University of Southern Mississippi Athletics
Postgame Quotes
11/5/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Coach Hopson
Opening statement:
"Not a very good day today. Give UNC Charlotte credit, they played a great game, made plays and came out with a W."
Changing the momentum after being tied 14-14:
"There was a big play and then we had the turnover. It ended up in about a sequence of two minutes being down by 14. That was a big momentum swing. We were up 14-7 and I thought we had a chance there to get up two and then they made a big play on a nice run by their running back. He's a good player and made some plays today. That swing from 14-14 to 28-14 was huge."
On Kalif Phillips:
"He's a good player and we knew that. They beat Marshall and they had FIU down by 14 in the fourth quarter. They were 2-1 since they made the flip at quarterback so we knew they had a talented team. They're a different football team then they were in the beginning of week 2 or 3. They made the flip and the young quarterback has done a good job for them. His four starts, he's 3-1 so give them credit."
On turnovers:
"We had some turnovers at critical situations. We dropped some balls again. Stuff that we have to sooner or later have to eliminate. It's one of those deals where we have to start hauling it in. Had a little adversity in the third. I think Nick will be fine. We lost both of our quarterbacks there in the 4th. Certainly we're not really deep there and that's a tough situation for us to battle through."
On regression on defense:
"One play in the second run, I don't know if we didn't get the call in or we didn't get lined up but I thought it was one where they hit us with the long run. We tackled better at Marshall than we did tonight, too. The reality is we're still in this playoff run and put this one behind us. It's not a good feeling any team we lose. You're not happy about it and if we're a good team we'll get rid of it and move on and get ready for the next one and that's the reality of this grind through November. It's where we are right no. We're going to have to take it one game at a time and we have a really good Old Dominion team we have to play next week and we have to re-focus in on that game and cough this one up and get rid of it because it was certainly a tough one."
On Nick's injury sequence with the ref:
"They thought he got hit and thought he needed to get checked out. Todd checked him out, our trainers and doctors checked him out and they said he was OK. Then he came off and when we went back in he took another hit and I think for precaution we were going to hold him for right now. I think he's OK but the reality is we're going to listen to our medical people on that because us football coaches aren't doctors. We're going to listen to our guys and let them make that decision. Parker came in there and did some good things. Four minutes to go we knew we would have to score and get an onside kick to get a chance. We had the ball at about midfield with 2:45 left and then we lose him. Now you're in that tough decision. We have to make a tough decision this week on Keon. We've been trying to hold him and redshirt him and it's certainly a tough call there for us. It's something we're going to have to look into."
Picasso Nelson
On being tied at 14 and marching down the field:
"I mean it's not about what they were doing but we were doing. If the team can drive 99 yards on us, it's our fault. I'm not doing my job and people aren't doing their job. No matter who we play, it's not about them, it's about us. We just have to fix ourselves and we just have to play."
Mental or physical aspect in this game:
"Mental more than anything. Whenever we play with passion we play our best games. Last game we played with passion. This week we just had a easy-go coming attitude. Same thing that happened at UTSA, we had an easy-go attitude and that's when other bad things happen. We just have to fix ourselves and be focused and ready for each and every week."
Why did you have the easy-go attitude about this game?
"I don't know. That's something I don't know the answer to but whatever it is, we need to fix it. We had a good week of practice so we have to carry that over to Saturday and play well on Saturday."
Charlotte Head Coach Brad Lambert
On how big this win is:
"This is huge. This is an unbelieve place to come down here and play. There's been a lot of wins out there, a lot of good players on that field, I think I read they started playing 100 years ago, so [Southern Miss] has been doing it at a high level for a long time. I told our team that coming in. This is a good program and this is huge for us to come in here and get this win."
On if he was confident about beating a more physical team
"I don't know about that. We wanted to be physical. I really think Southern Miss is a physical football team, you see that on film. I think the Temple game helped us. I compared this team to Temple. I thought Temple was a real physical team and we went on the road. It was important for us to play hard and be physical. I thought the kids did a nice job of that."
On Kalif Phillips' play today:
"[He] was huge for us especially because I wasn't sure we could run the ball on these guys. They're a pretty good run defense, so for us to be able to run the ball was big and Kalif's done that for us since he's been here. Really proud of our [offensive] line. We lost a starter last week and some guys are stepping up, so that was big for us today."
