TRANSCRIPT: Here’s what Lane Kiffin and players, Jimbo Fisher and players had to say after Ole Miss’ 38-35 win

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss won a 38-35 barnburner over Texas A&M at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium Saturday. The win moves Ole Miss to 8-1 overall and 5-1 SEC, while the Aggies drop to 5-4, 3-3. After the game, Rebels’ head coach Lane Kiffin, quarterback Jaxson Dart, running back Quinshon Judkins and safety John Saunders, Jr. talked with media. For the Aggies, head coach Jimbo Fisher, linebacker Edgerrin Cooper, and wide receiver Ainias Smith spoke.

Here’s what they had to say:

Head coach Lane Kiffin

Opening Statement:

“What an exciting finish to a game. Kind of somewhat of an LSU feel where it seemed like we were in command and then let it slip away there. To get it back at the end there, go down and score on a 75-yard drive and then block the kick at the end, I’ve got to give our players a lot of credit. I know that team was only 5-3, but as you saw, those guys have great players. Credit to A&M coming back in a game that was headed one direction. We actually scored to go up 21-0, then had a holding and then a 10-point turnaround on a blocked field goal instead of getting a field goal, and give them seven. Really proud of the way our guys battled. It’s one thing if they just go down and miss the short field goal. I thought our guys did a good job of holding them to a longer field goal. One of these days we’re going to actually catch the ball when they throw it to us on defense at the end of games. Good push at the end there, and then (Zxavian) Harris getting the block.”

On Jaxson Dart’s performance…

“I think as you guys know, I’ll tell it how it is and be hard on players. I thought he was fabulous today. Again, that is, by statistics, the best defense in the country. I mean, negative plays, sacks, third down, they’re third in the country. That’s a really hard defense to play that well of a game. As you see, you’ve got to do all of those things and it can still come down to the wire. Awesome game by him and obviously Tre (Harris), showing up today. That was kind of where we thought the matchup was that would help us in our favor, because obviously people really struggle inside against them. (The plan) was to just let Tre go one-on-one outside, so that takes Jaxson making the throws and Tre making some great plays.”

On the team’s ability to come back late in games this year…

“I think it says a lot about the team. I’m also thinking, I’m a coach that doesn’t say, we have a field goal to win the game, and drive all the way down and miss a chip shot, then sit here and say how resilient we are. I really do think our players played really well today. Overcame adversity in areas. It’s unusual to have a 10-point swing on one play. A lot of credit to them for how they handled it and handled the waves of the game. I really do feel like our offense knew they were going to score. It was actually like, don’t score too fast. It was 75 yards away, and just the way they broke the sideline huddle when they scored was like, ok guys we’re gonna go score, let’s not score too fast. Even Jaxson came off and was like ‘We scored too fast,’ and I said ‘Can you be positive please?’ And then he’s like ‘They’re going to make the kick,’ and I’m like ‘Can you be positive?’ Finally after the game he said alright, he’ll stop being negative. I think he was watching too much Bobby Knight this week about the power of negative thinking.”

On Ladarius Tennison’s performance…

“Yeah he was great. Especially the first half, making big plays, showing some speed out there to catch some of the really elite, fast players that they have. He’s one of our favorite guys that we have, just the way that he plays regardless of how many snaps he plays is the same.”

On how difficult it is to go 8-1 in the SEC…

“I told them we’re like the cardiac kids or something, the way that our players play and take it down to the wire in these games. I thought our crowd was really good in the first half, and helped us with a couple of false starts as well.”

On the crowd…

“(It makes me feel) good. Kind of like how when a player plays good, we kind of expect that. I would hope that these kinds of games get people excited. To go 8-1, is pretty cool. We’re I think 19-2 our last 21 games here, went undefeated in the SEC home schedule this season. Lot of cool memories here this year.”

Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart

On his conversation with Kiffin about how fast they were scoring…

“We’re a tempo offense so we go fast. I kinda blame it on Coach Weis and Coach Kiffin for calling too good of plays to get us down fast. As a quarterback, you see that much time and that they have two timeouts, it’s kind of like ‘okay that’s a lot of time we have to deal with.’ At the same time I had a lot of confidence in our defense. They’ve been there, they’ve won us games in these kinds of situations many times, so I just knew they were going to be able to get it done.”

On motivation from the social media comments…

“We knew coming in that they were a top-10 defense in the country and they’re really talented and stuff. I feel like we have one of the best offenses in the country. So coming in we had a lot of confidence already and them doing that just boosted it even more. I know the O-line specifically took that to heart because of how many defensive lineman commented on it. I guess they don’t get enough attention from the games they’re losing. It was a good win for us.”

On what Tre Harris was like before the game today after being very calm before the LSU game…

“Well we woke up this morning, had breakfast and I came back in the room and he was gonna go back to sleep. I was like ‘bro how can you go to sleep right now? I’m wide awake’, we have an early game and I was already juiced up. So, I guess he was just super calm again because he was ready to go back to sleep.”

Ole Miss RB Quinshon Judkins

On where he was during the blocked field goal…

“I was actually with my position coach praying. I was with Coach Smith on the sideline. I didn’t have any doubt since Zay Harris was back out there. We had a very big chance of completing the block with the front we had up front against those guys. I believe in our team and they executed.”

On what was going through his head on the final drive…

“You know as we took the field I really didn’t speak to Jaxson (Dart), but my position coach specifically was telling me to know the down and distance, the time we have on the clock and just go out there and execute. This might be the last drive since they were holding the ball for so long, so just take advantage of the possession we have.”

On what he feels about having a three touchdown performance…

“Honestly, I’m just glad we got the win overall as a team. Going into this game we all knew A&M was a great team, they had a great front defensive line and great defensive players. So just coming out with the win overall is a great feeling.”

Ole Miss S John Saunders, Jr. 

On the interception in the endzone and expecting it…

“I was definitely expecting it. He was trying to stutter like he was faking blocking but I was prepared for it. They do a lot of tricky stuff in the endzone, trying to play with your eyes and stuff. So I just kept my eyes on the receiver, located the ball and was able to bring it down.”

On what going 8-1 means for him…

“It means a lot to me, especially coming from a different school. So, coming here and them accepting me, it just, it means a lot. Seeing the locker room after the game, everyone’s ecstatic and happy, it’s just amazing.”

On seeing the blocked kick…

“Oh man, I was on the right side and I saw the ball snap. Coach told me ‘just make sure nothing funny happens,’ so I’m watching and just making sure no fake is going on. You never know. Then, I see the ball kick and I see all penetration from the left side, everybody was back there. It got tipped a little bit, it had the arc at first but then it fell short. I was just thankful man, started hugging teammates. We were all just happy, people were crying happy tears. It was crazy, for real.”

A&M head coach Jimbo Fisher

Opening Statement:

“Tremendous college football game. Disappointed we came out on the wrong end of it. Came down to the last play. We had an opportunity to get a kick and tie it up. Get to overtime. We didn’t. Need to start the game a little quicker. Get initial first downs on offense. Didn’t finish drives. Some self-inflicted wounds. They got hot. The critical special teams block and got back in the game. Then got really rolling on offense, moved the ball really well. Of course we had one turnover in the red zone on the first drive of the second half. Other than that I think we scored almost every time we had it in the second half. Defense, we just could not get the pressure on the quarterback. They were making consecutive catches outside. We are able to play well in the passing game. Running game we did a solid job. Our guys fought, battled. We gotta help them make one more play. Find a couple of inches and cure this problem.”

On a successful offense in the second half…

“We just did not have the self-inflicted wounds. First half they were there. We just did things ourselves. Had a missed assignment on one of the protections early. We were getting one or two first downs. Not finishing the drives. We started relaxing. Executing. Finishing the drives. We had good balance in the run game. Helped the pass game.”

On momentum in the game…

“You don’t know what play can change it. Having Chappell (Tyreek) and Deuce Harmon out hurt us too. Two guys who were still nicked up. We thought they would be able to come back. Did not know until Tuesday that they would not be able to go. That was a great job by special teams to set that. Get the block, set that up, then score on it. Not only blocked it because that would have been a three score game. Kinda generated us. Gave us a spark. Momentum can change that quickly. It did for us. Gotta learn to finish it.”

On what changed with the Offensive line…

“Attitude. You get confidence. You don’t play as good in the game. All of a sudden you read all the articles. They get in their heads. They have to build confidence back on the field. That is just part of today’s world. All of a sudden thinking ‘I can do this.’ They got in the groove. Got confidence. Started flowing. Started playing like they could play all of the time. There is a lot of ability up front. A lot of coaching. A lot of good stuff there. We ran the football. Gave Max (Johnson) clean pockets. Good things happened.”

A&M LB Edgerrin Cooper

On handling a loss after coming back…

“You can only do one thing, either keep our heads down or try and figure out something for that situation not to happen like that. It’s a one play game to change a game and you just have to move on from that.”

On whether the team was nervous heading into the day or ready to show up…

“The energy we came with into the game couldn’t of been any better but things happen and things didn’t go our way and that just happens “

A&M WR Ainias Smith

On what was different going into the second half compared to previous ones…

“This was one of the first times trailing going into halftime, which makes this mindset totally different. We got the score right before half and we played pretty well as an offense in the second quarter which carried the momentum into the third.”

On what was different in the mindset today and where did that come from…

“Together we rallied as a team, That was our whole message throughout the entire week. Lets go ahead and come together and show the world what we can really do”

On trailing 28-14 and why was that not the knockout blow…

“We knew that we were able to move the ball, once we got down and weren’t able to score, it was tough but you can’t allow that to stop your momentum. So we had to keep fighting back. They are going to throw some punches and you are going to get hit but you have to come right back and hit them right back”