Sept. 29, 2001
Recap|Final Stats|Notes|Photo Gallery
USC Head Coach Pete Carroll
"Well, I'm looking at a game report, and what I see is a list of penalties. It really disappoints me that we would go out and show that kind of a first half. We made mistakes of our own volition. We don't see them when we practice, but it's showing up in games. We are not playing smart enough. This is a good football team we played today, but we're not playing smart enough. They gave us things and we didn't capitalize.
"We gave up three big plays and made it so difficult on ourselves. We have to figure out a way to change it up.
"Our team plays really, really hard. It's an important part of our future. If that's the only thing we can hang our hats on after four weeks, it's something to build on. We're not playing smart. Our decision making is just not there right now. I like the fight in these kids. We're going to go back to work and clean it up. Unfortunately, that's where it's at after four weeks, but that's where it starts.
"We were embarrassed about how we played in the first half. In the second half it was just a matter of us going out and playing football. Unfortunately, it's just not good enough right now.
"We're not blocking very well at the point of attack. We're getting crushed up front when we run the ball. That's a good defense, but they didn't do anything special. We just didn't block well.
"We turned it around well in the second half. We blitzed well, had good special teams. But the first half was too much too overcome.
"We have four sophomores on the offensive line and we hope they develop and turn into the offensive line we need. They're not playing well enough right now.
"We need to start getting in the game and get something going offensively. We need to score some points so we can play in a normal mode.
Trojan Cornerback Kris Richard
"We realized in the lockerroom that it's not good enough. We're coached better than how we performed. It starts from the opening quarter when I allowed the ball to get caught over my head. I opened up a can of worms.
"(My) touchdown doesn't make up for it. I was just doing what I was coached to do. I was supposed to be there and if the ball is blocked, I'm supposed to be there. It doesn't make up for what I gave up.
"We were into the game. There were a few plays here and there that could have changed the outcome. This is the third game in a row in which we were so close to getting it done. I don't believe anyone was tired out there.
"We played to win. There's nothing written down in any book anywhere that says we can't win the rest of our games. And that's what we're going to try to do. It starts with Washington.
"We are a better football team than we are showing. We are one or two plays away. We are this close. It's a matter of taking those extra steps."
Trojan fullback Charlie Landrigan
"We had some penalties throughout the game and some incompletions and just couldn't get going. It's frustrating that we keep putting ourselves in a hole. It's all in the details.
(On the offense's woes)
"We're under pressure, but we don't get down on ourselves. It's up to the seniors to get things going.
(On the lack of running game)
"We just have to keep executing, hitting the holes and working on our assignments.
"We've been in every game. We just need to get over the hump. There's a lot of football to be played. We have a great opportunity next week."
Stanford Head Coach Tyrone Willingham
"We are 3-0 right now. Is that a good start? Yes it is. I don't worry about (Top 25) rankings. What we worry about is winning the football game. If we keep doing that, good things will happen."
"I thought in the first half, we played a good half except for a couple of errors. In the second half, we fell back on our heels a little bit, didn't quite execute and then USC came back and made some big plays. They put themselves in a position to win the game. What I was pleased with the most was when the going got tough, our men found a way to win the game."
"Our defensive game plan was to focus on not letting Sultan McCullough have a good football game. He is a great runner and I think you found out that if you give him a small area, he can make things happen. We knew if we could contain him, then we could apply pressure to the quarterback and force him to throw balls in certain places. We wanted to keep their speed in front of us by making good tackles."
"We depend on our offensive line. I thought Paul Weinacht did a great job today of stepping in to play. In the last drive of the game, our offensive line did a great job of putting the game away for us."
"First of all, we try to emphasize that there is a mental aspect in terms of penalties. You can't kill yourself with them. We don't want that to be a part of our team play. You take yourself out of plays when you take penalties. We stress the mental aspect of it and we work on it."
"At the start of the season, we talked about being consistent and playing to our potential. We played today like that in spurts."
Stanford tight end Brett Pierce
"Throughout the week, we got used a lot in terms of quick little five-yard routes...routes that are hard to defend. Every week, you go in thinking you are going to get the ball a lot and this week, it happened to work out a little better for me."
"I think it's too early to say we are Pac-10 contenders. I would think we have as good a shot as anyone. A lot of teams have a lot to prove. We just have to go one game at a time."