University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Southern Miss vs. Rice: Postgame Quotes
10/1/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 1, 2016
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Southern Miss Head coach Jay Hopson
Opening Statement:
"Hard fought win. For the second weekend in a row we had a slow start but our guys kept digging. We played hard. In the first half we played really well defensively and the second half we played really well offensively. It was a tale of two halves with us right there. We battled hard for 60 minutes and it feels good to get the W."
On seeing his quarterback and receiver connecting on four 75-yard receptions:
"I don't know if I have or not that I can remember. It was nice to see that for sure. If you wear the black and gold that was really nice to see but those guys did a great job, Nick [Mullens] and Allenzae [Staggers]. Those were big plays in the game and it was a tremendous job there."
On defensive line in the first half:
"We did a great job of getting a lot of three and outs in the first half and getting the ball back. It just took us a while offensively to get moving but I thought in the second half we really moved the ball well. It was a tale of two halves and it was an outstanding game of defense in the first half and an outstanding half of offense in the second. When the other unit was struggling a little bit the other side picked it up. It was good to see."
On Rice's defense in the second:
"It's nothing that we saw but just Allenzae got himself in some one on one situations and Nick got the ball to him. That's the reality of it."
On Allenzae being the number one target on each big play:
"Well yes. He's a guy... Nick's a good quarterback and is going to put the ball where he has to put it. There was big play to Julian [Allen] as well. Back way deep. We threw and caught the ball really well today."
On breaking through early in conference:
"That was important. Two weeks ago we had a ton of missed opportunities and had some drops. Our guys came out today and took advantage and made huge plays."
On needing a game like today
"It makes us a balanced football team because we can throw it and we can run it. That's always a good thing when we can be dangerous at both and that's what we're striving to be."
On surprising Nick passing for 600 yards:
"No it doesn't. He's that type of quarterback and it's always great to have a quarterback at that caliber and he's a guy that is a special quarterback and does a great job."
On the offensive line:
"Did a great job. They protected well, they gave him time. It all starts from those guys up front and Ito [Smith] and George [Payne] ran the ball hard toward the end when they got the opportunities the O-line did a good job of protecting them."
On Staggers being so open:
"Allenzae is a talented athlete but sometimes in football it's a combination of both. He got in some one on one situations and he made them play."
Defensive lineman Dylan Bradley
On getting to the QB:
Execution. We executed at a high level. It was nothing too special. No one was super mad we were just out there playing as a unit. All of us got to the ball and continued to play hard for 60 minutes."
On 3.5 sacks:
"It was a team effort, that's all I can say. Guys next to me rushing off the ball, [Ja'Boree] Poole and Xavier [Thigpen] and [LaDarius] Harris who was inside with me. The new guys did a great job and the linebackers were blitzing and made the quarterback step up and I had to be in the right spots. Those 3.5 sacks wouldn't have happened without my teammates."
On D'Neriu s Antoine :
"He had 11 tackles tonight all by himself and that speaks for itself. He saved a lot of big plays from being touchdowns and he saved us from cutting down the hole and gave us the opportunity to make a stop for the offense to get the ball back."
On playing Rice the last couple years:
"Whenever you play a conference team you know it's going to be a battle. You know it's going to be straight up 60 minutes of fighting. They came out punching and we came out punching back and the game showed itself. They had about 300 total yards of offense and that speaks for itself on how they came out ready to play. As a defensive player, that's too many yards on us so we have to go back in and do what we have to fix. It was physical game and a great exciting game for the defense and offense. So we're going to fix the little things like missing tackles and gap assignments and make sure that we correct those plays that turned to problems."
On breaking through:
"I've kind of been playing these past few weeks just one play at a time. Don't worry about anything but the play at hand. I think that process had lead me to play a little bit better. We played great as a team. Started off slow in the first half and then just really came together and found ways to make plays and take advantage of opportunities and each player did their job."
On coming close to that mark in passing at any level:
"No."
On did you know you broke the passing record:
"No I didn't really. After the third touchdown to Stag he asked if I knew where I was at and I said no it doesn't matter. It's all about the team. We won. We're 2-0 in the conference."
On being able to go back to Staggers in the future:
"Yeah, we want dependable guys at receiver and Staggers is definitely that. He got here from East Mississippi and work hard. I don't know if you can see it but in practice you can definitely see it. He's not scared of anybody. To have a guy like that out there and making plays is awesome to see. It's awesome for the team and awesome for him."
On his performance tonight:
"I think it boosted my confidence a little bit. The biggest thing for me is just going out and having fun. Coach Dawson always tells me, "You can't make every play. Don't be greedy. Just do your job." That's kind of simplified things for me mentally. So as long as I can continue to work hard in practice and make good decisions, I think we will be alright."
Wide receiver Allenzae Staggers
On the connection with Nick Mullens...
"He pushes me every day in practice, and tonight he just trusted me."
On his record breaking performance tonight...
"It means a lot but, next week I'll try to beat my own record. I wasn't focused on how many yards. I just wanted my team to go out there and keep scoring."
On if the opponent takes away the run game...
"That's a scary sight. We have weapons, so you don't know who to key on and that's a good thing."
Rice Head Coach David Bailiff
Statement on the game:
"We're young and we're getting better, even defensively. Roe Wilkins, a freshman defensive tackle, startedtonight for the first time. We're a good blend right now and those young guys get better every rep."
On the team's offensive schemes throughout the game:
"Nate German gets better every week. He's a young man that missed all of fall camp, so he's getting into game shape. He throws the ball really well. I was glad to see Temi Alaka go up and catch that ball at high point. We've got to get some more of that. We've got to continue to get more yards after the catch, we're not getting enough there."
On facing Nick Mullens:
"Mullens is the class quarter back of the league. We've got to watch him grow up from a youngster to what he is now. He makes great decisions with the football, he's very accurate, he's got great touch and, I think it was, 65 of their plays went for a total of 317 yards and five of them went for 380 yards. We've got to continue to work on eliminating those big plays. A lot of those big plays are just us growing together. Some of those were in zero where we've committed six to the rush and some were in zone. We've got to keep grinding. We've got to keep getting better. "
On what the team takes from this heading into their bye week:
"We're going to break down everything we've done to date. None of us started the season thinking we'd be 0-5 right now. We've got to go back to Rice and regroup, refresh, get some of these injured guys back and finish this season strong. I think there's still a lot of wins still in this football team."
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