“Wonderful game. Utmost respect for Coach Malzahn. I mean, he keeps me going. Keeps me on my toes. What he’s accomplished and what he’s brought to college football is phenomenal. The way he started, things he’s gone through, it just inspires me tremendously to be on the same darn field with one of the guys that took my son to one of his camps, and was being recruited by him and offered him, and has been straight up 100 his whole entire career. And I got love for him. But to be on the opposing side coaching against him was historic for me and I’m thankful that I got that opportunity and I’m thankful just to be on the same field. Football-wise, it’s one of the first time we came out and played a collective game. Offensively, defensively as well as special teams with Mata hitting that field goal right before the half was tremendous. Even the playcall right before that to get out of bounds, I think there was 8 seconds left and we got out of bounds with 3 seconds left. It was just phenomenal execution of what the offense is capable of. Shedeur, I think he got touched a couple times but other than that we ran the darn ball effectively. Really proud, I don’t know how many yards we rushed for altogether. 29 for 128, I’ll take that. God I’ll take that. That’s what we want, we want that kind of balance, we desire that kind of balance and I know these guys can do it and I believe in them wholeheartedly. I want you guys to put your fingers to work and your pens to work the same way you do when they’re giving up sacks. I want you to have the same passion, the same commitment to blessing them and giving them encouragement and motivation as you do when you’re ripping them apart. It’s only fair. Equality is only fair with everyone in life. These kids have feelings and emotions and I’m so darn proud of them. Defensively we gave up a couple of explosions, which we knew first down shot down they ran the darn wheel route. That’s not indicative to who we are. Even starting the game with a pick, Shedeur doesn’t do nothing stupid like that. I tell you what, I wanted to turn into dad right there. I really did. But it’s just not who he is. Thank God we got over that, we got by that and we went on to play like we’re capable of playing.”

On starting practice over: “You guys get a snippet of what truly happened. I started the period over. We didn’t go through an hour worth of practice and I started it over. That was the first period that I didn’t like what I was seeing. We were lackadaisical, we didn’t have a commitment to effort. So I started that first period over.”

On how the team responded to that: “We didn’t have great practices. It was okay, it wasn’t great. I think just being smart. Getting out ahead of the hurricane and the storms that were expected here. Getting here on a Wednesday after a pretty decent practice and getting them away from everything and having them focus and lock in. We had some tremendous walkthroughs in the hotel, thank god the hotel had the ballroom, it was unbelievable. So we had tremendous walkthroughs. It was just unity. All the guys ate together, they had meetings together, they were watching film together. The film times were unbelievably high this week because you had them all, not captured, but you had them all secluded the way you want, and they responded tremendously. They could have been hating, they could have been mad and upset about us leaving that prematurely. But they were on it, and they did a great job and they responded and I’m proud of them.”

On the effort defensively: “The quarterback, we knew he was gonna be a problem and we had to stop him from running the football. It's not just a one man band with Harvey, but KJ Jefferson is unbelievable. That’s what he does, and he’s really good at it, as well as he can throw the darn football. We knew we had to take away something, so just trying to stifle the run a little bit to get them to start over, but we knew we could score as well. So to keep up with our type of scoring, that gets them out of their comfort zone and provokes them to throw the ball a little more than they would like to, because that’s not truly who they’ve shown that they’ve been.”

On if they were motivated as a big underdog: “We don’t care about that. Y'all do. We’rethe underdogs every week. Ain’t nobody wanna see us win, you know that, except for our fanbase. They ride with us but ain’t nobody nationally wanna see us get down. That’s just the nature of the game. We’re not mad about it, we’re not upset about it. We know who we are, we know how we get down. It’s not like we come out talking that talk. We don’t really do that. You say that we do that but we really don’t do that. Our kids are very humble. I don’t say what’s gonna happen ever. I say what I would like to happen, but not what’s gonna definitively happen. But I’m so darn proud of where we are. We could be in a whole different place right now, but we’re going into the break, what’s the record? Cause I’m one game at a time. 4-1? I just wanted to hear y’all say it and y’all fell for it (laughing). We’re 4-1 right now going into the break and I’m so excited. You have no idea. It’s gonna be a really good plane ride tonight.”

On having success in Florida: “Man, honestly I don’t think of it like that. I don’t think of it like that. I’m happy to be in the state of Florida playing. I’m not happy with all the phone calls I get for tickets and that sort. My sister does a great job balancing that stuff. But I’m happy to see some of my friends that I’ve been able to see. Devin Hester, I think Sheffield was there. Playmaker Michael Irvin, T.O. is always with us, he’s a team member right now. And so many others that I’m probably dismissing right now. But I’m happy to see my old friends, I really am. And I’m happy that I think we have 19 to 20 young men, we didn’t bring them all on our roster from the state of Florida. And most of our Florida boys played a vital role in our success today.”

On the message to the team before this game: “I challenged a multitude of young men in different ways, ways that they were capable of handling the challenge. And they stepped up, they stepped out and they did the doggone thing. I’m proud of each and every one of them. They really did. And it was a direct challenge with a name call. I expect you. I don’t give a darn if you dominate but you’ve at least gotta break even on your matchup. You can’t let him whoop you, it was one of those messages last night. And between them, we said what we were gonna do and what we’re gonna win by and they exceeded that. Because I know, we never say if the night before, so when our young men go out there and do what they’re capable of doing, we know what the outcome is gonna be.”

On how proud he was of the run defense: “Well we’re good, but Mr. Jefferson got 98 yards so we weren’t great. But first and foremost, I’m proud of you and your resilience and what you go through on a daily basis. I’m so darn proud of you, you have no idea. Because I was in a chair at one point with these toes being amputated and I know what you deal with on a daily basis. I had to change my whole bathroom and put rails in just so I could get on the darn toilet. So I understand and I’m proud of you. You’re doing it. You’re doing it.”

On the absences today: “Kahlil (Benson) was hurt. Trevor (Woods) wanted to redshirt. JB, Jeremiah (Brown) wanted to redshirt. Dayon Hayes was hurt. If you’re hurt and you don’t practice, I’m not putting you on the plane. That’s my rules, I’m just old school. I don’t do that.”

On the guys that stepped up: “Taje McCoy can play man. Don’t look at him being a redshirt freshman, the kid can play. The kid was one of the toughest practice guys that we have. One of the smartest guys. He’s never on no lists: not a late list, not a tardy list, not a missing class list. This kid is flat out a good young man that was raised properly. I’m proud of him that he had his opportunity to get down.”

On Will Sheppard’s game: “If Will would’ve caught the ball (last week) the time would’ve ran out. That was God’s hand, man. So we’re thankful that it didn’t happen and I told him that. He caught the touchdown and he was yelling ‘I’m back’. And I said ‘you never left’. He never left. What you mean you’re back? You never left. We got you man, we’re here for you. Will has been making plays all darn season. So we’re proud of him 100%.”

On Chidozie Nwankwo being back: “Chidozie is the leader. He’s a dog and everybody follows in his footsteps. He is strong as an ox, you really can’t move him and he gets leverage and he does his job and the guys kind of feed off that because he’s a vocal leader, a visible leader and he works his butt off at practice. So I’m proud of him that he was able to be back. Now, we’ve got one more guy coming back. When we come back from the break, Shilo should be healthy and he should be ready and then we’ll have our full starting defense back.”

On the way the program has developed since he’s been here: “Well, I feel like we’re trending in the right direction. I feel like you guys are seeing the fruit of a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication, great hires, great, I don’t wanna say acquisitions, that’s almost like we’re the pros. But when you’re dealing with money and stuff like that with NIL you pretty much are. But bringing the right guys in with the right attitudes, the right work ethic. I love where we are as a program. I really do. Could we be better? Of course. I think everyone can. But I think, I don’t think, I know we’re trending in the right direction.”

On how important today was for Will Sheppard: “Tremendous. Will is a dog. You know, he felt bad because he knows what kind of plays he’s capable of, but you’ve gotta think about that play on the sideline (last week) that they overruled and we thought he caught as well in that particular game. So Will has been making plays man. He’s a dog. He’s normally a 1 but he just, we don’t really have a 1 receiver. We have several of those guys that can make plays and Will is one of them.”

On Travis Hunter hitting the Heisman pose and what it’s like to watch him: “He is who he is. It’s who he is. The guy works his butt off at practice. That’s why nobody trips when he gets Sunday, Monday, Tuesday off. Nobody trips, nobody says nothing. Because if they would, I would say do what he does. You’ll get that off too. It’s just that simple. 100 and some snaps a game and he never tires. He’s just that kind of kid, and I can’t wait to see him continuously play. I mean, I wish to God the game was in a way that we could’ve kept going with his 100-yard mark, even though he don’t care, we care because we should be proactive when it comes to this young men.”

On the guys like Shane Cokes that don’t get a lot of press: “There’s not a scout that comes by each day that we don’t mention Shane Cokes and they don’t mention him to us, and wanna understand the update on him. So just because everybody here isn’t mentioning his name, he’s being mentioned where he should be mentioned with the scouts coming to watch. Shane is a consistent young man, always on time, watches a ton of film and is a born leader. He’s so positive that, if not football, he will be tremendously successful. That’s how positive I am on Shane Cokes.”

On the plan for the bye week: “I tell them we’re gonna have Sunday off. If they work their butts off Monday-Tuesday, we may have Wednesday off. So they said what if we just worked hard Sunday-Monday (laughs)? I said that’s not gonna happen cause I don’t trust y’all like that. So this gives us an extra day to start preparation for our next opponent, and we all know who that is. So we really get a two week shot at our next opponent which is great for us. I can’t even tell you how emotional I am about these young men and seeing what they can do when they put it all together and seeing what we’re capable of doing when we put it all together. We played a tremendous team, a tremendous team that’s well coached, tremendous balance, the defense had been lights out, the offense has been running through everything. We played a tremendous team and I’m proud of what transpired today. God bless you all.”