University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss Quotes from the Mississippi State Game
9/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Head coach Todd Monken
Opening Statement…
"What I told the team in the locker room is what I will tell you. I am proud of our team. We have come a long way here. It showed tonight. The hard work the last six months that our staff has put in; that our players have put in. What stings is that for the first time our team believed that they could take the field with confidence and play with good teams. It is one thing to say it. It is another to deep, down believe it. That comes from the way you practice, the way you execute on a daily basis. It builds a young man's confidence which leads to a team's confidence. I can feel it. It stings because of that reason. They have a good football team. We did enough things to win the game. We did enough things to not with the game. Those are the things that have to get corrected. We will move forward from that. We will look at it tomorrow and get those things corrected and get ready for Austin Peay."
Would you say a turning point in the game was having the ball first and goal at the three and not scoring?
"I don't know if it turned then because it was still 14-10 at halftime. Does it sting? Sure it does. I knew I was going to be aggressive tonight. We weren't going to hold any bullets back. It is disappointing. I don't regret it. We are going to look back at it as a staff. It is part of what we do. That is what we get paid to do, make those calls. We didn't get in. We have to go back and figure out how to do it better. We get down to the one inch line, we are not kicking it. We are going to figure out a way to get it in."
On the play of Nick Mullens…
"He did fine. We ended up getting down on receivers. We tried to get lined up and get out of bounds. Probably an ill-advised throw to give them a chance to throw it down to the end zone. We were going to try to get into field goal range. I took the delay because we weren't lined up right. Nick played fine. He made some really good throws under duress. That is a good football (team). That is a good front. That is a good staff. I thought he did some really good things. We have to be better on third downs and we will."
On wanting to run the ball better…
"We ran the ball better. It may not show it on (the stat sheet) because there is some sacks on there. We ran the ball better and that is a good team. We are going to have to run the ball better and we have to protect it. We didn't fumble it. We had a tipped ball that turned in to an interception and we had the one right before the half. We have to do a better job of identifying what they are in and throw it away. It is disappointing we had two turnovers. It's disappointing we had any. Our guys have been really good about taking care of the ball."
On the play of the special teams…
"Unfortunately, the plays we made on special teams, we gave right back. We get an onside kick. We didn't move it, but it does change field position. We kick a sky kick that they bobble and it ends up on the five yard line. We returned a couple of kickoffs nicely. You get a couple of opportunities. There is momentum all throughout a game. You get one where we are trying to kick a rugby kick, but not four feet off the ground. We have to be better at that. We also got one out of it. We are going to continue to do what we do. We just have to do it better. We have spent the whole offseason figuring out who we are going to be. We are not changing. We are going to be aggressive. We were aggressive tonight on offense. I thought we were aggressive on defense."
Did you think you would be able to play like you did?
"We have a good football team. We have good players. We have good coaches. I thought we would play like this in certain aspects of it. Some of the other things I would have never guessed we would have done. That is part of the game. That is why you play it. I am sure (Mississippi State) has some things where they are saying that they need to clean up. Who plays the best football gives themselves the chance to win. In certain areas, we didn't play as well as we can play. In other areas, we did a lot of really good things."
Southern Miss Player Quotes
Junior Quarterback Nick Mullens
"Through the summer and offseason we have grown to believe in one another. You definitely could see it tonight. We have a great team and it showed."
On effectiveness of the passing game tonight:
"We had a good game plan going in. Coach Monken and Coach Lindsey worked together to put us in the right situations to make plays. I was really confident in the players. I was also trying to make consistent decisions throughout the game."
Wide Receiver D.J. Thompson
On the spirit and confidence of the team:
"We have the confidence in our team. This loss does not reflect who we are as a team. Yeah we lost, but I do not think this reflects our team. I believe that we are one of the best teams and we will show that."
Linebacker Brian Anderson
On how he can learn from this game to better himself:
"I learned that I need to be a little more vocal on the field and help my teammates line up. Watching film tomorrow, I will make my corrections on my plays and learn from any mistakes from tonight."
