Super Bowl Update

Not much time for analysis, but that may come later on. Need to drive back to Southaven, but here's some quotes.


QB COREY ROBINSON
"You can’t give a good football like that opportunities over and over again. They’re a very polished football team, very seasoned, you can’t do that to a good football team. I wish the best of luck to those guys in their bowl."

(Where do you go from here?) "Up. That’s the only way we can go. I just said something to all the guys in the locker room. I appreciate the seniors and all they’ve done. Five championships isn’t a bad college career. I let all the younger guys that are coming back that we’re about to go to work. It’s about to become a job again for everybody. I don’t want the fans in Troy to lose faith because we’re going to be back next year."

"We’re going to do everything different. Obviously the stuff we did this year didn’t work. We’re going to do everything different and see which way we can go. Everybody’s back and healthy, get some new receivers and O-linemen in and all of that. We’re going to get some new playmakers in and everybody’s going to be ready to go."

FELTON PAYTON
(on the TD) "All the credit on that catch goes to Eric Thomas. He made a great catch, nice run after the catch, breaking all sorts of tackles. I saw him tangled up and he had his hands free. I was screaming at him, he tossed me the ball and I went into the end zone."

(Did you have momentum coming out of the half?) "Definitely. We didn’t make the plays we had to to keep the momentum. We were leaving our defense on the field and they were getting tired and we weren’t able to sustain drives."

(Where do you go from here?) "In the offseason, we work hard. We know how to work. We’re trying to get to a bowl game and getting back to being Sun Belt champs. We’re going to do all the necessary things to get there."

JONATHAN MASSAQUOI
(What happened in the game?) "It’s a three-phase game. We let some big plays go on defense, offense with our turnovers and special teams as well. It was a three-phase game. I can’t pinpoint any area where it went wrong, it just went wrong for us a team. We competed for four quarters, we came out in the first half, came with a better second drive, things just didn’t go our way in the end. We’ve just got to be resilient, stay focused and look forward for next year and what can we bring to the table."

(offseason, what it takes to get back) "Definitely, No. 1, guys keeping theirselves healthy, us being able to come out here as a team, believe in ourself, coaches, programs and the scheme and what we can do. We have to learn to be hungry and not allow ourselves to be content in some areas. That’s what hurt us this year.

"As you see tonight, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. We have to learn from our mistakes and finish better next year."

(Put this year in the past?) "I’m not going to put this year in the past. That’s not what we want to do. When you win five years in a row and something doesn’t go your way one time, you have to put this on the mantle and remember every day why you didn’t continue to be successful in your road to glory."

Troy Head Coach Larry Blakeney Quotes
“Well we gave up a fumble for a touchdown, a punt block for a touchdown and a missed call-busted coverage for a touchdown. That’s three things you can’t do and win games and we did all three against a very good team. I have said all along these guys are really good, they have 27 seniors, are well coached, they know what they want to do and they have the trigger man that makes it all happen in Aplin who may be the most valuable offensive player in the league. Looked like to me they had a lot of speed across the board not only on defense but on offense. You have to try to find your way and we dug ourselves a little hole, didn’t have a very good year and we have to dig our way out. That comes with work in recruiting and with all the things that we have done before to get to where we were.”

“Their defensive front, I thought they were really good and our guys fought them hard and protected pretty well for the most part against them. Just team speed on defense and the element of speed in places and experienced players making plays in the passing game and the quarterback. I thought the kicking game was a sort of a wash, I don’t know what happened when our guy got run into but it wound up a no call and their ball. You know how that goes sometimes. If we blocked their man into our guy them it was a no call but I couldn’t see that.”

What the returners need to do in the offseason.
“I think we have got to do a better job of making them understand what it takes to win and what it takes in the offseason to win. We are going to go back to some of the things we have done in the past maybe not last year or the year before. Make it understood that when they get to the game field that they know they have paid the price.”