Quotes: Auburn 30, Ole Miss 22

Quotes: Auburn 30, Ole Miss 22


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Opening Statement
"Obviously this was a very big win against a good team on our home field. I am very proud of our defense, especially in the fourth quarter. We had a long run. We turned the ball over. They held them, and got the ball back for us. I thought that was a huge key. Also punting the ball on the one yard line, I thought was a big key to the game. The crowd was unbelievable. The crowd really helped us win this game. There were some mistakes made during the game, but also we're happy to have the victory. The big sacks were critical, getting back there and putting pressure on the quarterback. And we beat a good team.

On Nick Marshall...
"I thought he helped us win the game, and helped us win the game with his feet. He showed a lot of toughness, and made a big throw to Tre Mason down there in the third quarter. That play led to a touchdown, and he did what it took to help us win."

On Nick Marshall's running ability...
"I think he is really talented with the read-option. There's a lot of pressure on defenses when we can execute it. There was some pretty good blocking at the point of attack, and on a lot of those runs too."

On Carl Lawson's play...
"Carl is starting to grow up, and really put a lot of pressure on the quarterback. They have a lot of weapons offensively and their quarterback is a veteran guy. They have a lot of skill guys who can run, and I'm very happy with our defense."

On the defensive lineman...
"I think it's very important. I think it's one of our strengths. We play a lot of guys, and there were some big plays when we needed it in the fourth quarter. Putting pressure on the quarterback, that was huge."

On Cassanova McKinzy's injury...
"He was on the sideline afterwards. I'll find out a little bit more, but it's a good sign that he was up walking around and cheering. It was scary when you go out there and a player's having trouble moving. That's a scary deal."

On Anthony Swain...
"He did a good job, he stepped up when Cassanova went down, and did a very good job, played with a lot of confidence and made some good open-field tackles."

On the team's progression and Nick Marshall's running...
"We knew we had very good running skills. It's just a matter of him feeling more comfortable. He made some very good decisions today on the zone reads. I don't think there was a whole lot of bad decisions, and I think that week off helped him too."

On Robenson Therezie interception...
"It was really huge. That was a momentum play, put us up by another score and it kind of gave us a chance to catch our breath and they were playing catch-up."

On Ole Miss going for it on the fourth down and Auburn slowing down the offense in the fourth quarter...
"Coach Freeze is a very good coach and he is very aggressive, and that's the way he does things. He's been very successful. We had the lead and our defense was playing well. We didn't want to take a chance and turn the ball over. "

On the defense improving...
"There's no doubt that they improved from LSU to here, against an explosive offense and I'm very proud of them."

On friendship with Hugh Freeze...
"I have a lot of respect for Hugh. He's one of the best in the business. His team is one of the up and coming teams. He's done a great job with the program. I just told him good luck and he's a good friend of mine, and I'm glad that game is over."

On beating a ranked team...
"We talked about getting better each week. We knew we were going to have to play better than we did against LSU to have a chance to beat them, and we did. There were some mistakes that we can still improve, a few turnovers we have to correct. Our defense picked us up right there, and we beat a good team."

On Montravius Adams and Jeff Whitaker's injuries...
"Adams could have had a chance to come back in, but other guys were playing well. There's not a whole lot to it. Hopefully we'll know something more this week."

On the passing game...
"Tonight when we were playing with tempo, we were playing better. When we got the lead, we kind of slowed things down, and we're not at our best when we're slowing things down. But it was the right thing to do. We'll continue to work on that."

On Nick Marshall's efficiency...
"I think on those three drives, we actually got some first downs. We were playing fast, and that's who we are. We have to do a better job of that, we've got to be more consistent getting first downs. Especially in that third and fourth quarter. "

On the future and bowl games...
"We're taking it one game at a time. This was a huge win for us, against a top-25 team, at home. We're not looking ahead. We're going to the next game, and I'm just proud of our guys. We're going to get better each week, and I think we have a chance to continue that."

On Tre Mason...
"Tre had a good night for us, very big kickoff return in the fourth quarter. That kind of flipped the field, and it was a momentum play."

On Tre Mason being the feature back...
"We have a lot of trust in him and of course we like our other two backs too. Corey did a solid job tonight, and Cameron did okay. Obviously the one fumble, we have to correct that."

On Jonathan Jones...
"Jonathan Jones is a very talented player and defensive back. Chris Davis, we weren't for sure he was even going to play, and he played very well. He's one of our leaders when he is on the field, and it helps."

On Chris Davis in the third and fourth quarter...
"You know he hasn't played the last three weeks. They were throwing the ball and guys were running deep. We were playing a lot of man right there, and it's just a matter of making sure that he's fresh."
 
On interception...
"I was prepared from watching film. I was trying to make a play, be in the right spot and do my job. It felt good. I knew that the offense still had to go down and execute. It felt good to make a play for the defense as a whole."

On the defense...
"We played well. We did have a lot of miscues, but we will get back to the chalk board and fix them."

On the second SEC win...
"It's big for us going into the future of our season. This win meant a lot for us as a team."
 
On defensive line...
"I feel like the pressure has been out on us by our coaches that is was time we stepped up. In the LSU loss, we felt like the defensive line could have stepped up. I feel like we took a step forward tonight, and will keep improving through the course of the year."

On his late game sack...
"I couldn't think of a better situation to be in. We were up eight points, and the defense had to make a stand. We pride ourselves for being tough in the fourth quarter. I couldn't be prouder of the way I stepped up in the fourth quarter."

On final defensive stand...
"The game was on the line, and the offense was looking at us to make a stop. I feel like as a whole we have stepped up late in the game. I couldn't be prouder of the guys."
 
On the defense...
"We did a great job. We came into this thing with the motive to pressure the quarterback, and that's what we did."

On his sack...
"It felt good. I just had to get that first one to get rolling."

On the final defensive stand...
"All we had to do was execute and get the ball back to the offense. It's not a one-sided thing, but it was our time to step up."
 
On his final last sack...
"I knew we needed another stop, so I had to pin my ears back and go after the quarterback."

On the play of the defensive line...
"We have a lot of potential and I think we came together collectively tonight and we executed."

On having a breakout game...
"It means a lot but I know there's a lot of things I need to go fix and get ready for practice tomorrow."
 
On beating a ranked opponent...
"It gives us a big jump going into next week's game. It will prepare us for on down the road against other SEC teams."

On the rushing offense...
"I'd say that we played really well. Our offensive line blocked really well and myself, Tre and the other backs were able to make plays with our legs find the hole and get yardage."
 
On Cassanova McKinzy's injury...
"Given how close we are, I was nervous for him, but he came back to the sidelines so I was happy."

On filling his shoes...
"I knew I had to play big because that's what Cassanova does, so I knew I had to step in and help my team out."

On the defensive performance ...
"Well I can't take all the credit, you saw how the defensive line played. They were pushing people around and making sacks and I was just filling in when needed."
 
Opening statement...
"Obviously it was a disappointing loss. I thought they were well prepared and they were a great football team, but we had our chances. We can't give them points off turnovers like we did and we have to score touchdowns when we get the opportunity. We had the ball three times with chances to take the lead and then could not protect. We had six drops tonight. Special teams do not down them inside the five. There are little things that they did better than us tonight. I thought our kids fought.
 
"We are a beat up football team. We have some guys that are hurt and hopefully we can get them back and get them healthy. We look forward to going home. The road does not get much easier but at least we will have our people behind us and pulling for us like we have experienced on the road. We will keep fighting but there is hurt in the locker room right now and it is disappointing."

On protecting Bo Wallace in the second half...
"We lost a lot of one on ones. When you feel like you have to abandon the run a little bit they certainly can tee off and that happened a lot. We certainly feel like we got beat quite a few times. The thing that is disappointing is that not only did you get beat, but you got beat quick off the ball and there is nothing that you can really do with the football. I felt like we could have won some one on ones.
 
"They played a lot of man on man coverage just like everyone has done here lately. We had people open. We did drop some balls and made some plays here and there but you have got to protect. We did not protect very well. They really did not blitz us hard."

On Nick Marshall...
"He had a phenomenal first half. He is an athletic guy and we struggled to contain him at times. I thought we did a better job in the second half on him. He is a good player and they make you defend the entire field and they have a good player back there like him that is hard to defend."

On playing from behind after the pick six...
"It was just a bad throw. We had good play set up with a screen and Bo threw it up the field."

On that drive...
"It was pretty brutal. It hurt us. It was tough. It felt like what we were doing then was mixing it up with our run game. Then it gets to a point where you do not feel comfortable doing all of that."

On the drive after the fumble recovery...
"The first one was a sack. I think that was one of the ones where we just had a guy get totally beat at the snap."

On Auburn's defense...
"They just played a little more man than we had seen. But there was really nothing different than what we expected."
 
On Auburn's pressure...
"I know they weren't blitzing a lot or giving us anything like that. We will have to go look at the film and see what happened."

On the pick-six...
"I thought he was going to come in. He sat, it was a screen, and that is just how it went."

On the opportunities to score...
"It was very frustrating. The defense gave us a lot of opportunities to win, and we didn't capitalize on them."
 
On Auburn's defensive scheme...
"They did everything that we watched on film. They only thing a little bit different was a little bit more one-high than we saw on film."

On the past week...
"It wasn't much of a difficult week. It was the same week. We prepared well, we just didn't show up."

On the road schedule...
"We should have come out with a win, but we didn't. This away schedule made us tougher."
 
On the missed tackles...
"Especially in the first half, we missed a lot of tackles that we normally would have made. It was really aggravating knowing that we didn't execute. It was a physical mistake that caused us to have less execution than I thought we should have."

On playing so many road games early on...
"It is tough, but we are a good program. We need to step up to these occasions and I feel like nine times out of 10 we do. It is just one of those things we need to learn how to deal with."

On sustaining momentum...
"We didn't take advantage of our opportunities on our part. We have to become a team that takes advantage of the opponent's mistakes. That is something we have to work on still."