USC postgame quotes

There were a lot of happy players and coaches following Arizona's win over USC. Here are some of the highlights from the postgame press sessions

Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez

Opening Statement:
“I’m really proud of our guys. They hung in there. We didn’t play very well; we had a bunch of penalties and bad plays, but so did they and that helped us a bit. It got a little dead there in the third quarter when we were down 28‐13 but our guys just stuck with it. It feels good to win a close one. ”

On winning a close game after losing a few:
“I think it’s just good to win a close game, regardless of the others, because it gets our guys to believe in themselves. I want our guys to be comfortable being uncomfortable and we practice those situations in practice.”

On Arizona’s final drive where every play was a handoff to Ka’Deem Carey:
“I think we blocked well but Ka’Deem is a guy that makes you tackle him. He runs through arm tackles. Give credit to the guys up front but it was a great job by Ka’Deem.”

On the Hail Mary at the end of the game:
“I’m holding my breath. We didn’t have a timeout. Normally I call a timeout there to put a guy like Dan Buckner in. I was screaming at them to get back. I teach our guys to catch the ball in that situation because I’ve seen too many things happen when you bat it down.”

Arizona junior safety Marquis Flowers:

On the forced fumbles:
“Some were tips and some were just being in the right place at the same time. It was just an overall great day for us. The fumbles and interceptions gave us a lot of momentum. The defense stepped up but we have to come out next week and do better.”

On whether USC backed off in the second half:
“They tried to get a run game going but we made plays and hung in there. We went in at halftime and talked about what we need to do to get a win. In the end, the defense did what we have to do in order to be successful.”

On the big win:
“It does wonders. The losses against Oregon State and Stanford still hurt but we wanted the defense to step up and put the success on our backs. All week, the coaches were on us by pushing us to come out ready.”

Arizona sophomore running Back Ka’Deem Carey

On the final drive:
“I knew they were getting tired and I saw that the momentum was going our way, so we just kept pounding the ball.”

On the team’s mindset when it was 28‐13:
“This team has a lot of heart. We want to bring it to everyone who steps on the field. I took this one personal today.”

On if this is a signature win:
“Every win is a big win. We can definitely build off this.”

Arizona senior center Addison Bachman

On the win:
“This was a very good thing being from southern California. I was sick and tired of waiting to beat them, and it was good to fight back. This was a crazy experience and a big victory.”

USC head coach Lane Kiffin

Opening Statement:
“It was a very discouraging loss today. It wasn’t about effort; I thought our players had great effort. We made a lot of mistakes and weren’t able to catch up. I think we turned it over five times today and only got one back. That’s a really good team we played out there. They’ve got a great quarterback. He’s put yards like that up against almost every team he’s played.”

On the mistakes:
“The mistakes were discouraging but we were able to overcome them on the scoreboard. We had the lead and I thought we might put it away. We gave them too many chances.”

On the last drive:
“We got the kickoff return and got the ball back but we weren’t able to finish it. We just ran out of time.”

On Arizona:
“I imagined they would have been able to score like they did. They’re a great offense and they can score a lot of points.”