Postgame Quotes vs. Mississippi State

OLE MISS HEAD COACH LANE KIFFIN

Opening Statement
"Great for all of our players to come on a short week, on the road, and in a hostile environment. Very hostile. I have been one time before at Alabama. It was different. There was a different energy in there. It really cost us early on the fourth down. We were trying to get out of it and players couldn't hear us. I guess they are not supposed to ring [their cowbells] at that point, but it seems like they were. That cost us a critical situation there. Our defense really bent and didn't break all day. Keeping them to all of those field goal attempts was huge. Our offense struggled early. Those are really good defensive players. I said it all week and you saw it in warmups. They are really long. They have recruited extremely well there on defense and you can see it. It is not easy, but guys rose to the occasion and found a way to win. They did it. It wasn't easy. They have a top-10 rush defense and we're on the road. I'm just so proud of our guys. It is just awesome to see them [win]. Before we got here, these fifth- and sixth-year seniors, what they have been through to get to this point. To watch them sing there at the end and enjoy it is really neat. I have been telling them all week, "You can do things that are special, but it is really special when you can do something that has never been done before." They have never won 10 regular season games. For this group of players and assistant coaches to do that is really cool."

Did you foresee a 10-win season this year?
"I would have foreseen this this season. I don't think so if you would have asked me two years ago when we first got here. After spending a year with the offensive firepower and coming back. I don't know if I would have predicted it if you had told me the quarterback would have been hurt and all three receivers would have been hurt. All three of those guys missed time, and some all at the same time. I don't know if I would have predicted that. Our defense held us together through those injuries, and they did it again tonight. The third downs are kind of crazy, 11-of-18 on offense and 4-of-14 for those guys was a huge part of the game."

What has made this team special this year?
"I don't know. I call them a blended family. It just gets put together. Some of them have been here six years from the beginning and some have been here one year. They have come from all over the place. We have transfers, walk-ons, and everything. It is really cool to see them pick each other up. Every coach always says 'This team is a family.' They say that every year, and that's not really true. So, this is one of those unique years where they really are. They protect each other like that and play for each other like that."

Can you put in perspective what a New Year's Six bowl game means for Ole Miss?
"Well, I hope we are because they all celebrated like we are. I would have some really upset players if they went 10-2 in the SEC and aren't. It is remarkable what these kids did. They call themselves a band of brothers, and they really are. It is just really special. Again, never [winning] 10 regular season games and to do it [this year]. Football has been played here a long time, and the SEC is as strong as ever. There are more SEC teams than there used to be so it is even harder. It is a really, really special deal."

OLE MISS QB MATT CORRAL

At what point did you know that this team had something special about it? What exactly is it?
"I started noticing it around the end of last season. It was not just me – it was coaches preaching it and us believing it. They wanted it to come from me from the beginning to be the leader, and that is what I did. At the time it wasn't easy, but my teammates had my back. Everyone in each position room, there is always a couple leaders in each room. I feel like that was the biggest difference. I have said this before, but I could not be prouder than those guys because they demanded more out of themselves and their teammates. That is the love and trust that we have."

When did it sink in for you what this rivalry means and can you put in in perspective what winning this game means for Ole Miss?
"This game has a lot of history behind it. People on this staff have grown up as the little kid in Oxford and has experienced this rivalry. They explain how much it means to us. Feeling the coach's energy, you can tell that this rivalry is real. Just like the Tennessee game, going into a hostile environment – not getting into the emotions and keeping the main thing the main thing. Not worried about what is going on outside and doing your job one play at a time. Not only is this a big win for our rivalry and Ole Miss, but we also go down in history because Ole Miss has never had a 10-win regular season. That is a good feeling when a program has not done something in a long time, and you do it. Also, to do something that has never been done in the history of this school, that is something special and it speaks a lot for the people in this locker room."

OLE MISS DL SAM WILLIAMS

What were you able to do in the second half? Was it wearing them down? What were you able to do to get more to Will Rogers?
"We saw that he was going to pass the ball. At first, we had to read run-pass, but then they gave us the green light. So, just go, and I said, 'Okay, let's do it.'"

What made you think that there was going to be a turnaround once Lane Kiffin became coach?
"The mindset. Now when we lose, even by one point, it is not okay. No one is talking, laughing or playing. I cannot say that for my first year. If we lose, then we lost and it hurts. If you would come to one of our practices after we lost, then you would see that these guys are playing a game in practice. It is a change of the mindset because no one likes to be a loser. This is my first season that I've had a winning season. It is different, we are not losers. We have the talent and players. We have the leadership and we put all the missing pieces together."

Q: Where do you think the leadership and togetherness in the locker room came from?
"Basically, the older guys have matured. When I first came to Ole Miss, I did not have that senior guy to lead me on. I was a starter since I got here, so I did not have anyone to teach me to not do this or that. Now, we have older guys that help the younger guys. [Cedric] Johnson is a sophomore, and he is taking the role as a leader – I see him giving tips to the freshmen. Everyone has grown up. We saw that we had a chance; if you give us a chance it is over. It is done."

MISSISSIPPI STATE HEAD COACH MIKE LEACH

How much do you think the rain had to do with the missed touchdowns in the first half?
"I don't think the rain had much to do with it. I think we did miss some opportunities for touchdowns, and that's the part that's kind of unfortunate. Including virtually every time we kicked a field goal, that's a missed opportunity for a touchdown. I think with everybody getting excited and everybody playing hard, we got a little bit frantic. Sometimes we tried to make a little too much happen, and we missed out on some plays, which is disappointing. I think, at some key times, their maturity came out ahead of some of our young guys. I think we have about 10 seniors, and those guys were great enough to help elevate our team, even if they didn't have a starting role. I think that we just have to keep plugging away and getting better, so we get more consistent. I thought that we marched it up and down the field, and if we play games by the stat sheet, then it looks pretty good, but the key plays that they made that we didn't just became missed opportunities. It's unfortunate and you feel sorry for yourself, but you just have to get better."

How much of a different game do you think it is if you guys can score before halftime?
"Yeah, we haven't dropped three balls in a row for a long time. I don't know. I think sometimes we'd be seven points better, but everyone was locked in. In a game like this, it's a fine line between being wired up and being too discouraged. People overly go flat because they don't care, and in a game like this, everyone cares. But when you care too much and try too hard, then you get out of control and then you get too discouraged. I didn't see that out of our team, but I did think we tried too hard and missed some opportunities, which is just too bad."

How would you assess Scott Lashley's plays and what were some of his struggles?
"Well, he was matched up against a real quality guy, and I thought that that guy did a really good job getting off the ball. But I think Lashley's had a heck of a year, and that he's a key guy for their defense. I thought, for the most part, we protected pretty good except we had a run at a key time where I think we got a penalty and a couple of sacks, and that was a missed opportunity."

Ole Miss had a lot of third down conversions, how was that a problem for the defense?
"Well, of course you want to get them off the field on third downs. I think defensively, we played really hard, we played really well, occasionally gave up some big plays, and a lot of those were third down and short, which means that they earned it, as far as working the sticks and that type of thing. But I also think that the leadership of their quarterback played in and was helpful in them being effective on third downs. He really did a good job on those and carried a number of them."

What were your thoughts on Will Rogers' performance today?
"Starting out, I thought he tried to do a little too much, then I thought he settled in. Then I think there were some ups and downs in the second half. It wasn't his best game, because I've seen him be more accurate and trigger a little quicker. But I thought he hung in there in a tough situation, and he did a great job as far as holding the offense together, continuing to move the ball, that type of thing. What we did a good job of today was putting ourselves in a good position to score. What we didn't do a very good job of was finishing the deal, even though there's more people involved in that than Will. All of us are involved, and there isn't any coach that coaches any better than the players play. We just missed some key opportunities."

MISSISSIPPI STATE QB WILL ROGERS

Coach Leach mentioned that you had three dropped passes. What were you seeing on those three plays and what effect does that have on the outcome?"
"They were huge plays no doubt about it, but we're human at the end of the day. We are going to make mistakes. We aren't perfect people at all. I will throw an interception again, another guy will drop a ball maybe next game, maybe next year. We just have to overcome it."

Do you feel like the weather affected those passes or the drops?
"Honestly, the rain was never a problem. I will say that the wind was howling pretty good, especially during the second half, but that's not an excuse at all."

Leach talked about missed chances. Do you notice those throughout the game as they happen?
"Absolutely, I notice it every time it happens. Us not scoring a touchdown on the first drive where they turn it over on the forty-yard line - it was pretty big. We have to finish drives; we've said it multiple times this year. At the end of the day, we have to finish drives in the end zone."

Did you think you had Makai Polk on that corner route in the end zone?
"Yeah, either he could have caught it, or I could have thrown it better, one of the two. I haven't seen it obviously. I need to go back and look at it on film."

"It felt like the turning point was in the third quarter, did you feel the game slipping a bit or that you could pick it up?
"I mean never, I don't think this team is ever out of the fight. We said that a lot throughout the year. We are never out of the fight. It's a four-quarter game, a sixty-minute game. The drive that we really needed we had back-to-back holding calls, so we are 2nd-and-30. To not convert right there is a crucial point."

Q: It's a disappointing night, but how much has this team grown in the last 365 days?
" I think that we have grown a whole lot from the egg bowl last year, to spring ball, to fall camp. Throughout the first six games, we have grown so much as a team, not just on the field but off the field too. The thing that sucks is we have to live with them having something for 365 more days."

How much do you think bowl season will help this team mature?
"I don't really know how to answer that question. They have some older guys like [Matt] Corral who is probably leaving for the draft. They have some older wideouts that came back for their fifth year. We have some young guys that are starting for us, maybe we can be experienced like them next year."

How much does it help knowing you have another game to play?
"It helps, this is going to sting for 365 days. Ultimately, you have to flush it when we find out what bowl game we go to. All of our focus needs to be on that bowl game."

You mentioned the team not being able to convert crucial opportunities. What did they do to make it tough for the team?
"I don't know. They made some plays here and there to get us off the field, especially on third down. Our third downs were really bad. They had a good plan, props to them for having a good plan. They executed it really well and I thought their guys played really hard."

MISSISSIPPI STATE LB AARON BRULE

You had an impact play earlier in the ball game when you stopped them on fourth down. Take us through that moment and that play.
"It's just about making routine plays. I wanted to help our guys out and make a good play for our team, but I wish I could have made a few more."

What do you think Matt Corall did differently to hurt you guys today?
He used his legs more than he did in the past. With him already declaring for the draft, we knew he would come out and give all he had."

How important is it that you guys have one more to play?
"It's very important. We have the chance to finish 8-5 which is always a plus. Viewing this last year, our team has made huge strides and we have nothing left to do but improve."

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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