Here’s some of what was said by both sides following Alabama’s 20-13 overtime victory at LSU on Saturday night (quotes provided by LSU sports information).
HEAD COACH NICK SABAN
Opening Statement…
“We had to overcome to win which we knew we would have to playing here. It’s always that way here. When the defense went out there after the fumble, I told them, ‘This is where you show you know how to win. We got to stop them right here. When the offense went out there with 50 seconds left to go in the game, I said, ‘This is where you show that you know how to win. We got to go kick a field goal with no timeouts. The players did a great job in the face of those circumstances, and it continued into overtime. I need to know how we get two penalties inside the two‐yard line. We made it a little more difficult than we needed it to be, but we have to be proud of the players for the way they competed – the resiliency they showed, and how they finished the game. Now, if you want to talk about the rest of it, you have to give credit to LSU’s players. They played a good game. They really played hard. It was a tough game—physical. Direct run after direct run … You have to give their guys a lot of credit. You got to give our guys a lot of credit for hanging in there, stopping them when we had to stop them and making the plays when they needed to make them to win the game. There’s a lot of things we need to do better, there is no question about that. You ask the players, ‘How do you think you played today?’ It was a great win, but do we think we played a great game today … probably not one of our best. We need to make improvement based on that. This is a great atmosphere for college football. It was tough to down there, and I’m really, really proud of those players.”
On team’s performance…
“It was tough. They were playing a lot of man‐to‐man, a lot of close coverage. We threw a lot of balls in the first half trying to get them over the top, but none of them really did. But he (Sims) hung in there. You got to have a lot of resiliency when playing in our league. I mean, these our good teams that we’re playing. I’m really, really proud of the way he played. Things weren’t really going well for him, and Blake usually gets frustrated. I’m really proud of his resilience today. He hung in there and made the plays he needed to make to win us the game.”
On Coach Miles’ decision to play for the field goal on LSU’s last drive in regulation…
“That’s probably what I would’ve done. Why wouldn’t you? We had our timeouts, I’m sure they knew we were not going to allow them to take the clock and the game … You can be critical now, but I bet you there wasn’t anybody that was critical when they were up 13‐10. Everybody was probably really happy then. Now that they lost the game, everybody is going to criticize. But what if you go for the touchdown and throw an interception, then it’s why didn’t you kick the field goal. So the difference between what you have to do and what I have to do and what Les Miles has to do is that all our decisions are final, and we have to live with the consequences. Everybody else gets to second‐guess everything we do, and everything we do that doesn’t work, is a bad decision. It’s as simple as that.”
C RYAN KELLY
On teammate T.J. Yeldon
“He’s a great and humble guy. I don’t know what records he set, but I’m sure he won’t ever admit to it if you ever met him. He’s a great guy.”
On his performance…
“This is the SEC. This is football to me. This is how I played in high school. This is all I’ve ever known about football. You know in the SEC this is what you’re going to get.”
On tonight’s game…
“We can’t pay attention to that. All the external factors, like ratings, are glamor things. To do it like this in Death Valley, I don’t know if that was a glamor thing or not, but there were two great football teams. We both had great defenses, and it was a match until the very end. To me, this is football.”
ALABAMA DEFENSIVE PLAYERS
CB EDDIE JACKSON
On the overall game …
“They gave us a fight in Death Valley. They had us on the edge at first. We were down fourth quarter, 57 [seconds] left. We came out and went through all this adversity at practice; Coach [Saban] had been talking about it all week, so we came here to try and get the job done.”
On the pick …
“It was a pretty good pick. Defense had a great push on the D‐line, coach called a great call and we played the play. We came here knowing it was going to be a tough game. Like I said, Coach [Saban] was telling us all week it was going to be a fight. It’s all about the fourth quarter, and that’s what it all came down to.”
On the final energy …
“At half time, Coach [Saban] told us like he told us all practice, ‘It’s going to be a fight, four quarters.’ It came down to the last second. We came out, and we pushed. LSU is a great team and great atmosphere, and we came out with the win.”
On maturity of team …
“It says a lot. It has brought us together, and everyone has each other’s backs. We’re out there, and we play like brothers.”
On the late fumble …
“We were on the edge, but we had faith in our offense to go down there and capitalize after that.”
LB REGGIE RAGLAND
On the game …
“It came down to the end, and it was a tough, physical game. At the end of the game we showed them we wanted it more. You can see what kind of team we’ve got. We kept fighting. The offense threw the ball with 15 seconds left, and then Adam [Griffith] came in and kicked the ball for us.”
On being held in check in the second half…
“I’m a competitor, and I will always say we have the chance to win a ball game no matter what.”
On the defense’s mindset after the fumble…
“Move on to what’s next and just do what we can because they are so close. We made some plays, and they got a penalty that dragged them back and that helped out a lot. We still did what we had to do and they got a field goal out of it, but everybody played good at the end.”
LSU HEAD COACH LES MILES
Opening statement…
“These were two very quality football teams. We played through overtime, and I’d like to congratulate the Alabama team. I thought they played extremely hard, and I thought Coach Saban did a great job. You all can look and see the number of ways we could have won this football game. There are things that we can control, things that we have to improve on and things that are youthful mistakes that we will certainly fix and work on. I am going to want to look at the personal foul down on the goal line before I comment. If one of my guys did that, I am going to tell him, and I am going to be upfront. That is not what I am told so I am going to investigate because that penalty changed the complexion of the game. If we don’t get the 15‐ yard penalty there, we are on the five or seven (yard line). We are talking about driving it in for a seven‐pointer. Then, even if the mistake is made on the kickoff, the game would be out of reach. That penalty was at a tremendously pointed time in that game. I am going to reserve view until I see the film, and I will make that point thereafter. I also want to look at some of the opportunities to catch balls. That will be another piece. If we catch a couple of those balls like the opener in overtime which hit him in the hands, and he certainly wanted to catch it. I have a team that played a great game, a tough game, a very physical game and could have expected to finish first in that game. It was a tough one. I have a bad taste in my mouth from that game.”
On the Alabama catch in the fourth quarter on the final drive that almost bounced incomplete…
“I was told by the upstairs that it was cradled in there. I was told specifically that it was a catch.”
On the defensive play calling on Alabama’s game‐tying drive…
“I think we are calling those plays. It’s just that they’re catching balls in the flat on the way out of bounds and not being aggressive downfield. We probably should get a little more pressure. I like how our defense played up to that point.”
LSU OFFENSIVE PLAYERS
WR MALACHI DUPRE
On the potential of pass interference on fourth down in overtime…
“I’m not the referees. The DB grabbed my hands. He didn’t hit the ball. He was facing me. Another though thing to swallow, the referee didn’t make the call. We lost.”
On Anthony Jennings’ pass to him …
“I knew Anthony was going to throw it to me. He trusts me, he trusts all the receivers. He knows the type of ability I have, and I knew he was going to through it up to me. I just wanted to make that play. I need to watch the film to critique myself and get better.”
QB ANTHONY JENNINGS
On why he didn’t run on the fourth down play in overtime…
“I saw Malachi (Dupre) one‐on‐one in the endzone … I just wanted to give him a chance to catch the ball. Looking back at it, I’ll probably see if I had that chance to run. Obviously, we just needed the first down. ”
On the dropped passes by the wide receivers…
“These guys catch the ball effortlessly at practice. Drops are going to happen in the games. We are going to continue to get better and put that in the past.”
C ELLIOTT PORTER
On the impact of the personal foul call against Vadal Alexander…
“Obviously it was impacting. (It was a) Close game, (You’ve) got to score especially on the six‐ yard line.”
On how tough this loss is…
It’s tough man, It’s tough. But that’s what we signed up for right? We signed up for it. (It’s a) tough one, but we have to swallow it.”
PK COLBY DELAHOUSSAYE
On if he talked to Trent Domingue after he kicked the ball out of bounds…
“Yeah, I’ve been on Trent since I played soccer with him way back before this was even thought of. He picks me up whenever I have a rough night. We have a real close brotherhood, and Trent’s an amazing kicker. He’s going to watch the tape. He’s going to get better from this. I’ll say Trent’s awesome, he’s going to be fine. I talked to him, and you have to keep your head up. Keeping your head down is not going to help you in the long run. A lot of people say: ‘You have to win with a good attitude, and you have to lose with a good attitude.’”
On how tough the end of the game was…
“It’s a tough one to swallow. I wish it would’ve ended differently. We’ve got such a great team. For it to end like that, we don’t deserve that. Our guys don’t deserve that. We’re going to come back from this, and we’re going to be better.”
Christopher Walsh has covered Alabama football since 2004 and is the author of 19 books. In his free time, he writes about college football.
