University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss-SMU Postgame Quotes
10/14/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 13, 2007
Southern Miss Head Coach Jeff Bower
On the Victory
"It was a good win for us. It feels good. It was about time. Their quarterback was as elusive as anyone we've played at that position. We knew that going in; he's done that on everyone they've played. We didn't tackle real well, but that guy is going to make you miss some tackles. I thought Stephen Reaves played real well. We got some big plays in the game and that was good to see. The one turnover was not a good decision by Stephen, but it was the only turnover. It was a good job by our football team."
On Defensive Coordinator Jay Hopson Missing the Game
"This one was for Jay Hopson. We're going to give him the game ball. The kids had a little something extra to play for. We had him on the phone in the locker room and some of the kids had a chance to talk with him. I'm sure he's feeling a little better than he would feel (should Southern Miss had lost the game."
On the Performance of Stephen Reaves
"He threw the ball well and was accurate. I thought he managed the game well, and then he ran that ball in on an option. It was a good job by him when we needed him to step up."
On the Play of the Secondary
"They had the one big play, but I think that was it. They (the secondary) played pretty well. There is so much you have to do to stop that quarterback. He's the key to what they do."
SMU Head Coach Phil Bennett
On the game
"Southern Miss is a good football team. They have had a tough two weeks - traveling to Boise State and then the game against Rice. They have also had some things happen as far as injuries. But there is a history here. Football is big here, and the crowd helped them out a lot tonight. They played with a lot of emotion, especially after having learning that (Defensive Coordinator Jay Hopson) was diagnosed with cancer. He also happens to be one of my former assistants. I knew that they wanted to win the game for him."
On his team's effort in the game:
"Even when the situation was dire, our guys still competed. We had some chances to score early, but we just couldn't make it happen. It was just a game of missed opportunities."
On the penalties having more of an effect on the road:
"This is a game of field position. The penalties hurt us a lot tonight."
On Southern Miss' defensive pressure "They really came after our quarterback tonight. (Justin Willis) is such a competitor, and he became very frustrated tonight. Of course, when you have a 28-0 lead, it is a lot easier to call defense. Justin competed well, but unfortunately, he just had two critical turnovers for us. But again, if we had scored early when we had the opportunities, that would have been a different story."
DE Robert Henderson
On his game changing forced fumble and recovery
"We had him held up where he didn't have anywhere to go, and I saw an opening so I just went for the strip. I was lucky enough to get a hand on the ball and it came right out. It hit the ground right next to me so I just fell on it."
"We needed that at that point in the game. They had driven right down the field and we were determined to keep them out of that endzone. We had decided this week we were going to be the ones forcing the turnovers."
On the victory "It's a win so it felt good, all wins feel good. We felt like we could have gotten the shut out, if not for that penalty we felt like we would have, that would have been nice."
"We feel like we are getting our swagger back. This really helped us get some of that confidence back; we still feel like we can be the best team in this league."
QB #12 Steven Reaves
On the game
"This was a good game for our whole team, across the board. The defense showed up in a big way and played a hell of a game. We were able to take better care of the football, and that translates into a win."
"We had great balance, just a great game called by Coach Johnson. We just felt like we could do anything. After last weeks game I talked a lot about confidence, and that's what I think was the difference tonight, we had a ton of confidence, even with the loss last week."
After his interception
"I was holding my breath a little bit too (laughter), I just have to put that kind of stuff behind you. As a leader of the offense, you can't really harp on your mistakes so I just went over to the offensive line and told them `guys, that won't happen again,' and from there on out we pretty much did whatever we wanted to."
RB #25 Damion Fletcher
On his option pass that he overthrew
"We had worked on that play a little bit this week, we knew we wanted to use it. When I rolled out I couldn't see Chris over the defenders so I didn't know where he was. I still wanted to make a play but I didn't want to throw a pick to I just threw it hard and outside."
On the game
"We had a good night tonight, (Steven) Reaves came out and threw the ball well so we were able to be more balanced. It makes a big difference. But overall, we played very well tonight."
"This game really swings the momentum in our favor. We got a chance to get another conference win so it was obviously a big one for us. Coming off of two straight losses, we needed this one."
LB #24 Gerald McRath
On the game
"This was a big one, I'm happy. Everyone put in a lot of work this week, especially looking at the circumstances of this week: We're down one coach, coming off of a tough home loss, they had extra time to prepare. So I think everyone is happy with this win, I know I am."
"We haven't forced the turnovers this season like we usually do, so this game was a relief. We are kind of getting back to that defense that we are used to playing."
SMU Player Quotes
Ben Poynter
On the turnovers and mistakes on the road
Yeah, it gets really frustrating. We were in the red zone on the 3-yard line and we fumbled the ball. It's no one's fault. We just have to get the right blocks and sometimes the ball gets a little loose on you. We had some bad penalties on some of our drives and we just shot ourselves in the foot all night. We give credit to Southern Miss for playing a good ball game, but we really didn't play Mustang football tonight. When you can get the ball between the twenties and can't finish it off, that is really frustrating.
On mistakes being magnified on the road
I think they are magnified when you get the crowd working against you. I felt like our resilience was there and we kept fighting. Our defense came out in the second half and stopped them on their first three drives. We didn't move the ball well the first drive, but we moved it well on the second one. We were trying to get it going, but we just couldn't finish them off.
