Sept. 15, 2007

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South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier

"Brandon Isaac, shoulder, same one he had surgery on. Nathan Pepper could have torn something."

"Our pass protection was not super."

"We've got to get Blake [Mitchell] throwing more on rhythm. We've got to evaluate what we're doing. I won't be too hard on Blake, but we've got to get his confidence up."

"The defense played well the whole game. We forced a bunch of punts, forced some turnovers. Real well all night. And we scored on defense."

"Kickoff coverage was still spotty. Nothing big happened."

"Give South Carolina State some credit. They rushed us, knocked it out of our quarterbacks' hands twice."

"We've got to get the passing game going. If we are going to continue to win at LSU or Arkansas, it's got to be a low score, 16 - 14 or so, unless we can throw it better. We've got some receivers to do it. Blake is just not confident he can make the throws."

"We had a lot of bad plays but still won the game."

"Cory [Boyd] and Mike [Davis] ran it well. We had some good holes for them. Obviously, we do that a lot better than we throw it right now."

Mark Barnes
"This game we took as South Carolina State. We didn't click until the second half. We need to work on everything this next week and continue to get better. We need to find ways to connect everything. We need to connect the dots."

Cliff Matthews
"We have been focused on South Carolina State. We haven't started talking about LSU. The coaches have been working hard with us and how we are playing. We are working on stopping the run."

Tyrone Nix - Defensive Coordinator
(on Nathan Peppers) "An injury is something you can't predict. It is part of the game and you have to go with the flow. If you're going to get hurt, get hurt scoring.

"South Carolina State did what they do on film. You don't know how good players are until you play them. They are well-coached."

Mike Davis
"Cory and I feed off of each other. That is us. It's how we play. Cory and I and the rest of our runningbacks can do it. We want to go in there and play hard.

"The passing is going to come along. It always does. I have faith in our wide receivers and our quarterback."

Blake Mitchell
"I didn't play very well. I wasn't passing very well. I didn't play as well as I needed to. Their defensive line played well and our line blocked well. I didn't throw it like I could have. I have to go in there and let it go. I can't guide it; I just have to throw it."

"We have to get a lot better. The young receivers did a good job - Jason Barnes made a nice catch to help me. Kenny (McKinley) caught the ball well. The receivers are doing a good job. We just have to get the ball to them."

Jasper Brinkley
"We have to get better in stopping the ball inside. We are still playing down with mental mistakes. We have to practice next week and correct these. We can play with anybody; we just have put the ball in place and cut down on the mental mistakes. As a defensive player we have to take it upon ourselves to get the job done. We knew they could play. Since the smaller school like Appalachian State won you have to take everyone serious. This is like their Super Bowl.

(LSU) "They are a great fundamental and sound team. Being a defensive player you want to play better every week so I look forward to next week. Nothing will be given to you."

Cory Boyd
"We didn't get the job done in the first half. We had a little miscommunication on offense. In the second half we showed we can play big man football. We told Blake Mitchell to keep firing and to keep his head up. We had to pass and we needed him. He's a senior, he's a leader and we know he's there for us.

"This was a historical game for us. The coaches told us all week how much this game meant to both schools so the intensity was up. It was a shocker at first on offense. We knew they'd put a lot of people in the box and then they got a couple early interceptions. Mike (Davis) and I had to hold onto the ball and get the job done (on them being both being 100 yard rushers in the game). We are a balanced team. We are young and we have things to get together, but the offense is going to get better each week. When the younger guys continue to step up and Blake plays better and better - we are going to be a better football team. We have a chance to play in the SEC Championship.

"We will enjoy this win and then we see what we can do versus LSU. We have to worry about what we can do and play inside ourselves."

South Carolina State Coach Oliver `Buddy' Pough
(On the first half)
"We had a half where we liked what we were doing, but then we had the fumble. Up to that point we really had a chance to get it up to a one-score game, but their defense was really good."

(On issues with communication)
"We had a hard time with communication. I really have to credit South Carolina's fans. They were loud at all the right moments."

The biggest problem we had maybe wasn't scoring. We couldn't sustain anything on offense long enough to let our defense come to the sideline to rest some when they came off the field.

(On the rest of the season)
"I'm encouraged. I think we'll be okay. We have some big football games left."

(On play of RB Will Ford)
"That's his first 100-yard game this year. He's a really good running back."

(On expectations for game)
"The one thing I wanted our kids to do was I wanted them to come in here and play good, hard-nosed, clean football. That was A #1 for today, and I think we hit that right on the head. I was proud of the fact that our kids played hard."

(Playing at South Carolina)
"I was excited about the whole atmosphere. It was a fun place to come and play a football game. It would have been better, but we just didn't get enough points. It would've been a lot more fun if we would've had a few more plays to get things going."

S.C. State Players:

Will Ford:
(On the play of the offense)
"I feel comfortable about our running game. Our offensive linemen always come to play. I'm comfortable about the running game no matter who we play."

"The offense just has to keep going to put things together."

(On the Carolina crowd)
"I can't take anything away from Carolina defense, but they brought the 12th man. The crowd was pumping us, and making us jump offsides, false starts, and were killing us with flags."

Keyon Brooks:
(On the game)
"We played pretty good on defense. We really wanted to win this game. It wasn't our time I guess."

(Playing against Carolina)
"It was a great experience. I really enjoyed myself. As a team, we've been looking forward to this game since the summer."