UGA-LSU: Quotes

GEORGIA HEAD COACH MARK RICHT QUOTES

Opening statement…

"What a blessing and great game for our football team, program and fans. I'm thrilled for everyone that took this long trip. I loved the band being here and my wife being here and my son and my father. It was a great memory. We played a team that is one of the finest in America, certainly one of the winningest program in the Southeastern Conference in the last five years and they've won a couple of national championships as of late. We just did enough to win. It was fantastic and I'm very thankful."

On Mathew Stafford's performance…

"His first pass of the day, he had an open receiver and missed him and was a little down about it, but he got right back in the saddle and started throwing strikes. I think our line did a fantastic job of allowing only one sack throughout the game as many times as we threw it, which is fantastic considering who they were trying to block. Matt is really mature. He is staying in there when everything is flying around him and focusing downfield and throwing strikes. That is what he has got to do. That is the way he is going to make Georgia better and that is the way he is going make a living for many years to come, I imagine. He's doing as fine as I've ever seen him do it and he could have done it much better than anyone I've ever coached tonight."

On the offensive line's performance …

"Let's applaud the offensive line. I'm not going to sit here and say that they dominated the game because they probably didn't, but they fought like mad and gave Mathew [Stafford] enough time when needed and gave Knowshon [Moreno] room to run. At times, they got whipped too. The local newspaper had two gloves. It had a glove of LSU and boxing glove of Georgia and said it would be a heavyweight fight. I agreed with what the paper was trying to say. Two outstanding programs were about to start throwing punches at each another. Both teams threw a bunch. I felt like the team that could not only punch, but handle a few shots in the mouth. I think the line did that and that our team did that in general."

On the opening play …

"You never know how a game is going to go. You don't know if the team is ready or not and when you get an interception for a touchdown on the first play it definitely energizes your football team. I think we were energized and ready to play anyway, but when something like that happens it definitely gives you a boost of energy and adrenaline. I'm glad that happened for Darryl Gamble and us."

GEORGIA OFFENSIVE PLAYER QUOTES

Matthew Stafford, QB

On if he thought this game was a signature win …

"I think it was a big win for us obviously. LSU is a good football team and we had all facets of the football game show up today. Our special teams did great. They (LSU) have great return men and we did a good job containing them. Obviously our defense put up points for us and did a good job holding them (LSU) in check."

On winning in an atmosphere like Tiger Stadium …

"We knew it was going to be a tough game. They've won 30 straight here, and we knew it was going to be a tough environment to play in, but I thought we did a good job adjusting and came out with a win."

On his feelings of putting up 52 points …

"We go into every game trying to score every time we get the ball. That's our thought process and what we work towards, and we were able to move the ball well on them (LSU). We got some big plays when we needed them today. Knowshon (Moreno) had some good runs for us and some guys made some good plays for us catching the football and that's what got us going."

On how he handled LSU's blitz …

"They didn't heat us up too much. When they did blitz they played a lot of man coverage and we did a good job of winning on the outside. Overall, we just did a good job of executing."

Knowshon Moreno, RB

On his cell phone gesture to the student section after a touchdown …

"It was nothing, I was just having fun. It was more about celebrating with my teammates more than anything."

On the week of preparing for LSU's defense …

"It was really focused. We were focused on the task ahead of us. We just made sure that everything we did, we did it crisp and it paid off for us tonight."

On if he though the Georgia offense exploited any weaknesses in the LSU defense …

"I don't know if it was anything specific. I just think all the guys were really making plays and playing tough football. It was just a good day overall."

GEORGIA DEFENSIVE PLAYER QUOTES

Sophomore LB Darryl Gamble

On defense's performance today…

"I think there were some missed opportunities. We weren't lined up correctly today; we were outside. It was hard because they had a quick offense, and their tempo was quick. That's why they got the big plays that they did, but as a whole, I think we did pretty well."

On his interception to open the game...

"We went over that play a lot. We watched it a lot on film. When LSU was coming up in that slant formation, I read it. Coach Martinez prepped me for it. I was ready, and I came up big. "

On the road to national championship…

"We've got a good team, and we've got some good SEC opponents. That gives us a little more leeway because it's always a hard game no matter who we play. I think this win puts us up high again."

Junior DB Asher Allen

On next week's game against Florida…

"It just gives us confidence going against a team that is similar as far as speed and has athletes all over the field like LSU does. We know that Florida has tremendous athletes."

On plays on both sides of ball…

"I think that (Matthew) Stafford and AJ (Green) made great plays, and the offensive line was able to make holes that Knowshon (Merino) was able to run through. I think the defense did a great job today with stopping LSU's running backs. I think we were able to make the plays we needed to make today to win."

On Darryl Gamble's key interception at the end of the game…

"Darryl's a guy who always comes to practice and works really hard. You saw he ended the game with a big time play. Ending the game like that, you see him do it in practice, and he took it to the big game. Big time players make big time plays in games like this."

On interception opening the game…

"That was a shock even to the defense. What a way to start it off, and then ending the game off like that too was great."

LSU POSTGAME QUOTES

LSU HEAD COACH LES MILES

Opening statement…

"The story is the mistakes. You can't make mistakes. When you play a quality opponent, you cannot give them turnovers. You can't uncover people in coverage. You can't let runs that should be tackled go untackled. Our football team has to learn that. That's my job. I promise you I will go about teaching it. Guys have bad days. Those bad days can't sink the team. You can have bad days and still give your team a chance to win. I told our team that we played a very quality team today, and we never pressured them. Again, the first play from scrimmage, we give them seven (points). We come back and get our seven, and surely, we would have liked to have taken a lead in this game and see how they played from behind. Again, if you make mistakes, that benefit of home field and that benefit of pressuring the opponent doesn't happen.

"Certainly, there is work to do. Our quarterbacks, not tackling (Knowshon) Moreno, who, in my opinion, we should have maybe gotten him stopped, and some mistakes in the secondary. We can play better. There were some positives. (Placekicker) Colt David takes over the all-time leading scoring record here. That's great for him. I promise you he's sick; we all are. I told my team another thing too, that the answer is going to come from within this room and the fact that's it's going to be about a team, and it's not going to be any other way. Everybody is going to have to further identify their role and have them play very positively and efficiently within that role. That's where we're headed."

On if he felt good about making the score 21-17 in the second quarter…

"Yeah, I thought our team could move the football. That was not the issue. The issue was making mistakes that allowed our opponent to score and score in the short field and score touchdowns. The first 10 points that they got was one thing. Then, the next seven, certainly was another. It's the same issue. We've got to get it fixed. We'll work at that."

On playing QB Andrew Hatch a lot in the second half…

"It was a different hand and how they played him differently than they played (Jarrett) Lee. We thought it might give us an advantage or two."

On if he was disappointed in the defensive line not getting more pressure on the quarterback…

"The issue is the rushing yardage. If you give up the rushing yardage, you're not going to put the pressure on the quarterback. As long as they had the lead, there's little reason for them to spread you out and just toss it over the line and allow us to get in the backfield. It's hard to pressure a team that is running the football pretty well."

LSU OFFENSIVE PLAYER QUOTES

RB Charles Scott

On the game …

"It was a real tough day. When you play good offense and good defense just sometimes it doesn't workout. That's what happens when you play a great team. We weren't consistent enough to take over the game when we had the chance."

On the loss at Tiger Stadium …

"It's very disappointing; we never like to lose in our own house. It's a real deep gut feeling. We have to turn around and look at ourselves and figure out who we really are. It's about pride and it really hurt our pride with them coming in our house and beating us like that. "

On getting ready for next week…

"Of course we are. We have some games left in the season. The season is not over for us. We are going to put it behind us, it will be hard but we are a good team and we will learn from our mistakes."

QB Jarrett Lee

On the game…

"It was tough. We need to pick our heads up. We are going to do what we did with Florida and come back next week to execute right."

On watching film and learning from the mistakes…

"There were a lot of things that went wrong and things we need to fix. The good thing is we get to watch film tomorrow and we will come back better."

On putting the loss behind them…

"It's just part of football. You win some and lose some. Unfortunately, we lost today and we need to put it behind us. We need to stay positive but keep this in the back of our minds. We need to get back to work and prepare for the next games."

LSU DEFENSIVE PLAYER QUOTES

LB Darry Beckwith

On how the team will respond …

"It was a very difficult loss for us, and we are frustrated. We have great character. We just have to keep on trying and finish strong this season."

On getting back into the game in the 2nd quarter …

"Like I said, we are frustrated. We stopped them on big plays, but we made mistakes on big plays. We cannot play that way with a team of that caliber. We messed up and we know that."

On how well Georgia's quarterback played …

"They have a great quarterback. Stuff like this will happen, and they had great protection. We have to make plays on third downs and come to compete."

DE Rahim Alem

On how well Georgia's offense did …

"Upfront, they made it very difficult for us. The quarterback was very well protected. They also ran the ball very well, and that hurt us."

On what the team will focus on next …

"We must come to fight. We are in the corner right now and we have to get out of it. We lost to two great football teams. Obviously, we are not proud of the way we lost, so from here on out we cannot afford any mistakes."