111013 quotes

Congratulations to a quality Alabama team. Coach Saban really has them going. They played extremely well. I’m really not prepared for this. This kind of felt like we played better. Two quality teams played and that Alabama team separated themselves from us tonight. I thought our team fought and I think they are stung right now. I don’t think they are happy about it at all. When you prepare hard, you want victory and you are ambitious. It’s not fun to finish second, and today we finished second.

- Coach Les Miles following the 38-17 beatdown LSU received at the hands of the Alabama Crimson Tide at Bryant-Denny 110913

This was a tremendous atmosphere for a college football game tonight. I was really proud of our players in the second half. I thought they did a fantastic job and probably played our best half of football. It wasn’t perfect, and we didn’t play great in the first half, but [there was] a lot of character out there in the second half to control the line of scrimmage the way we did on offense. [We] got some stops on defense, especially after the kickoff return that could have got them back in the game.

No matter what the record in this game, though, it always seems like both teams come out in this game and they have high expectations for how they want to play and what they want to do, but our guys did a great job of keeping their poise and staying focused on the things that they needed to do. [They] had to overcome some adversity in the game, but [I’m] really pleased with the way we got control of the game in the second half.

We have a lot of veteran players who do a great job in terms of leadership, and I think they understand what it means to be Alabama football players, and I think we got some other guys that are certainly learning that that are younger players and that’s going to be important for our team in the future. Last year when we won this game, we didn’t play very well the next week, and I think our players have to have the 24-hour rule. You had a great win, you celebrate that win and then we have to focus on improving and on the next challenge that we have. We still have some very tough challenges, but I think our team showed a lot of character, especially in the second half in terms of the way they competed and the way they played. I’m very proud of the way our guys came out and played in the second half.

- Coach Nick Saban following 38-17 victory over LSU at Bryant-Denny 110913