On this week’s quarterback situation…
“We’ve got to see what’s going on with those guys as the week goes on. They came in. They’re getting better, and they get treatments today. We don’t practice again until (Tuesday) afternoon. So we’ll see where everybody is at at that point.”
On other injuries on the team…
“The rest of the injury status for us this week is pretty much status-quo. Talking to the trainers, there wasn’t a whole lot. We have a couple of guys with the flu out right now, but that happens this time of year. Deontae Skinner they said again is day-to-day. They think he should be good, that he was really close to playing. But you have to look out for the health of young men and long-term futures. Hopefully all of his symptoms all go down and he’s able to play this week, which would be the thought.”
On the challenges Arkansas presents…
“This week’s game is a great, challenging game for us. You look at the type of team they have right now and Bret (Bielema) is a first-year coach. He’s trying to build right his program there. It looks like they’re playing a lot of young players and have some very talented guys.
They have two extremely talented running backs and a big, big physical offensive line. They are one of the better running teams in the conference, and have ran the ball on everybody. You look at the average, and sometimes averages can be deceiving statistically speaking, but they’ve had success running the ball on every team in the league, so that’s a challenge on that side of the ball.
Defensively, they’ve got a great front that can cause a lot of pressure on you. You watch them on film, and I think they’ve played good defense. They’ve been bit a lot by big plays. You watch them play good defense, and then all of a sudden, there are three big plays, and they’re giving up points.
The challenging part with that is that I don’t think you can go into a game saying we’re just going to go bombs away and hope we get the three 80-yard touchdown passes. You want to play consistent offense. I think they’re going to have a big, physical front. We’re going to have some challenges moving the ball on them.”
On how the MSU defense builds a good performance against Alabama…
“Well, play better. It wasn’t good enough. I mean, a great defensive game is to hold them to one less point than we scored. A great offensive game is score one more point than we give up. That’s how you look at it.
But I thought we played physical. And the matchup, I don’t know how much it a relates to this week’s game. (Arkansas) likes to run the ball and they’re a big, physical running team. I think last game and this game can tie together.
We’ve got to get in the cold tank and get all the bruises healed up and everybody kind of healthy and get ready for another punch-in-the-mouth, physical game. 
But every game has its own way and has its uniqueness. You kind of know what you’re getting when you’re playing Alabama. You knew that going in, and we’re expecting a physical game this week.”
On the difficulty playing in Little Rock, Ark…
“I think anywhere on the road is tough to play in the SEC. I don’t know that it’s more difficult there than it is in Tuscaloosa or Baton Rouge or Auburn or here in Starkville. I think a lot of people think it’s awfully tough to come here to play. And a lot of that is the passion of the fan base.
Obviously, I’m not happy that we didn’t win the game (Saturday) compared to other games, but a lot of people have said we played well on Saturday. It was our best environment, loudest crowd and best recruiting weekend. All of these things tie-in together. It’s amazing how that works.
You’re going to Little Rock, a place where the fans are very passionate about playing. It’s a loud, hostile environment and that always gives you a great homefield advantage in this league, and it makes it always very difficult. Our fans gave us that Saturday night and made it difficult for Alabama and inspired our kids to play at a high level. Certainly that helps you in recruiting an awful lot as well.”
On how coaches deal with focusing on preparing for games with rumors surrounding other job positions… 
“You always just have to completely block that out. Like one question, ‘are you on the hot seat?’ Well, I hate to break it to you — if you’re coaching in the Southeastern Conference — I’ve been on the hot seat here for five years now. Go over to Tuscaloosa and ask. You might not think it, but wait until they lose a game. If we had won on Saturday night, he’d (Nick Saban) be on the hot seat. You’re about a game away in this league from that situation.
The SEC and the passion in the SEC, more so than everywhere else maybe except for the NFL, (is intense). But you can still lose six games in the NFL and win a Super Bowl. That just comes with the territory. I think you have to accept that as part of coaching in this league.
To be honest with you, with all that stuff, the toughest part is not on the coaches. I’m in my office from 7 in the morning until 11 at night. One of things I think is always tough on us is families. Will (Muschamp’s) kid has to go to school, my wife has to go to the grocery store and Bret’s wife goes out for dinner. When you get in this league, sometimes your families are out there in public a lot more, and that is a huge stress to me.
If I ever think about one thing, I’m much more concerned about any impact it has on my family than it has on me. I deal in the realities. I’m so far past last Saturday’s game and into this week’s game. Some ask if I think of our record. I have to think about what our record is right now to be able to answer and that takes your focus off the task at hand, which is beating Arkansas.
I think it is tough on families sometimes around the league. And with Kevin (Sumlin), I’ll put it this way: you’re either on your way out the door because you’re winning or on the way out the door because you’re losing. I guess for Kevin you’d rather be out the door for winning than losing.”
On the mindset of the team becoming bowl eligible… 

“We just need to win on Saturday. With them, the focus obviously is all about this. We talked about how the Texas A&M game was a great learning experience. I know we needed to come back and score a couple of touchdowns, but you can’t score the second TD until you score the first one. And then we scored 21 points in the fourth quarter. You’ve got to score the first one and then worry about the second one next. Our guys have been able to do that.
Historically speaking of things this team can accomplish, if we win the next two games and finish 6-6, that probably doesn’t seem like a banner season. But we will have won in the state of Arkansas against Arkansas for the first time in the history of Mississippi State football. That’s pretty historical.
If we win two, we’d have gone to four consecutive bowl games for the first time Mississippi State football. In a historical context, there’s an awful lot of things this team can accomplish. They’re not going to be the next team to go win something. They’re going to be the first team to do something.
So our guys in the motivation of winning this week and finding a way to get to a bowl game is if we’re able to win this game, there’s an awful lot to play for in every game. Never winning in Arkansas before and we’ve won four out of five Egg Bowls.
In the historical context of the team, we talk about that. As we want to build a championship team we’re building a foundation. There are a lot of programs out there where the foundation was built, and they’re doing something that’s been done before. We’re trying to build a foundation to do things that haven’t been done before. I think our kids really can understand that and see the positives and the opportunity to go do that.