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LA Tech Head Coach Skip Holtz

Opening comments:

"It was a very frustrating finish to a long, hard-fought season. The turnovers and mistakes that we made were not very characteristic of this football team and the way they have played all year. There are no excuses for it. I thought Southern Miss came in here and played hard. I think Coach [Todd] Monken has done a good job. I give them a lot of credit. They did the things they had to do to win. It makes it real easy when you turn the ball over seven times and lose an onside kick. That is eight possessions right there. That is just one of the things we have done a really good job of this year, we just did not do a good enough job tonight. It is just unfortunate because it has been such a hard-fought season and we have some seniors that are down in that locker room that obviously did not want to go out of Joe Aillet Stadium this way. This is the last time they will have the opportunity to play in this stadium and as a head coach I feel like I could have done more and should have done more to give them a better opportunity to win. It was just frustrating to finish like this. I told them that we are not done yet. We still have a bowl game. They are only the second team in school history to go to bowls in consecutive seasons. We are not done yet and we have the opportunity to play together again. We are still going to have the opportunity to go to a bowl game. It is just frustrating when your dream to start the season is that close and you have an opportunity to go to back-to-back championship games, but we just were not able to get it done on the field today."

On the game getting out of hand:

"It spiraled out of control in the second quarter. They go down, score and kick an onside kick. They got it, scored. We made another stop and we fumble the punt and they get it on the five. All of a sudden you look up and it is 24-3 and your offense has not been on the field. The defense got put in some bad positions. Turnovers killed us today. I have said it from the beginning. We had seven and they had one. We lost an onside kick as well. In possessions, we finished minus seven. If you finish minus three, you are going to win 18 percent of games. How did it spiral out of control? Turnovers."

On the rushing attack:

"It was like we could never get into a rhythm. After that we were trying to play catch up with all the turnovers. If you look at the rushing, everyone has one or two carries. It is not like this is a game where we ever had an opportunity. In the first half, I can think of two third-and-20s. It is hard to get a running game going when you put yourself in those types of situations. When you are down a couple of scores, you have to throw it."

On staying focused:

"You have 24 hours to enjoy the success of a win and 24 hours to mourn a loss. It hurts. There are a lot of guys down there with tears in their eyes. With all of the hard work they have put into the season, to finish like that, nobody likes to lose. We have a lot of underclassmen that need to process some of this same pain as well, because they have the opportunity to come back. We are out of school right now, so we will have a team meeting on Tuesday. We will sit down and hopefully some of the bowl picture will clear up. It may not completely clear up until after that championship game. We will put the schedule together, look at it and figure out what we have to get done. After the way they performed tonight, they will be excited to have another opportunity to get back on the field."

On the offensive game plan:

"We wanted to have balance, but like I said, we were in a lot of long-yardage situations. First down hurt us. We had lost-yardage plays that put us in some bad situations."

On defense:

"I thought in the first quarter our defense played really well against the run. I do not know what the stats looked like. I thought for the most part we got them into a lot of third-and-long situations and they were able to execute in the passing game. They executed in the passing game and kept some drives alive. They are a good team. I give them credit, they did a nice job. In the second half, that is not the way we play defense. That is not the way we have played defense."

On mindset going into the game:

"We had some good practices. I thought they were crisp and sharp. I thought the attitude of the players was great. They worked hard. I thought they were excited about the opportunity to play today. I did not feel like it was a letdown."

On what more you could have done:

"I do not know what more I could have done today. I just see the pain and the hurt, and as a football coach, I wish I could have done more. I cannot sit here and say that there are a lot of calls that I would take back today. I do not think we did a very good job of executing. I am not putting that on the players. That is our job as well. We have to teach them how to execute to be able to have more success. They broke a lot of tendencies. They just started mixing it up. They did a good job, but I do not think that is why we turned the ball over. It still comes down to execution."

On Southern Miss second-half scoring:

"One of the turnovers was a deflected ball. One was a busted route by the wide receiver. When you throw balls and hit them in the sternum, they caught it. I thought they did a nice job. I am not taking anything away from them, but I certainly felt like it was more of what we did than what they did to us. We did not execute at the level we wanted to execute at. I do not say that to take anything away from them. They did what they had to do to win the game. I applaud Coach Monken and the job he has done, with the way his team played. Seven turnovers, that is a lot."

QB Jeff Driskel

Opening comments:

"With it being the last home game, I want to say thanks to the people here in Ruston. It is a great community and they were very opening and welcoming to me. I have really enjoyed the past eight or nine months I have been here. Obviously, we did not come out like we wanted to, but I would like to say thanks to all the support everyone here in town has shown me."

On getting a fresh start by transferring to LA Tech:

"It has been awesome. I think Coach Holtz said it best when he was recruiting me that this is a special group of people. The guys here have been awesome and I have enjoyed working with them. Personally, I just needed a fresh start to switch things up to find my football career again. I have played and prepared as hard as I could week in and week out. Even today when we did not play like we wanted to, it was never because of a lack of preparation or want to. We just did not get it done."

On the game spiraling out of control:

"We put ourselves in some bad situations. It was tough to run the ball today and whenever you get behind you have to throw it. Every once and a while you don't see a linebacker or you throw one deep and the safety catches it. That is just part of football. We turned it over too many times. When the momentum gets going, it is hard to stop. It all happened in about two minutes. The game was lopsided but not as lopsided as the score shows."

On his thought process during that stretch:

"Coach Holtz said it best that we are not quitting and that crazier things have happened. He came out aggressive and I do not think mentally it hurt us. We just made some physical errors. I do not think any one turnover led to another. I think it was just a matter of how the game went. We never put our head down and quit. I am proud of the guys for never quitting. We just wish we could have come out a little stronger and made it a little closer."

On the struggles running the ball:

"They have a good front and we knew that going in. We knew we were going to have to throw the ball efficiently and effectively to win the game. I think we did that for the most part. I did miss a couple. Those couple turnovers hurt and we never could get the run game going. It is hard to pound the ball when you get behind."

On Kenneth Dixon's rushing struggles vs. Southern Miss:

"I am not sure. I have not seen the film yet. We knew coming in they had a good front with all the twist schemes they do. The running lanes were not there early. It was not a lack of confidence or the O-line. It is just that we thought we had some matchups we could take advantage of in the secondary."

On overcoming this loss:

"It is tough to lose here at home, but we still have one more. A bunch of teams still wish they had one more and we do. We are going to have to try and shake it off over the next few days and come back to finish the season like we want to."

On the mood at halftime:

"We were fired up. It was a big stand by the defense. It was a two-score game. Coming out in the second half, we had the ball and we were fired up. We did not come out in the second half and get it done. It just comes down to not executing and turning the ball over. You can dig deep for some answers but that is where it lies."

WR Trent Taylor

On how he deals with the loss:

"It was a tough one to swallow. How we played as an offense is something that we have not done all season long. It was real sloppy play out there. We cannot blame the rain because we have played in the rain plenty of times. There are just a lot of questions in my head right now. I am kind of confused as to how it got that ugly, but the ball did not bounce our way today. We did not execute the way that we needed to win."

On the mood in the locker room:

"It was pretty quiet. The team is there for each other. We were letting each other know that we are still here and in it and that we love each other. We still have one more to go and we are going to do our best to be prepared for it."

On getting over the loss:

"Whenever you take a loss like we did, it makes you want to go out and play even more. I think we are going to prepare extra hard regardless of where the bowl is or where we play. We are going to prepare hard and be ready to play and get back on that field after taking this loss."

On if there was any carryover from UTEP:

"I don't think so. Like Coach Holtz said, practice was crisp. We were all alert and focused in and when it came down to making a play tonight we just could not execute the plays we needed to win the game."

On if the loss has set in:

"It is hurting me pretty deep right now. As soon as that buzzer hit zero it hit me right in the heart. To see the way that we played and to see the way those seniors went out at the Joe is not the way we wanted it. We will do whatever it takes to go out and finish this season the right way in our bowl game."

RB Kenneth Dixon

On his feelings on the game:

"I feel bad that we lost, but the ball did not bounce our way today. We went out there and still fought hard. I just feel like the ball did not bounce our way. When you go out there and play your last game at Joe Aillet Stadium, you don't want it to end that way. I am still proud of my team and still proud of my teammates. I am still happy to call my teammates brothers and still happy to call my coaches my coaches. I am not mad at anyone. I just don't like the performance we put on the field today."

On his emotions:

"The only emotion is that we lost. That is the only emotion I have right now. We just have to go back to the drawing board and get it together for the bowl game."

On what went wrong with the offense:

"The ball did not bounce our way."

LB Beau Fitte

On emotions after the game:

"It was disappointing looking at the score and seeing that we weren't going to get the win. It is just heartbreaking knowing this is my last game to play in Joe Aillet Stadium. It is hard to believe and imagine."

On his family being a part of LA Tech Football:

"It is a blessing to be here. I was just hoping we go out with a win for my last game, especially for me senior year but that did not happen. I am just grateful for everything and we have one more game, so we can still go out winning wearing the Tech uniform."

On the game getting out of control:

"It happens in football. We just did not execute on the plays we were supposed to. Southern Miss is a great team and they came out to play. They made plays and that helped them win."

On the defensive performance:

"We did not play to the best of our abilities, but we are going to get back to the drawing board and get ready for this bowl game."

Southern Miss Head Coach Todd Monken

On if he has ever been a part of the span with three touchdowns in under a minute:

"No, [I have] never been a part of it. We have got great character guys and it happened last week where we got some turnovers and got some momentum and we scored right away. That is a credit to our players and our coaches. We had a good week in practice and we were ready."

On the mood of his team:

"I am happy for them. We have talked enough about how far we have come. That has got nothing to do with this year. We have a good football team. We fought that way back when and that has been proven and enough of all that talk that we have not beat anybody with a winning record. We were good enough. We did not play our best up in Marshall, but we had a good football team and our guys believed in that and so our defense played their rear ends off. We lost three starters right away and we did not have Kalan [Reed] and we did not have Elijah [Parker] and all of a sudden we did not have [Anthony] Swain. So all of a sudden those guys came in and did a great job."

On the defensive adjustments:

"I don't think there were any adjustments. There were no adjustments, we just played it. Adjustments are overrated. How do you do it better than they do it? When you play a good team, they do things well because they do the same things over and over and it is the same thing with us. We do things well because we consistently do them better than they do them. At that point, it is how do we do it better than they do it? That is really what it comes down to, and in this case, it is one game but that is what it came down to."

On the play of WR Mike Thomas:

"He is a handful. They decided at times they wanted to press him and Nick [Mullen] is excellent at placing the ball, so wherever he thinks, he has a winner he can go back to. The key to it is your ability to place the ball away from a defender and those guys have been here together for the last two years and they are on the same page a lot of the time."

On winning the West Division:

It means we are in the championship. This is the super bowl for us. It is about how you win your conference championship, which this program has been founded on with five, the most of anybody that has ever been in Conference USA, so that is our super bowl. The rest can take care of itself, so our guys understood that, and again, it is a credit to them. This is a player's game, this is all about them. This is not anything about to do with me. And our staff has done a great job. This is about our players and enjoying the moments."

On stopping Kenneth Dixon:

"We did it last year. And we just gave him a check down that got him going. We were not nearly as efficient offensively last year but our D-line did a great job and our defensive coaches did a great job. When you can make a team one-dimensional it gives you a chance. And they have got good players, they have got good wide outs, they have got a good quarterback. It is obvious they are in the top of our league on both offense and defense. I am just happy for our guys and we get to continue to play."

On Tech getting the ball down two touchdowns before the turnovers:

"It is crazy. I have nothing to say about it. It is crazy. That is where you are at even when we are playing Old Dominion. Those things happen. We score, get a stop, get a turnover, score … can you plan for those things? No. But if you work your rear ends off, it is amazing how good things will happen to you."

On the game:

"Just a lot of things went our way. If you play hard enough and you believe, sometimes things go your way. We have had plenty of things not go our way and it is about time. Skip has got a nice team. They really do. They have got a good football team. It just happened to be our day today."

On the fan support:

"Awesome. It was unbelievable to have that many people drive over. They were loud. To have the band members that were here - and obviously it is Thanksgiving break - to have them come and to be a part of this; that was a big part of it. I promise that plays a big part in a team's success, is feeling like you have got a backing and we had that today and that is why I want to be the head coach here."

On winning the West Division to play in the championship at WKU:

"I don't even know if that was a question, but that is exactly what it is. It is about getting bowl eligible. That is the barometer for your program and then the second part is how do you win the west and then we got to go back on the road. We knew that was going be the case. If you want to win then you have to do it on the road. We will be ready this week and we will expect their best and they can sure as heck expect ours."

On Mike Thomas' one-handed touchdown catch:

"Mike is a good player. It was a good throw and Mike did a good job of getting the foot down. That was a big play instead of kicking a field goal. When you make those kinds of plays instead of kicking field goals, it changes the game. That is why we tried to go back right before half time. We were banged up on defense. I didn't really think it was going be a two-possession game. I thought they were going to score some. I wanted an onside kick. I wanted to do everything we can to win this game. We were going all in man. And our team backed me as the head coach and we came right out the second half and stopped them and then from there that at least steadied the momentum a little bit."

On how the ice bath felt postgame:

"Cold."

On if it has sunk in yet:

"No, not really. We still have one more game. This isn't about me. It is about our players and our guys. Does it feel good to come here and do it here? You bet it does. And I talked about this this summer. We were driving back from a summer camp and we hit I-20 right there in Jackson. We came back here a couple of years ago and didn't play very well and I said, "I'm telling you, we're going come back on that bus and we're going to end up beating LA Tech's rear ends to win the West." I wish I had videotaped it because you guys don't really believe me, but I said it though. But I really say that because I believed we could. I just believed we needed to do it better, I needed to do it better, needed to hire the right people, and recruit the right players and we did."