University of Tennessee Athletics
Tennessee Postgame Quotes
September 29, 2001 | Football
Sept. 29, 2001
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TENNESSEE QUOTES
Head Coach Phillip Fulmer: "Kelley (Washington) is a talent. He has worked hard for what he has earned. He added a lot to our offense. I like to see him have success. We got protection and Casey (Clausen) made the throws.
"It was a tale of two halves. The defense played great in the first half and kept us in the game while the always offense struggled. We made nice corrections at the half by adjusting some formations.
"We started to execute in the second half. Leonard Scott made some nice catches, so did Bobby Graham. Travis Stephens played great even though he didn't have a lot of yards. I wish we finished better on defense.
"LSU is a fine team. We knew we had a challenge coming into the game. We have to get healthy for the next one."
"Casey has the confidence to get the ball to Kelley tonight. It was a physical football game."
WR Kelley Washington: "I tried to use my athleticism and everything I've learned on the baseball field. I'm blessed to be at Tennessee. Tonight the opportunities were just there for me to produce. I know the offense was looking for a spark. Sometimes they would play off and sometimes they would play up. When they played up, we had the opportunity to take it deep."
QB Casey Clausen: "I thought for the most part in the first half, we were moving the ball, but not all that we were capable of doing. I thought for the first time in the third and fourth quarters, the offense played like it was capable of playing. The whole game, the defense gave us the opportunity to make plays. I was challenging myself at the half. The big key for us was being physical. Our offensive line did a great job of being physical.
FB Troy Fleming: "It felt good to get back out there and do the things I used to do. When they kept giving it to me, I kept running the ball. The coaches call the plays and we just took it to them. I showed them a little bit of power, a little change up.
DB Andre Lott: "We knew they were going to go out and pass the ball with the receivers and the tight ends that they have. Our goal is to stop the run. Each week we have to get better as a defense. Sometimes the offense has to take up for the defense and sometimes it's the other way around. That's the way it was tonight.
Tennessee injury update:
Reggie Coleman (right ankle sprain), Jason Respert (ankle sprain), Will Overstreet (knee sprain), Derrick Tinsley (head), Eric Parker (right shoulder), John Henderson (ankle), Kevin Burnett (lower back)
LSU QUOTES
HEAD COACH NICK SABAN: "Kelley Washington made every play they needed. We couldn't get him covered. I as proud of the way our team kept fighting. There were four third downs in the third quarter where we couldn't get our defense off the field. We can play better. We have to do a better job of taking people out of the game. There were times we didn't play with the correct technique and give the proper help.
"The first two drives were good. We turned the ball over on the first and scored on the second. No. 15 had a breakout game tonight. We didn't do a good job on him. We didn't know a whole lot about him. He didn't contact us that I know of.
"We have to do a better job controlling the line of scrimmage. We have to be able to run it effectively, too. I thought we competed. I'm proud of that. I thought we were ready to play and had the right attitude. We weren't executing well enough. I was disappointed in the third quarter.
"Florida will be at least as good as these guys. We need to create some positive situations. There were a lot of mistakes and wee need to do better. We wanted to be aggressive and were in the first half, but not in the second. Give Tennessee credit."
LB BRADIE JAMES: "We made mistakes that we shouldn't have made. We tried to disguise a lot of our coverages. They took what we gave them and they made the plays. We still played for our 60 minutes. We could have played better. We know we were better and we shouldn't have lost this game.
RB LaBRANDON TOEFIELD: "We knew what they were going to do. They were going to crowd the line of scrimmage. I think Rohan did a great job as did the receivers. We have a lot to work on because we made a lot of mistakes. We came out in the second half a little flat. Their defense is pretty good, but I think we beat ourselves at times. They really didn't do anything that we didn't expect.
QB ROHAN DAVEY: "I think we just ran out of time. The biggest difference in the second half was that we established ourselves after making adjustments. They were doing a lot of twisting and stunting, and we picked that up and it gave me more time to throw. They have some pretty good players and athlete on athlete, sometimes they won and sometimes we won. The bottom line is that they got a "W" and we didn't.
