USC Head Coach Steve Spurrier:

Opening Statement:

"Our guys played well and I think our guys are becoming a pretty decent team.  We didn't play our best today with the turnovers and the penalties that took away a lot of big plays, but we played pretty doggone well and it was good enough to beat Vandi."

"We punted the ball once; the first posession.  I didn't know if it was going to be a long day or what." 

"But at the end of the first quarter we put Jamon Meridith over at left tackle and let Hutch rest a while and that seemed to really help us.  We all know they're defensive end is pretty doggone good, and Hutch was struggling with him."

"So Jamon Meridith got a gameball along with Sidney and Syvelle.  They both had outstanding games and we gave a couple [defensive players gameballs]; Carlos and Captain had their first interceptions of the year so those guys were very happy.  We don't get a lot of them so when we get one; those guys get a gameball."

"A good win.  We set a record.  Five on the road.  Shoot we're excited"

"We'll try to get ready for Tennessee.  We appreciate our fans.  It reminded me of the Florida days, we had about two thousand gamecocks left at the end.  Which we used to do in the old days [at Florida].  So that'd be sort of neat if we could get that going [every game]."

"It was like our crowd was more into it than the home crowd."

"It was a good game.  I'm proud of our players.  Coach Nix's defensive guys had a good plan and the guys played pretty well."

"Our defense played very well; played well the second half."

"That was a fortunate seven [Vanderbilt] got that last play in the first half.  We had everybody covered and we can't tackle the guy.  We couldn't tackle him before he got to the endzone.  That's all we had to do with seven seconds left, but we couldn't tackle him. 

"But nobody panicked at half time.  I think that's starting to be a good sign around here. We're starting to understand that some bad plays are going to happen to us.  And you just keep playing the game and hopefully some good things happen.  And that's the way it happened today."

"Sidney caught everything.  He had an almost perfect game until that last fumble.  We thought we was going to be all alone out there, but they had it covered pretty well.  He should've just gotten down and protected the ball, but I don't know what he was trying to do.  Personally, I thought they could've picked it up and run with it.  If it was a fumble, their guy was heading for the endzone.  So, maybe we oughta be thankful that he blew the wistle early.  So we were fortunate there."

"Obviously Syvelle throws the ball almost exactly where we're asking him to now.  That one interception; I know he wishes he could've had that play back.  He just quite didn't get it high enough.  This is his fifth game at quaterback.  He's almost won them all.  But he's getting better.  He get's better.  He's getting the signals now."

"We've got a lot of ball ahead of us.   The big teams are coming now.  We'll try to play a little bit better next week against Tennessee."

"I thought Vanderbilt was better.  They didn't play that way today obviously.  But give our defense guys credit and our offensive guys credit.  But without the turnovers and the penalties, we had a chance for our best game since I've been here."

"Next week's Tennessee.  We hope we can play without these penalites and turnovers.  If we can, we have to believe we have a chance after today."

On South Caroilna's road game winning streak: "Well obviously we picked the right teams with Mississippi State, Kentucky, and Vandi, but this is the best we've played in all of them to tell you the truth.  We got a very fortunate win at Arkansas and at Tennessee.  In all of them, our defense has played extremely well.  We've kept the other team in the teens and shutout Mississippi State.  So that's a big key if your defense can slow them down and the offense stay on the field a bit."

"Their punter didn't punt real super today and that helped because we started on their side three times.  So we did have some good field position."

"But again, our guys played well.  It was too bad we had those holding penalties.  All those holding penalties came on crucial things.  We run out the half if they don't call Kenny McKinley.  They called Sidney on a little 4th and 1 play we executed perfectly.  And then Moe Brown gets one there at the end that takes a touchdown back.  But we'll watch the film and I'm sure they were holding their jerseys.  And if they were we gotta quit holding there dang jerseys.  That would've been sad had we lost the game because of wide receivers holding. 

USC Player Quotes:

Carlos Thomas:

"Our secondary is way too good to be giving up 16 passes.  We all made a pact before the game that Earl Bennett would not get more than five passes. He would not."

Nathan Pepper:

"We kept letting teams stay close, so it felt really good to keep playing and put a team out of it."

Sidney Rice:

(On his receiving drought the first half of the season)-"A lot of people tell me just to be patient, and that's one thing I was doing. I wasn't stressed."

Syvelle Newton:

"Vanderbilt is still recruiting (top players) and once they get a couple more here and there to support the ones here, you never can tell what Vandy can do.  The next two or three years, you never can tell, Vanderbilt might be on top of the SEC."

"I was one day from being a Commodore myself.  I knew coach Johnson was a great coach."

Vanderbilt Head Coach Bobby Johnson:

On his team:
"I told my players that we're trying to build a program where we can be consistent every week.  We played hard, but we didn't play smart and hard."

"In this league, everyone can beat everyone, and if you aren't in tip-top shape, you won't succeed."

"We couldn't seem to get good plays hooked together.  We would have a good play, then a bad play. We didn't have the continuity to make long drives."