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

Justin Smiley (#78 Jr. LG, 6-4 293 lbs. Ellabell, GA - Southeast Bulloch)

These comments came following the Oklahoma game as Justin Smiley answered questions from the press pool ...

Justine Smiley – I felt like what kind of hurt us was that fake punt. It really kind of gouged us and then that over the top on the next play to score a touchdown really kind of took the air out of our defense and we were playing catch up again. But you have to tip your hat to those guys. They played an amazing game and they’re definitely deserving of their ranking

Is it hard for you guys to come off the field and be down 3 points and then turn around and you’re down by 10 a few plays later?

Yeah, that’s football. It’s a game of inches and things happen that quickly. But it can happen for us that quickly. There were a couple of calls where we thought Zack Fletcher caught a couple of balls in bounds that didn’t go our way. But that’s just part of it.

How do you get past that, when you have those long plays down the sideline and you can’t see what happened?

That’s one thing you learn in college football is if you sit there and worry about the last play, it’s going to affect you on the next play. So we have to put that in the back of our minds and press forward.

Is there any sense of confidence knowing that you played the #1 team down to the wire again this year?

I don’t really believe in moral victories. People talk about that. They’re a really good team and you have to give them all the credit, but it’s like last season after the OU loss, I really didn’t think we were going to lose another game after that. That’s how I feel. I don’t think we’re going to lose another game if we can play the way we’re supposed to play.

Were you at all frustrated with the way the offense came out in the first half?

It’s one of those things … you know, just sputtering on offense. But that’s the way it goes. Our defense compensated for it. We know they can do that until we pick it up.

In light of the defense you were playing tonight, do you think the offense took a step forward? What do you think ya’ll did?

I don’t think we took a step back. We played against a tremendous defense. You have to tip your hat to those guys. They played an amazing game. They’re definitely the number one team in the country. They’ve got a really speedy defense, but we really matched up with them well. We man handled them up front at times … you have to feel good about that … but there’s no moral victories like I was saying. I feel confident if we play our style of football then we’ll win the rest of our games.

You guys obviously didn’t come to Alabama to play in close games, you came here to win. But the fans gave you a standing ovation as you came off the field. What does a loss mean in terms of that?

To me personally, a loss is a loss. I hate it. There are no moral victories, especially against Oklahoma. We don’t try to hang close with people. But we’ll just reassess it tomorrow and come out swinging next week against Kentucky.

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)

Reposting small portions of these pages is allowed on message boards and chat boards. All other reuse is prohibited.
© 2003 Druid City Online Publishing