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GATOR BOWL: MISSISSIPPI STATE v MICHIGANJanuary 1, 2011Manny DiazDan MullenChris RelfJACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA Mississippi State – 52 COACH MULLEN: Well, that was fantastic. I want to thank, again, all the Gator Bowl people, the Gator Bowl committee, the staff, everybody that works there, Rick and all his people. Our team I know had a fabulous time, and I know our fans did today. I want to thank our fans. What tremendous fan support we had out there right from us pulling up. The buses pulled up and there were thousands of people along the bus, got our players excited, and just the atmosphere in a Bowl game that they created. You know, I'm so happy, I'm so proud of our seniors and what they've done and accomplished in the two years that I've been here. They had a whole new coaching staff come in, and a whole new idea and new ways of doing things, and they did nothing but believe in that and work as hard as they can. And to see them and send them off as champions is fantastic. I couldn't be prouder. Our coaching staff did a great job. I thought all week at practice we had a great week. Every time we stepped on the field, our coaches had the players locked in, focusing on their job. To go from a beach party and playing on the beach and all these guys jumping in the ocean, to show up a half hour later on the practice field and our coaches had them completely locked into what was going on, they did a good job. And our players did a good job of being focused on the reason that we were here, which was to win this football game. Proud of everybody in the organization and couldn't be happier. Q. After matching score for score the first two possessions, three possessions, what did the defense do to shut Michigan down the rest of the way? COACH MULLEN: Yeah, I think -- I talked to Manny, we felt we were in position, we just had to make tackle and keep containing things. They hit a couple pass plays on our corners, and we knew we'd make some plays. We wanted to force them into throwing the football. I mean, get them a little bit out of their comfort zone and have them throw the football a little bit. I think we did that. We were able to slow them down running the football. We held them to 88 yards rushing, which I'm sure is way below their average. And our defensive guys, they just stuck with the plan. They didn't get nervous early on. Q. You've won some pretty big BCS games, National Championships, with other teams. The joy that appeared between the fans and the players, Pernell was taking the trophy for a victory lap, the clang and the posing for pictures, singing the alma mater, things like that, have you ever seen this much enthusiasm or joy for winning a Bowl game as those kids had today? COACH MULLEN: No. I've been involved in a lot of games and this is easily as big to any of them because to our kids it's such an accomplishment. It is such an accomplishment to our young men. I asked them -- I told them it's a good thing in your life to be credited as an overachiever. That means as an individual you achieve more than anybody thought was possible. You know, even that you believe in yourself would ever be on the outside looking in. I'm sure coming in this season there's a lot of people that wouldn't have believed we'd win nine games and a New Year's Day Bowl game coming into the season. I'm really proud of everything they've accomplished. And the fans, I think the joy of winning is unbelievable because everybody believes in it so much. Everybody put so much in, our fans put a lot into cheering for the team all year-round. And they left their legacy. The 2010 football team left their legacy today on Mississippi State football. We'll enjoy the win and tomorrow the 2011 team will be born. Q. Just two quick things: Where does this put your program, do you think, getting a win like this going into next season? And also, you just talk about the day Chris Relf had and how he honored Nick Bell's memory there and discussing that? COACH MULLEN: Well, I think for us for discussing the future, you always want to win your last game. I think it leaves a great taste in your mouth going into that off-season. We talked about our team. We went from average to good, and now we want the ability to go from good to great. Hopefully that catapults us into the step from good to great just as the winning the last game of our previous season did going into that off-season. I know our football goal -- our goals as a football team is to find a way to win the west and to always improve. We had nine wins this year, so it was a successful season. Next year it'll be more than nine wins for us, and that's something we're going to start working on tomorrow. As far as Chris, I told Chris, I have a feeling you're going to play your best game of the season, and he went out there today, 18 of 23, 281 and three touchdowns, throwing an interception on a Hail Mary on the last play of the half, did a great job of managing the game. I think you saw the maturity that Chris has starting to come along, how he's starting to mature by managing the game, checking that long play to Perkins. We tried to take a shot deep down the field that wasn't there, kept his poise, stood in the pocket, stood in the pocket, finally checked down. We tried to tell him all year long that when you check it down, good things will happen, and now I have some proof to him so they won't say, yeah, sure. They want to go with the deep ball. But you know what, he did. He did a great job managing. I know for him it's a special thing. It was a special honor to wear No. 36 for the players this year that did it. And I know when the team got together, we thought it would be a special thing to have Chris wear it today. I think it stands out maybe a little bit more than other players even wearing it. You know, I'm sure he had an angel on his shoulder right there today winning the MVP. Q. Can you talk about Charles' performance on 3rd and 4th down today? And as a second question, also, the performance of your young wide receivers? COACH MULLEN: Yeah, Charles had a big day. I think our DBs, and they hit some passes early. Charles is the leader of that group, and they've got to stand up and make some plays. As a whole, after giving up some really big plays early in the game, give us a couple 3rd down conversions, they hit a couple fades over our head. I was really proud of the way that as a group they stuck together, Melvin Smith, Tony Hughes did a great job getting them together. We're a young secondary. I mean, Zack Smith is the only senior in the secondary, and he had a couple of big of tackles today. But a lot of those guys are going to be back, and we've got a lot of young guys coming up. The competition is going to start getting tough in the spring a little bit for jobs. But Charles is such a steady player for us the whole time, such a steady player. What was your other question? Oh, the receivers. I'm sorry, you wanted Chris'. Were we good on 3rd down? 9 of 17, yeah. I'm proud of the way our defense played because after the first quarter we got off the field a bunch. You know what, a great day. Any time you go 9 of 17, that's key to staying on the field. We're not a 3rd down team. We're not just a dropback football team, so you've got to convert to stay on the field. Puts us into our runs. The more times you get forced into 1st downs, the more runs and play actions you can call and the opportunities to hit big plays. The great thing, I look -- you know, you look at the receiving core, Chris Smith, 4; Michael Carr, 3; Arceto Clark, 3; Ricco Sanders I think caught a touchdown pass and had a couple catches today. You know, when you have Chad Bumphis is hurt, Leon Berry has been out for the season, that the young players have to step up. You know, and they did that. They did that. And it wasn't one of them that stepped up. I told them that as a group, they as a group all needed to step up, and to see it, for them to go 4, 3, 3, 2, and two for Brandon Heavens. A balance amongst those guys from stepping up and doing their job and filling a role that was left empty by Chad. Q. After getting that big win over the school up north to finish the season and to beat a tradition-rich school like Michigan, how does that affect recruiting in the state and also nationally? COACH MULLEN: Well, I think for us we're going to find out here in a little over a month how it affects recruiting in the state. For us, nationally, I think it's great to get national recognition, but it's not going to change our approach. We still want the best players in Mississippi to come play for us. I think all those young men around the state of Mississippi and our local areas, also recruiting in Alabama and some in Florida and Louisiana and Texas and Tennessee, but just in that region of the country, but mainly in Mississippi. I think all these great players in the state got to see us bring a huge crowd, play in a New Year's Day Bowl game in the state of Florida, go out there and play Michigan and get a big win and win a championship. And I think that's just the foundation of many big wins to come for this program, and I think a lot of young players around the state see that. Q. You closed your practices to media. Do you think that might have added focus to it by closing your practices? COACH MULLEN: No, I think when we get into game plan we do that. Our practices were open to the media for the first full week that we did it, so we let all those practices be open. Once we went into our regular game routine, our regular practices are closed to the media during game week, so we kept that consistent. I wanted to make sure to keep all you guys happy. I made sure the whole first week would be open. Spring ball is going to be open, so y'all can come cover spring ball. If we can bring a huge crowd like this today, I expect no less than 40,000 at our spring game. April the 9th, we expect 40,000 Bulldog fans in the stands. Q. I know several players were sick this week. Did you have any concerns going into the game about that? COACH MULLEN: Well, when I walked into the training room last night and Derek Sherrod has got two IVs in him, and Brignone has got IVs in him, and Addison Lawrence's got IVs in him, Gabe Jackson. None of them went to the walk-through yesterday, Ferg didn't go through. We had -- trainers came to me, right, we're getting ready to start meetings, so we just sent I think six kids up to their rooms. It was pretty concerning, but Justin Gremillion, our head trainer, did a good job. I was on him. I said these guys all better play today, so whatever it takes. They were squeezing IV bags into them last night. We made a point. We tried to do it at halftime, pregame at halftime. I had them go around, especially the guys that had been sick and hadn't eaten in two days. I think we had a flu kind of run through our team there the last two days. I said make sure at halftime it's hot out there. I want them hydrating, eating, whatever you need to get into their system so they can play the game. Our training staff did a great job of getting those guys ready today. Q. How much do you think your speed, especially at linebacker, kind of really maybe not confused Michigan, but really did them in sideline to sideline? COACH MULLEN: I think keeping with them was a big thing. I think keeping with them. I don't think we let Denard get too loose. He did a good job throwing the football. But 11 carries for 59 yards, that's doing a pretty good job containing him. As long as he had a 24, their other longest runs -- their next longest play was a 13-yard run. I think our backers and everybody did a great job of us supporting and containing the end and getting everybody to run to the football. I think you saw at times today with explosive players, they might make the first guy miss but if we had 11 guys streaming to the football every play, good things will happen to us, and they did. Q. Your offensive line just really controlled the game I thought? COACH MULLEN: Yeah, and they've done that all year for us. That's been the strength. We're going to lose two key seniors on that line next year and some young guys are going to have to step up. That has been our strength all season. We put it on the offensive line right at the beginning of the year, and if you're going to win football games you need to be able to control the line of scrimmage on both sides. I give credit, our O-line and our D-line today I thought did a good job of controlling the line of scrimmage throughout the game, and that is a key to success. Q. Chris, just talk about your performance today. You hit a little bit on it out there about wearing Nick Bell's jersey. What did that mean to you? CHRIS RELF: Wearing Nick Bell's jersey meant a lot to me today. It was an honor. The next before the Arkansas game, I had a dream that Nick Bell had shook my hand and said it was going to be okay, so that was pretty good. Tonight I just felt like he was with me when I was out there making those big plays. Q. What did you see in the defense that you were able to exploit so easily? CHRIS RELF: With Michigan, it was great defense. They scored first. I knew we had to come back out there and respond, so that's what I did. All credit goes to my O-line and my receivers for blocking and catching the ball. Q. Throughout the season a lot of people would ask you questions about how you're a better runner than passer. You seemed like you kind of got annoyed by that the last few months. You put the ball through the air tonight. How did you feel about your passing game? CHRIS RELF: I feel really good. It's something I worked on in the off-season three times a week, just throwing with the wide receivers. I felt real good tonight just passing the game. Q. To follow up on that, how much better has the football game gotten and they put more trust into you to throw the ball? CHRIS RELF: Football team, they always believe -- we work on throwing all the time at practice, it's just a matter of going out there and doing it on the field. Q. Coach Mullen stated specifically that that check down that you had to Perkins for that big gain, what did you see there, and do you think you would have made a throw like that early in the season just with your progression? CHRIS RELF: I saw the backup drop, and Coach Knox is always telling me check downs is a good advancement, so I saw Perk coming out of the back and I didn't see nobody open, so I just checked the ball down. Q. Last year in the Egg Bowl you had a huge game, today in the Gator Bowl, a huge game. Kind of evaluate yourself as a quarterback over the last year, how you've changed, how you've progressed? CHRIS RELF: I just took last year's game and built on this for this year. I think I had a pretty good season overall. This game, I just wanted to go out there and execute plays. That's all. Q. Chris, what does this game do for you for next year? You had a record breaking day, Vick had a record breaking day, a lot of guys on offense had great days, and they'll be back as seniors. Just talk about where this puts you for next year? CHRIS RELF: It puts us in a good spot, something we can build off as a team. We wanted to send the seniors out on a big win, Gator Bowl champions here, and that's what we did. Q. How big of an impact was the offensive line today? CHRIS RELF: It was a big impact. You know, those guys have been protecting me good all year, and I just thank all them guys. I hate that J. C. Brignone and Derek Sherrod is leaving, but you know... Q. Manny, can you just talk about the speed of the linebackers and how you guys were able to play sideline to sideline there very well in the run game, and at what point in the game do you think you guys had adjusted very well and had a chance to kind of shut them down? MANNY DIAZ: Well, even in the opening drive, we knew we had done -- we knew we were playing the run. When they tried to run the ball on the first drive, we knew we were where we wanted to be. Basically our plan, we had -- we sort of had Charles Mitchell on one side of the field, we had Gatling to the other side of the field, and that allowed White and Wright to run. They locked in on a key and they were full flow guys the entire day. Sort of knew going in and this is about as linebacker friendly a game plan and stop a run game that I've ever seen. I expected them both to play well. And then when they run, that takes both teams off of Cox, Boyd and those guys on the inside. Wasn't surprised at how well we played the run. We had to play the pass better. To me, we dictated the game and got played on the perimeter and Michigan out played us on the perimeter the first quarter. But we knew if we continued making them a throwing football team that eventually that would tilt our way. And I thought our secondary kids maybe played the three best quarters that they've played all season from the first quarter on. Q. Talk about that turnaround (No microphone.) MANNY DIAZ: The credit goes to John Banks. We were rotating three kids at corner. And we sat John Banks down, and we said, look, we've got to play better than we're playing right now. We kind of a serious, on-the-bench to think about it, and he came in and his interception there on that 3rd down, to me it was really -- you could see the game turning at that point. And then the play he made on the pass break up there I believe in the fourth quarter, that's as good a play as I've ever seen them make in game or practice. So to me the credit goes to those kids. Q. Manny, you come in looking to stop Denard from running wild. For the most part after the first quarter you did that. Was that, again, just going back to the linebackers being able to do what they did? MANNY DIAZ: The linebackers and the front. It was really an eight-man -- it was really an eight-man job, and it involved a safety, the three linebackers and the four defensive linemen, and it was all a fit. We're a big and physical defense, and I thought our physicality was evident during the course of the game. But at the same time you have to be very disciplined in your run because Michigan does a great job of scheming up the run. They ask a lot of questions of you so you have to have all the answers at all times and not allowing them any explosive runs and just -- we weren't getting bled. It wasn't a six-yarder or a five-yarder. Every time they ran the ball, it was like one, zero, and I thought that was telling to the final outcome. Q. At any point do you feel like (No microphone.) MANNY DIAZ: You know, there was a couple times we got them on 3rd down where we were going back and forth and playing a little bit of chess match on 3rd down. On 1st and 10, we were not trying to confuse them. 1st and 10 it was roll up your sleeves and play rock 'em, sock 'em robot on normal down. 3rd down is where we like to have a little more of our -- 3rd down is recess. Q. Considering that a guy like Denard can beat you scrambling and you had to play very disciplined football up front, talk about what your pass rush did out there that made him throw a lot of off balance throws? MANNY DIAZ: Yeah, it was actually the same thing we had to do against Masoli. You have to really be disciplined in your pass rushing. Coach Wilson, as he's done all year, does an unbelievable job coaching our defensive line. And they were disciplined and sort of kept them in the pocket. Again, we tried to dictate where we wanted the game played, and I thought our guys up front did that. They won that battle. Q. (No microphone.) MANNY DIAZ: Chris took an IV before the game. He was feeling a little -- wasn't feeling great this morning. And as a coach, with a hot day that always concerns you first. And yesterday had it, that might have been some defense, but all those guys, our training staff, did an amazing job getting those guys ready to go. End of FastScripts |
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