USC Head Coach Steve Spurrier:
Opening Statement:
"Blake Mitchell played as good a half of football, except for one throw, as any quarterback I've ever had. He was 15-for-20 until that last
throw. For us to beat them, he had to play perfect and he didn't."
"Sidney and Kenny had a marvelous game. Freddie Brown and those guys deserved to walk off the field a winner. As a team we're not where we need to be. But anyway, our guys played
well. (Arkansas)is a lot better than us. We're 5-4 now, have three left and we'll see what happens down the road."
"Blake is a good passer. He was relaxed. They played man-to-man almost every down, and he throws a good fade and a good
slant. At the end they switched and said `We have to play zone, we can't play man-to-man anymore,' and he threw it right to
them. He had 213 yards so he was playing beautifully until the last play."
"Our guys played their hearts out. They flied around making tackles. I'm not being critical on our team, but to win against
good competition you can't keep doing what we're doing."
"(Cory Boyd) missed a couple of practices and Mike was ready to play. He had some good runs in there. We wish he could've had 25 to 30
rushes like McFadden and Jones had."
"We'll get this behind us and try to correct what we can. We'll try to teach the DB's to bat Hail Marys down at the end
of the half and the end of the game. If we play smart we have a chance to beat some of these teams."
USC Player Quotes:
NOT AVAILABLE
Arkansas Head Coach Houston Nutt:
On the victory:
"That was a good win all together, offense, defense and special teams. When you come into this
kind of environment, on a national stage, you have to be ready to play. Our guys were ready."
On possibly losing free safety Michael Grant for the year:
"This was a costly win to lose a guy like Michael
Grant. I think we probably lost him for the rest of the year. He was just playing some great football for us. That really
hurt. I don't know how bad Darren McFadden is, but these guys just reached down tonight and acted like a bunch of winners.
I'm just really proud of them."
On the threat posed by Sidney Rice:
"Sidney Rice on the other side, that is scary. He can go the length of the field in a heartbeat. They throw it up to the big 6-4 guy and
he goes and plays jump ball. He is dangerous receiver, so we were always a little nervous."
On playing sophomore quarterback Casey Dick over freshman Mitch Mustain:
"It was just a gut feeling. I love Mitch,
but this is a very critical time in November, and we needed just a little bit more experience. I had to go with Casey, and
he did a good job. I have a lot of confidence in Mitch. He's going to be an outstanding quarterback. The route that he threw
the interception on was one that he had done since day one, and when you mess that up, my gut instinct was just that I needed
to make a move.
On seeing Darren McFadden injured:
"That was a bad feeling. That was a bad, bad feeling. We need him to be out
there. He has been so valuable to us. I've been really proud of him. He's a competitor and a tough, tough, young man. If there
is anyway that he can be there, he will be."
On Casey Dick getting the final first down:
"That was a critical, critical play, because you have to think hard
about a field goal there. That won the game."