Postgame football interviews Alabama / Oklahoma with Mike Shula, Dave Rader, Brodie Croyle, Justin Smiley, Shaud Williams, DeMeco Ryans

These comments came following the Oklahoma game as Dave Rader answered questions from the press pool ...

Dave Rader – Tonight … what if the field were six inches wider? We had our shots. We had some big play shots. We knew against that defense we had to hit those big plays. Each one that didn’t materialize just put us a little more in the hole. But we had those shots, and those were big momentum boosts that we miss. Was a little surprised that they brought as many dogs as they did. They had a little pressure and hit Brodie a couple of times, but he kept bringing it. They’re just a good defense. But I think it also shows that we can be a good offense. We weren’t tonight a good offense, we were an almost offense. The effort was good. There were a lot of guys getting after it. It’s just one of those “What if?” nights.

Brodie’s the man. Brodie’s a warrior. Brodie’s a competitor. Brodie loves to play the game. What else do you want me to say about Brodie? He makes plays, and makes plays when there don’t seem to be any. And he makes very few mistakes. Brodie did a lot of good things. But thing is, right now in the locker room, Brodie is really dejected because we lost. He doesn’t sit on, “Well Brodie, you did a lot of good things.” He’s a left column guy. I love coaching the guy. Is that enough?

When you miss a play by a few inches on the sideline, is the problem the overall timing on the play, where the ball is delivered or the receiver’s route?

I don’t know. Ya’ll tell me. Our fans seem to think he was in. And I’m sure they’re not biased. (press pool laughs) We just want to make sure everyone else on the field is not biased as well. Those are the shots we wanted to take, and we had him. We just didn’t hit him. You go back on the games where offenses have beaten the Oklahoma defense, Texas A&M and Oklahoma State, they hit those big chunks. We knew we had to do the same thing. We just didn’t get it done and they’re a very good defense. For those of you who know, my background is coming from Oklahoma and I have total respect for Coach Stoops and his staff. They do and outstanding job and they were well prepared tonight.

They’re Alabama football players. They didn’t come to this school to quit. They came here to win. So when we get behind and throw the pick on the first play … that’s one of the great things about coaching these student athletes is they will come back and they will fight the whole game. We thought that up until they took that knee at the end we were going to have a chance. That’s what is so good about being around these guys because they just won’t quit. They will bounce back and play extremely hard next Saturday.

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)

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