Let’s take a quick tour of the SEC to see what the head coaches were talking about on Saturday following their Week 7 games:

NICK SABAN, ALABAMA

On what he’s taking away from the 41-23 win at Texas A&M: “The thing I’m probably most proud of with our players is when we lost the momentum of the game in the second quarter when we dominated the game in the first quarter. Players really responded well in the second half to go out there and compete.”

GUS MALZAHN, AUBURN

On how important it was for his team to leave Kentucky with a victory: “I’ll say this, it was a big win for us. We needed this win. I think that’s kind of a common sense deal. It gives us momentum. We’re 2-0 in October. So, we’re going in the right direction. That’s the positive message.”

JIM MCELWAIN, FLORIDA

On falling victim to a Les Miles fake field goal for deciding score of 35-28 loss to LSU: “It’s kind of a badge of honor. They’ve got to fake one to beat us.”

MARK RICHT, GEORGIA

On winning a low-scoring battle with Missouri 9-6: “I’ll take that every day. Just so long as there’s a victory at the end of it. I’m thankful and happy right now. It’s not going to be pretty all the time, but the victory is pretty. The bottom line is everyone kept battling, kept fighting, kept believing. I’m just really proud of the job everybody did. Sometimes the toughest ones are the best ones.”

MARK STOOPS, KENTUCKY

On how the close loss to Auburn came down to missed opportunities: “That’s what I told the team is that is the glass half full or is it half empty? We know we can make those plays, and I don’t fault our team. They’re prepared, they believe they can make them, they know they can make them, and it comes down to a few plays here and there. We’ll continue to work to make those plays to make a difference to win some games. We have and as the competition gets better with certain people, we got to step it up as well.”

LES MILES, LSU

On importance of QB Brandon Harris to LSU team following 35-28 win against Florida: “Brandon Harris is one of the key, fundamental guys to our success. If he continues, we’ll be as good as we can be.”

DAN MULLEN, MISSISSIPPI STATE

On his team’s performance in final non-conference game against Louisiana Tech: “I’m very proud of how our guys played today. We came out and started slow, but our preparation was good and we were on top of things. It’s a team effort to pick yourselves up out of a 14-0 lead, and we did and we ended up turning it around a playing very well in all phases. We had some big special teams plays out there, especially with the blocked kick. I thought everyone played very solid. We held them to only six points for the rest of the game and that was a great effort on our part. This is the end of non-conference play and now we need to be ready for the grind that we’re about to go through over the next couple weeks.”

GARY PINKEL, MISSOURI

On losing a 9-6 game at Georgia: “Well, it’s tough. We played a real good football team. Our defense played tremendous. Offensively, we’re still having our struggles as a team and I’m just real disappointed for our players because we played, in a lot of respect, good enough to win. We didn’t get it done.”

HUGH FREEZE, OLE MISS

On if there was a lack of focus or intensity for Rebels in 37-24 loss at Memphis: ”There’s something missing for sure and that’s my responsibility. I thought we had a really good week of preparation and again, not to take anything away from Memphis. They’re a good football team and I don’t want anything to sound like I’m not saying that, but we’re obviously not locked in totally.””

SHAWN ELLIOTT, SOUTH CAROLINA

On how different it was for him to be the head coach at South Carolina in 19-10 win against Vanderbilt: “First of all we lost our head coach on Monday evening so that was the big difference. Then we had to make some emergency plans. I got named the interim head coach, I had to get a plan together in what seemed like a couple of hours on how we’re going to address this situation and move forward. It was totally different. The way we came back and the way we won, it was a special night. I hope our fans understand that. It wasn’t all pretty, but the bottom line is we came in and won a football game and that’s exactly what our football team is going to do.”

KEVIN SUMLIN, TEXAS A&M

On being force to throw the ball in 41-23 loss to Alabama: “The game got to a point where we had to throw it to get back in it. It went just the opposite of how we wanted it to go. The game got ahead of us.  But nobody has been able to do that consistently against Alabama. The combination of two things, our inability numbers wise, but also the situation where we forced to try to fight our way back into the game. You think as a coach that your comfortable doing that, but Alabama was able to take that away by forcing turnovers and scoring points off them.”

DEREK MASON, VANDERBILT

On whether he considered benching QB Johnny McCrary in 19-10 loss to South Carolina: “This game was just too close. We’re trying to win. I felt Johnny gave us our best chance. Sometimes it’s a gift and a curse in terms of what it looks like. Johnny just has to play through the bad stuff. That doesn’t mean I’m always going to be that willing to let him go that far. So far he’s had the most reps and the most looks and I have to continue to back him and I will. He just has to be better.”