USC Head Coach Steve Spurrier:

Opening Statement:

"Well, it was a defensive struggle, wasn't it?"

"I'm not much of a hat guy but I guess I will wear one tonight. These are nice hats. I appreciate the Autozone Liberty Bowl for putting on a wonderful week for the Gamecocks. It was a game where we had a lot of good plays here and there. Houston made a lot of super plays. But at the end our defense stopped them."

"They couldn't stop us until we needed to make a first down to clinch the game, and we couldn't do it. I give Houston credit for stopping us, and I give our defensive players credit for stopping them guys to win the game for us."

"It was a good win. Eight wins is good for us right now. We had seven last year, and we shoot for nine or 10 next year. We've got Blake Mitchell coming back Jordin Lindsey and just about the entire offensive next year. We have to replace a couple; three offensive lineman. Hopefully we can do that. We have just about the whole defense coming back."

"Kenny threw his gameball about sixty rows up."

"I still believe our defense can play a lot better. We got out of position in the first half, but to hold Houston to eight points was a very good defensive effort in the second half."

"Shoot, that (Liberty Bowl Trophy) is bigger than my Heisman."

"Around the country it's getting known now that South Carolina can compete at the highest level."

USC Player Quotes:

Jordin Lindsey:

"It was very satisfying. He (Blake Mitchell) had a great game and made a lot of big plays. We just ended up scoring more points than they did."

"I was looking up to recognize the screen. I looked up and he threw it right to me. I couldn't believe it. I tried to get as much yardage on it as I could after the reception."

"We studied them hard. We just had a couple breakdowns here and there, but wehad a good game plan against them. It's not really a confusing offense. We just had to think and react quicker."

Blake Mitchell:

"He (Houston's QB) had a great game and made a lot of big plays.  We just ended up scoring more points than they did."

Jasper Brinkley:

"He (Houston's QB) is a great quaterback. He's everything I thought he would be."

Houston Head Coach Art Briles:

"South Carolina is a very good football team. I thought they came in well prepared, and I thought they executed well. Their offense, defense and special teams were good tonight, as I think our guys were. I think we came in very well prepared. We were very excited and anxious about the game, and I think we performed well as a football team."

"I think I may have done some thinks as a coach that may have hurt the outcome of the game. In a couple of instances we had a couple of unforced errors that I will take the fall for. But, just like our team has all season long, we battled hard. Our guys play hard, they fight hard, they believed. That's an inspiration to me as a coach."

On the bad snap: "At that stage of the game, it made a difference in the ballgame. We're down by two with first and goal at the eight. We have the opportunity to gain a little bit of momentum, and we had a bad series of events happen right there. You have to give some credit to South Carolina's crowd. We had to go silent count down there and it disrupted our exchange out of the shotgun. That was a big turning point. Even if we fall on our face, we have the chance at a 25 yard field goal from the eight. So that was a turning point in the game."