Alabama football postgame interviews with Mike Shula, Joe Kines, Shaud Williams, Charlie Peprah and more and more

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

Senior Shaud Williams has seen it all during his career at Alabama. In Week 1, he was the SEC Offensive Player of the Week.

These comments came during Shaud Williams' post game comments to the press pool ... (edited)

Shaud Williams - You know, 17-7 we came back. I think it just shows the heart and character of this team. That’s been the story of this whole football team for months. We’ve been down, but we’ve never given up. We just got it in our head that it was time to get something going. We put a drive together and got started that way. Then got turnover, kicked a field goal right before halftime. Before you know it, it was tied up and we had the momentum back on our side.

Oh man! They did a great job blocking. Everyone got their blocks and it made it real easy for me. David Scott is the one who sprung me from the beginning, and Ramzee Robinson threw a good block. But anytime you return a punt like that, I think everyone gets their blocks. So you’ve got to give credit to all the guys on the field at that time.

What did you learn about coach Shula, and how he is on a game day and as a leader?

Well, actually I kind of joked with him right as we got out of the third quarter. I said, “Coach Shula, you’re pretty relaxed for your first game as a head coach.” And he said, “Na … I’ve gotten upset a little bit. We all have.” But he seemed real relaxed, he was excited and had a smile on his face. Even when we were down 17-7, he said “Hey guys, we know we’re not playing anywhere close to what we’re capable of.” But he just kept a smile on his face the whole and was like “Guys, just be patient and we’ll get it going here in a minute.” That kind of rubbed off on us. We kind of relaxed. After we saw the Coach Shula wasn’t upset or uptight, I think it kind of relaxed the rest of the team.

Uh … oh yeah! I think as far as offense, you got to credit to Coach Kines and the defense. They helped us out and bailed us out the whole first half really. Coming in at halftime, for as bad as we played, to be tied … I think it was a good thing. We were still disappointed in the way we were playing, but we knew we weren’t playing anywhere close to what we were capable of playing. So that was the positive side of the whole thing.

It’s real big. All you have to do is say Oklahoma Sooners. Coach (Bob) Stoops has done a great job getting that program turned around. They’re going to come ready to play. When you’re number one, you come to play every week. Those guys are very deserving of their number one ranking. We’re just going to have to come out and try to minimize our mistakes and just try to move the ball. They’re a great football team, and we have our work cut out for us.

Is today what this team needed … to be in a real game for four full quarters?

Like I said, it was tough there at the beginning. But the guys were really ready for this game. We were tired of beating up on each other in practice every day. Just going against someone else motivated the guys, so I think this was something we really needed. It was good to finally get out there and play against someone other than ourselves.

Coach Shula talked about your conditioning. Was that one thing you could control? You had a lot of things against you, but you could still be the more conditioned team.

There’s no doubt. (Coach Shula) said that from the beginning that our goal is to be the better conditioned team on the field. I think that kind of showed today. We had some guys cramp, but they had guys cramping as well. When it got to the fourth quarter, we were tired of course, but we felt like we could keep going. You have to give credit to Coach (Ben) Pollard, our strength and conditioning coach, he got us ready over the summer

Again on the punt return … did you just feel that you were going to make a play right there?

Triandos (Luke) went down with some cramps, so they told me to get in there and return the punt. So, I went in there. David Scott was the one who sprung me loose and threw that initial block. I just ran from there. Ramzee Robinson threw another good block down the field, and just kind of found my way to the end zone.

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

Charlie Peprah (#26 So. LCB, 5-10 189 lbs. Plano, TX - Plano East High School)

Ramzee Robinson (#17 Fr. LCB-ST, 5-9 181 lbs. Huntsville, AL - Butler High School)

Ronnie Banks (#14 Jr. QB, 6-3 230 lbs. New Orleans, LA - Lawless High School)