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History Hurts ...
Gators Slammed 31-3, Prothro Injured
Brodie Croyle (#12 QB, Sr. 6-3 205 lbs. 3VL Rainbow City, AL-Westbrook Christian High School)

These post game comments came as Brodie Croyle answered questions from the press pool ...

Press Pool ... How big was this game?

Brodie Croyle ... It was big. It's definitely big. It's all we talked about all week, is that we can make history. This has never happened in Bryant-Denny before, we had never beated a Top 5 team. To do it the way we did really gives us a lot of confidence going into our off week. It was big, but as big as it was we've still got six more and we fully expect to handle our business in those games. And you never know, we might see them on down the road.

Press pool ... ???question almost inaudible because fans outside the stadium continue cheering with players still on the field???Talk about the leadership of Tyrone Prothro ... what do you lose with him being injured???

Losing Prothro ... that's ... our prayers are out with him. That's a tough deal, a tough deal for him especially. I kind of know what he fixing to go through, and I just told him "It's not the end of the world". He picked a good way to go out for the year though. He was having a heck of a game, and a heck of a year. It's tough for him though. My heart's broken for him.

At that point in the game, were you surprised that you and Prothro were still in the game considering the score?

No. We're about to start that again. Florida can score at any point and time. We knew that and we wanted to get one more touchdown. It didn't work out, and Prothro ends up hurting his leg. But umm ... you know ... you can't bring your starters out against the number 5 team in the country with 11 minutes in the game. You just can't do it.

Can you talk about your team's mentality as far as them using the bump and run ... as far as play calling ... ???question inaudible???

Ummm ... (laughs) ...First play call. It actually isn't in the read, we're trying to get a dig route and their safeties have always played real deep. For some reason the dumped the in-cut. It was just a matter of getting Prothro the ball and letting him go. It was fun to watch from back in my view.

Brodie, was the pass Tyrone got hurt on, was that called during the time out?

It was, it was. It was something we'd seen against them that we'd game planned for. If I'd just been able to step and throw maybe this injury wouldn't have happened. But it did and it's going to be a tough pill to swallow. But we've got guys that can step up, and maybe not do the same things Tyrone Prothro could do. Because obviously, he's one of the best playmakers in the entire country. From a receivers standpoint ... we're deep there, but we're going to have guys step up. Zeke Knight going to have to step up and fill that role.

Could you talk about the emotion of the crowd and ???how loud it was??? *fans still cheering in the stadium*

(laughs) It was loud. I think they were probably hoarse by the end of the game. It seems like every situation they had a reason to cheer and a reason to get loud. But it was a fun atmosphere to play in, no doubt about it. All week it's been just crazy around here. Go out to eat and people start with the Roll Tide chant (laughs) It's just been nuts, but we don't expect it to get anything but crazier.

What about you Brodie. To come in and have the kind of game that you had and build that confidence about not only yourself but also the offense, how much does that ...

Well, it's ... it's a confidence builder for our passing game. We knew we could do it. The last two weeks teams have just taken it away and there wasn't any need for us to throw the ball. But we didn't have the drops tonight. We made a couple of plays that we hadn't made. I made a couple of throws I hadn't made and we just took care of the ball. I think that's the main thing. We can see with the speed of our receivers. Keith Brown ... that really showed how fast he was. Three guys from Florida had an angle on him and he ended up leaving them by ten yards.

Was there a point in the game when you felt Florida was shell shocked or ...

I think the first drive after the second half when we went in there and scored with Prothro in the back of the endzone. I actually missed a touchdown pass the play before that so I was still kind of beating myself up over that and Prothro bailed me out. But you could just see them. They knew it was going to be tough to come back against our defense for 28 points. And the defense didn't let up. They kept after it and with the senior group we have it's going to be tough for offenses to score on us.

Can you talk about setting the school record for touchdown passes?

(laughs) It's nice. It was a fun way to get it against Florida. But I'm not concerned about records. If I break them I break them. If I don't I don't. If we win football games, I don't care if I throw for 120 yards or for 330. It doesn't matter to me.

**question inaudible**

Croyle - We played our best game of the year. But we fumbled the ball. We missed some picks. We still didn't play our best game. And there's plenty of blame and plenty of things we can improve on to make us that much better. But that's what makes football fun, the fact that you get to go out there every week and try to prove yourself over and over. And the fact that you're not perfect. You're going to make mistakes. But we definately saved our best for today.

On the touchdown pass to Keith, have you ever thrown a ball that hard?

(laughs) I don't know how he caught it to tell you the truth. I'm not saying that because I threw it hard. There was linebacker right in front of him and I saw him moving one way and I was just going to throw it off his earhole. Keith said he didn't see the ball, he just saw a little speck and threw his hands up. And you know, you're not going to catch Keith Brown.

Defensively did they do pretty much what you had prepared for?

They did. They blitzed. They ran Cover-1 and Cover-3, and showed a little bit of their Cover-8. But they did exactly what we had planned, and our coaches did an excellent job of getting us ready and having a game plan they thought would work against it. You've got to take your hat off to Coach Rader and Coach Shula for spending those countless hours getting us ready.

How will you handle prosperity now that everyone in the nation is going to be talking about you guys?

We plan on .. we've been through it, we've been through the rough times. Now that everybody is going to be on our side for a change, we know what it feels like to be on the other side. We're not going to let it go to our head, but it is fun to be playing in a different ... I'd guess I'd say ... atmosphere.

Brodie, does this feel like a special team, or a team of destiny as some might say?

Ummmm ... we knew we were good. We said it from the get-go and everyone thought we were crazy. When we were the only ones at SEC Media Days and were saying we plan on contending for an SEC Championship everybody thought we'd lost our minds. But we knew the talent we had and the senior class we had. And us guys on offense, we knew what kind of defense we had and it's going to be tough to score on them. We feel like if we can put 20 points on the board the game is basically in hand. We're not surprised, but at the same time we're not content either. We're not anywhere close to where we want to be yet. We're 5-0 going into the off week. This is exactly what we'd planned, exactly where we thought we'd be. We've still got six more to go, and then I guess ask me the same question.