Nov. 22, 2004

Sophomore quarterback Brady Quinn:

On playing the #1 ranked team in USC…

“It’s a great rivalry and number one on top right now and it kind of pumps us up a little more.”

On the USC defense…

“The front four is very athletic and comes off the ball hard. They get in the passing lanes a lot and the defensive backs stick on the receivers and have great speed.

You try to get long drives. Move the ball and have the ball for a long time, keep the ball out of their hands by not turning it over and just keeping time of possession in our favor.”

On Stanford and Cal’s success and why they were…

“They had a pretty balanced attack and limited the turnovers.”

On being the underdog…

“It a challenge, its more motivation and I think that we will need to play our best game. We have beat some top ranked teams (Michigan and Tennessee) and showed that we can hang with anybody.”

On the team’s confidence coming into the game…

“The previous two seasons we lost by 31 points but that is in the past. It’s not something that we really think about.”

On what to take from the Pittsburgh game…

“I think that you saw a really balanced attack, and the running game was at 100%, along with the long ball working, but we also hit some receivers underneath and that is really hard to stop.”

On ending USC’s unbeaten season…

“You always love the role of playing spoiler; there is just a little bit of satisfaction in that.”

Senior running back Ryan Grant

On the USC game…

“They are a very good team, What we do is not about what we do, we have to get after them and balance everything along with just executing our game plan.

I think that we match up talent wise and when we have done that this season we have beaten good teams.”

On what makes the USC defense so good against the run…

“They play fast, and the front four move tot he ball. Coach Pete Carroll has really gotten the team to swarm to the ball.”

On playing the #1 teams and ending its perfect season…

“Our motivation is not to ruin their season; it’s to build on ours. We want to go out and get another win and just set ourselves up for continued success.”

Senior offensive lineman Dan Stevenson

On playing #1 USC…

“You only get so many opportunities in your college career to go out there and play the number one team especially in their house. We must play our game at all of the levels and really just execute.”

On being an underdog…

“You have to use that stuff as motivation, put a positive spin on that and go our and show people that you came to play.”

On time of possession…

“When you can control the clock you can do great things. We know that we must keep the ball and try to keep the USC offense off the field and keep our defense fresh.”

On having confidence…

“Confidence comes from the inside. The past is upsetting but we have the abilities to be great we just have to play our best and really show USC we came to play.”

Senior linebacker Mike Goolsby

On playing in big games…

“The Coliseum is a great venue and it is traditionally a place you see on ESPN Classic, so I am looking forward to playing in this game. This year we play our best games when our backs are against the walls and that we really have nothing to lose.”

On the USC offense…

“They have many great weapons and the quarterback (Matt Leinart) has great spend. (Reggie) Bush is a hard guy to cover especially for a linebacker, but the thing we have to keep in mind is where he is going, he will beat us in a foot race. The best thing to do is to get a handle on what they are trying to do.”

On the success that Stanford and Cal had vs. USC…

“You have to give (Matt) Leinart as many looks as possible, move around and keep the offense off balance. Both teams came in fired up and never gave up. Those teams took a similar attitude as we did to Tennessee.”

On being an underdog…

“It bugs you a little bit, but it is not something that is going to stop us, we are still going to play our game and be ready for whatever challenges USC throws at us.”

On the bye week…

“Much like the Tennessee game, the coaches told us that we needed to come back from that week off and be ready to play, much like this week. If you did not come back focused you were going to get embarrassed.”

Senior defensive end Kyle Budinsack

On the defensive challenge…

“This might be the most difficult challenge of the year, they do so many different thing and they have so many different guys to go to between the tailbacks they have and the way they use (Reggie) Bush in so many different positions.”

On USC quarterback Matt Leinart…

“He is a quick guy and many times he is very hard to get to because he throws the ball so fast, many time he uses just a three step drop, but we have to keep going after him and make him feel the pressure.”

On USC’s offensive line play…

“They have big, physical guys that seem to play well. We are just going to have to attack them and use the techniques we are taught.”

On the USC defeats of the past two seasons…

“Never dwell on it, those games are in the past and we must just move forward and attack this game.”

On USC running back Reggie Bush…

“He might be the most explosive player in the country. He is very versatile and they use him all over, so we must limit his big plays and though that may be hard to do, the one thing we can do is swarm the ball.”