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Ole Miss Head Coach Hugh Freeze
On the game…
“I’m just so proud of our young men. You can’t lose a game in 30 or 45 minutes. You have to play for 60 minutes and that is something we’ve preached since we’ve been here. That’s all I told them at halftime. To be very candid, I felt like my heart got ripped out right before the half on the fumble for points there. I felt very confident all week. That was the only time I started to waiver a bit. I was so anxious and sick. We settled them down at halftime. We preached to our kids to play 60 minutes. We felt like we found something right before half. That was one thing I wanted to try right before the half and it caused us a fumble. At the end of the day, you get in this job to mentor young men, first. I preach that to our staff. I have the best staff of men that you want your kids around. These are great life lessons. Sometimes you’re on the other side of it and it stings and hurts. We’ve had our share of those. We have tremendous respect for Coach (Nick) Saban and Alabama. It’s a huge win for our program and our fans. It’s been a tremendous day.”
On senior quarterback Bo Wallace…
“Sometimes these kids take way more criticism than they deserve. I don’t know that they get the equal treatment on the other side of it. He managed the game extremely well for us. We really felt like our defense was good enough to keep us in it against a very, very talented offense that stresses you in all kinds of ways. He managed the game very nicely. In the second half, he made some big-time plays. He just played so solid. On that last touchdown, that ball was right where it needed to be for us. Who knows what the next week holds, but tonight, Bo led his team to defeat the No. 1 team in the country. He deserves credit for being a big part of that.”
On confidence going into the game…
“I felt confident all year, really. I felt like we had defensive depth. When you play good defense, you have a chance. Our special teams have been solid. I see the accountability growing on our team. This week, I’ve enjoyed the heck out of it. I’ve enjoyed the prep. Our time was stressed a little bit, but I was really confident. I like the way our kids go about preparing for games. We don’t get too emotional or too dejected.”
Ole Miss players
#21, Senquez Golson, CB
On the interception…
“It was a great play. Earlier in the game, I had blown that coverage. We were in cover three and they hit the tight end up the middle, which was my fault. They ran the same exact play again. I just did my job, was in the right spot and made a good play. The feeling is indescribable right now.”
On Alabama’s offense…
“We knew Alabama wasn’t going to beat us running the ball the whole game. Eventually, they were going to have to throw, which I don’t think they really wanted to do. We played an incredible game.”
#14, Bo Wallace, QB
On the Ole Miss fans…
“We can’t say enough about our fans, they were crazy tonight and definitely helped our defense out.”
On preparation for Alabama…
“It was just a normal week. We feel like we have athletes that can play with anybody. So now we have to come in, prepare and get back to work on Texas A&M.”
On Alabama’s defense…
“They have a great coaching staff. They do a great job of making you set protection one way then changing things up and making you do something different. Hats off to our offensive line for the great job they did during the second half.”
Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban
On the game as a whole…
“You really have to give Ole Miss a lot of credit in the way they finished the game. We did not finish the game like we needed to. I think the big question for our team is, how do you respond to a loss? There are several teams around here who have lost games and responded the right way. They have ended up having pretty good seasons. We did not play as well as we would have liked today and that all starts with me. I am responsible.”
On the loss…
“We have a lot of things to work on and to fix so we can become the team we want to become. I do not think we played our best football today. There are a lot of things we need to work on to improve. Every goal we have as a team is still in front of us. We must improve and respond the right way to losing.”
On the injuries in today’s game…
“A couple guys got injured today. Kenyan Drake was one of them. We think he has a broken leg. They will do all of the things they need to do to help him recover but he will probably need surgery. I am sure this will keep him out most of the season, if not all. Denzel Devall has a high ankle sprain; he will receive an MRI in the morning. Ryan Kelly has a sprained knee. These are some critical losses in the game today that affected what we wanted to do.”
On where Alabama made mistakes today…
“Dropped balls, turnovers, penalties and those sorts of things are not something you can do against a good football team, especially on the road. We need to overcome those things and we certainly were not able to do that today. I did not think we finished the game like we needed to on defense. We were ahead 14-3 in the game and basically gave up a play that was a mental error in coverage. That gave Ole Miss the momentum of the game and we never really got it back.”
On the statement Ole Miss made today…
“I think the momentum of the game really got in their favor in the second half based on things that we did not do well. They made some plays. Ole Miss turned the ball over and converted some critical third downs in the fourth quarter. This really changed the field position and got us in a hole. I think this speaks well of the way they are coached. They play hard. They are extremely aggressive on defense. Ole Miss has some big play-makers on offense and they made big plays today.
Alabama players
#84, Brian Volger, TE
On the running game…
“We were able to run the ball well all game. Things just really seemed to open up for us. ”
On the Ole Miss defense…
“They weren’t doing anything to make it hard on us. We basically shout ourselves in the foot. We just need to come back next week and clean up our mistakes.”
#19, Reggie Ragland, LB
On the loss…
“We just have to put it behind us. It will not be hard knowing we still have the rest of the season in front of us. Coach Saban has a 24-hour rule after a game. We are going to stick to it and move forward starting Monday.
On Coach Saban’s attitude…
“He reassured us that there is a lot of season left to be played and for us to come back in Monday. We cannot dwell on Ole Miss and we have to come back focused and clean up our mistakes.”
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.
