Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Stanford Quotes:
Head Coach Buddy TeevensOpening Statement: Our guys played hard. We had some opportunities but we didn't finish. These are the things that we will go back and correct and build on. We have a lot of guys on the offensive side that are sophomores They played hard. They're getting better as a group.It hurts. There is no elation that we came close. We had our opportunities and we let it slip away. We had an opportunity in the second half but we had a few penalties. The defense did a nice job of identifying plays but they were still able to execute them.
Kyle (Matter on his touchdown) had the option to run it. He did and he was successful.
Quarterback Trent Edwards: We only played a half of football. In the second half, they didn't really make many adjustments. We want to go back and look at the tape. We don't want this to happen again.
We have a lot of confidence. We thought we could win the ballgame. At halftime, it was a really good ballgame. We didn't come out well in the second half.
I think they just wanted it more. It came down to that. Our offense played well but theirs played better.
Tailback J.R. Lemon: A loss is a loss. It's another one in the loss column and we don't want any in the loss column. No matter how well we played it's still a loss.
You have to run hard all the time. No matter what part of the game it is, you have to go hard. The one time you slip up is the time you are going to get caught.
Deep in our hearts we know we could have beat this team and should have beat this team. That hurts more than anything.
USC Quotes
Head Coach Pete CarrollOpening Statement: I thought that was a fantastic football game played by Stanford today. They came out of the box flying and they gave us all we could handle in the first half. Fortunately, our guys just wouldn't accept it. We had tremendous energy in the locker room at halftime and our guys went and turned this game around. In their minds, there was no doubt. By the time we got in the locker room, I was excited about our chances. The defense came alive and hardly gave up a yard, and our offense was very poised in the second half. We got the chance to give Reggie Bush the ball and he came alive. It was a big win for us and we realized that it isn't going to be easy to put up a game everyone expects week in and week out. The main thing is that we responded in the second half.
On halftime: We mostly went back to our philosophy that you can't win a game in the first half. My guys just refused to lose, and I'm pretty excited to see that. It's another step that we took as a team to get stronger. In some regards, this is really good for us.
Matt LeinartOn the second half: We didn't make too many adjustments at halftime, it's just that we came out a little flat in the first half. In the second half, we came out fired up. That touchdown at the end of the first half [by Stanford's J.R. Lemon] could have easily put us out, but we know we're a second half team, and you never can win a game in the first half. My hat is off to Stanford, they played a great game, but we were able to come out in the second half and just dominate both sides of the ball. It shows what kind of character we have, to come back from being two touchdowns behind.
Reggie BushOn the halftime talk from coach: He told us to keep our heads up. We'd never had any doubt because we've been in this situation before. We came here to win today. Stanford was a hard fighting team, and I think we wanted it just a little bit more than they did today.
On how it felt to win a Pac-10 opener: It felt good, especially because people told me that we haven't won an opener in a few years. It was good to win and we feel like we're on our way right now.
On the play of quarterback Matt Leinart: Matt did a great job. He's a leader of this team and we were able to rally behind him.