What did Mississippi State's coach and players say after heart-breaking loss

For most of four weeks, Mississippi State’s press conferences have a sense of joy in them.

But, for obvious reasons, the post-game press conferences Saturday night after the Bulldogs lost to No. 15 Tennessee 41-34 was far less celebratory.

ICYMI: Random thoughts in wake of Mississippi State's overtime loss to Tennessee

The contingent of Bulldogs that spoke to reporters afterwards didn’t have many smiles, but did talk about a large swath of things that happened in the game against the Volunteers.

Here are the highlights of the post-game press conferences from Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby, quarterback Blake Shapen, running back Fluff Bothwell and linebacker Zakari Tillman.

Lebby on the post-game locker room mood…

Crushed, disappointed. Everybody inside our walls the entire week knew that we were going to have the opportunity to go win this game. And we weren't able to make the plays. They did make the plays to win it, and that is this league. I think our guys understand that. The message is, ‘man, hold on to the hurt and understand these moments.’

Lebby on Tennessee’s two defensive touchdowns…

We gave them 14 points, so the game is completely different. We're first-and-10 right at midfield after the fake punt, probably 13 minutes left, something like that. And have an issue up front. We're going to be 1st and 10 at the plus 38 yard line. We're up 24 to 20, and then it's 27 to 24. It's the difference in the ball game.

Lebby on Shapen’s performance…

I thought he played really, really tough. The interception was very unfortunate. And then, he's really doing exactly what he's been coached to do on the fumble scoop-and-score right there at the beginning of the fourth quarter. So, I thought he played incredibly tough.

Lebby on impact of Tennessee’s pass rush…

It affected Blake. They did a really good job. We've got to play better, we got to play smarter. Obviously, we lost Albert (Reese IV), that was a killer. But that's going to be a huge piece of this thing moving forward. We got guys that are good enough to do it. We got to be able to go do it and protect against the D-lines that we're about to face.

Shapen on final plays of regulation…

I just got to be better. There's certain situations that I got to put the ball in the playmaker’s hands for them to make a play. I think there were few times we're either short or long in our depth of the route, things like that. Just a miscommunication. But, I got to be better. I got to play better. I got to make sure that we don't go three-and-out in that situation because it can't happen when you got to go win the game.

Shapen on Bothwell…

Fluff played a hell of a game. I don't know what he rushed for, but I know that he played a really good game. And that's a guy that you can go give the ball to, even in a loaded box to go get as many yards as he can. So, it's nice to have that.

Bothwell on the post-game locker room message…

It's not over. We got plenty more games to play. You know, a lot of things to work on and going into next week and we're going to fix those things and have a good week next week.

Tillman on Bulldogs’ competitiveness facing future SEC teams…

We obviously have a lot of high standards for ourselves as a team. A lot of missed opportunities we felt like we had as a team that we're going to clean up this week and have a better week of practice and things like that I feel like we'll keep building off of and we'll definitely be dominant in this conference.

Tillman on Tennessee’s game-winning touchdown in overtime…

Honestly, just execution like the last play in overtime. I got to be better. I had to go make that tackle.