Nov. 4, 2006

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

South Carolina Head Coach Steve Spurrier

“Blake Mitchell played as good a half of football, except for one throw, as any quarterback I’ve ever had. He was 15-for-20 until that last throw. For us to beat them, he had to play perfect and he didn’t.”

“Sidney and Kenny had a marvelous game. Freddie Brown and those guys deserved to walk off the field a winner. As a team we’re not where we need to be. But anyway, our guys played well. (Arkansas)is a lot better than us. We’re 5-4 now, have three left and we’ll see what happens down the road.”

“Blake is a good passer. He was relaxed. They played man-to-man almost every down, and he throws a good fade and a good slant. At the end they switched and said `We have to play zone, we can’t play man-to-man anymore,’ and he threw it right to them. He had 213 yards so he was playing beautifully until the last play.”

“Our guys played their hearts out. They flied around making tackles. I’m not being critical on our team, but to win against good competition you can’t keep doing what we’re doing.”

“(Cory Boyd) missed a couple of practices and Mike was ready to play. He had some good runs in there. We wish he could’ve had 25 to 30 rushes like McFadden and Jones had.”

“We’ll get this behind us and try to correct what we can. We’ll try to teach the DB’s to bat Hail Marys down at the end of the half and the end of the game. If we play smart we have a chance to beat some of these teams.”

Arkansas Head Coach Houston Nutt

On the victory:
“That was a good win all together, offense, defense and special teams. When you come into this kind of environment, on a national stage, you have to be ready to play. Our guys were ready.”

On possibly losing free safety Michael Grant for the year:
“This was a costly win to lose a guy like Michael Grant. I think we probably lost him for the rest of the year. He was just playing some great football for us. That really hurt. I don’t know how bad Darren McFadden is, but these guys just reached down tonight and acted like a bunch of winners. I’m just really proud of them.”

On the threat posed by Sidney Rice:
“Sidney Rice on the other side, that is scary. He can go the length of the field in a heartbeat. They throw it up to the big 6-4 guy and he goes and plays jump ball. He is dangerous receiver, so we were always a little nervous.”

On playing sophomore quarterback Casey Dick over freshman Mitch Mustain:
“It was just a gut feeling. I love Mitch, but this is a very critical time in November, and we needed just a little bit more experience. I had to go with Casey, and he did a good job. I have a lot of confidence in Mitch. He’s going to be an outstanding quarterback. The route that he threw the interception on was one that he had done since day one, and when you mess that up, my gut instinct was just that I needed to make a move.

On seeing Darren McFadden injured:
“That was a bad feeling. That was a bad, bad feeling. We need him to be out there. He has been so valuable to us. I’ve been really proud of him. He’s a competitor and a tough, tough, young man. If there is anyway that he can be there, he will be.”

On Casey Dick getting the final first down:
“That was a critical, critical play, because you have to think hard about a field goal there. That won the game.”

Arkansas Player Quotes

QB Casey Dick
On how he felt as he went into the game:
“I felt real calm. Coach just put me out there and said it’s yours.”

On what this win says about the Arkansas team:
“We’re just continuing to play. We still haven’t played our best game yet. Hopefully a tough SEC win like this will get us some respect from people. We still have 3 games left to play this year so we’re just taking one step at a time.”

RC Darius Vinnett:
On what the team was thinking once South Carolina cut their lead: “We just got a little frustrated, but our leaders handled it. Olajubutu kept telling us to stick to our man. We’re a like a band of brothers, so we just pulled together.”

On South Carolina’s decision to play QB Blake Mitchell:
“That was just a big switch, to put a dropback passer in. We had been running a lot of man coverage, so in the second half we just had to mix it up a little bit.”

On the interception in the fourth quarter:
“I was just dropping back in my zone and kind of read the quarterback’s eyes and went for the ball.”

On the last drive by South Carolina:
“We just knew we had to go out there the next time and get them three and out. We just had to go out there and make plays and have someone step up and it just so happened to be me.”

TB Darren McFadden
On the win at South Carolina:
“It’s a great feeling. Coming into a tough road game and win, it’s just a good feeling.”

On having such a good first half:
“The offensive line just opened things up for me. They did a great job, they always do. They gave me some good holes.”

On the decision to play QB Casey Dick:
“He came out and gave us a lift there at the end. He did a good job for us tonight.”