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Here’s what a few notable head coaches said after Saturday’s key games:
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BRET BIELEMA after Arkansas snapped a 17-game SEC losing streak in a beating of LSU: “It’s just the beginning. It is so exciting. I can’t say as a 5-5 coach that I enjoyed the championship years somewhere else any more than to see the growth out of some of these guys, and to see the genuine expression at the end of the game there and to see these guys grab me.”
MARK RICHT on the atmosphere at Sanford Stadium during Georgia’s convincing win over Auburn: “We were hoping we could be energized by our fans and that we could energize our fans by our play, and that’s what happened. The crowd was primed for a great night. There’s just something electric about a home game under the lights in November. We made memories together. That’s about as much fun as I’ve had as coach at Georgia, and it’s because of our fans and the players involved.”
GARY PINKEL after Mizzou stayed in control of its own destiny with a road victory in College Station: “I’m really proud of our football team. That’s probably an understatement. Texas A&M is a very good football team. It went down to the end, and that’s what happens when two good teams play. I felt we made some plays at the end, fortunately, to win the football game. You’re always proud of your team when you get a fourth down stop inside 3-yard line. The offense comes out and gets that one first down that we needed in a really tough situation, so you’re proud as a football coach to see your team play like that, to make those plays in the fourth quarter.”
STEVE SPURRIER after the Gamecocks snapped a four-game SEC losing streak with an overtime win at Florida, only South Carolina’s second all-time at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium: “Man, what a good win for our team. Best defensive game we’ve played all year. Every defensive starters gets a game ball. We stopped the run well, by far our best defensive game. For our guys to come back like this, I’m really proud of the guys. We could’ve put our heads between our legs and say we just can’t quite win one, but we kept hustling and kept playing.”
NICK SABAN following the Crimson Tide’s home win over unbeaten Mississippi State, Alabama’s fourth win over a No. 1 team during Saban’s tenure: “This is a really good football team that we played today — they’re really hard to stop — and I think our defense did a fantastic job holding them to what we did. We held them to 13 points with 15 seconds to go in the game, and we were trying to shrink the game in the end. It would have been great to stop them, but we did it well enough to where even if they did get the onside kick, they wouldn’t have had a whole lot of time to score. ”
BUTCH JONES on whether Tennessee quarterback Joshua Dobbs has exceeded expectations: “No, he has not exceeded my expectations. Josh is very talented young man. He adds another dynamic, and he does a great job of distributing the football. I believe we didn’t turnover the football, and the quarterback is the caretaker of the football. That football holds all of our goals, dreams and aspirations.”
DAN MULLEN after six red zone trips for the Bulldogs wasn’t enough in Tuscaloosa: “It was a really well-fought ball game. Those were two very good football teams out there playing. Give Alabama a lot of credit. They did the things you needed to do to win. They made more plays at the end than we did. If you look, very simply, the things they did to win: they were plus-3 turnover ratio, they won the kicking game by keeping us pinned and they won field position battles all night long. In big games, those are really the things that are going to make a difference.”