Let’s take a quick tour of the SEC to see what the head coaches were talking about on Saturday following their Week 6 games:
NICK SABAN, ALABAMA
On pulling out a win against Arkansas in spite of a bad first half: “This is when you find out who you are and how bad you want to do what you want to do. I thought the guys came out and responded well in the second half.”
BRET BIELEMA, ARKANSAS
On Alabama’s defensive performance in a 27-14 loss to the Crimson Tide: “Alabama’s defense is probably one of the better ones I’ve seen in 20 years of coaching. We couldn’t do anything with consistency.”
JIM MCELWAIN, FLORIDA
On his defense holding Missouri to just three points: “I gotta tell you, I was really proud of that. We didn’t play with great energy, and yet sometimes you’ve got to win games that way. We left a lot out here, but coming away with that win, man, that’s tough on the road.”
MARK RICHT, GEORGIA
On 38-31 loss at Tennessee: “I feel bad for our guys because I know how hard they played. I am proud of their efforts; we don’t have an effort issue. We just have to execute better. I know you hear it all the time, but it’s the truth of it. One of the things we talked about is not giving any gifts away, making them earn everything they get. Didn’t quite do that the entire ballgame we got one of those too. So I guess it evened out, bottom line is they made more plays when it counted the most, and you’ve got to give them credit.”
LES MILES, LSU
On playing what was supposed to be a South Carolina home game at LSU: “That’s Tiger Stadium. That’s going to be our home venue. It doesn’t make any difference how you cut it. We’ll wear any colors you want us to wear, it’s just very difficult for an opponent to come in there and pretend that it is a home game.”
DAN MULLEN, MISSISSIPPI STATE
On the usage/performance of his quarterbacks in 45-17 win against Troy: “(Nick) Fitz(gerald) did a great job today. Dak (Prescott) has been sick all day so he didn’t do any walk throughs and we got some medicine in him and had him take a nap, but he wasn’t getting any better. Then Fitz got the call that he’d be running the walk throughs all this morning and to be ready to go. Dak really wanted to start because he’s the ultimate competitor and I did think that if he started it would take some of the edge off of Fitz.”
GARY PINKEL, MISSOURI
On Missouri’s 21-3 home loss to Florida: “You have to give them credit, but our defense still held them to 14 points. And on both of those drives they had 15-yard penalties to help them. Our defense did an exceptional job. The difference is turnovers, like it generally is… Offensively we’ve got to do better.”
HUGH FREEZE, OLE MISS
On how he plans to enjoy the 52-3 win against New Mexico State: “In this profession, you have to enjoy those wins that you have. You have a short window to enjoy it while before you get to move on. I plan on going home today, watching some games and eating vegetable soup with my family. Hopefully the other coaches will do the same. Then, we will get back tomorrow and continue to improve.”
STEVE SPURRIER, SOUTH CAROLINA
On how his team was outdone in a 45-24 loss to LSU (in typical Spurrier fashion): “LSU is too big, strong, tougher, maybe smarter than us. They were just too good for us second half.”
BUTCH JONES, TENNESSEE
On QB Joshua Dobbs’ performance in a 38-31 win against Georgia: “Josh willed our offense to score points. We had a lot of individuals will this football team to win. He made the throws when he had to, make the plays with the legs, got us in the right places at the line of scrimmage, but our whole football team was poised, calm and collective the entire night. There was no flinching. The game was slow, everyone was poised. Everybody was confident, and everybody was encouraging. That was great to see. I think we grew up a little bit tonight.”
Nick Cole is a former print journalist with several years of experience covering the SEC. Born and raised in SEC country, he has taken in the game-day experience at all 14 stadiums.
