Mississippi State/Alabama 11/9/02 - Dennis Franchione druidcityonline.com your guide to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and the Deep South
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True fans already know what happened at the game. DCO's unique coverage of the Crimson Tide brings those unique details that provide deeper insight into Alabama Football.
Click below to read pieces of players and coaches post-game interviews ...

Dennis Franchione (Head Coach - prev. HC @ New Mexico 92-97 & TCU 98-20)

Coach Fran always has a packed house

These comments came during Coach Fran's post game comments to the press pool ...

We had too many penalties today, and we definitely had one to many, and that was mine. I just wanted the official to call it both ways. Probably shouldn't have gotten it, and I apologize for that. That was undeserving in some ways to, but I accept responsibility for it. We had too many penalties today, and we have to address that and correct that the best we can.

It was still a good win. I thought offensively the first half we played about as "on" as we could play. Somebody told me in the locker room we made 11 first downs in the first 14 plays. I don't know if that was true, but it was a pretty good offensive performance. We scored just about every time we had the football in the first half, except right there at the end. Defensively, it was kind of the opposite. We struggled a little bit early. Mississippi State played pretty good. I believe we knocked the ball loose three times in the first half and didn't come up with any of them. Five for the game I believe and didn't get any of them. That's not been normal for us. We've been able to get some of those and we didn't today. Second half, the defense came back out and shut them out. They played very well, and made tow big red zone stops in the fourth quarter. I was very pleased with that. You've got to have confidence. Our defense continues to do that week in and week out. Offensively, we got one score on the board and kind of did what we needed to do. We didn't turn the ball over today and had over 400 yards of offense, so it wasn't a bad day. The punting game was a little shaky there at the end, but Lane Bearden came up big when we needed him. Again, you have to tip your hat to our defense with some great stops down there in the red zone.

We've got two tough conference games left with two teams that are still in the hunt. I understand that LSU pulled out a unique win today. So hopefully they've used up the rabbit's foot this week. But we've got to go there, and we still have a chance to be the best in the West. That's still one of our goals, so as we head down the stretch these should be good games.

Reporter - It was the second straight week that you've had some big plays by the quarterbacks and receivers.

We had one drop that was disappointing, but we went 18-25 throwing the ball and that's good. I thought we kept them off balance. That group of receivers has played very consistently, and I thought Tyler played an excellent game today.

Was there any concern with Lane today ... the action and contact he was involved in?

I'm always concerned for Lane Bearden.

Was this the best overall game Tyler Watts has had?

Tyler Watts has played some gritty, tough, hard-nosed games for us since I've been here. It has to stick out as maybe one of the best. I don't know if it's the best without sitting and giving some thought to it. He was 18-25 throwing and rushed the ball for a bunch of yards. He called a lot of the game at the line of scrimmage. It was a pretty solid game.

The last couple of weeks, he's looking really good throwing the football. Can you talk about that?

He has thrown the ball well the last few weeks, and his receivers have gotten open. The offensive line has done a great job of protecting for him, and the backs have done a good job. Tyler is a senior that is confident, comfortable and knows where the ball ought to go against certain defenses. He does not put us in very many bad situations. He made some great throws today, and he's playing like a fifth year senior should play.

The fourth-and-ten that turned into the long touchdown play that put the game away ... what made you go for it right there?

I believe we were on the 35 or 36 yard line. If you punt you may only gain 15 yards. With our defense, you feel pretty good that whether you put them on the field on the 20 or the 35 that they're still going to have a great chance to stop them. You just weight it, and if you feel like you should go for, try to gain some yards. If you don't make it, then the defense has a little bit shorter field, but not that much shorter.

Talk about Triandos Luke's play the last couple of games. He's had back-to-back 100 yard games.

Well, Triandos is certainly very capable, and has played very well for us the past couple of weeks. He's made some big plays. I think he's kind of coming into his own more and more as a receiver. Again, a lot people are doing the right things. He stepping up and making plays when we need him. That last touchdown to him, he ran a great route, and turned the DB around. Coach Pope has done a great job of teaching them how to run those routes. The protection was good. He turned him around, Tyler put it on the money and it was a big throw and catch.

What was going on during second and short, third and short in the second half?

Not much (laughs). We've got to do better on those don't we? We were not as good on those downs as we have been most weeks. A couple of times we didn't execute very good. We didn't block, we didn't catch one or two times. It hurt a couple of times. We just shot ourselves in the foot.

Hirschel Bolden had a big game. Can you talk about him?

You have to really respect and admire Hirschel. He just continues to battle and believe and do things to help his football team. You have to tip your hat to him and pat him on the back and acknowledge the hard fight he has shown over these last 18-19 games, however long I've been here.

You have LSU and Auburn left. Critical SEC matchups. Did you play your first stringers more than you would have liked to today?

You know, we thought this would be a hard fought, fourth quarter football game. These guys have good athletes and they played very well. I knew Coach Sherrill would have them ready to play, and I told our football team it would be a fourth quarter game and there was no anticipation that it would be any different. So we did not have a thought process that we'd get to play our backups any sooner than we got to.

What did you do at halftime to calm down the defense at halftime (question inaudible)

I think the defensive guys thought they'd hurt themselves, done a few things wrongs. I mean, they throw a swing pass or a screen pass and we're supposed to peel on the guy and we don't. Ae just did some things that we shouldn't have done, and if we had done our responsibility they wouldn't have been so successful. The ball got out a few times, and we had some penalties defensively. I feel like the defense thought they could play better. My line to them was "Just go do your job, and play like you know how to play. Play together and everybody do your responsibility, and everything will be OK. I then quietly I went over to the offense and said you need to think you're going to have to score every down because it looks like its going to be that sort of game. You need to take care of the defense. They've taken care of you a lot of day. Today may be the day you take care of them. Well, we go out the second half and they don't score and we only score seven, so little do I know. Go figure.

You are in a stretch, like before the Tennessee game, where emotions start to ratchet up.

Well I think so. I think we were very ready to play today. But I think what you're saying about the next few weeks ... it should all take care of itself pretty well. If it doesn't, then you have to question why you're wearing that crimson jersey.

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Dennis Franchione (Head Coach)

Carl Torbush (Defensive Co-ordinator/Linebackers Coach)

Lane Bearden (#44 Sr. P, 6-2 198 lbs. Helena, AL - Pelham High School)

Alonzo Ephraim (#58 Sr. C, 6-2 303 lbs. Birmingham, AL - Wenonah High School)

Hirschel Bolden (#25 Sr. RCB 6-0 196 lbs. Dothan, AL - Dothan High School)

Wesley Britt (#70 So. QT, 6-8 312 lbs. Cullman, AL - Cullman High School)

Shaud Williams (#21 Jr. AB, 5-8 189 lbs. Andrews, TX - Texas Tech transfer)