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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 21, 2017

Jay Hopson

Ruston, Louisiana

Southern Miss - 34, Louisiana Tech - 27 (2-OT)

Q. Have you been part of a wilder game than that one?
JAY HOPSON: It's right up there. I've been in a few wild ones, but that might have taken the cake. It's right up there at the top. I can't tell you how proud I am of the players, coaches, we just kept plugging, kept digging, and found a way when it didn't look like there was a way. And again, it's just a great team win and just amazing.

Q. No timeouts, down by 11, less than a minute and a half to go. You scored 11 in 51 seconds on the clock.
JAY HOPSON: Just a tremendous job.

Q. Everything had to go perfect?
JAY HOPSON: It did. But guys kept plugging, they kept digging, they keep the fighting and found a way. We had our opportunities and we got down there, we -- again, we had some miscues that got us into that spot, but the thing about it, we didn't quit, we fought through it and found a way to win at the end.

Q. After Keon throws that interception I saw you talking to him. What did you have to say?
JAY HOPSON: I wasn't real happy because that was a run. So at the end of the day, he and I talked about it at halftime. And that's part of the growing phase when you're a young quarterback, but he redeemed himself, he came back and threw a nice touchdown to Korey and, again, I'm proud of him because he battled through that adversity and came back with a big touchdown throw to wind up winning the ball game. So, again, a learning experience, but also a great experience for him watching him battle back from that adversity.

Q. Talk about redemption, T-Moore gets hit with a flag --
JAY HOPSON: A 15. And then comes back with a big pick. I tell you one thing, he played tremendous in overtime. Just big play, I thought he had big hits. He finished regulation with some nice hits, then had the big interception in overtime-1. And I just thought, I thought, and I thought T had a good game the whole night. I thought our back end secondary played really well tonight. I was very pleased with those guys.

Q. Obviously going to be concerned about Keon. How is he?
JAY HOPSON: He's got cramps, but I think he's fine. So he's got some cramps, but he'll be fine. It's one of those deals where Tez came in and picked up the load. So we'll keep the plugging. And I think that was good for our football team too, because a lot of people think -- and I keep saying this every week, y'all hear me on Monday and everybody talks about well, we got a good football team with some other guys other than Ito that can make plays. I kind of hope this -- because that second half I thought we moved the ball extremely well. We probably didn't score as much as we wanted to, but we did great job moving the ball. And I think what happens is we got some guys here that can do stuff with the football. So again, I think that tonight more so than any night we kind of proved that, because we didn't have it in the second half.

Q. Just the roller coaster, Tez fumbles on the one, you're going in --
JAY HOPSON: Yeah, it was a roller coaster. They get a 98 yard pass, there's a hair away from being an interception PBU, they go down the sideline, go all the way and score a touchdown. It was almost like in 30 seconds the game had changed completely. But again you just got to credit our players, our coaches, those guys just kept fighting and they didn't give in and never gave up and they came out with a nice win.

Q. Your defense seemed to give y'all a chance.
JAY HOPSON: They played hard. I thought that back seven played well. I thought we covered extremely well tonight. I'll look at it on film and make sure, but just from the naked eye I really thought that Curtis and Cornell, Tarvarius, those guys, I think Joe's had a lot of weeks together that's been very good. I think they played really Kelsey I thought they played, that back end played extremely well. So again, I'll look at it on film and make sure of that, but just from watching it tonight I was very pleased. Those guys really mesh and they're dwelling well together. So again I thought the Nasty Bunch played well, I thought we did some good things on offense and overall it was a good team win and you need some of these wins and wins like these are special.

Q. Two part question. Parker, the decision to --
JAY HOPSON: Parker, yeah, yeah, well, I just felt like you got to have two scores and the worst thing you do is keep draining that clock out. You might as well go ahead and kick it, because if you don't get the ball back it's irrelevant anyway. You get the ball back and you give yourself a chance to tie it. Because if you don't get it on that fourth and four, the ball game's over. So that's the way I've always kind of thought about those situations, you don't ever keep going for the seven I always just said kick it and let's live to fight again.

Q. And hitting four of five field goals tonight.
JAY HOPSON: I thought they were clutch and that kick right before the one that put us down to eight, that was real clutch. But he had a couple other nice ones on the other end that were clutch. Parker, again, special teams-wise, he was just a big advantage tonight.

Q. (No microphone.)
JAY HOPSON: Two big plays. Korey's a big strong receiver that can go up and get it. He proved that tonight. The catch, taking us down, taking us down -- we didn't get any points on that -- but took us down there to the goal line and then he makes the one in the second overtime that's the game winner. That was just a tremendous catch with he and Keon. So proud of these guys, just proud of these guys, man, they kept fighting.

Q. So Keon changed the play there?
JAY HOPSON: Yeah, Keon, he had a little bit of a change right there, so we'll adjust that -- we talked about that after the game -- we can smile about it now, but we said no mas on that, we're not doing that any more. So again, but again, I can't tell you how proud I am of him though to go through that, because you know how tough that is, you feel like the weight of the world's on and then all of a sudden you respond and you come back and you throw a touchdown to win the ball game, to me just says volumes about his character and the fight and determination that that young man has. So I'm just proud for him. I really am.

Q. Was there any debate on the two-point conversion as far as what play to call there?
JAY HOPSON: No, no. We had that picked out before the game.

Q. To win a game like this, to overcome turnovers, adversity, the momentum, the offense --
JAY HOPSON: Next week's a different week and Jason and Patrick are tired of hearing the coach talk, but it's reality. Next week's a different week. And this is a great win, we're going to enjoy this one tonight, I can promise you, we're going to -- the kids can enjoy it tomorrow, the coaches better not enjoy it tomorrow, we got to go to work. But Monday it's all forgot and we got to get ready because we know we got a tough football team coming to town. So again it will be fun. The bus ride back, we'll enjoy it, I can promise you that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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