or not going in the right position. So, we just gotta focus in practice, and push up on it."
Evaluation on the offensive line…
"They came out great. They always come out great. We got to keep putting one foot forward, keep stacking the good days, and staying consistent. We can't have those ups and downs, but we have some explosives. We are one of the most explosive teams and offenses in college football. So, we just got to act like it and play like it."
On his big increase in yards and what led to that…
"I think overall it was the offense in general. We came back after we knew we had a bad game last week. We focused in this week. We came in practice and had a great week, running backs, and wide receivers catching. We just came in focused."
| OLE MISS SAFETY AJ FINLEY |
"I saw the ball get tipped, and I didn't know if I was close enough to actually dive and get it, so I thought I might as well try it and do the best I could."
On what he saw in his defense in the second and third quarter…
"We stopped doing the little things right. We started missing a few tackles. And, honestly that's a big thing, that's popped up in the last two games, and it is something that we got to hamper on this week."
On how to work and fix on the missed tackles…
"It's definitely something we work on in practice. We hit it pretty hard last week, we just have to keep working on it. It's honestly hard to do, so we just keep working at it and getting better every week."
On Auburn running the ball and if that was in the game plan…
"I mean I figured that they would run. They always have a heavy run game when we play them, so I kind of expected it."
On Tank Bigsby and his game…
"He's a really good guy. It's tough. I feel like we kind of hurt ourselves with some fits and stuff that 100-yard game shouldn't have happened honestly."
On winning and finally beating Auburn…
"It felt good not going to lie. They said it was six years since we last beat them, so it felt good to end a streak like that."
On his interception and wondering if it would get returned…
"I knew that I could my hand under that ball, so I was confident I got it."
On motivating the team for the LSU environment next week…
"I feel like we just have to come together more. It's something we just have to get our mind set to do it."
| AUBURN HEAD COACH BRYAN HARSIN |
"They played hard, a good football team and we knew that. Credit to Ole Miss, those guys, they ran the ball well today and they were physical. We knew they played with tempo and their quarterback was effective as well with his legs. Overall, we fought today, and I saw some really positive things from a lot of our players, just their effort. We did have a lot of guys go down and come back in, so they showed toughness throughout the game. Lightning delay, I thought they dealt with that fine. We've been through that before, so that wasn't too big of a factor. Overall, in the second half just trying to get ourselves back into a two-score game. We ultimately ran out of time there and didn't execute to get the first down there that we needed to extend the drive.
Overall, we ran the ball better today which is what we wanted to do and that was good. I thought Tank, Jarquez, and our running game was much better and that kept us in the game… Turnovers are still a factor and I thought fourth downs was an area we need to be better on statistically. These guys, they're fighting and obviously they want to find a way to win, we all want to find a way to win, it's hard to do that every single week. No matter who you're playing it's hard to win and we know that. I think there's a lot of positive things that we've done over the last couple of weeks, but we're not there yet and that's the message. We're not there yet. It's not showing up on the field, in the W's that we want. We are improving in some areas and we have got to continue that. We've got a bye week coming up, we've got to get some guys healthy… When we get on the other side of this bye week, we've got a chance to get out there and build off what we did in this game, play better football, and then put ourselves in a position to win…"
On the Rebels run game success…
"They had a few formation adjustments that were good, so I did think there was some scheme in there… There were some different looks that they gave us, but they were running hard. The backs ran hard. The quarterback, him being a threat, helped the inside zone as well. Because he pulled a couple, he went out there and got 8 or 9 (yards) that's an effective run. They hit a few sweeps early in the game, some big plays on sweeps. They had a good balance. They were outside, they were inside, quarterback was pulling it. I thought overall they were physical up front, and they were getting downhill…"
On Ole Miss' unexpected onside kick...
"They got us on that. I think we had guys in position, I don't know exactly but my guess is that we hesitated to make a play. They saw something, but that was a good play by them. We'll go back and we'll have a reason why it didn't go our way, but it doesn't matter in the game…"
| AUBURN RUNNING BACK TANK BIGSBY |
"Those guys came out running the ball hard, and throughout the game confidence got higher and higher, we just stuck with and and said we was gon run it down they throats and that was the mentality of the game."
On why Ole Miss bring out the best in him...
"We game planned to run the ball this game. It was opportunities, so I took advantage of it. It wasn't that it was we playing Ole Miss, it was that opportunities there and I took them."
On how it feels when the game plan comes together...
"It feels great, guys clicking, the guys clicking the way they supposed to, everybody doing they job. It came close, I feel like we was supposed to win that game. It's hurting a lot, cause when you put your all into it, all week, then you come out and you lose like that it's tough."
| AUBURN DEFENSIVE END DERICK HALL |
"I think this team is very resilient, as I mentioned multiple times I think guys have grit, guys really love the game of football. It just doesn't surprise me, we just have to keep moving after that. We're moving in the right direction, we're starting to play as a team, and we're starting to put points on the board so we gotta get stops for those guys when they go out and score, get the ball back to them, we just have to continue to work well."
On why the run game gave the defense trouble...
"Nothing, nothing that we haven't seen. I just think it's something that gives us fits. We gift a lot of things to teams and that's something we've been talking about a lot. We go back and watch the tape and want the guys in that play until the play's dead. That's something we need to continue to work on but it's the same stuff that we seen all week. They did exploit our mistakes and obviously an offense wants to do that."