Alabama / Kentucky postgame interviews with Mike Shula, Shaud Williams, Thurman Ward, Derrick Pope, Brodie Croyle

These comments came following the Kentucky game as Derrick Pope answered questions from the press pool ...

Derrick Pope - It was tough. You know, they’re a good team. They have a lot of hustle. But we still made some mistakes that are holding us back. Once we correct those mistakes, I think we will take off from there.

Yeah, I hyperextended my right elbow. I’m all right. I just told them to patch it up and put me back in.

Containing #22 (Jared Lorenzen). He’s their team. He’s their leader. What he does so well is scramble around in the pocket and find open receivers downfield. I think tonight we kind of stopped him from doing that and we made some plays.

It seemed like you guys were in on Jared every single play. What was the strategy to going in there and stopping the guy?

Well you know, we just tried to contain him and not let him run around in the pocket. Try to tackle him. He’s good at making guys miss and throwing the ball deep. Once we could contain him inside the pocket and bring him down, we felt good about it.

It’s a great feeling. My teammate have been ragging on me, saying “What if you get run over?” But this time I didn’t. I just got him around the legs and made a sure tackle.

It’s a confidence builder. Now we just have to go up from there. It’s a great win, a great victory. We’re just going to take it from there and try to get better.

How big was it to get that stop when you were leading them 13-7? You stopped them from getting that field goal and then our offense goes down and scores a touchdown.

It was big. We tried to push as many three-and-outs as we could get and that time we did it. So it was big for us as a team.

Coach Kines forces three-and-outs on us. We try to do that and get our offense back on the field.

Talk about playing spoiler again this year in the SEC. You guys did it last year. Talk about getting that first victory this year in the conference.

Well, it was great for us you know. It’s a big confidence builder. We’re now 1-0 in the SEC and hope to get better from there. Kentucky is not a bad team. They’re a good team with a great quarterback and a great offensive scheme. I think with this win, we can go further up in the conference and just get better.

Can you talk about some of the younger players that are coming up? DeMeco Ryans seems to having a very positive impact on your defense.

Well, DeMeco Ryans does a great job. He’s a perfectly sound player. If he’s not in the right spot, then that’s not DeMeco. He’s always in the right spot. He makes the right calls and makes the right plays. He’s just a great athlete you know. Every day, me, him and Freddie (Roach) push ourselves to be our best.

Ahmad Childress has stepped it up a lot. He lost a lot of weight and got his speed back. He’s getting more physical. He’s becoming one of the big guys on the team. We have Antwan Odom. We also have some defensive backs that sometimes don’t really have a chance to show their talent, but today they all got in there and showed what they can do.

Seems like there are some young players coming up that will help the team survive the loss of scholarships.

Oh yeah. You know with the loss of scholarships, that hurt. But we’ve got some great players on this team and we’re just going to keep trying to get better so we can win games.

Next week we have another tough challenge on our hands. Northern Illinios has a great running back. So hopefully we can shut him down.

Click on the name for parts of their post-game interviews ..
Coach Mike Shula (Alabama Crimson Tide Head Coach)

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

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