ARIZONA HEAD COACH MIKE STOOPES
"I think the maturity and consistency is what we want from our program. And we've shown that the last few years. Competing against USC tells you a lot about where you're at."
ON THE USC DEFENSE...
"I know they replaced a bunch of guys upfront. Losing a lot of guys from the middle of your defense can give you lots of problems. They are a very young team on the defensive line, and those guys are coming on. They have their confidence and swagger back."
"Losing their tight end and fullback hurt their production on offense. Matt Barkley has matured throughout the year. He starting to understand what the defense is trying to do against him. He's just scratching the surface of how good he can be. They run, run, boot - run, run, boot - run, run, boot. They are who they are right now."
USC HEAD COACH PETE CARROLL
ON THE WIN OVER UCLA....
"Had a great time at the Coliseum last week. Getting back on track after a tough couple of weeks. Our focus and dedication is to our seniors. It's a big deal for us to finish well. Arizona's been playing good football, they've had a great year. We know it's going to be hard."
ON THE FINAL TOUCHDOWN PASS TO DAMIAN WILLIAMS WITH 44 SECONDS LEFT...
"I think if you look back at the game, it was a very tight competitive game. When we went back out at the end, we did a great job on defense and took the ball right back from them. We wanted to end the game. We'd just taken a knee. Our idea was not to give them the ball back. We hit a gorgeous scoring play. We went from trying to end the game to scoring a touchdown."
ON WHY RICK NEUHEISEL CALLED TIMEOUT AFTER BARKLEY'S KNEEL-DOWN...
"Their statement was that they wanted to keep competing. So we kept competing"
ON WHETHER OR NOT USC PLAYERS WERE TAUNTING UCLA AFTER THE LAST TD PASS....
"Our players were pumped. We were really excited about it. I don't know if our guys were taunting. We've done it many times. We were excited. The fact that emotions run high is exactly what everybody wants. It's exactly why it's always been such a big deal. What could you want but the highest emotions in a game like this."
ON WHETHER OR NOT ARIZONA IS A POTENTIAL LETDOWN GAME...
"This is a chance to end the season on a great note and get one more win and not even be concerned about whether there will be a letdown or anything like this. I don't know what this means to bowl games and where we're gonna be playing. It feels unusual because the normal finishing point of the season is when we play our crosstown rival, but it's a chance for us to win one more game."
ON BOBBY BOWDEN'S RETIREMENT...
"When we came into existence here, Florida St. was one of the most dominant programs in football. Nobody except Joe Paterno can ever be compared to Bobby. I think of only the good things for him. He has been great for our game."
ON CHARLIE WEIS GETTING FIRED...
"Charlie busted his butt for a long time to get it done, and it didn't work out. There will be a big surge with whatever Notre Dame does next. They will find an incredible coach, and we'll have to adjust to whatever he brings."
