For those wanting the transcript, here it is:
KIFFIN: Good win. The crowd was awesome and the walk was phenomenal. I thought the players fed off of it. We didn’t play great early. We were sloppy. Was surprised we were up by ten at half. Really good end to the half getting the touchdown in the two minute. Played a really good third quarter and I’m proud of our players. Starting with the defense, I thought once they settled in really played great. We held them to roughly 70 yards of rushing and it was a team that ran the ball so well last week against Florida. I have to remind myself thats the same team that beat Florida seven days ago, so not only to win but kind of comfortably win up by 21 there in the fourth quarter where we can kind of slow it down is pretty neat. We haven’t beaten them in five or six years so I hope the fans are pretty excited about that. We got to 6-1 but we’ve got a lot of work to do. We need to get healthy and get some guys back. Matt himself is not healthy, which I’m sure you can see out there. He also just doesn’t have his usual group of weapons out there that he had earlier in the season. To be down all of those guys and to still beat LSU the way we did was pretty neat and I think we would’ve all taken that at the beginning of the year seeing that we were able to beat LSU by a couple of touchdowns.
Q: How has the defense responded and where is the growth coming from?
KIFFIN: Not all that long ago we were sitting here after Arkansas having not really stopped them except for the two point play. I think Jake Springer has a lot to do with it not just because he’s a great player, but because he’s kind of like Matt is on offense. Players feed off of him and so that certainly helps. We’re just playing better. When you play a slow down offense like that, your guys can do a better job with the pass rush than when they have to play 80-90 snaps. I’m sure they were happy to see it, having to go against the best offense in the country in practice every day and then having seen two of the three fastest offenses in the country the last two weeks.
Q: Was this the atmosphere you imagined when you took over here?
KIFFIN: Yeah it was cool. Obviously, I don’t see a lot of it once the game starts but I glanced up before kickoff and it was full. There was a presence on third down and it was awesome to see. That’s how it should be. The game was a bit slow-moving and stuff at times, but I thought the fans were really good today. We actually punted it on fourth down and I think that I was booed a little bit. The book said don’t punt but we had held them to seven points and our defense was stopping them, so I pinned them deep and our defense went and got a three and out and got us the ball back.
Q: How would you rate Matt’s performance?
KIFFIN: He missed a few throws early and I’m sure y’all noticed. When you have a hard time pushing off then it’s hard to play quarterback. Your rhythm is off because you can’t move the way you normally can and you don’t take all the reps you normally take during the week. Also, his receiver group that I said would be the best three receiver group in the country if they didn’t get hurt, got hurt and he’s down to one out there. The guys a warrior. The guy is awesome. Selfishly for him, I wish we had the pieces out there around them because then you’d be getting the Heisman numbers. You have to watch the game. He doesn’t just sit back there and throw to wide open people. He’s awesome. I don’t know where we’d be without him. He threw for 180 or something and I said after the game, I’m sorry we didn’t do a better job of getting guys open for you, and he didn’t care. He doesn’t care about his stats. That’s really rare especially in this age with kids.
Q: How big was the goal line stand early in the game?
KIFFIN: The start didn’t feel good. We weren’t good offensively and we struggled defensively and Johnson was playing really good. I knew they’d come out with a lot of energy so I said this week that if we could get a lead, then maybe it would go like the Kentucky game. I think it went like that in the third quarter. Obviously it was a huge stop and then Snoop ran us out of there with a couple long runs.
Q: Is this something for the defense to build on?
KIFFIN: It’s fun to be the head coach when the defense is playing good because you can slow things down and you don’t get the feeling that you have to score all the time. I thought our defense started this way in the Louisville game with the shutout in the first half. Springer makes a big difference, and getting off the field on third down makes a big difference. They went four of 12 today. Now we can water down and we can stay fresh because we don’t have great depth. When we can stay fresh and let our two defensive ends rush, we’re pretty good.
Q: You’re 10-2 in your last 12 games here, what do you attribute the ascent of this program to?
KIFFIN: I didn’t know that stat but it sounds kind of good though. That’s my agent over there. I attribute it to guys playing well. I attribute that to having Matt Corral. Lets make no mistake, we’re not 10-2 in those games without him. That’s for sure. They bought into each other and they’ve played really well. We told them just to find a way to win. The stars change every week in each game. Last year you kind of knew that it was going to be Matt and Elijah. This year you’ve got different people stepping up which is great to see.
Q: Was it just a matter of time for Jerrion to find his groove?
KIFFIN: Well he opened his stride up which he had not been doing that. We told him that he’s a speed back and you’re not playing like it, you’re not letting it loose. We said it on his long run on the headsets, Lebby, Kevin Smith and I, that’s what it’s supposed to look like. There was a hole and he was gone. That’s what we were hoping would happen and it’s kind of at the right time because we’re missing so many receivers.
Q: What was it like to see Eli Manning recognized today?
KIFFIN: It was awesome to have him on the walk and I joked with him that I was a super fan wearing his jersey on the walk and on the bus. I’ve been around him but not that much, and to be around him today and see how humble he is. We called him this week and asked him what jerseys he liked and he was just like no I want whatever the players want. That’s rare. A great player like that to be so humble and for him to help others. It was a great day for him and his sons were awesome. We just love the Mannings here.
Q: How would you evaluate the running backs’ performances today?
KIFFIN: The stars change every week. You just don’t know in college football especially in the SEC. You see teams lose that aren’t supposed to lose, you see games that you think will be high scoring or vice verse. You just never know who’s going to need to step up and where it’s going to come from. We were off in the passing game and down some receivers. Matt wasn’t moving really well so we needed them to step up and they did.
Q: Does it feel like something has clicked with this team having more complete performances?
KIFFIN: I think sometimes when you have moments in the season where those close games go your way, then it springboards you into having some confidence as players thinking hey we’re pretty good. We say it all the time that good is the enemy of great. We’re good but we don’t close people out at the end of games. We’re not great. We weren’t great today either. The good thing is though, that we’re close. I think we need to get healthy and then we can be a really special team. I just hope we get healthy before there aren’t any games left.
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