Oct. 22, 2011

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Ole Miss Head Coach Houston Nutt

Opening Quotes:
“I’m really proud of our guy’s effort today. I thought we played extremely hard. I wish we had the third quarter back. There was a couple of series on defense that we didn’t do anything. I wish Donte Moncrief would have caught one more ball. I think that would have put us over the edge. We needed something in the third quarter to give us confidence. We needed to go ahead and finish it. They played really hard. We had some really good effort and attitude out there against a team ranked tenth. I’m trying to keep these guys with a good effort and attitude. We do not need to ever give up, never quit, and fight no matter what people say. I’m really proud of how they played. They stayed really focused. Their attitude has been awesome. I wish we were standing here with a win. We were close, but it didn’t happen.”

On the difference in the third quarter:
“We had them off balance the first half. They came out second half and took that away. We got off rhythm a little bit and dropped some balls. We had some illegal procedures. All we needed was one score. I feel like we needed one score to get our confidence up and make us think we were going to win. The biggest thing was the changes they made on our motions; the wide plays.”

On the safety:
“Without watching the film, I’d say it was probably a missed block. We were just trying to gain a yard. We were hoping to get out of the end zone with a throw first. It’s easy to come in here and second guess. I guess we should have run a quarterback sneak to get a yard. I felt like Jeff Scott could hit a homerun when we were backed up. We didn’t give him enough room today. I think if we give him enough room he can really do well.”

Ole Miss Players

WR Donte Montcrief
“We came out and played hard the first half, but came out with two bad drives to start the second half.  We have to get better at keeping our heads up to play ball.”

“The defense played great, but the Arkansas offense kept putting them down…  The offense and defense can do a little better, so we going to go hard at practice and get better.”

On next week at Auburn:
“We’re going to treat them just like another team and give them all we got.”

QB Randall Mackey
“In the first half, the offense was going really well.”

On running the clock at the end of the game:
“That one is on me. I should have done a better job managing the clock and getting everyone down and ready.”

On running:
“They tried to blitz a lot in the third and fourth quarters, so I just kept my eyes downfield and ran it.”  

DB Charles Sawyer
“If you watch it on TV, you know how it (the game) went.  We had a couple of plays that got away from us and we didn’t finish.”

On holding Tyler Wilson below 50%:
“We just made plays on the ball.  We watched him on film and knew where he wanted to go.  He wanted to go to his number three and four [receivers] most of the time, so we put our best guys on them and played our ball.”

LB C.J. Johnson
“I thought we played with good effort, came out and played a good first half, and didn’t finish.”  

On younger players:
“We’re just continuing to go to practice and putting the best eleven guys on the field that are stepping up.”

“We have to come out with the focus it takes to win.  That’s the reason we play the game: to win.”

Arkansas Head Coach Bobby Petrino

Opening Quotes

“I think our team really showed a lot of heart, a lot of character and a lot of toughness. I thought the coaches did an excellent job at halftime of what we’re going to go out there and do. We knew we were going to execute. We had excellent leadership from our players. They were positive. They were excited that we were going to find a way to win the game. We certainly didn’t want to start that way. You have to give them credit. They (Ole Miss) had a plan, and they came out and executed it. They kept the ball away from us. They ran the ball. They made plays in the first half when they presented themselves. We just kept competing, and it was nice to find a way to win.”

On adjustments at halftime:
“I don’t like to talk a lot about adjustments, but our coaches did an excellent job with it. We certainly shut down some of the things they were doing in the first half, and our players just tackled better in the second half.”

On attitude of the team:
“I was very happy with the way our team responded. I think the touchdown before the half helped us a lot. It was good to get the ball back coming back from halftime. All we talked about was let’s get a touchdown, defense get us a stop, and we’re right there. We had to settle for a field goal, but the defense got the stop and we scored. We were right where we wanted to be after two possessions. You saw the energy of the players. You saw playmakers make plays, and that really helped.”

On first half:
“We didn’t start very good at all. We weren’t executing well. We missed some things offensively for the limited time we had the ball. They had a good plan. They ran the ball and kept it there. We didn’t have many opportunities and some of that is our own fault. We found a way to win.”

On converting fourth downs and onside kick:
“When you looked at the board and saw the difference in the game, you worry. You play the scenarios out in your mind and you definitely are worried about it. If we would have gotten a stop there we would have been able to run out the clock. Their quarterback made a great run and got it down there for a touchdown. Then there was a tremendous onside kick. I don’t know if I’ve seen one that good before. They kicked it right at 10 yards and a guy jumped up and got it.”

Arkansas Players

Wide Receiver Joe Adams

On coming back:
“We have confidence in each other and make sure the guy next to us is doing the right thing and that you are doing the right thing. We told the guys last night that we wouldn’t lose this game.  When we got down 17-0 we had to push through.”

On putting the team in position to win:
“That is my goal.  I am not trying to get a first down, I am trying to score or get us close to the goal.  I didn’t score today, but I put us in position to score twice.”

Quarterback Tyler Wilson

On the slow start:
“We wanted to get into a rhythm and feel our way through it, but we came out a little bit slow.  I am sure that will be a topic of discussion at the next team meeting.  We will do something to change that.”

On the bye week:
“I think that the bye-week gave us time to rest.  I think it was good for us.  There are pluses and minuses to it.”

On primarily throwing to the right side:
“Joe Adams caught a nice one on the left side.  I don’t think about it.  Obviously there is not a lot of the game plan there.  I had the ability to throw it wherever I wanted.  

On Ole Miss’ game plan:
“I thought their game plan was to have the ball and milk the clock based on zone coverage there.  We didn’t get a whole lot of offensive possessions in the first half.  In the second half we got more offensive possessions and had better execution.”