Postgame Quotes from the Rice Game

Oct. 4, 2007

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Postgame Quotes

Southern Miss Head Coach Jeff Bower

Opening Statement
"Seven turnovers, dropped passes, did not keep them out of the end zone, gave them some easy ones--I don't know that I've been on a team with seven turnovers and won a ballgame. I thought the guys did a good job of coming back. We made some plays. Then we turn it over there at the end of the game; I guess that was fitting."

On the Golden Eagle Defense
"On the long run we just got a guy out of gap. We missed a few tackles, and they did a good job of getting yards on first down. It seems a number of times they were in 2nd-and-3. They didn't throw the ball too effective, but we gave them the short field and let them make plays to get into the end zone."

On Stephen Reaves' Performance
"He just made some bad decisions, but I also thought he kept his composure and made some big plays at the end of the game. That was great to see. That is tough to do--after you've made a few major mistakes to keep competing the way he did. His team needed him to do that, and he did."

On the Mindset of the Team Following Two Straight Losses
"You can't beat yourselves and we did. I don't want to take anything away from Rice, but we beat ourselves. We're going to keep working."

#91 Robert Henderson

On the game
"This was a frustrating loss, we need to play better as a team but most of all cut down on our mental mistakes."

"It wasn't that we weren't ready., Turnovers are a stat for the other team. I guess they had more drive than we did, they wanted the ball more. Our defense acted like we didn't want the ball. They could have prepared more than us I guess. They definitely played better defense than we did."

On the comeback
"That was just us refusing to give up. When you're down at home you can't give up, and we won't ever give up because the game isn't over until there are four zeroes on the clock."

DB #6 Brandon Sumrall

On the loss
"Any loss is frustrating, but to be down like that and get all fired up about a comeback, this was heartbreaking."

"We are going to have to quit making these mistakes, offense and defense, the mental mistakes cost us this game and we can't afford them."

On the coin toss "It was just a misunderstanding really, that's all."

QB #12 Stephen Reaves

On his injury
"(My oblique) was bothering me a little but I can't really put it on that. When you commit turnovers and give the ball to the other team in bad positions, I mean anybody can punch it in from ten yards out. I am going to put this one on myself, I played like crap. We're not going to beat anybody if we turn the ball over like I did tonight."

On the game
"I knew I'd have to go in, we didn't have anybody else. Martavius unfortunately from what I hear basically broke his leg, so I had to go in. It doesn't matter how bad I was hurt it just didn't matter. I knew I would have to step up if he got hurt and I tried to win it for us."
"I think we can still reach our goals. This is a set back yeah, conference losses hurt, but you can still win the conference with one loss. The ten days are going to be crucial, we've got a lot of guys banged up and the long layoff will help.

"We were able to get some momentum on offense there at the end. And when you get that momentum on offense it carries over to the defense so we were very much in the game there at the end."

All those guys in the locker room should be positive right now. If we can come out and not turn the ball over we can be a really good team, and I know we are a good team. We just have to put some extra effort in this week and we'll try to get the win."

Rice Coach David Bailiff

When you can win at the Rock, I don't care what the score is, it's a special place. They have a 75 percent win average at home. They have great fans. Coach Bower does a good job. It's special to come in here and leave with a win.

Injuries on defense
When we started, we lost Brian Raines; we lost Andrew Sendejo, Gary Anderson. You show up minus Dietrich Davis. We were playing some guys, trying to coach them on the sideline, coach them in the dirt. I was proud on how they responded out there. It makes special teams tough also. Coach (Rick) LaFavers did a great of substituting. Hopefully, we will get some guys back. It's so exciting for this Rice football because they have worked so hard throughout two-a-days. They deserve this game.
About the turnovers
Had we not had those turnovers to switch to offensive points. That's what we always talk about. It's really good the see the guys efforts start to show up, and some techniques and some situations that you got to have to win football games and as close as this game was, that's what we did tonight.

They are amazing young men and even though we were 0-4, they never showed up on a Monday not to improve. They show up with a great attitude; they show up with a great work ethic; they show up with the intent to please us. They are in there at 0-4 and we're all working hard. It's their attitude and we're all in there together.

Chase Clement

About how much confidence they have now after a 0-4 start
It gives us a lot of confidence. Coming in an environment like this, where it is a tough place to play and your first conference game against a team that is picked to when the conference. So it is definitely a great win for us.

About their defense and how easy they made it on them to score by giving short field
They did a tremendous job. When you turn the ball over it is tough to win, but when the defense gives you the ball back in short field it makes it so easy on you. Our defense did a tremendous job tonight.

Will Shoppa

About how good the defense played
They were coming to us, but we had a great week of practice and we kind of knew how to get in the right spot to make plays like the interceptions. You would have to thank our coaches for that, because they have been putting us in the right spots all week long and that is why we were so prepared and got those interceptions.

Talk a little bit about the 4th quarter It was our first time being up this season and we kind of didn't know how to react. Once we saw that we had to keep working for it we all kind of buckled down and did what we had to do to get the win.

About being 0-4 and now being 1-0 in the conference and being tied for first in the division
This gives us a tremendous amount of confidence because as you all know Southern did great last year and to come in here and beat them in a close game in there house gives us a great deal of confidence for the rest of the season.