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Southern Miss Stomped 27-3 ... Darby Runs Wild
Kenneth Darby (#34 TB So. 5-11 205 lbs. Huntsville, Butler High School)

Kenneth Darby rushed for 197 yards and had two touchdowns

These comments came following the 2004 Southern Miss game as Kenneth Darby answered questions from the press pool ...

Press Pool ... You knew you were going to get the ball a lot today. Can you talk about how it all unfolded for you?

Kenneth Darby … Coaches said during the last week of practice that I'd have to get my game up. I had a bigger role to fill knowing I'm going to get a lot of carries. I had to come out and be more focused than I was the whole season. That's all it was ... a gut check time for me and the rest of my teammates.

This is the first time you've gotten the ball over and over and over without Ray Hudson. Talk about your endurance throughout the game and how it was going for you.

I really never got too winded because during the week I practiced real hard. Coach knew I was going to get the ball a lot so he gave me the ball a lot during practice. When I did get the ball during practice, I would run it as far down the field as I could so I could be ready for the game and what not. So when I did get in the game it all came easy to me because I was used to it from practicing it all week. I never hardly got too winded. It's something I just got my body used to through the week.

Can you talk about the job the offensive line did?

Oh man! (laughs) They did good man ... wooooo boy! (Press pool and OT Wesley Britt, who is standing behind Darby, begin to laugh) I really can't say too much. It speaks for itself. What they did out there today was awesome. They came off the ball hard with a low pad level. The coaches preached to them all week they'd have to keep their pads low coming off the ball because these guys (USM) are pretty fast. But our offensive line showed them on the first play of the game that "Hey, it's about business!" They went to go get 'em. They played good today, coming off the ball fast and opening holes for us running backs. Only thing we had to do was read the holes, and that wasn't too hard to do.

Wesley Britt chimes in ...He made our job easy. When you've got a running back that runs like this, it's unbelievable. It makes the offensive line want to block so much harder and everyone sees it. The whole team ... the wide receivers ... everyone wants to block hard when guys are running like that

Darby ... You heard that from an All-American (laughs).

Ken, your legs looked just as fresh in the fourth quarter. Talk some more about your endurance. You were making some of the same runs in the second half as you were at the beginning of the game.

What can I say about that? Hmmm ... fluids! After the first half, I went in and tried to drink as much Gatorade as I could so I could get hydrated. I got off my feet, sat down, caught my breath and just relaxed for a quick second before we had to go back for the second half. I thought it was all a mind thing though. I really didn't get too tired. I was just focused. Fatigue never kicked in in my head. If fatigue would have kicked in my head, I think my body would have shut down. I was too focused on the ballgame and not worried about fatigue at all. I just came out ready to play.

Talk about what it means to beat a Top 25 team.

It means a lot because we know we could be ranked. Coming into this game knowing they were ranked and we wasn't, that was more of a chip on our shoulder because we think we should be ranked right now. We came in ready to shut 'em down, shut 'em down ... whatever they had we just executed our assignments. We sent a statement out to the rest of the teams on our schedule to let them know that we're about business. We're focused and determined. Let's get every win possible and just do our best every game and get every win and try to get ranked.

Did you know that you were just a couple of yard shy of 200 before you came out?

Naaaah. I don't keep up with my yards. I just run. They'll let me know at the end of the game how many yards I had. They did let me know I was two or three yards off 200, but hmph, it's ain't no thing to me. As long as I gain over 100 yards I'm all right (Darby and press pool laugh)! And with the O-line we have, you can't help but get good yardage. I wasn't concerned about 200 yards. I'm not selfish or greedy at all. When I found out I almost had it, I wasn't concerned with going back in there to get it. I just wanted to congratulate my line for letting get what I got today and let Aaron Johns get in there and get some snaps so he could get used to everything.

How much did you think about Ray Hudson today?

Man, I thought about him every snap I was in the game. I even wrote his number on my wrist bands and my tape so I could look at the number before I run the ball and think about him. I know he was watching the game and looking at me. He told me before the game just to do good and step up my game. Just do what I've been doing and don't try to do anything extraordinary. Every time I looked down at his number, I thought about him just like he was on the sideline. I just wanted to satisfy him.

Kenneth, can you talk about those cut-back moves ... it seems as the game went on you found more yards by going one way and then the other.

During the off season, I tried my best to practice on my vision of the field when I ran the ball. That was one of my goals was to practice running through holes and then looking every which way to find yards that normally wouldn't be there. When I was cutting back, it was like everything was going into a flow. They were overpursuing a lot during the game, so I said, "OK, you want to overpursue ... I've got something for it." So when I cut back, it kind of surprised me because every time I did it, I saw more green ahead of me. It was all a flow thing because their defense was overpursuing. So the best thing a running back can do is just cut back, so that's all I did.