Postgame Quotes vs. Tulsa

OLE MISS HEAD COACH LANE KIFFIN

Opening statement:
Been good to have this at halftime. It would have been a good press conference. Unfortunately, we didn't play well in the second half, especially offensively. We didn't play well at all in the first half defensively, so that's not a good thing. We did win, so we are 4-0, which is you know the best that you can be from a record stand point at this point, but kind of more similar to the first game of the year, where we played really well early and then didn't, and I thought we had overcome that by the way the last two games had gone. Having really big leads like this one at halftime and coming out, and obviously, we didn't do that today, and we tried everything. But, got to figure out something better. I'm sure they started a lot of people, a lot of our fans, alright this one's over, let's get ready for the next one. Great team coming in here, so unfortunately, that happened. Good thing is, you take parts where you say "okay well we're really good on offense and really good on defense", and we just want to be consistent at it, so that's better than what we've all been around, teams or games, where you don't feel good about a side or both sides at all, so we just got to put it together, which again we did a week ago, but every game in depend of the other and every week is brand new. We got work to do, and get some guys back healthy, too, that we missed today.

On Jaxon Dart and quarterback situation:
Statistically, I thought Jaxon played well. He's more physical in the run game than I liked, and I tried to stop him a couple times, we ideally didn't want to run him so much, and that's just what they do on the reads, even when its not a quarterback read, if they bring an extra guy, he's got to pull it. I thought he was good, smart with the ball, in every game we had one of those you want to take back. He overthrew a guy, a poor decision. It was a different game once we started moving.

On offensive line playing across the board:
It's what I've been saying in general. The first half seemed very different. We presented some problem things to them similar to Arkansas a year ago and what we did offensively, things we haven't shown that I think did well early. When we had to just run, it kind of got munched up and did a better job on defense. Guys got to step up and play a bunch.

On Judkins performance:
He looked really good, made some good runs. Unfortunately, a big fourth down, wasn't able to hold on to the catch that would have been pretty significant, a game changing play. But, he continues to play well, especially for a freshman. In the end, there wasn't a lot of room to run, so that's why the quarterback pull and stuff because they were so loaded in tight there.

OLE MISS QUARTERBACK JAXSON DART

On how he personally evaluated how he played today:
At the end of the day, I gave it all I have every time I'm out there. There's definitely things that, as I reflect, that I wish I could have back. You know, just some easy mistakes that I don't usually make. I'm just looking forward to getting better. Taking the experiences and the mistakes that I made and making sure I don't do them again. Like you said there's a tale of two halves. I thought in the first half I was able to operate well and execute well and in the second half I thought as a whole unit we kind of shot ourselves in the foot and made some mistakes that we don't usually make. So you know I'm just going to take that win."

On His thoughts on officially being the starting quarterback:
For me, I take it day by day and just try to compete. I know Luke takes it the exact same way. We push each other and then we make each other better. This competition of football it never ends. I just try to come out each and every day and it do whatever it takes to win and be successful. I know my role and I'm just trying to fulfill that each and every week.

On the next couple of days:
We hold ourselves to a really high standard. You hear people talking about us being a team that hasn't really played a lot with each other so there is a lot of new pieces but we are growing day by day. Quite honestly, we don't know the level we can play at, or that were capable at. You see it at each game, that we have spurts. I think for us, were really just trying to be consistent. It's frustrating to see how we played in the first half versus the second half because like I said you could just see the different spurts of it. In the locker room, we weren't very happy. That's not the standard we want to play at each and every day. We have to come back for this week coming up, it's a big one and it's a huge step for our team as a whole. As a team, we are getting in tomorrow and were starting the week off the way we need to start off. We're going to put in everything we have because we can't afford to have any other hiccups like we did tonight. We're going to push our foot forward and keep moving forward as a team and really try to clean up the things that we can.

OLE MISS WIDE RECEIVER JONATHAN MINGO

On the offense in the first versus second half:
I really feel like we just kept beating ourselves. Dumb penalties, turnovers that didn't feel like our style of football. We should have played way better in the second half and the game shouldn't have been that close.

On making corrections for next week:
We'll just go back and watch film and see what went wrong, just forget about it. Kiffin always preaches we have the 24-hour rule, so watch film and correct the bad and get onto Kentucky. Just try to improve each week.

On Quinshon Judkin's performance:
I'm not surprised. He practices really hard, and we've got a special backfield with him. A lot of people looked over him recruiting wise and I feel like you're going to hear his name a long time down the road.

On the locker-room postgame:
It's really more disappointment because we let the game be closer than it should have been. The standard is to win. When we let someone creep back into the game, that's not our standard of football. We're trying to become a championship program and we can't let things like that happen.

On learning about this team:
We're still trying to learn each other and learn how to play together. Playing the style of football Ole Miss should play. We're just trying to become closer and closer each weekend and become a championship program.

TULSA HEAD COACH PHILLIP MONTGOMERY

Opening Statement:
I was proud of our football team in a lot of ways today. Thought we played a full 60 minute game, fought through adversity, gave ourselves a chance to win late. Obviously we have to capitalize on the opportunities we had, especially in the second half.

Thought Braylon [Braxton] coming in, there was a lot of stuff on his plate, but I thought he handled it well. Obviously we will be able to learn and grow a lot from that part of it. I thought our defense throughout significant different times made really good stops in there. Thats an explosive team, don't take anything away from Ole Miss, I think they are a very good football team. Good in all three phases, got a lot of things they do offensively that cause you trouble, and the same thing defensively.

I thought our guys did a nice job preparing, nice job attacking, and again giving ourselves a chance to win. I thought our running game was better today, that helped us, but we still have a lot of room to grow. I think we have a lot in front of us. Now we get back to Tulsa with an opportunity to go to work and understand we have a big game next week - a conference opponent coming to town. Got a lot of work in front of us and we've got to get healthy and get ready.

On defense adjustments and performance in second half:
I thought they played tremendously well there in the second half. As you look at them, the first drive they went down and scored on us. I think our defense came to the sideline and obviously got a chance to see it, got a chance to feel it. Then I thought from that point forward, I thought they did some really nice things. They ran the quarterback quite a bit, did some good things from a misdirection standpoint in the run game. Passing wise, I thought we did some really nice things. Again, our defense did well in certain spots there of really getting off the field on third down. I thought there was some opportunities in there where it was called this that or the other that kinda extended drives for them. I thought our defense played well, for the most part throughout the game, and made some big stops there late for sure.

On capitalizing on red zone drives, instead of settling for field goals:
Well, we had been pretty good on that all year. Obviously today, different circumstances were involved. We had a little miscommunication there with some things, so it just comes down to execution and being on top of it. I think we have done a good job at continuing to grow in that area and will continue to do that as we work our way through it, but you gotta give credit to Ole Miss there too. They got some pretty good guys on defense as well.

Overcoming adversity and building on how they played the game close:
We are always for those things every week, things we can get better at, and things we can build on, and I think there are some things you're going find in this tape that we can continue to grow from and get better. I think this team has growth in front of them. We've got to keep getting on the practice field and putting in the work to make those things happen. Conference play is about to start up. You know how tough our conference is. We open with Cincinnati.

TULSA SAFETY KENDARIN RAY

On second half defensive adjustments:
The adjustments we made at halftime were to fly to the ball and make plays. We felt like tackling was one of our problems in the first half and not being on the same page with some of our calls. Those were some of the things we felt affected us and those are the changes we made in the second half.

On team effort:
To me, it shows that we have a lot of heart defensively. We depend and rely on each other. From the defensive line to linebackers to the secondary, we all trusted one another and just hope we all make plays, one by one.

TULSA QUARTERBACK BRAYLON BRAXTON

On defensive mindset:
We hate to see that for Davis [Brin], but we try not to let that hinder our game. We just try to build on it. Some of us play for him, but we just do whatever we've got to do to be successful.

On confidence coming from close game:
I can say I'm glad how we came out and played, collectively, as a team. We wish we came out on top, but this sets us up and lets us know what we can do for the remainder of the season.

On his performance:
I feel like for the opportunity I was given today, I did okay. I feel like there was definitely some plays I left out on the field. We're going to get back in the film room tomorrow. We're going to correct those and we're going to build on this. I feel like today was a great experience for me.

On bouncing back from interception:
After that interception Coach Bow and Coach Murray, they were telling me that that's kind of our mindset after anything bad happens. We have to have a goldfish memory; we don't want to remember the good or the bad. We just want to clear our heads out and play the game.

On his first touchdown pass:
That moment was very surreal. It was a great moment for me, but I didn't really have much time to soak it in. We were down, so I was trying to put a whole thing together for a comeback. It was definitely a great moment for me.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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