From the other sideline

East Carolina's Ruffin McNeill and his team ran into a buzz-saw that was the South Carolina offense on Saturday. Here's what McNeill and some of his players had to say about the game against the Gamecocks.

In this weekly feature on GamecockAnthem, we'll take a look at what the opposing coach and his players had to say about their performance against South Carolina. Ruffin McNeill, Shane Carden and Leonard Paulk all spoke afterwards about the 48-10 loss to South Carolina.

Here's what they had to say:

East Carolina Head Coach Ruffin McNeill

Opening Statement:
The better team won this week. We played a top-10 team, and they came ready to play. I voted them eighth in the polls last week, and it was an obvious mismatch for us. We didn't help ourselves at all with turnovers and long plays given up on defense. Against a great team like South Carolina, they don't need our help. They have the talent on both sides of the ball to accomplish things. Offensively, defensively and on special teams they are a very talented team, and against a team like that you cannot make mistakes on either side of the ball. It was definitely a game where we faced a top-10 team and got outplayed.

Quarterback play today:
The play of our quarterbacks today was inconsistent. I've said since the beginning that Shane Carden had the ability to start, and we did not hesitate to put Shane in. I'm not sure if it's a battle at this point because we'll have to go back and evaluate the film. We have no problem putting Shane in the game.

What the SC defense presents:
They're a defense that can range all over the field, has great length and speed. Lorenzo Ward is a very talented play caller. Opportunistic is how I would define their defense as a whole. They'll be a strong contender in their division and in the SEC.

Quarterback Shane Carden

On getting a shot coming off the bench today:
I knew when I got my shot, I knew I had to make the best of it. I had to come in and do my best. We don't ever want to play like that. We turned the ball over way too much, including myself. We just have to learn from it, and be ready for our conference game next week.

On taking something away from this game:
It is very hard to lose a game like this, but this doesn't change our goal of winning our conference. We just have to be ready to go next week.

Cornerback Leonard Paulk

On facing the South Carolina offense:
They executed their plays really well, and defensively, we didn't. You have to give them credit for what they did, and we just have to learn from it and be ready for next week.

On Dylan Thompson's performance:
Dylan is a really good quarterback, and he played very well today. You have to give him a lot of credit for the job he did. He put the ball where it needed to be.



Quotes via gamecocksonline.com