Courtesy our game-day reporter, Walker Bailey:
KIFFIN: “I commend you all for staying here this long. So, I usually come up and worry about the things we didn’t do right and stuff and obviously there’s always stuff to fix, but y’all are going to struggle to believe what I said all week. That was a good team that we played. All you have to do is watch the Oklahoma film and I think they’ll play really well for the rest of the year, so for our guys to handle some adversity about starting warmups and stopping and all that and then to come out and play so well in the first half. Six touchdowns in seven drives and then the last one we ran out of time. Really proud of our defense to only give up one of eleven on third down since they have good players and they’re really well schematically coached. I was worried about that because they give you a lot of conflict plays, so I was happy with the way our defense played. You’re going to win a ton of games running 94 plays and having 707 yards of offense versus 56 plays for 305 and I think someone said a school record of 41 first downs. I’m not sure I’ve been around first downs in the 40’s and I think 25 of those were in the first half. I’m not just throwing those out because those are stats, I’m throwing them out because they were really deserved stats. When you have that many first downs you’re playing really well with a lot of people for an extended amount of time. Not just being able to hit big plays. I wish we didn’t have a bye because we’re playing so well because it is what it is. We’ll work to get better during that and get Springer back on defense, and then get ready for some really good teams.”
Q: What did you think of Matt Corral’s performance tonight?
KIFFIN: “I’ve been pretty positive about him but I’ve also been trying to keep him from all of the rat poison. I expected that he would play like this just because he’s off the charts talented. Like I’ve said before, he’s a top ten pick. Now it’s the work ethic that he’s putting in and the preparation he’s doing. We had a moment last week where in the game we were up by a bunch and he came over and was mad that we were audibiling a play and a receiver didn’t get it and he got mad at us. I thought that was pretty cool, when you take that step and you’re that into the game when you’re up 30-40 points and you want to get on the head coach because I’m audibiling, I mean you’re just at an elite level at that point. I didn’t realize that it was four but having seven total touchdowns and four on the ground. Those things aren’t designed, we’re not trying to run this guy this much. When they close he pulls it. Ideally, we would like him not running it that much. We probably left him in one series too long but there was just so much time left in the game.”
Q: What did you see from your defense today?
KIFFIN: “We limited big plays and we did great on third down, which had not been the case since we’ve been here. They scored on a pick route where they, well, picked a guy. Refs missed it but it happens and we try to do the same thing so that’s what got him so open. Outside of that play, we really should have had another pick, it was in our hands and it would’ve stopped a touchdown drive so we still have work to do. Still too many missed tackles in the back end.”
Q: What’d you see from Jerrion tonight?
KIFFIN: “I thought he did play really well. A lot of yards after contact and he’s more of a speed back so I thought he ran physical. I thought outside of Henry’s fumble, those two guys did some really good things. Snoop just tries to run through guys and I think it’s good when he tries to run through guys. We talked a lot about that in pregame, just finishing runs and really finishing these guys off and not letting them hang around. We know they’re a second half team so get those extra yards when they’re there.”
Q: Does a delay like that change your gameplan?
KIFFIN: “With experience you go through things and you learn from them, and it helps you. Being different places it really helps you with that, and for Wilson and I this happened all the time with lighting delays. We had a number of games and so we had extra food ready for them and we changed uniforms at halftime with so much rain. We didn’t over warmup just in case you get stalled again, so we used the indoor in a non-SEC game so that experience really helped with that. We obviously played really well from the start.”
Q: Thoughts on the timing of the open date?
KIFFIN: “Obviously if you’re making your own schedule, you would never out one this early because you’re just not banged up enough. So we obviously didn’t want it here but it is what it is and we’ll use it to get players better who haven’t been playing as much. We’re not really injured we’ve been really fortunate to be really healthy there. Springer’s obviously a guy there. We can’t change it so it is what it is. We talk all the time about controlling what you can control. We certainly can’t change this date. Who do we play after this date? I haven’t looked either.”
Q: Through three weeks is this what you expected from this team?
KIFFIN: “I think if you look at the scores collectively and you look at it from that standpoint then yeah I would definitely take it. We’ve shown improvement on defense while staying explosive and balanced on offense. Everyone thinks we’re a throwing team but we ran the ball 61 times for 372 yards so it’s good to be balanced. We do a lot of different things when you’re running and passing for over 300 yards.”
Q: Did the team prepare for the weather delay during the week?
KIFFIN: “We didn’t do much during the week for it. It was more just managing it because we don’t know how long it’s going to be. Maybe it’s thirty minutes and then there’s another strike. You’re down to three minutes and you think you’re ready and then there’s another strike and you’re back to square one. We just talked guys through that and made sure we didn’t get too warmed up or too excited. Just kind of stay even keel. I thought it was really cool when Keith sent me the video of the student section out in the rain for however long that was, that was really cool and that’s why we put the video out for them to see and then took the whole team down there just to thank the ones that were there. They sat there for over six hours to watch this team. I thought that was pretty cool.”
Q: How much confidence do you have in Caden Costa distance wise?
KIFFIN: “Well when you’re in an end of game or end of half situation, outside of a return the risk is different, so that stretches it. That’s about where we would’ve been with him in general. I actually thought it went in. Obviously it didn’t but it had the distance and that’s pretty special for a young kid like that.”
KIFFIN: “I commend you all for staying here this long. So, I usually come up and worry about the things we didn’t do right and stuff and obviously there’s always stuff to fix, but y’all are going to struggle to believe what I said all week. That was a good team that we played. All you have to do is watch the Oklahoma film and I think they’ll play really well for the rest of the year, so for our guys to handle some adversity about starting warmups and stopping and all that and then to come out and play so well in the first half. Six touchdowns in seven drives and then the last one we ran out of time. Really proud of our defense to only give up one of eleven on third down since they have good players and they’re really well schematically coached. I was worried about that because they give you a lot of conflict plays, so I was happy with the way our defense played. You’re going to win a ton of games running 94 plays and having 707 yards of offense versus 56 plays for 305 and I think someone said a school record of 41 first downs. I’m not sure I’ve been around first downs in the 40’s and I think 25 of those were in the first half. I’m not just throwing those out because those are stats, I’m throwing them out because they were really deserved stats. When you have that many first downs you’re playing really well with a lot of people for an extended amount of time. Not just being able to hit big plays. I wish we didn’t have a bye because we’re playing so well because it is what it is. We’ll work to get better during that and get Springer back on defense, and then get ready for some really good teams.”
Q: What did you think of Matt Corral’s performance tonight?
KIFFIN: “I’ve been pretty positive about him but I’ve also been trying to keep him from all of the rat poison. I expected that he would play like this just because he’s off the charts talented. Like I’ve said before, he’s a top ten pick. Now it’s the work ethic that he’s putting in and the preparation he’s doing. We had a moment last week where in the game we were up by a bunch and he came over and was mad that we were audibiling a play and a receiver didn’t get it and he got mad at us. I thought that was pretty cool, when you take that step and you’re that into the game when you’re up 30-40 points and you want to get on the head coach because I’m audibiling, I mean you’re just at an elite level at that point. I didn’t realize that it was four but having seven total touchdowns and four on the ground. Those things aren’t designed, we’re not trying to run this guy this much. When they close he pulls it. Ideally, we would like him not running it that much. We probably left him in one series too long but there was just so much time left in the game.”
Q: What did you see from your defense today?
KIFFIN: “We limited big plays and we did great on third down, which had not been the case since we’ve been here. They scored on a pick route where they, well, picked a guy. Refs missed it but it happens and we try to do the same thing so that’s what got him so open. Outside of that play, we really should have had another pick, it was in our hands and it would’ve stopped a touchdown drive so we still have work to do. Still too many missed tackles in the back end.”
Q: What’d you see from Jerrion tonight?
KIFFIN: “I thought he did play really well. A lot of yards after contact and he’s more of a speed back so I thought he ran physical. I thought outside of Henry’s fumble, those two guys did some really good things. Snoop just tries to run through guys and I think it’s good when he tries to run through guys. We talked a lot about that in pregame, just finishing runs and really finishing these guys off and not letting them hang around. We know they’re a second half team so get those extra yards when they’re there.”
Q: Does a delay like that change your gameplan?
KIFFIN: “With experience you go through things and you learn from them, and it helps you. Being different places it really helps you with that, and for Wilson and I this happened all the time with lighting delays. We had a number of games and so we had extra food ready for them and we changed uniforms at halftime with so much rain. We didn’t over warmup just in case you get stalled again, so we used the indoor in a non-SEC game so that experience really helped with that. We obviously played really well from the start.”
Q: Thoughts on the timing of the open date?
KIFFIN: “Obviously if you’re making your own schedule, you would never out one this early because you’re just not banged up enough. So we obviously didn’t want it here but it is what it is and we’ll use it to get players better who haven’t been playing as much. We’re not really injured we’ve been really fortunate to be really healthy there. Springer’s obviously a guy there. We can’t change it so it is what it is. We talk all the time about controlling what you can control. We certainly can’t change this date. Who do we play after this date? I haven’t looked either.”
Q: Through three weeks is this what you expected from this team?
KIFFIN: “I think if you look at the scores collectively and you look at it from that standpoint then yeah I would definitely take it. We’ve shown improvement on defense while staying explosive and balanced on offense. Everyone thinks we’re a throwing team but we ran the ball 61 times for 372 yards so it’s good to be balanced. We do a lot of different things when you’re running and passing for over 300 yards.”
Q: Did the team prepare for the weather delay during the week?
KIFFIN: “We didn’t do much during the week for it. It was more just managing it because we don’t know how long it’s going to be. Maybe it’s thirty minutes and then there’s another strike. You’re down to three minutes and you think you’re ready and then there’s another strike and you’re back to square one. We just talked guys through that and made sure we didn’t get too warmed up or too excited. Just kind of stay even keel. I thought it was really cool when Keith sent me the video of the student section out in the rain for however long that was, that was really cool and that’s why we put the video out for them to see and then took the whole team down there just to thank the ones that were there. They sat there for over six hours to watch this team. I thought that was pretty cool.”
Q: How much confidence do you have in Caden Costa distance wise?
KIFFIN: “Well when you’re in an end of game or end of half situation, outside of a return the risk is different, so that stretches it. That’s about where we would’ve been with him in general. I actually thought it went in. Obviously it didn’t but it had the distance and that’s pretty special for a young kid like that.”
