Egg Bowl Post-game Quotes
MSU HEAD COACH SYLVESTER CROOM
Opening comments:
“First off, I’d like to congratulate our seniors who did an outstanding job this week and throughout the course of the season. I know quite often I got on to them throughout the season. I told them this morning that when you change coaches and you’re at the end of your career, it’s difficult. I’ve been there as a player and an assistant coach who stayed behind. The fact that they stayed when they didn’t have to says a lot for them. Not only did they stay, they didn’t quit. This is their first win against Ole Miss, and I am very proud of them. They easily could have thrown in the towel halfway through the season. After last week’s game, they could have called it quits, but they didn’t. I think that shows the kind of character we have on this football team. As I have said before, we are a better team now than we were at this time last year even though our record doesn’t indicate it. I’m proud of our entire football team for the way they’ve carried themselves throughout the season. They’ve showed a lot of character and a lot of heart. There have been some disappointments along the way, but through it all, they have continued to fight. I am thankful to our fans for the continued support. I know they are frustrated, but I know the support is there. I remember two years ago on this day – the last time Ole Miss beat us here – a large part of the reasoning behind me taking this job was because the fans stayed. That’s Mississippi State fans, and that’s part of our character. We fight to the end, and we never quit. As long as we do that, we’ll celebrate a lot of days like this in the future.”
On the play of Jerious Norwood:
“We wouldn’t have won if he hadn’t had a game like he did today. He practiced that way this week. We went back and talked about some things. He hasn’t played well the past few weeks. When you get a little beat up and your offensive line isn’t playing well, you tend to try to over-compensate. He was trying to take it all on his shoulders, but he wasn’t going about it the right way. We called him in and talked about it. We told him it was on his shoulders but to do the things the right way. He did that today, and had he not, we couldn’t have won. He’s our horse right now. That was the reason we won the football game. He wouldn’t have been able to get those yards throughout the course of the year without the play of our offensive line in particular and our defensive line for continually getting the ball back for us and giving us some chances to make some plays.”
On Norwood leaving the game:
“Once I knew it was cramps, I wasn’t nervous anymore. I knew cramps weren’t going to keep him from playing. I sent him out there immediately when he came back because I wanted to make sure he was loose. Going into the game, they knew we were going to give him the ball every time. We were going to give it to him until he couldn’t go anymore.”
On the improvement of the offensive line:
“Our offensive line – and I know a lot of people comment – has gotten better in the past few weeks. Ever since the Houston game, we started to get better. We had 300 yards in that game and didn’t win. That was very frustrating to all of us. They’ve continually gotten better since that ballgame. Some of it after that were turnovers and Jerious (Norwood) wasn’t running as well as he had been earlier in the season. We changed a couple of plays and started tossing it to him. We weren’t able to do that against Alabama, but we were able to define the hole for him a little more. I was very concerned about (Patrick) Willis because he’s just too good of a linebacker for us to pitch it out there to Norwood. Our offensive line wasn’t fast enough to get to him.”
On having the lead at halftime:
“A lead is not something we’ve been very familiar with around here, so it’s always important.”
On the play of Omarr Conner:
“You have to have playmakers. Two of the routes Omarr ran were not the proper routes. They were terrible routes, but Omarr makes plays. That’s the difference between winning and losing. I’ve been around football teams where some days you wonder why you won and others why you lost. If the ball gets anywhere close to him, he’s going to make the play. We have to improve at this position. When you move your second-string quarterback to wide receiver and he’s your best receiver, you know you have to improve there.”
On the play of the defense:
“We didn’t blitz anymore than we normally blitz. We executed it a lot better. I think they had one big run, and we blitzed on that one, but someone was out of the gap, and he found it and went backside on us. That was the last big run they had. They didn’t have any big runs in the second half. Another key was even though we didn’t get anything out of the opening drive (of the second half), we got a big punt from Blake (McAdams). I felt like that long drive took a lot of steam out of them. We got good pressure up front. We made plays today on both sides of the ball.”
On the meaning of today’s win:
“There’s not way to over-state it. Our players have worked hard and have never quit. It comes to a point where you want to see some kind of reward for all the work you do. These kids have worked hard. They kept coming back. No matter how bad and disappointing it was, they came out to practice on Monday. The character of our players needs to determine the character of our team. There are certain things about certain football teams. What I want for our program is when someone sees the Maroon and White, you know you’re in for a fight and it’s going from bell to bell.”
MSU PLAYER QUOTES
Jeramie Johnson (DB)
ON DEFENSIVE PERFORMANCE:
“I think the intensity brought a lot of hype and we were ready to come out and have a good performance.”
ON MISSISSIPPI TURNOVERS:
“It was very big for us. It helped us to build confidence and helped our offense score points and win the game.”
ON OFFENSE STAYING ON THE FIELD:
“It helped us out a lot that the offense was able to stay on the field. I was not as tired as usual, and it helped me to break on those ball and get those interceptions.”
ON GETTING PRESSURE ON QUARTERBACK:
“We sacked the quarterback a few times and were able to pressure them throughout game. That led them to make some mistakes, and we took advantage of them.”
Omarr Conner (QB)
ON PREPERATION FOR GAME:
“We came out this week and everyone worked hard in practice. The seniors stepped up and led while the younger guys followed.”
ON FEELING AFTER WIN:
“You know we now own Mississippi for a year. This program is on the rise. We have a great coach and system, and we are ready to get back to work this spring and start next season.”
Willie Evans (DE)
ON STOPPING THEIR OFFENSE:
“We came into the game knowing we had to stop the run. We played hard-nosed defense and we forced them into some bad passes. We did what we wanted to do.”
ON INTERCEPTION:
“I think the only thing I lack now is a safety and a touchdown. My first reaction was to knock the pass down (on the interception). It just happened that I grabbed it and was able to hang on to it and run a little bit.”
ON MISSISSIPPI’S FIRST TOUCHDOWN:
“We knew we made a mistake on the play. I just told the defense that we had to keep our poise and as seniors, we had to keep the attitude positive and keep fighting no matter what happened.”
Jerious Norwood (RB)
ON THE WIN:
“I told the guys before the game that we just had to go out there, play hard and leave it on the field. I just thank the good Lord that we won. ”
ON HIS 200-YARD RUSHING PERFORMANCE:
“The offensive line blocked great for me. We fought for 60 minutes, and it paid off for us.”
ON LAST GAME AT MISSISSIPPI STATE:
“This was the Egg Bowl, and it does not get much better than winning this game. The offensive line deserves the credit. I want to thank coach Croom and I am just glad to be a part of the MSU family.”
OLE MISS HEAD COACH ED ORGERON
OPENING COMMENTS:
“This is obviously a disappointing loss for our football team. We got out played physically and whipped at the line of scrimmage. The turnovers and field position cost us. We could not tackle (Jerious) Norwood. Give him credit because he did a good job at running the football.”
ON THE MOMENTUM CHANGE AFTER STATE SCORED:
“In a rivalry game, I knew it was going to be a fight. I expected a comeback effort, but we couldn’t overcome missed tackles. We turned it over and didn’t play with a total team effort, and they beat us.”
ON THE LONG DRIVE IN THE THIRD QUARTER:
“We had a chance to stop them on third down and didn’t do it. They ran it down our throats and it hurt.”
ON NORWOOD:
“He is a very good back. He’s one of the top players we have seen, and he ran the ball very aggressively.”
ON THE SEASON:
“We were very inconsistent. We have to get better on the line of scrimmage and get a lot better at things in order to replace that.”
ON FIRST SEASON EVALUATION:
“It’s been very disappointing. We went in with no idea of what type of talent we had. We will have to evaluate everything we have been doing and make some adjustments.”
ON STAFF EVALUATION:
“Staff evaluations will take place in the near future. First, we have to do some recruiting. I will be on the road recruiting tomorrow.”
ON REPLACING FLATT WITH SPURLOCK:
“We had some turnovers because we were getting hit in the backfield, so we went with (Michael) Spurlock to gain some momentum.”
OLE MISS PLAYER QUOTES
Michael Spurlock (TB/QB)
ON LACK OF INTENSITY:
“I do not think it was a lack of intensity. We knew they were going to come out and run the ball and they did. We just could not stop them. We had a lot of turnovers.”
ON USING TWO QBs TO PROVIDE SPARK IN THE GAME [FLATT AND SPURLOCK]:
“I think [Mississippi State] did handle it well. They were just hitting us a little harder. Eventually it showed up at the end. They just kept shoving us where they wanted us to be.”
Ethan Flatt (QB)
ON ATMOTSPHERE OF EGG BOWL:
“It was real loud out the fans did a good job keeping their team in it. It is just that we did not come out like we needed to after the first shot. I just have to give the other team credit.”
ON PLAYING NEXT YEAR AT MISSISSIPPI:
“It is just something that I have to make a decision about; something that I have to evaluate the situation.”
ON DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE 1ST DRIVE & THE REST OF GAME:
“It just seemed like after the first drive they were able to get a lot of pressure on us. Their defense up front started blitzing a lot. It just quickened our tempo and forced some bad plays.”
Kelvin Robinson (LB)
ON MISSISSIPPI STATE’S PLAY:
“They did not do anything different. They just made some big plays.”
McKinley Boykin (DL)
ON THE PLAY OF MISSISSIPPI STATE:
“They double-teamed us and were all over us. It is never rock-bottom. We just lost the game.”
ON JERIOUS NORWOOD’S PERFORMANCE:
“We have been over looking him. He is a pretty good back and we just could not cut it. We just could not get him down.”
ON MISSISSIPPI STATE’S DEFENSE:
“They were just a able to hold and do types of stuff. They have a good line, but not the best we have played this year.”
Related Articles
- Mississippi State vs. Auburn Game Notes
- Mississippi State 0, South Carolina 15
- Norwood a quick learner at camp
- Coach Croom at SEC Media Days
- Sports Illustrated Preview of Mississippi State
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