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

These comments came following the Kentucky game as Coach Shula answered questions from the press pool ...

Coach Mike Shula – It felt great to get our first win in the SEC. I think that’s the one thing that comes to mind first. We won against a strong Kentucky team. We felt like they had some weapons on offense, and defensively they do a nice job with their blitz package. I don’t think I can say enough about Shaud Williams and what he means to our offense and what he means to our football team. He had two good performances in his first two games, but I think this one has exceeded both of those. We’re going to have to look hard to find somebody else to recognize as Player of the Game. Defensively, our guys did a great job. I think we had three or four three-and-outs early in the game. They (UK) were able to come back and get the touchdown right before half to keep them in the game. But the defense rose up again in the third and fourth quarters and did a nice job against a quarterback who is very unique in what he does. He moves around and does a lot of different things. Our guys stuck with it. I think our guys did a better job of wrapping him up and getting sacks, more so than the teams were watched before the game on tape. I think down the road he (Jared Lorenzen) is going to continue to break tackles and make plays, but we did a good job to wrap him up. Offensively, we got things going in the second half and put the ball in the endzone. I think that was big that we could move the ball but couldn’t get in the endzone. We missed the field goal and then threw the interception right before the half. We had one more … had to settle for a field goal in the third quarter, but were able to get some touchdowns late in the game and that helped ice it. It was a good win and a good feeling. I’m a little bit hoarse here. It was a little bit frustrating at times, but our guys stuck with it. I’m happy to be 2-1 and 1-0 in the SEC.

Um … I guess a little bit. I’ve come to expect it. We’ve come to expect it more and more each week. You just can’t say enough about all the things he can do. I get mad at the other coaches whenever he’s not on the field. I probably hurt their feelings, and may have hurt some of the other running backs feelings. But that’s how you feel about him. You just feel so secure when he’s in the game. Whether it’s a punt return, or hands team or on offense. He took a lot of snaps again tonight, but we’ve got to be able to mix those other guys in there. They did a nice job when they came in, so that was good to see.

Really not that much. Atlas Herrion and Danny Martz did a nice job. There were some things that we maybe ran to the right as opposed to running it to the left, and maybe vice versa on some different runs. But for the most part, we didn’t alter our game plan that much. That’s important. We talked about it with our players afterwards. There’s some new guys that stepped up and contributed to our victory. That’s how it’s going to be week in and week out because you will get some injuries and we’ll have some good players that won’t be able to play. You have to have other guys step up.

Except right there before the half (chuckles) … But you know what? That’s a good question and I’m glad you brought that up because I thought it was another solid performance. Obviously, you don’t want to have the interception right before the half and that’s one he’ll learn from. He recovered from that though. But to get hit like he did last week, and still be able to step up and make some throws. He threw a couple of balls against the blitz where he had to get rid of it and took a hit. Same thing as last week. He gets back up off the ground and goes to play the next play. He continues to get better. We’ll look at this tape and see some things that will help us on down the road if we can correct those things.

A lot of people talk about your calm demeanor on the sidelines. You seem relaxed. Can you comment on that?

They must not be watching me very closely (laughs). I tell you the biggest thing that comes to mind right now is we’ve got an experienced staff that I lean on a lot. I’m talking to those guys frequently, especially the offensive staff. David Rader and Sparky Woods came up with some nice ideas, even there at the end that helped us keep the ball away. Joe Kines, same thing. He doesn’t get rattled. It’s just something that when you’re in there’s a lot of close games, you just think about the things you have to get done. You also keep in the back of your mind that’s what you want out of your players. So if you want that out of your players, you better do that yourself. It just seems like every week, especially in the SEC, they’re going to be tight games and you better zero in on your job is. That’s what makes it exciting too.

He’s a unique player. I appreciate him more now than I did a week ago. I thought he was special coming into this game. Just talking to (UK) Coach Brooks before the game … he really, really likes him. There’s some things he does that a lot of guys can’t do. We compared him to a Dante Culpepper … kind of a big guys that can just shred tackles. I think he’s just going to continue to get better. I know it’s his senior year, but with Coach Brooks and those guys, we feel lucky to have done the things we did against him and win the football game.

We wanted to finish drives more in the plus territory. That’s something we’ll have to take a look at because we’ve been fairly good in the first two games about finishing in the plus territory. Unfortunately, we came up short tonight early in the game. As far as running the ball, we came in tonight thinking we could run the football. I think we’ll probably feel like that every week. We’ve got a good offensive line. If we can just stay with it, and not leave the running game too early then you get into the second half and we can possibly wear teams down. Brodie is such a good complement with our offensive line. If teams feel like we are going to run the football, we can change up our tendencies and go with a play action pass or go with a passing set. We feel real good about him completing passes and getting some yards. Some of his completions were big tonight because they gave us some chunks and gave us field position and kept drives going. Then we stayed on the field where we can continue to run the ball, wear them down and make some plays.

Was it somewhat unsettling to be dominating yardage at halftime but only be up three points?

Yeah. I was nervous at half a little bit, and there in the third quarter too when we had to settle for the field goal. We’ve all been in games like that where you feel like you’ve got momentum and you’re moving the ball, but you don’t have the points to show for it. It was nervous for a while there, but our guys continued to believe. The way our defense plays … and hopefully they’ll continues to play like that and better … but it give the offense confidence that they will finish a drive and put points on the board. Then we can put a team away so to speak. But it’s tough because the competition in the SEC week in and week out is going to be great. You got to get through some of the frustrating time and there definitely some of those. But you have to keep your poise and believe you’ll get it done.

How did it feel to score and then have them march back down the field and get the field goal?

It was big. When you can finish drives in plus territory … those are things we’ll have to look at offensively. But defensively, we’ve done a nice job in all three games with that.

Yeah, early in the game. But then he got away a couple of times. We put ourselves in a bad spot there when we kicked off backed up (after a celebration penalty). You’ve just got to cover as hard as you can and stay in your lane. He does a nice job. He’s extremely decisive. We know what he is talent wise. But he’s decisive because he’s confident. He’s dangerous and I’m glad he didn’t take one to the house.

Yeah, he did a nice job. He made a couple of freshman mistakes and we’ll have to look at that. We maybe gave him a little bit too much to do, but he did a nice job catching the football a couple of times. He’s going to be a tough guy to bring down when he has the ball in his hands. And he’s got good hands too. He and Tim Castille do a nice job. And then we play those other guys at that same position, the second tight ends. Clint Johnston had a couple of nice catches. Greg McLain had a couple of plays in there and saw some action. We’re going to try and mix him in there more too.

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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