Postgame Quotes: Louisiana Tech at Mississippi State

Mississippi State Head Coach Mike Leach | Mississippi State Student-Athletes
Louisiana Tech Head Coach Skip Holtz

Mississippi State Head Coach Mike Leach

Q: How did Will Rogers strike that balance of hurrying but not forcing in the fourth quarter?
ML: "That's a great question. If I knew the answer to that, I would've done it the first three quarters. I mean, I think he just settled in and did his job. He said, 'Listen, I'm trying to do too much. I'm trying to show what a hot shot, big arm, clever quarterback I am. I'm just going to put my eyes in the right place and throw the ball where my eyes tell me.' And then simultaneously, the receivers went to where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to, and the offensive line blocked. I think there was more to it than just him, but I think he was a significant part of it. As bad as he played at times, he didn't really flinch or give in. I thought that was good composure to do that. I thought that was very good."

Q: How big of a spark was the 70-yard kick return to you?
ML: "I thought it was huge, but the thing is that was a full unit deal. There was some great blocks on that. I mean great blocks to the point where I'm a little curious on who missed their block that he didn't score. But no. As it's going down the field, I saw a number of great, key blocks. Tulu [Griffin]'s not going any further than he had earlier in the game if we're not blocking like we were in that play. We blocked really well because I didn't see any of their guys really out of position. Their coaches might have different ideas, but it looked to me like we executed the return really well. There were a lot of blocks involved in that. There were a lot of unsung heroes in that. Tulu gets the credit for the return, but there are a lot of unsung heroes in the middle of that play."

Q: What did you sense in your team going into the fourth quarter?
ML: "I basically said that we tried every way known-to-man to lose. Just for fun, let us try something different. Let's go ahead and do our job. Let's make it look like Wednesday's practice. We have nothing to lose. Let's do our jobs as fast as we can and off, we went. That's the thing, sometimes I think we have too much anxiety going into a game. Me in particular, but I don't think as a coaching staff we had them ready to play. Not very well at least. We sure did miss a lot. The middle of that game is about as bad as a team can play on all sides of the ball. The ending was good which illustrates just how good you can be if you play together on all sides of the ball. It was a great win. From what I understand, it is the biggest comeback in school history. Offense, defense and special teams all had to rise to win that game. The thing is that we squandered a lot early. We have to go back and coach better next week."

Q: Later in the game you were going down the field more. Was that part of the game plan or was it just urgency?
ML: "When we started to comeback it was not only that. The turning point was when we stopped giving it back to them. The biggest key in finishing a drive is not to give it back to the other guys. I think that was a critical step for us. We went through a period during the third quarter where some guys quit. We are going to address that and look at that on film. If a guy quits, that is coaching. We must adjust that. The biggest thing is that we played together more consistently down the stretch. It was a bad series of overcorrections. I think we started out pretty good. Then we got up on them two touchdowns and we thought, man, this is going to be easy. We had some guys out there that took their foots out the throttle and thought we would start some victory lap. Can you imagine doing that against Louisiana Tech, a team that dumps players into the NFL every year and has upset team after team? They are one of the most brutal teams on Earth to play. Nevertheless, we did that. After we took our foot off the throttle, I think we panicked. It was team wide. I don't think it was aa specific side of the ball. As we panicked, we tried to make too much happen. Things then just blew up in our faces. In the fourth quarter timeout, we settled down and played fast for the full quarter. We made up a lot of lost ground and played very well the fourth quarter. If we even get a half of that kind of football, we are a better football team. Shoot, if we got four quarters of that we are a great team. Louisiana Tech has a lot of experienced guys. They have a lot of seniors. They exposed some of our immaturity. They played a little bit more like guys who had played a little bit more football in all three phases I thought."

Q: What can you say about the resiliency of Will [Rogers]?
ML: "I thought that it was good. I think he held the ball and the offensive line got pushed around early. They were stealing our lunch money. Once we figured out that we were hungry, we decided we wanted that we wanted to play. Will [Rogers] decided he better hurry and pick it up a little bit. We finally got in a rhythm. That is what happens when you play with all 11 guys. When you try to play with only 8 or 9 guys, your team looks sporadic. You never know what part is going to blow."

Q: What do you feel like the defense did late in the game to keep you in the game?
ML: "I think they settled in and stopped giving up the big play. Prior to that, we would get them to third down and give them the explosive play. We finally stopped doing that. Both sides of the ball did the same thing. I have been in games where one side plays well and the other does not do well. I have never seen a game where all three sides played so bad. It was like they were having a contest to see who could play the worst. It was fiercely contested too. Then all three rose from the ashes together. All three sides rose. It was definitely some team like mentality. I think it is coaching. We have to strike the fear of God in them. You cannot quit a football game. You better learn how to sell Big Gulps or figure out how to do the backstroke up and down the field because that is what you will be doing."

Q: What did Louisiana Tech do to stop you offensively?
ML: "Waiting for us to screw up, primarily. I have a lot of respect for them and their team. They certainly did make some big plays at key times. I really thought they had some composure out there. In their package they play three-deep, four-deep, and man-to-man. They didn't play [much] man-to-man. They traded out the man-to-man for other things at different phases of the field. They played three-cloud and tampa is what they took the man-to-man out for. What you have to do [to beat that type of defense] is wait it out, do your thing, execute plays, not get behind the sticks, and most importantly, not give [the ball] back to them. Then the penalties. We act like we are getting screwed on penalties. I don't know if that is the case. I will have to go back and look at the film. I guarantee we are guilty of some of them. [The players] even looked at me like we were [guilty of committing penalties]. You saw three games today. You saw the first one where a confident, or an artificially confident team, went out there and started to do some good things. Then an experienced and well coached team fought back and said 'not so fast, we are going to play as hard as we can'. They did [play as hard as they could]. Then you saw one team decide 'we are going to figure out a way to give up'. Then you saw some challenges or, dare I say, threats in between there. In the fourth quarter, by process of elimination, we thought 'it may not do any good, but we might as well try'. Which we did. Then we won. So you saw three games."

Q: What was your message to Will [Rogers] after the pick-six?
ML: "I told him he had a guy over the middle wide open. I also said 'don't force [the ball] in there, throw it out of bounds. He underthrew the running back, the [linebacker] caught it and scored a touchdown. That is going to happen occasionally. Some of what went into that play was awfully symptomatic of what the team, on both sides of the ball, was doing at that point. Of course, when the quarterback is reckless with the ball it is particularly costly."

Q: What did you think about your offensive and defensive pace of play?
ML: "Offensively, I thought early in the game that we were a little slow. About the middle of the game, I thought we were embarrassingly lethargic. Just shamelessly lethargic. The fourth quarter was about how we want it to look. Maybe a touch quicker because we were working against the clock a little bit. A lot better offensively in the fourth quarter. Defensively, in the early part it seemed pretty good. I don't know how much of a hurry up [offense] they were doing at that point. They definitely got big plays on us with their tempo. There is a point where we must call a timeout, or where we have to respond quicker. Also, defensively, we were like a bunch of slugs out there for the middle of a game. In the fourth quarter it shouldn't be tough for anybody to move [the ball] against us [with how we were playing]. But it was."
Q: Are you guys happy with the win today?
ML: "I think right now everyone is happy that we won. It shows how well we can play when we play together. I think that there is a sense that we have a lot of work to do. We as coaches have to understand that. It only took about two bad series for us to lay down and think that we are entitled to something. Louisiana Tech has been upsetting people for years. Suddenly, we act like since we play in a big conference that they have to roll over for us. Rather than punch it out of them and take it away. We pouted and acted like we were getting screwed. We just have to keep pushing."

Mississippi State Student-Athletes

#6 Jamire Calvin, WR

Q: What did Coach Leach say to you all going into the fourth quarter?
JC: He was just talking about how we are a better team than what we were playing like. We were just making mistakes, shooting ourselves in the foot and they were not beating us, we were beating ourselves. So, we need to lock in and make plays and be consistent in what we were doing.

Q: How did you and Will Rogers bounce back in the fourth quarter?
JC: Will kept his composure. He did not fold at all, he did not shake, he stayed the same person the entire game no matter what was going on. He stayed real levelheaded, and he continued to fight and his play led us to victory.

#7 Jo'quavious Marks, RB

Q: What was the mood like when [Lideatrick Griffin] took that kick back?
JM: He's just doing his thing with the kickoff return the way he normally does. He gave the team a spark for us to keep pushing, to get better right there, then I went and pushed it in for the touchdown.

Q: You and [Dillion Johnson] were running stronger. How would you describe what you were feeling in the fourth?
JM: Most of the whole game I think we were running strong, but it was like the fourth quarter, we knew we were down, and we had to get to get the comeback and win the game.

#38 Fred Peters, S

Q: Defensively, you had some big plays to get you back into the ball game. What did you adjust in the fourth quarter to make that difference?
FP: We had to tell ourselves to pick it up. We went from there, and then everyone started clicking again.

Q: When the offense catches fire, everyone on the team benefits. How much juice does that give the defensive huddle when you know you can win the ballgame with a couple stops?
FP: The offense was confident in us. We told them to keep it going and if they did, we'd have them. That's exactly what happened, we went out and made stops.

Q: What can you do to stop the big plays like you did in the fourth quarter?
FP: We've just got to lock in. We can't get complacent with ourselves. We need to stay focused throughout the game and focus in on our assignments.

Q: What is it like in the huddle when you know a field goal can win it? How do you stay locked in?
FP: We just told each other we've got to make a stop. We have to make tackles and can't have them get yards. We just tried to stop them in the backfield.

#14 Nathaniel Watson, LB

Q: How much of a charge does the whole team get when the offense gets going?
NW: It was a big charge, especially getting that kickoff and the offense getting us momentum. It fires us up.

Q: What was going through your mind when they started lining up for the field goal?
NW: It was an intense play. We made sure we were in the right position to make that block.

Q: As one of the leaders of the team on defense, what did you guys do to rally and lock in and what motivation did you get from Coach [Zach] Arnett?
NW: We just had to focus. Coach told us to do what we did in practice. We practiced what we preached, kept the momentum and di what we wanted to do.

Q: As one of the leaders on the team, does it help to have a game like this as motivation? Also, what's the message to those younger guys?
NW: Just to never quit and keep going. It got rough, we were down, but we fought and clawed back to the top. We've just got to keep on fighting.

Louisiana Tech Head Coach Skip Holtz

Q: A battle till the end, not the result you wanted. What did you think of your team's effort out there tonight?
SH: I told the team we're going to learn a lot about our football team today, and I think we did. I said we're going to learn a lot about how we're going to compete on the road against an SEC team, and I was really proud of the way they competed. I said we were going to find out how we handle adversity, and I thought they did an unbelievable job in handling adversity. Certainly, we've got so many things we need to clean up. It was not a very clean football game. We made a lot of mistakes. Offensively, we dropped a couple balls. We did not execute very well. But we knew coming in the strength of their football team was their two interior defensive linemen. Those are the best two players on their football team. And we knew that was a strength, and we struggled running the ball with any type of consistency today. We just weren't clean enough. We didn't execute or do the little things we need to do as an offense. Defensively, oh my gosh, I couldn't be any more proud of the way they competed against a very explosive team. We just gave up a couple plays. We have to clean up a lot of things, but really, what I learned about our football team - I'm proud of and I'm proud of the way they competed. Unfortunately, it came down to a field goal, and it didn't go through the uprights. That's the game of football, and we've got to learn from it and have a heavy heart for a day or two and then get back to work and get ready to go play a very talented team next week at home. But we're really excited about having the opportunity to come back and play at home. Just disappointing to lose a game, especially. I know we had it. But we had the lead there in the fourth quarter, and it all started with a number of special team blunders. We gave up a big return, had a 20-yard punt when we needed it the most. We just made some mistakes. But you know what, I'm proud of the players and I'm proud of the way they competed, and I've got to do a better job as a head coach getting them ready to play.

Q: It's really a game of runs. You got down 14-0 and your team really battled back, scored 34 in a row to go up 34-14. Overall what did you see from your team today?
SH: Really proud of the way the team competed. Really proud of the way they competed when you're down 14-0. We had turned the ball over twice. We threw the ball in. We missed some cuts up front. They're big and athletic, and they stood up and intercepted a ball early. It led to seven points. We ran an option play, which I really felt was going to be there during this week and I was afraid to go back to it because we didn't execute it. It's the first ball we dropped, it just happened to be the live one. We've run that play all week. We just weren't able to execute it. We started down 14-0, but that's where I was really proud of our team. Nobody hung their head, nobody pouted and nobody gave up. They were focused. I thought they played the game with passion and excitement and energy. Really proud of the way they competed. We got the lead and then we had an opportunity on special teams, and we didn't do it. We gave up a big kickoff return. The kid with the kickoff went to the 10-yard line, which he hadn't done that all camp. We had a 20-yard punt when we needed it the most, which put them with the ball around midfield. We had the chance to stop them on defense. We didn't. We had a chance to make some first downs on offense. We couldn't. There at the end of the game, we just did not execute very well and that falls on me as a head coach. I have to do a better job getting them ready for some pressure situations, but I am proud of the way they competed. I'm proud of the way they hung in there. I'm proud of the way they went and played, but we've got plenty of things that we can clean up. It's game one of a long season, but I like where we are after game one. I wish the ball would've gone through the upright. I wish we would've made a first down. I wish we would've batted a ball down. But we didn't and it's the team we have and this one's in the books and we have to live with it. We have to get ready to play next week and we have to grow on some of the mistakes we made this week.

Q: Through the first three quarters, defensively, played extremely well. The only two touchdowns they got in the first quarter they got the short field on the turnovers, so defensively we thought the team played really well.
SH: No, I did, too. Unfortunately, they got two short fields on a kickoff return and a punt, as well. And so, when you look at it, we put our defense out there four times on a short field, and they got 28 points. Now we have to do a better job of trying to make them kick a field goal when they get down in that red zone, but I thought our defense competed their tails off today. We were almost afraid to get into some man coverages. We got into a little bit of man early. We had a defensive back busted, didn't cover the guy and gave up a 30-yard gain. So we were content with trying to keep the ball in front of us and drop out, make them throw the underneath routes and then rally and tackle. For most of the game we did that. But there at the end, didn't like our call on defense, we were in on the last touchdown but overall, like I said, I thought our defense played really hard, I thought they competed, I thought they played very physical.

Q: What did you see from Austin Kendall and his debut as a Bulldog?
SH: Really proud of him. Obviously, it didn't start off very well with a fumble on the pitch and an interception backed up, but the guy just takes ownership. He came off the field and said, 'Coach that's me I should've thrown the ball out. I saw the guy standing there. That ones on me.' Great competitor. At halftime, he got an IV. He was feeling wobbly, shaky. He told me it just didn't feel right, but I thought he battled through it. I love his poise. I love his pocket presence. I thought the offensive line really did a pretty good job of keeping them upright and giving him a chance to throw the ball. I thought Austin played a really good game. Looking back, now that I've seen what I saw, I probably would've called the game a little different. I tried to throw a couple more screens and get the ball in our receivers' hands, but like I said we did not execute them very well. I've got to do a better job. But I was really proud of Austin Kendall and the way that he played, and I thought incredible awareness, presence and did a really nice job. Just unfortunate we were so close, and we just weren't able to get the thing done at the end of the game. That was unfortunate. Even with the field goal at the end, I feel comfortable with Jacob [Barnes] kicking the ball. He does kick a little bit lower ball, but his accuracy is really good. He was good through the course of the day, but I have to believe they got a hand on it because the way the ball traveled out. I can't imagine that's what his kick looked like, but I haven't seen it. I did not see that. I have not seen the film, but it certainly looked like they got a hand on it."