Opening Statement …
“First off, hats off to Mississippi State and Coach Mike Leach and his team. To come over here and have some guys down and go out and play the way they did; I thought they played with a lot of heart and a lot of fight. What they were able to do defensively in terms of stopping our run game, we knew the guys they had played up front play really hard and physical, they do a tremendous job of making you one dimensional and I give them a lot of credit for that. And then offensively, they had Will Rogers that I thought played outstanding. He's gotten better and better and you watch all the games, and you see him progress. You see K.J. Costello in there then you see this young kid. Talking to Coach Leach after the game, he played so much better than they had been playing and gave us fits.
I want to thank our crowd. I think they impacted the game when we needed most.
Second half defensively, we were finally able to rise up and get some stops and I was really pleased with how the crowd impacted that. Then, offensively, we were so much more explosive tonight. We’ve got wideouts who can make plays, and when all those guys are healthy and in tune, we’ve got really good pass protection. We couldn’t run the ball very well but when we’ve got good pass protection, we can be explosive. I’ve seen those kinds of plays in practice and even other times when we’ve been able to be explosive and I thought that was the difference in the game.”
On JT Daniels’ preparation leading into Saturday’s game…
“What JT did, he said ‘coach, I want to come down to the scouts and I want to throw, and I want to be part of the game plan.’ And he came down in front of me and went every day against what I think is a pretty good defense and he made plays and moved around the pocket and he started showing us that ‘I can do this thing’ and he took the bull by the horns and he took advantage of it tonight. Mississippi State played us to stop the run too and took a lot of chances and he took advantage of that.”
JT Daniels, Redshirt Sophomore, Quarterback
On why it has taken so long for him to get this opportunity ...
"First of all, thank you. But yeah, you said it right there, that is not my decision. I've been getting healthy, getting as many reps as I can with the scout team, trying to get with the receivers as much as I can, making sure I know the playbook, and just getting ready. It feels really good. This is the first time I have taken a snap since August 31, 2019. I am now in a whole other part of the country and I couldn't be happier and more appreciative to Coach Smart, Coach Monken, and this whole team."
On when he started to feel comfortable ...
"That is a great question. First with the knee and confidence, I really haven't had much struggle with confidence and my knee. To be honest with you, I think some of that comes with playing the quarterback position and us not being asked to do all too much that would put a knee, especially a right knee, my back knee in that much discomfort, or be put in a position that I feel like I would hurt it again. It has just been a progression over time. I am feeling a lot better. I feel really good in terms of knee health and overall body health. In terms of emotions, in the end on the victory formation it started to sink in a little bit. But, it still really hasn't yet that I have been able to play football again. I just feel a lot of gratitude, for my family, for this team, for this coaching staff, and for everyone helping me get back on my feet."
Nakobe Dean, Sophomore, Inside Linebacker
On the defense...
"We had to keep our composure, we told ourselves to stay patient. I feel like we stayed patient very well during the game and listened to our game plan."
On executing...
"We just need to execute better, that would've changed the game. I do put that on the linebackers and leaders of the defense."
On JT Daniels...
"He had an amazing effect. For the offense to come out and score like that, it makes a tremendous impact on the defense. Seeing how he played through this whole process waiting for his turn, he had a big effect on us and how we see him."
Coach Mike Leach
On the effort of his team tonight…
“I thought that they had really good effort and that this was the best game we’ve played this year. I was proud of the way our guys played, wish we hadn’t come up short but I was really proud of them. This is, by a significant margin, the best game we’ve played this year.”
On Will Rogers and if he took another step tonight…
“I think he's gotten better. I think our offensive line took a step this week, which I think was important. I think Will did too. I think as a team, we played improved and we played together better tonight than we have some. What sucks is we fell short, but I mean it’s hard for teams, generally speaking, to stay on the field with Georgia, and we were shorthanded. I think we have a bunch of young guys who are getting better and are going to continue to get better. Anyways, we played extremely hard and well for the most part.”
On what he’s learned from his team this week and tonight…
“I think there is a determination on our team’s part to improve and to get better. Then I think that a lot of these guys on the team, first of all, have adjusted, well, the first thing they adjusted to was playing college football. We’re predominately freshmen and sophomores and I mean predominately. It’s crazy. Somebody had an article, and I didn’t realize it was quite this low, but we have the least amount of starters or upper class in the BCS. Whether that’s true or not, they’re still really young guys. I think they’ve steadily improved, I think they’ve been committed to improving. I think the guys that it’s whittled down to are pretty nitty gritty guys. They make you excited and proud to work with every day.”
Erroll Thompson, Senior, Linebacker
On stopping the run...
"I feel like coach Zach Arnett did a really good job game planning and knowing that we have [given up] a lot of boundaries runs from everybody so we emphasized stopping them. I feel like Coach Arnett did a great job installing packages to slow that up"
On the team's morale...
"There are never any moral victories, but I feel like everybody can hang their head knowing we fought until the end and that we progressed from last week and the weeks before on both sides of the ball. There is still a lot of work to do so there are no moral victories.
On the play of the defensive line...
"It was great seeing those guys play well. They do a lot of dirty work for me and the other linebackers and it is always great seeing those guys take on double teams or whatever it is. It was a great feeling seeing those guys tonight."
Jaden Walley, Freshman, Wide Receiver
On the mood coming into this game...
"We knew we belonged here. We just thought they were on the same level as us and we could compete with them a little bit. Just harped on playing the next play and keeping energy up on the sideline."
On what was working for him tonight...
"I felt like I could run better with energy we had as a team. I felt better by myself, I was way more confident."
On the mindset of the offense...
"Just come in and work every day. Do what it takes to be able to win. Do whatever it takes to be a winner for yourself and for the team."
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