Opening statement...
"First of all, congrats to Kirby (Smart) and Georgia. They showed what a championship team does and why they have won back-to-back national championships coming back in the second half and playing like they did. I am proud as heck of our players. They fought their butts off. The way the first half went wasn't a shock to anyone. The story is, ' oh my god, how is South Carolina in this thing?" We expected this. Anybody who is surprised by that has not watched us the past couple years. I am really proud of our team. We did what we were supposed to do there in the first half. Second half, you give Georgia credit, but we had four keys to this game, and one of them was to make them earn it. We didn't do a good enough job of making them earn it. I just got a list of self-inflicted things in the second half….We didn't play clean football in the second half, and that is frustrating because our kids played their butts off. They gave us an opportunity to win the game, and the key was to make them earn it. They are a championship team, and they beat us in the second half. We helped them in a lot of ways as well, which is frustrating. I told our team in the locker room that I am proud of the fight. One of our sayings around our program is "Staying the Fight." Our guys stayed in the fight today. They gave us a chance to win all the way throughout the fourth quarter. I am more convinced than ever they are kind of a team we can beat. We just went toe-to-toe with the No. 1 team in the country and back-to-back defending national champions. We gave ourselves an opportunity to win it in the fourth quarter. I said, "let's just get this thing to the fourth quarter," and we did. We just weren't able to get it done. There is no question that we are a better football team than what we were two weeks ago in Charlotte. We will continue to improve as the year goes on as well. We started a true freshman at tackle today. We started a true freshman at safety. Our younger guys continue to get better. We have a bunch of guys that have played a lot of football around here, starting with our quarterback. He played his butt off today and gave us an opportunity. I am disappointed we didn't get it done."
On the defensive strategy in the second half...
"We did the same stuff we always did. We just needed to be able to get off the field on third downs and be able to stop the run a little bit better. Overall, we got some stops and held them to 24 points. No major complaints there."
On Spencer Rattler's performance..
"He is a dude. I wouldn't trade him for any quarterback in the country. I wouldn't. I absolutely would not. He gives you a chance to win every game. I know statistically, the second half wasn't great. I remember looking at the stats at halftime, and I think he had two incompletions at halftime if I am not mistaken. In some of the runs, he gives you a chance. We have to continue to help him and not have the penalties that we had. He is a special player, a great leader, great poise throughout today. Great quarterback."
