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00:00 Alright, so Chief Sarsal.
00:02 Okay, so, you know, extremely proud of our players.
00:06 You know, before I go down, let me address some,
00:09 just kind of like I feel like I'm proud of my players,
00:11 I'm proud of our coaches, we set high standards around here,
00:14 and at times I've been proud of our fans, okay?
00:17 You know, for them to show up today,
00:19 after us losing last year, and I guess set the record
00:23 for highest attendance in school history per game,
00:26 when we say do things better than they've ever been done before
00:29 is the motto we have, and that's awesome to hear that.
00:32 And you could feel it in the game, you certainly could feel it in the fourth quarter.
00:36 It was really, really neat to have that electric environment.
00:39 So, first off, thanks for that.
00:43 Second off, credit to our players and coaches.
00:47 You know, I'm not that guy that's okay, well, we went to one score game,
00:50 but a lot of stuff happened, and, you know,
00:52 we're down two scores in the fourth quarter,
00:55 but I'm going to say it's got to be arguably the best personnel offensively
01:00 in the country, or at least top two or three.
01:03 I mean, that's offensively personnel like Alabama a couple years ago.
01:07 You know, those two receivers, the line, the tight end,
01:10 and Logan played like a real NFL back today,
01:13 so I don't know the years of them, but I hope those two receivers,
01:17 obviously with the quarterback, are gone with the first round NFL draft,
01:21 and we'll see when we get it.
01:25 You know, we gave up a lot on defense today, but, again,
01:28 my storyline is it's not all points and everything in the yard.
01:31 It's down two scores in the fourth quarter, easy to get in, you know,
01:36 not fluke plays, guys had to drive away into the field twice,
01:40 had to stop them, then stop them again, which we did.
01:44 I mean, we were two of us, and we dropped the interception,
01:46 and the game was over, and we still overcame that.
01:49 So we're just really proud of these guys.
01:52 Overcame adversity in the game and in the week.
01:55 You know, they took a lot of heat this week for a performance last week in Alabama,
02:00 and that's good.
02:02 Standards have changed around here.
02:03 You know, that shows the Alabama, and they took a lot of heat,
02:07 especially offensively, and really went back to work
02:11 and ran the ball really well that day.
02:15 So, a common time to have a seminar here with small fence
02:18 without turning the ball over or having a sack is pretty amazing.
02:23 Not just the coaches but the players, too.
02:26 They made the plays.
02:27 They made a lot of them today.
02:30 All right, if you have a question, please walk to me.
02:37 Wayne, what can you say about Jackson's performance tonight,
02:40 especially after last week and having to go toe-to-toe with, like you said,
02:44 one of the nation's best?
02:46 Yeah, I think, you know, Jackson kind of fits in what I'm saying about the team
02:51 probably more than anybody as far as, like, all the heat, the criticism,
02:55 how he played in Alabama, can he play any big game, and all that.
03:00 And to come out and just play, I mean, really play amazing.
03:06 When you're 26-39, four touchdowns, no interceptions, 389 yards,
03:10 and you put another 50 yards on the ground for another touchdown,
03:15 and no sacks, which he got out of a couple, especially the really one.
03:19 The one with Q was amazing.
03:20 So a lot of quarterbacks, a lot of years, a lot of games,
03:25 and you're down two scores and you don't take the team away from like that.
03:28 So I actually was trying to yell at a tray, which is why I can probably watch
03:33 on our last touchdown.
03:34 They're probably not understanding why the head coach is not happy
03:37 because we're trying to signal to get him to go down,
03:40 and we got the signal in late.
03:43 And I think that's one of the biggest things when the ball ever breaks
03:45 in that situation, we'll play in that offense, those type of offenses,
03:48 we want to go down at the one, let the clock run all the way down,
03:51 kick the field goal, you know, the winds,
03:54 so we wouldn't have to go back on defense against those guys.
03:57 But it worked out.
03:59 Kirk was saying, you never know, I think it's happening.
04:01 If we did that, our defense wouldn't have been able to get on such a great note
04:04 of stopping them like that.
04:07 So I saw it there in your answer, but just your thoughts,
04:10 the whole kind of composure in that last score,
04:13 you know, the penalty set, the fact that what they had to kind of overcome,
04:16 that driver.
04:17 Yeah, I think, you know, the whole frustration of last week with Alabama,
04:22 not a good offense game plan, as good as we wanted it to be.
04:24 It didn't work, so third downs.
04:26 But, you know, I was just really frustrated because we had that chance to go beat
04:29 them, and we weren't frustrated, I'm insane.
04:32 This number nine, he's playing, he's played eight,
04:36 or he's been held in the eight series before.
04:39 Seven touchdowns in one field, but he got five of the touchdowns.
04:41 So this guy is an electric receiver in our system,
04:45 so that was why it was coming down because he was,
04:48 he couldn't do anything in the game.
04:49 So now he's probably 90%, which is amazing.
04:52 I'm going to do what he did today at that.
04:54 Pre-scoring in his second time playing the game here.
04:59 You know, just really was excited to be back at full strength,
05:02 which we were not last week.
05:05 You kind of answered my first question about when you dropped to a knee,
05:08 you prepared us to score, I mean, you tried to prepare us not to score.
05:10 What was the ensuing, I don't know, 30 seconds or so of game time light for you
05:15 watching that when they get down to the 16-yard line,
05:18 it's obviously going to have some shots at the end zone.
05:21 Yeah, that ain't 30 seconds, that was about 15 minutes.
05:24 [Laughter]
05:26 You've got to like go for two, and that was two points really wasn't a big deal,
05:28 but you've got to go for two, not one.
05:31 And actually I had a lot, we were throwing it, and the last second I said,
05:34 "Whoa, whoa, whoa," I changed to a run, because the only bad thing that can really happen in that
05:38 is throw an interception two the other way, and now you can field goal a tee-shoot.
05:43 So it's actually why I changed the last second to a run.
05:49 Just a lot, because now I have this whole kickoff to go through,
05:52 I've got the whole defensive thing, and the whole time I'm like,
05:55 "God, I could have just got that single in one second earlier."
05:58 Now, that was out of the gate, missed the field goal from the line,
06:01 so that was hard to live with through that improvement loss.
06:08 But again, things happened for a reason.
06:10 We wouldn't have had that crazy ending right there.
06:13 Maybe the defense needed some confidence, because we didn't play very well today at all.
06:17 So to stop them when we needed them most was good.
06:20 Lane, you were asked specifically earlier in the week about the issues about the offensive line.
06:24 Following Alabama, talking about that, you didn't even approve.
06:27 It's either not give up a sack, have somebody in the yards and offense,
06:30 or that is the balance that was shown offensively today.
06:33 What would you say about that unit?
06:35 I've got to give them a lot of credit.
06:37 I've been hard on them, and they performed really well today.
06:41 They took the challenge.
06:42 I think that--I tell you when I think about the game, things don't work.
06:47 But they did it today.
06:48 I thought we had a very unique one with Perkins.
06:51 I guess he has to come back next year or so.
06:53 We'll get into what that was exactly.
06:55 But we've never gained around a person like that as much as we did today.
07:01 If you watch, you can kind of figure out how much those different plays are wrong
07:05 based on where he's at, and it neutralizes his impact plays.
07:10 Just going into the game, did it feel like the most pressure you found internally
07:14 in the winning game at all?
07:17 I don't really think like that.
07:20 I put a lot of pressure on myself all the time.
07:22 I was really disappointed.
07:24 I mean, I saw it keyed up for the game in Alabama.
07:27 I apologized to him.
07:28 We should have won that game, so I take that on myself.
07:30 So I'm hard enough on myself to say this is the game you've got to win
07:34 or any of that.
07:36 I'm really proud of our--that's not an easy team to beat
07:39 because they can make impact plays on defense
07:42 because they have two special players in probably the best defensive player
07:45 in America.
07:47 So they don't always rehearse and prepare around and do that.
07:52 And then you saw it offense.
07:54 That's like playing Alabama a couple years ago.
07:57 They had four first-rounders, and then they got two.
07:59 So that was tough.
08:03 Coach, on jokers today, Coach, 33 carries, 177 average, 5.4,
08:08 best game of the season.
08:10 And you leaned on him heavy going 33 carries.
08:13 What was the thought process there and your thoughts on Coach Young tonight?
08:17 I thought he did a really bad one.
08:19 He actually got an Ivy at one point in the third quarter, so he was out.
08:23 I thought Bentley ran extremely well in between.
08:27 And then Coach Young came back out and really played with a different mentality,
08:34 nothing against him before, but a different mentality today,
08:37 like big-game mentality, like a really big game a year ago against these guys.
08:42 And so it was great to see him.
08:46 I've been on Charlie all year going to Baltimore,
08:48 so he finally ran at Warren.
08:50 That's a joke.
08:53 But, no, everybody wants to run at Baltimore.
08:56 I'm trying to tell you, we run the ball when it works.
08:59 When you're on two yards, you carry it half, you don't run it all off.
09:01 Well, today was different.
09:03 There was success, and now that's why you have 49 carries.
09:06 I mean, a game that we could have thrown all day too because they were struggling,
09:11 major struggling, major issues in the secondary.
09:15 You were able to run the ball effectively today.
09:17 You mentioned you had over 300 yards on the ground.
09:19 What did you see in LSU's defense to allow you to run the ball so effectively today?
09:25 I just thought that Florida State game, saw some things in that,
09:30 especially how they played late in the game and really challenged our guys
09:36 to play really physical, aggressive,
09:38 and see what happens if you play physical against this defense.
09:43 And that's what Florida State did.
09:46 We were fourth quarter, and that was Florida State pounding the ball
09:49 in the fourth quarter, beating the ball late.
09:51 So, I kind of read between the lines what I thought was going to happen.
09:57 We'll take questions up top.
10:00 Lane, in the second half, LSU went on a 28-6 run,
10:04 and then you guys ended it with a 21-7 run that kind of closed it out
10:08 and dominated that fourth quarter.
10:10 What does it kind of say about your guys that you were, you know,
10:13 LSU got back in the game, but you guys weren't able to kind of end it so strong.
10:16 What does it say about your team?
10:19 Well, I figured when they made that run, you'd probably like,
10:22 "And now it's time to win, or we're going to lose the game."
10:26 And then you jump back on the bandwagon after Jackson made those plays.
10:30 I'm just kidding.
10:33 I only pick on people I like.
10:36 So, I just really was like, you know, at one point,
10:40 "We're going to have to score every drive, and we're going to score touchdowns."
10:43 You know, I'm a realist about what's going on.
10:46 And then we got off there and had a few goal drives.
10:48 And then we saw, "Now we're going to have to stop money."
10:52 So, we were down two scores and got the touchdown.
10:56 I'm still down, maybe scores, still down two.
11:01 And, you know, go down and score again.
11:04 So, it was big for both sides of the ball to have to have
11:09 the last four series in and make significant plays.
11:12 You kind of had two stops, the offense had two touchdowns.
11:15 So, that's as good as you can get in those situations in the fourth quarter.
11:19 We'll keep it up, Todd.
11:20 And what were kind of the emotions, right, when kind of the game ended
11:23 and everyone was kind of rushing the field and all that kind of sunk in for you?
11:28 Yeah, it was real.
11:31 To see the look on the players' faces,
11:33 said it was the first one next to me, like hugging as soon as that play was over,
11:36 you know, like in Jackson.
11:39 We have some really cool kids, really neat kids that had a really hard week.
11:44 They went into a really hard place to play a week ago.
11:48 Teams don't win very often in there, but, you know,
11:52 I mean, they're 50-62 or something.
11:55 And this was a hard week, like I said.
11:58 A lot of criticism, which is good.
12:00 We used it the other way.
12:01 We analyzed it and they worked harder in practice.
12:04 I'm not saying that because they practiced a lot harder this week.
12:07 And so sometimes those losses help you.
12:11 Landed at the very end of the game.
12:13 I think it was right before the final play.
12:14 There's a timeout.
12:15 What do you say in the huddle?
12:17 Is it just talking about the play?
12:18 Is it trying to calm the guys down or what kind of conversation goes on there?
12:21 I'm saying please don't get P.I.
12:23 Please just knock the ball down and do not get P.I.
12:26 Keep it in front of you.
12:27 Don't go for interception.
12:28 Do not get P.I.
12:29 Just knock the ball down is what I was saying.
12:35 Lane, David Dublestein.
12:36 I've been giving up on interception at other points.
12:38 You just throw the ball right to us.
12:41 I'm just like, just knock it down.
12:42 No P.I.
12:44 Lane, David Dublestein from WJTV in Jackson.
12:47 You know, what do you tell your team after this now so that they keep those
12:51 lessons going into the next game with the long schedule?
12:54 I just reflect on last year where you said, you know,
12:56 the season didn't end the way you wanted it to with those four losses.
12:59 So how can you do something like this to keep that momentum going and show
13:02 what this team is about?
13:04 I challenge it.
13:05 No disrespect to last year's team, but I said, okay, the last two years we were
13:13 8-1, play Alabama here and had a chance to beat them, go 9-1, we lose to Alabama.
13:18 We let that completely affect us and we fall apart and lose the rest of the game.
13:23 Two years ago, a team that was very close, very tight, went into Alabama
13:29 and got smoked.
13:31 It was like 42-7 when we scored from the guard interception on the year.
13:34 And they got smoked by Alabama.
13:36 We were 3-0 going into overtime.
13:38 It was like this team.
13:40 That team rallied, went 10-2 and went to the Sugar Bowl.
13:43 So you make a choice which team are you going to be.
13:46 So I don't think I answered that today.
13:49 We'll go back down here.
13:51 Lane, you mentioned that the disappointment last week said you didn't think you
13:54 coached as well as maybe you could in that game.
13:56 How did you make sure that that result didn't linger going forward?
14:01 I'm just really hard on myself.
14:03 So when we lose, especially if we perform poorly on offense, I take that really,
14:09 really hard.
14:11 So it's not like we did all this crazy, different stuff.
14:15 Like I say, sometimes the game plan works, sometimes it doesn't.
14:18 Sometimes in a game, if our system -- we have to get going.
14:22 We have to make first downs.
14:24 When we have success early usually, it's going to be a really good day.
14:28 If we don't and the numbers are down and we're just running outs or turnovers,
14:32 that's when we're going to struggle.
14:34 So it wasn't this massive change or anything like that.
14:37 Just like first off, we got all our players back.
14:40 That helped.
14:42 And they performed really well.
14:44 And they did a really good job in the game of running different plays than what
14:48 we had done previous because they were really -- they were basic in what they
14:55 were doing on the defense.
14:57 So we saw a lot of times he's changing the play, we're changing the play on the
15:02 scrimmage to get a good advantage plays.
15:04 I thought that helped us a lot.
15:07 Lane, you were talking a lot this week about getting back to the Ole Miss
15:10 identity.
15:12 Was this win in your mind reflected in what you want to do on this identity?
15:17 No, this was like our COVID identity right here.
15:20 I can't stop it.
15:21 But, no, I did not win it on that.
15:23 I wanted the part of balance on offense and 700 yards and 80 plays.
15:28 But I played down 80 plays, 700 yards, no turnovers, no sacks.
15:32 And that's --
15:35 So, yes, I like that.
15:37 I want to get back to this.
15:39 I've seen it before.
15:41 So, we got to get that fixed because that's a great quarterback to come in this
15:46 week.
15:48 Coach, how much did the pick for shortcoming back, a couple of passes,
15:52 blocked a lot.
15:53 How much did that have to do with the running attack that you saw today?
15:56 I didn't go off.
15:58 He's a very big physical NFL tight end.
16:02 You know, our other guys were more kind of like receiver project guys, you
16:06 know, that were down, NFL tight end guys.
16:10 So, I think for sure he saw that correctly.
16:13 All right.