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

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

These comments came following the Oklahoma game as Shaud Williams answered questions from the press pool ...

Shaud Williams – As a player, anytime you go into a ballgame there’s no such thing as moral victories. We came into this ballgame expecting to win. I think the fans expected that too. It’s one of those things where you feel good cause you played them close, but at the same time you want to come out with the victory.

When they converted that fake punt and then scored on the next play what was the feeling like on the sideline?

It was that feeling of we had them on the ropes and … that’s what good teams do. You have them on the ropes and you think you’re about to knock them out, but then here they come back with a big punch. You just have to give them credit. They called a good play and called it at the right time.

Can you describe what you saw on the fake punt? Basically, did the guys just not see the pass?

Yeah. I don’t know if we were going for the block. But I saw it developing from the beginning. I saw the punter rolling out and just pitch it to the guy. I knew a fake was up and I knew the guy over the gunner had his back turned, so I knew he couldn’t tell it was a fake. I just had to come up and make a play.

I know you say you don’t play for moral victories, but you just played what is considered to be the best defense in the country. You had some success against them and played them close. You had to take something from the game that you’ll build on.

There’s not doubt. We’re going to build on this game. I feel like we’re starting to come together as an offense. We’re not quite there, but we’re close. I think we’ve got some good things to look at from this game and build on. But at the same time, we also have some things we have to work on if we want to have a chance to have a successful season.

Last week, you talked about having not quite gelled as a team. Do you feel that way still?

We’re close, we’re so close. I don’t know if any of you seen it tonight, but there’s so many players on this team … it’s just this close (holding fingers an inch apart) to us breaking a big play. It’s just those things that we’ll have to sit down and watch on tape and just try to get better. And just go ahead a break those big plays and not have to come back and say we were this close. We need to go ahead and make those big plays.

Talk about the resiliency and you guys sticking through for the entire game. Brodie kind of took a beating out there, but was still up to par in the fourth quarter. Talk about him.

You can’t say enough about Brodie. Brodie gets me going. He’s one of those kind of guys that if he breaks both his legs he’s not going to let anyone help him off the field. That just says a lot about his character, and that’s just the kind of person Brodie is. I wouldn’t want to line up behind anyone else except for Brodie Croyle because I know he’s going to put everything on the line. That’s the kind of guy I like playing with.

Pretty tested. I think this was a good opportunity for us and it gave us a chance to guage ourselves to see how we stack up against the best team in the nation. It gave us a chance to expose some of our weaknesses. Now we can go back and look on tape. If we’re this close to breaking plays on the number one team in the nation, then if we get those things cleaned up we ‘ll be pretty good.

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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