Jackie Sherrill: A coach's perspective on importance of Auburn victory

Key quotes from Jackie Sherrill interview

“As you know winning that game was kind of a 'must'. You work so hard all off-season and all of a sudden you get to the cliff and you fall off. Can you climb back up that cliff? The way the game was played and the way it unfolded at the end, the excitement and how you won it, you can say it went two ways. You can say Auburn gave it to us, but you still have to win the game and the players fought hard to win the game. What is does confidence-wise, it makes everybody step a little springy-er, and you saw that.”

“You saw Ricky Seals-Jones dancing on the sideline, you had a lot of enthusiasm that had been lost brought back. Before the game Kyle Allen was really vocal to the players, and I think that he really stepped up. The difference in play the week before and this past week was like flipping a switch, night and day.”

"The pressure (put on this kids), no one can understand. You could even take some very smart psychiatrists and they wouldn't be able to understand the amount of pressure they go through because they carry the weight of all of us. None of us were happy a week ago, and they carry that weight. For them to turn that around and spring it back, it makes everybody happy.”

“Kevin Sumlin is a lot nicer (to the refs about missed holding calls). The wing guy on our side, I would have been very vocal to him. You can’t allow that to happen. The wing officials are looking at that on both sides."

"If you’re going against Myles Garrett, 99% of the people are going to hold him. He’s got so much quickness to him and so much strength in his hands that it's almost impossible to pass protect him. If you’re not good enough to beat the officials, you’re not good enough to win the game.”

“Going forward, when you look at a player, you usually improve more from the first and second game than you do the rest. Kyle played very average the first game, but he played very well in his second game and now he’s player of the week.”

“When you look at the next game against Missouri, there are things that Missouri does that you have to be able to offset. One is protect the QB, they have 31 sacks, and Shane Ray has 12 of those. The way you protect the QB is you get the ball out of his hands quicker, make his reads easier, and don’t make him hold the ball in the pocket.”

“Mississippi State is catching Alabama at the right time. Alabama going into Baton Rouge, that game was extremely physical. They’ve got some bump and bruises. Emotionally and physically it took a lot out of Alabama, and this week they're going to be playing on talent alone whereas MSU is close to 100% healthy and emotionally in better shape.”