Postgame Quotes: Abilene Christian Head Coach (Nov. 23)

Mississippi State vs. Abilene Christian
Abilene Christian Head Coach Adam Dorrel
November 23, 2019 | Davis Wade Stadium

Opening Statement
"First off, this was a great venue for our players and team to come through. It was first class the way Mississippi State did everything, from when we got here to the locker room with the way they treated us. I thought they had a very classy group of young of men. We have played some of these games before. I was very impressed with the way they acted the entire game and the way they played. I was very impressed with their coaching staff and just the environment. This is a lifetime of memories for our players.

"I was very proud of the way we played today. I thought we played extremely hard. I thought we played with a lot of passion and energy. We were outgunned in some spots and that's difficult. That can be very challenging mentally for players. Our kids didn't back down tonight, and I thought they played really hard. We only had one turnover tonight. We couldn't get any, but we were so close. [Mississippi State] did a great job of running the football, especially with their quarterback. I was very pleased with our team tonight with offense, defense and special teams. We made some plays. I think the thing that I'm very appreciative of, I told our team this, is that we had a lot of guys who were extremely hurt tonight and were just trying to play through pain. For a head coach when your kids battle like that, it's a great feeling. It beats winning. It beats anything. When you see kids that are hurt and they could easily tap out and they continue to play, it's a really great feeling. I'm proud of our team tonight."

Q: What have you seen out of Kobe Clark's progression from this year?
AD: "If you look at him, you're talking about a guy who is very resilient. We recruited Kobe, but at the end of the day, we didn't offer him a scholarship. That never deterred him from us and his belief that he could play Division I football and his belief in ACU. He came to ACU with a huge financial commitment on his family's part. Again, that's why we all love that kid. He took a chance on us, and we put him on scholarship. I think for a kid who started last year as a freshman walk-on and his progression in a short amount of time, I'm just very proud of him. He's a very diligent in what he does. He's very tough. I mean, he took some hits tonight. What a great honor. There's a big difference between him and Ronnie Vinson from a height standpoint, but both are great players. There's going to be big things from him to come in the future."

Q: How did you execute a strong start in the beginning of the game from the defense?
AD: "I thought [the defense] set the tone today. They got off the field early, and we couldn't get out of that hole. That first touchdown that they gave up, they were on a short porch the first four drives in a row. [Mississippi State] finally scored on that. I thought they did a really great job. When you're playing SEC athletes, they're going to make people miss. There were sometimes where it was the style of offense that Mississippi State runs. When you run your quarterback, you've got to play 11-on-11. When you get guys out in space, you've got to tackle. Sometimes we did tonight, and sometimes we didn't. Our guys did a pretty good job of leveraging the football tonight. We didn't give up a lot of big plays down the field. Our big thing tonight was that we wanted to make them earn everything. For the most part, we did a pretty good job of that."

Mississippi State University Athletics

Postgame Quotes: Abilene Christian Head Coach (Nov. 23)

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