OPENING STATEMENT: “First, really proud of our kids and the way they fought and prepared. But, obviously, it stinks to not get the win tonight. We didn’t play good enough in the critical moments. Had a turnover (with) probably three minutes to go or four minutes to go. Then, obviously, didn’t execute fourth and whatever it was there. It really came down to those few plays in a game like this. It’s a lot of hurt in that locker room, and it stinks. Our kids gave themselves a chance to win the Iron Bowl tonight, and it’s going to stick with us for a while.”

ON REBOUNDING AFTER LOSING TO NEW MEXICO STATE: “Proud of the way our kids fought and prepared, that’s the way an Auburn Tiger should do it. Every single week. Obviously, it’s a little easier when you’re playing in this magnificent, awesome rivalry. But it makes the hurt that much more when you don’t get it done. But I’m proud of the way they fought and bounced back and I thought they executed our plan pretty well. And gave us a chance to win the game.”

ON THE DEFENSIVE PLAYCALL DURING ALABAMA’S GAME-WINNER ON 4TH-AND-31: “I mean, you can second-guess it. You’ve just got to play with vision. We’ve got nine guys back there. Just play with vision and make a play on the ball and knock it down. He felt like he was shoved off, but I couldn’t tell. I mean, you can pressure him and then you’ve got one-on-ones and they throw it up. You can do that if you want. Or you can play – I like the call. I just think we’ve got to sit back there with vision and knock the ball down.”

ON THE MUFFED PUNT IN THE FOURTH QUARTER: “Keionte is one of our leaders. He’s an incredible teammate and no one will hurt more than him. But, obviously – I mean, that was vital. We’ve got a four-point lead and we have the ball there with under four minutes left in the game. Couple first downs and this thing is getting wound down.”

ON WHETHER IT WAS KEIONTE SCOTT OR KOY MOORE WHO MUFFED THE PUNT: “Was it Koy? I thought it was Keionte. I’ll have to ask (special teams coordinator) Tanner (Burns). It would have to be Keionte must have taken himself out.

ON WHAT HE TELLS HIS TEAM AFTER A LOSS LIKE THAT: “I don’t think any coach has the words. You tell them you love them, that we’ll learn from it and get through it, but it’s going to hurt. There’s no way around it and you’re going to have to walk through the hurt.”

ON PAYTON THORNE AND SECOND-HALF ADJUSTMENTS: “We didn’t change anything. It was all still in the game plan that we had. I didn’t think he threw real accurate balls a couple times in the first half. There was a couple that were dropped, too. All of those are so magnified in this game, but he did play a real good second half, I thought.”

ON THE SUCCESS OF THE RUN GAME: “We had a good plan. They do have a really good front, but our backs and tight ends and O-Line took it personal. We knew we had to run the football to win this game, and I thought we ran it well enough to win it. Just came up short.”

ON JA’VARRIUS JOHNSON’S BIG PERFORMANCE: “He was really vital to the plan, and once he decided that he was going to adhere to the standards that we want, of how we want to go about our work, he’s gotten better and better. That’s good to see for him.”

ON SATURDAY NIGHT’S ATMOSPHERE AT JORDAN-HARE STADIUM AND THE IMPACT ON RECRUITING: “Well, we have the best fans in the country, and that atmosphere tonight is off the charts, best I’ve ever been a part of. Just wish we were out there celebrating right now together, but we do have a lot of good recruits here, and hopefully they see (that) even in Year 1 we’re not — you know, we can close the gap pretty fast on the upper echelon of this conference.”

ON THE MORAL VICTORIES THAT COME WITH PLAYING CLOSE GAMES VS. GEORGIA AND ALABAMA IN YEAR NO. 1: “Well, if you isolate it to those two games, you feel like you’ve done some good things. But it’s hard. We get judged in this game on wins and losses. We all know that when we get signed up for it. When you have a chance to win one like we did tonight against, you know, a team that’s playing for our conference championship next week and our rival — it’s hard to feel anything but hurt and disappointment. Like I said earlier, you were (going to be) out there with the Auburn faithful and celebrating another Iron Bowl win in Jordan-Hare.”

ON WHAT THE VISION IS FOR AUBURN FOOTBALL MOVING FORWARD: “Well, we’re gonna be one of the elite programs in the country. I really didn’t have a vision for this year, other than to try to get us to a bowl game and improve us from week to week. Can’t say that every week that I’ve felt like that, and that’s why you’re hard on yourself as a coach. We’ve got to look at ourselves as coaches every single week, every single day, and are we demanding a standard that’s going to get us to that elite status. That, combined with recruiting classes that are comparable to the upper echelon — I mean, we can’t recruit in the 30s and 40s and 50s and expect, all of a sudden, to walk out there and be great coaches. It’s a combination. You’ve got to coach to a certain standard, and you’ve got to recruit somewhere close to level par to the way those guys and some others in this league are.”