Southern Miss
Virginia
Southern Miss-Virginia Postgame Quotes
9/19/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 19, 2009
SOUTHERN MISS ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS Head Coach Larry Fedora Post Game Quotes Virginia Game, September 19, 2009
Opening Statement: "I guess the first thing is to just say wow. I do not know how we could put ourselves in a worse situation that we did in the first half with balls on the ground, dropped passes. You name it, we did it. At halftime there was not a lot of yelling and screaming basically it was just that we are going to find out what you are made of, what is inside you and what kind of team we have. Until you face adversity you really never know and that is the first real adversity we have faced this year."
"I think it says a lot about our team. I knew that we would not quit, I knew we would play all the way until the end and they have played to the end in every game, not only thin year but last year as well, that was never a question. The question in my mind was if we were going to run out of time or not. I am proud of the way they bounced back. I really believe that this team has something special inside of them. They have a chemistry that you can go along way with. Obviously we have a lot to work on, we have to get much better in a lot of areas, but give Virginia some credit to, they made some plays today. They were not just out there doing nothing, they made some plays today. They have some good players. I am very proud of the way our team fought back and just the grit they have inside is what I am most proud of."
On the Eagle Formation (Running back taking the snap): "We got quite a bit of yardage out of that today. We had planned on going into the game and calling it six or seven times and we probably called it about seven or eight maybe nine times. I think we got some pretty good yardage out of it. The first fumble that (Damion) Fletcher had I think he picked up about 15 yards before the safety popped the ball out but we went back to it. We have been practicing it all camp and getting ready for it. We ran one play of it last week and did not really give it a chance, this week we got after it a little more."
On staying with the Eagle formations after the bad snap and delay of game penalty: "Damion is not a quarterback, if he was he would have ran out there, saw the clock was winding down and got the ball snapped. That is our job to make sure he understands that and we probably did not convey that to him well enough, he will not make that mistake again. We will also run it with multiple people, not just Fletcher back there. We actually have a nice package off of it and we have only shown three plays so far."
On Freddie Parham's 100 yard kickoff return: "Awesome. We went into the game saying we had to make one game changing play on special teams. That was our goal on special teams this week. He did a great job then (Tracey) Lampley comes in and takes some punt return and makes a few plays with that too. We have some guys who can make plays, we really do and we knew that, we just have not had the opportunity to do it. With the way we played back their last week with the balls on the ground I know everyone was worried about them, I just knew what the problem was and that they would get it corrected."
On Virginia's quarterback Jameel Sewell's play today: "For a quarterback to do what he did in this game is a heck of a deal. He was probably the leading rusher and then threw 24-of-36 for 312 yards with two touchdowns. I thought he did one heck of a job and showed he has a lot of guts. Their receivers were making some plays as well. They were stretching out there and making some catches. We had guys draped all over them and they were still making the catches."
"He was their leading rusher and passer, he did it all. They go by him. They are going or make or break themselves by what he does. He is a good player and a kid that the system fits. If he had another year in that system he would be pretty dang good in it now."
"You have got to give them credit. We knew that they would come in here and fight that they would not lay down and they did not. They fought all the way to the end too. That is a well coached football team. We were better that they were today and that is all that matters because we only play them today."
On still winning a game where so much went wrong: "I have had some games where a lot of things went wrong, but where we fought back and won like that. I think that we have some guys that have some special things inside of them and they believe they were going to win the football game, it did not matter, they just believed."
"If you think back in the first half the defense was playing great. We gave Virginia the ball down there on our end two times and we held them to field goals both times. They let them score on the two drives right before the half but then they came out and fought and did what we need them to do."
Southern Miss Player Quotes
Damion Fletcher, #25, Running Back On Eagle Formation: "I like the Eagle formation. It gets the defense off balance; they have to worry about more than one running back at a time."
"Virginia played real well tonight. We couldn't capitalize on turnovers. We did a lot of little things like penalties; we could've played a lot better game."
On the come from behind win: "It feels great right now. I'm all smiles. We have a lot of heart, being able to come from behind. We've played in front, tonight we showed we can play from behind."
On beating BCS conference school: "It's very big to beat them [Virginia]; they're considered a bigger school, we're considered a smaller school. But we go out there and work hard, and we show that we can play with the best of them. The O-line did a great job tonight."
Martez Smith, #32, OLB "Our D-line is playing so good; so just by us running to the ball, great things happen. Our D-line did a real good job of containing him [Sewell] and keeping him in the pocket"
On personal fatigue "The adrenaline is rushing right now. I could go back out there and play another two or three quarters."
On keeping Virginia out of FG range in 4th quarter: "The thing going through our minds is to give a little bit more. Coach Fedora is always telling us to give a little bit more even when we feel like we can't. "
On Coach Fedora at halftime "He didn't come in fussing; he knew we were going to come and step it up another notch."
On Defensive frustration "We were on the sidelines telling each other to keep it up, keep it up, let's keep going and play the next play. Don't worry about the last play we had to adjust to them [different offensive formations] on the run"
Terrance Pope, #90, DT "We knew they weren't going to come in and lay down. We expected a good game. They were 0-2 and it was the first time for them to play in our house and they were looking for a good win"
Tory Harrison, #11, Running back On touchdown run: "The previous play I had thrown an interception, so I had to do something to come back. We needed something big to happen and coach felt like I was the man to do it. I didn't see the safety, so I threw it. If I would've seen him there, I would've run it or thrown it away. Austin Davis made a key block with Leroy Banks to make a hole. "
On being down 17 points: "Going into the game, we knew were going to face adversity. We had to play hard."
On Virginia's fatigue I think they were tired. Our conditioning coach has done a good job conditioning us, and we went hard.
Austin Davis, #12, Quarterback "The block I made for Tory was the most exciting play of the game for me. I closed off the end, and he got to the outside and I looked up and he was gone. I don't get to do that a whole lot. It's not quite as good as throwing a touchdown pass, but it does feel pretty good."
On what he thought was the biggest play "You have to give Freddie Parham and the special team's unit credit on the kickoff return.
On Damion Fletcher: "He's a great player. That's what he does. His yards haven't come easy this year in any game. He continues to fight and the records show what kind of player he is and how good our offensive line is."
On Virginia's mindset coming in: "We knew it'd be a challenge, because we knew they wanted a win. We thought back to when we needed a win. We knew they'd be fighting and knew it wouldn't be easy. We wanted to get up early and give them a negative mindset of `here we go again', but we didn't. We had to fight. It shows all the guys in the locker room have a lot of character. "
.png&width=84&height=84&quality=100&type=webp)
