Alabama / Auburn football postgame interview quotes Mike Shula, Joe Kines, Brandon Brooks, Shaud Williams, Brodie Croyle, and analysis by Tommy Deas

Read these selected comments gathered during postgame interviews with Coach Shula, Coach Kines, Shaud Williams, Brodie Croyle, Brandon Brooks and analysis by Tommy Deas.

Tide Quarterback Brodie Croyle gets some post-game respect
from Tiger running back Carnell Williams following a 23-28 loss.

These are a few of the post game comments we gathered following the 2003 Iron Bowl ...
For the complete interviews, JOIN THE HOME GAMES 2003 SEASON

Kind of seems like we’ve all been here before. An unbelievable effort by our players. It had to be a great game to watch. Some great individual efforts. Brandon Brooks igniting our football team with his touchdown return at the start of the second half. I'm proud of these guys. I’m proud of them because of the way they’ve fought, and the way they’ve been resilient, the way they have never quit. Those are all things we’ve come to expect from guys that play at Alabama. It still needs to be mentioned because it’s been a difficult season for all of us. I’m tired of saying the word “close”. Our guys are tired of hearing it. But there’s a lot for these guys to be proud of because of the way they’ve worked and believed and stayed together as a football team. It’s made me awful proud to be here. I’ve said that a couple of times this year. We’re not there yet, obviously, with our execution. That’s including everybody, starting with me, then our coaches and our players. But we’re gonna get there, we’re gonna get there. It was a difficult game in an incredible atmosphere, but we’ve got to be able to move on.

Press Pool … Is there any explanation for what happened in the first quarter with Auburn offensively?

Well, the two big plays came on some missed tackles. The first one … Carnell Williams is a great runner and takes advantage of every miscue you have defensively. I’m not even sure if it was a missed tackle, or just a cut off where their receiver blocked our safety. Then our corner came in … and we weren’t in the right gap. That’s how good of a back he is. The second one we thought we had their receiver tackled, but he breaks a tackle and makes a play. We were just a little bit off balance. If I could tell you why, it wouldn’t happen. But obviously, ‘getting off to a good start’ is something we’ve talked about in here that we’ve put a lot of emphasis on. They’re a good football team. They’ve got some weapons on both sides of the ball. But even in the third quarter there, we get back in it and have a couple of chances, but didn’t come up with some plays when we needed to. We got the score there at the end, but obviously took too long to score to get ourselves back into it.

Press Pool ... Coach Shula said that the team is a bit tired of ‘character building’. Can you expound on that a little bit?

This season has been a season of one or two plays. With a short hand and a short deck, those guys have played extremely hard. We just need to keep working and get ourselves in position to having a full deck. Then we can evaluate this program. Recruiting is of the essence right now, and this is going to be a great recruiting staff. Guys can see that there’s an opportunity to play here and play real quick. There’s some good players in the state that we’re close on. We just need to push that over the top and then we’re off and running.

Shaud Williams (#21 Sr. TB, 5-8 191 lbs. Andrews, TX - Texas Tech transfer)

I can’t. I don’t know if I can. It’s been a career of ups and downs. I’ve met a lot of great people here at the University. I’ve met a lot of great people outside this football team. I just can’t say enough about Alabama fans and the people of Alabama. They made my three years here the best. I’ll remember every moment that I’ve had here. Like I said, I’ve met a lot of great people that will always hold a special place in my heart. It’s just one of things where you can’t say enough the people I’ve come in contact with here. I just can’t put it into words.

You guys haven’t used it as an excuse, but can you talk about how handicapped you really were with the staff coming in late and not being able to audible much because the offense was so new?

Of course we were at a disadvantage not having Spring Ball with this coaching staff. But we weren’t going to use that as an excuse. We’ve got guys on this team with too much heart and too much character to use something like that as an excuse. We knew it was going to be that way. We knew it was going to be tough and we stepped up and accepted the challenge. But I still think without a doubt we were at a disadvantage not having Spring Ball with the coaching staff. But that’s all right. I have all the confidence in the world in the younger guys. They’re going to pull together and get this thing back on track.

Brodie Croyle (#12 So. QB, 6-3 200 lbs. Rainbow City, AL - Westbrook Christian High)

Press Pool … How much confidence do you have in this staff to turn this program around?

Brodie Croyle … They came here in the worst circumstances probably in college football history. Just the fact that they’ve got us to play as well as we have is a tribute to them. It’s up to us to go out there and make the plays. There were some opportunities where we haven’t done it.

How tough was it game-by-game not being able to audible on plays that you normally would in a certain situation?

We haven’t had many audibles at all. Learning the offense by itself was tough enough. Hopefully, we can install some more things in the Spring and get a winning streak started next weekend.

Brandon Brooks (#5 So. SE, 5-4 163 lbs. Birmingham, AL - Shades Valley High School)

Press Pool ... What’s the best way to describe this season?

The best way to describe the season ... (long pause) … I can’t really think of a word. I guess more disappointment, a learning season. I’m going to learn a lot from this season and all those close games. Coach Shula came in and said to remember the feeling, and then he named all the close games we lost. We’re not going to have that feeling anymore next year. So I guess I’d describe the season as a learning season.

Tommy Deas (The Tuscaloosa News)

Talk about the effect of probation on this team including the loss of scholarships.

I think that’s a big thing, especially when you have a lot of injuries. You start out about ten scholarships short of everyone else. Even bigger than that was recruiting over the last three or four years with the cloud of the NCAA over you. There were guys like Carnell Williams and Ben Obomanu who made plays in this very game who may have been wearing an Alabama uniform if there had not been a probation issue.

How big of an effect do you think the Iron Bowl has on recruiting in the state of Alabama?

Everybody says, and I tend to believe, that it doesn’t have a lot of effect. Certainly not as much as NCAA probation. In this state, you pretty much grow up wanting to play for one school or the other, and if you’re given that chance you take it. I don’t think it has a huge effect on recruiting. I hear Alabama is doing real, real well in state. We’ll see how that goes, but I don’t think tonight’s game will decide too many guys … probably none.