Postgame Quotes
11/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
Southern Miss Head Coach Todd Monken
On if he has ever been a part of the span with three touchdowns in under a minute:
"No, [I have] never been a part of it. We have got great character guys and it happened last week where we got some turnovers and got some momentum and we scored right away. That is a credit to our players and our coaches. We had a good week in practice and we were ready."
On the mood of his team:
"I am happy for them. We have talked enough about how far we have come. That has got nothing to do with this year. We have a good football team. We fought that way back when and that has been proven and enough of all that talk that we have not beat anybody with a winning record. We were good enough. We did not play our best up in Marshall, but we had a good football team and our guys believed in that and so our defense played their rear ends off. We lost three starters right away and we did not have Kalan [Reed] and we did not have Elijah [Parker] and all of a sudden we did not have [Anthony] Swain. So all of a sudden those guys came in and did a great job."
On the defensive adjustments:
"I don't think there were any adjustments. There were no adjustments, we just played it. Adjustments are overrated. How do you do it better than they do it? When you play a good team, they do things well because they do the same things over and over and it is the same thing with us. We do things well because we consistently do them better than they do them. At that point, it is how do we do it better than they do it? That is really what it comes down to, and in this case, it is one game but that is what it came down to."
On the play of WR Mike Thomas:
"He is a handful. They decided at times they wanted to press him and Nick [Mullen] is excellent at placing the ball, so wherever he thinks, he has a winner he can go back to. The key to it is your ability to place the ball away from a defender and those guys have been here together for the last two years and they are on the same page a lot of the time."
On winning the West Division:
It means we are in the championship. This is the super bowl for us. It is about how you win your conference championship, which this program has been founded on with five, the most of anybody that has ever been in Conference USA, so that is our super bowl. The rest can take care of itself, so our guys understood that, and again, it is a credit to them. This is a player's game, this is all about them. This is not anything about to do with me. And our staff has done a great job. This is about our players and enjoying the moments."
On stopping Kenneth Dixon:
"We did it last year. And we just gave him a check down that got him going. We were not nearly as efficient offensively last year but our D-line did a great job and our defensive coaches did a great job. When you can make a team one-dimensional it gives you a chance. And they have got good players, they have got good wide outs, they have got a good quarterback. It is obvious they are in the top of our league on both offense and defense. I am just happy for our guys and we get to continue to play."
On Tech getting the ball down two touchdowns before the turnovers:
"It is crazy. I have nothing to say about it. It is crazy. That is where you are at even when we are playing Old Dominion. Those things happen. We score, get a stop, get a turnover, score … can you plan for those things? No. But if you work your rear ends off, it is amazing how good things will happen to you."
On the game:
"Just a lot of things went our way. If you play hard enough and you believe, sometimes things go your way. We have had plenty of things not go our way and it is about time. Skip has got a nice team. They really do. They have got a good football team. It just happened to be our day today."
On the fan support:
"Awesome. It was unbelievable to have that many people drive over. They were loud. To have the band members that were here â€" and obviously it is Thanksgiving break â€" to have them come and to be a part of this; that was a big part of it. I promise that plays a big part in a team's success, is feeling like you have got a backing and we had that today and that is why I want to be the head coach here."
On winning the West Division to play in the championship at WKU:
"I don't even know if that was a question, but that is exactly what it is. It is about getting bowl eligible. That is the barometer for your program and then the second part is how do you win the west and then we got to go back on the road. We knew that was going be the case. If you want to win then you have to do it on the road. We will be ready this week and we will expect their best and they can sure as heck expect ours."
On Mike Thomas' one-handed touchdown catch:
"Mike is a good player. It was a good throw and Mike did a good job of getting the foot down. That was a big play instead of kicking a field goal. When you make those kinds of plays instead of kicking field goals, it changes the game. That is why we tried to go back right before half time. We were banged up on defense. I didn't really think it was going be a two-possession game. I thought they were going to score some. I wanted an onside kick. I wanted to do everything we can to win this game. We were going all in man. And our team backed me as the head coach and we came right out the second half and stopped them and then from there that at least steadied the momentum a little bit."
On how the ice bath felt postgame:
"Cold."
On if it has sunk in yet:
"No, not really. We still have one more game. This isn't about me. It is about our players and our guys. Does it feel good to come here and do it here? You bet it does. And I talked about this this summer. We were driving back from a summer camp and we hit I-20 right there in Jackson. We came back here a couple of years ago and didn't play very well and I said, "I'm telling you, we're going come back on that bus and we're going to end up beating LA Tech's rear ends to win the West." I wish I had videotaped it because you guys don't really believe me, but I said it though. But I really say that because I believed we could. I just believed we needed to do it better, I needed to do it better, needed to hire the right people, and recruit the right players and we did."