Everything Bryan Harsin, players said after beating Missouri

“I think everybody in that locker room is exhausted in a good way. I told our players I’m proud of them. They did what they needed to do to win the football game. And that was the message this week. Play every play. It’s simple. That’s really what happened. If you look at the game, towards the end… First of all, Missouri is a very good football team. They’re very well coached, their staff has been prepared. I knew Eliah would do that, and he did exactly that. And they did some really good things. We had to overcome a tough opponent.

“There were certainly some tough circumstances, at the end of the game. They put themselves in a position to win the game. And we were able to have that play go our way with the (missed) field goal, and then go into overtime, and then have an opportunity for Anders to go out there and make the kick, which he did. At the very end of it we played that last play, and the ball comes out. That’s really the tale of the game right there. The ball comes out, and we’re able to recover. Two turnovers, today we were plus two on the turnovers, which is what we wanted to be. That was a big factor in the game.

“Overall just the effort of our guys, and the sideline and the energy, the focus each and every play, the execution part of it. And we’ll go back and look at that, we know that that’s the message that we’re going to have from me and our coaches, everybody in that room is the execution. We’re going to have to figure out how we do those things better. That’s the beauty of having another week to go prepare for another SEC opponent. But overall that was a great game, our crowd was fantastic. To get up early and be here at 11 a.m., to go out and have the energy that we did. We started off fast, and you can feel that momentum early in the game. Things started to slow down, and it became just a back and forth slugfest at that point.

“I thought our defense did some really good things, they got the turnover early in the game, and then we were able to get them out. They made a few plays, and then in the second half we got ourselves into some behind the chains situations. We want to stay ahead of the chain, and we got behind the chains. So second and 12, second and 15, we didn’t recover from that as well as we’d like to. We’ve got to learn and we got to learn from that. Overall in that locker room up there, there’s a lot of guys in there that I am very proud of. I appreciate the effort and the coaches not panicking and sticking with the plan, and making adjustments that we needed to. We’ll learn from that.

“We have today to sit back and just watch some other teams and take in what occurred in this game. We have tomorrow to go back to work. And we’ll do that. That’s the one thing you get in SEC play. It’s going to be every single week. And it’s really likely that you’re playing good opponents every week that are well coached and have great players. Sometimes you have to find a way. We did that and we found a way to win the game. I’m really proud of our guys for that.”

“No. There have been some crazy games, but no, not like that. As you look at the end of the game there, when they went to take a knee under center, that’s what they were going to do. They were going to center the ball, and that was the right thing to do. You don’t put yourself in a position where you’re going to put the ball in harm’s way, so I think they executed what they needed to do. They put themselves in a position to win. We went out there and we applied some pressure. I couldn’t tell you what caused the kick to go wide right. Maybe it was the pressure that we were bringing, and one of the things about that is just accumulation of the game right as you’re out there and you have a chance to get your field goal block team. Sometimes that does affect the kicker but when you get into overtime, you want to score a touchdown. We end up scoring a field goal, you think that might be a pick right there. It ends up not being a pick, and so we get another chance, which was huge. It comes down to a game of inches, that’s what it comes down to. Their kids were out there trying to make plays too. It went our way. We were able to get the field goal out of it, and at the end, that’s one of those things where I know it’s taught on our end. I know it’s taught at Missouri as well. As you put the ball out there, things can happen. The guy’s trying to make a play and the ball rolls into the end zone and fumbles and we recover and that’s the end of it. Crazy finish, but both teams fought hard to win the football game and we were able to find a way to get it done.”

“We struggled. I also think (Missouri) did a good job. That’s an area that we’re going to emphasize and keep working on. It’s not going to go away until we fix some of our own problems, and that’s the focus that you have on your own football team. Our guys know that. A lot of our week in preparation still was just about us. We played Missouri today, but a lot of it was about what we had to do, how we had to execute. The message during the week was focus and execution. Focus on the task at hand and then execute the plays. We’ve got to be better on the offensive line. We’ve got too much pressure. Overall, we’ve got to fix some of those things up front. Those guys are going to work hard at it this week. We’ve got to make sure we do our jobs as coaches to make sure we’re working on those things and getting better in those areas.”

“A win is a win. The guys played hard, and we fought to the very end, and we went out with the results.”

“Guys like Derick (Hall) are out there making plays and getting sacks when we need them. The big guys are just showing up when they need to show up. Obviously, we notice that there are corrections that we’re going to have to make, but I feel like we made all the plays that we needed to make. We need to practice utilizing your help and knowing where you need to fit in because we have some ideas.”

“We just found a way to win, I guess. We had a few chances, and they jumped offsides. Just playing the play at the end. We do what we have to do to finish the game. It’s not giving up on the guy and giving him his last-ditch effort, and that was great.”

“It’s a huge celebration. A win’s a win, especially an SEC win. That’s how you want to start in this league. So it was awesome just to get that win.”

“It was great. Our defense played their butts off. You can’t thank them enough. We didn’t have a great game on offense. It was slow. Missouri played a great game on defense. They played a heck of a game on defense. Our defense totally trashed them and it’s all we could do. Shout out to the defense and our team for persevering and never giving up. I love this team. It’s a great win. No matter how hard it was. No matter how ugly it was. It was a great team win.”

“I go into every week preparing like I’m the starter. It was just going out there and going off my preparation. Since I’ve played in three games already, I knew there was a chance I could be the starter this week. I had to step up and be that guy for my team.”

“It was crazy. They ran an inside zone but it was more of a stretch look. I am running behind him trying to get him down. He sticks the ball out and all I see is it come out. I am like, ‘oh my gosh, oh my gosh.’ I mean that’s all that went through my head. The rest is history.”

“I kind of saw it, but I was at a 45-degree angle. I wasn’t at a good angle to see it. After the replay showed I was like yes we got it.”

“He called a slant, I slanted, I got back there, and I missed the tackle. So, when I missed the tackle I had the same view he had. I watched (Cayden Bridges) recover it and when I saw him recover I thought, ‘Yeah that’s us,’ and then the jumbotron confirmed it.”

“I’m not going to lie, it was 50/50. I didn’t know whether he had it or not but he got in then fumbled it, but I was not sure.”

“Everybody was ecstatic. We had a water shower as our tradition. Everybody was excited and wanted to get back to work, but we are going to enjoy this tonight. We are going to get to work and get ready for LSU next week.”

“It feels great. I feel like it brought the team together a lot. Especially after last week’s game, we had to fight for each other a lot. We have to keep fighting. And that is what we did.”

“Like Coach Robinson said, ‘we have to keep pounding.’ Every single drive, especially on the defensive side, we must hold ourselves to a high standard in terms of not letting them drive down the field. Whenever that happens, we have to lock in on the sideline.”

“I was thinking through what I wanted to do, and the first thing was adjusting the tempo issue. I kind of saw him come offsides twice and that’s on me. I freaked out, but when my tempo was good I was on point.”

“I think it is belief. It is something we have talked about a lot. Things are not going to go your way sometimes. I did not have my best game at all today, but I believed in myself and was able to do what I wanted to do, and the same thing goes for the team. Some drives were shortened and did not go the way we wanted them to, but if we believe we are going to win the game, we will find a way.”