University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes
September 21, 2002 | Football
Sept. 21, 2002
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TENNESSEE POSTGAME QUOTES
TENNESSEE COACH PHILLIP FULMER
"I was very disappointed in the loss. The buck starts and stops with me. We made enough mistakes to lose two games out there.
"We had a tremendous loss of discipline. We have to get that squared away. The second quarter was an embarrassment. I apologize to the fans.
"We didn't establish anything offensively in the first half. Cedric (Houston) got a bruised thigh and he didn't play much after that.
"It's a long season. We are not going to beat anyone the way we played in the second quarter. We looked like a good team in the third quarter.
"They covered the deep ball well. We may have had a little bit of an attitude that they are better than what they are. We have a chance to be a good team. We are not a team that can roll out there. We are decent. We have to be disciplined to be good.
"Florida is a fine team. Give credit to Grossman. We had him penned up and he got away.
EDDIE MOORE: "Like coach said, it was a disappointing loss. We made so many mistakes. We should have made the tackles. We should have made the plays. We just have to go back to the drawing board on Monday.
CASEY CLAUSEN: "It rained just as hard on them; it was the same on both sides.
"If I can't get the snap, we can't run the play, so it's something we have to work on. We have to learn from our mistakes. To play in big games, you can't beat yourself. I felt the whole time that we could come back and win. At halftime coach challenged us to come out and play the way we are capable of. Come out and play and give it their all, if not, stay in the locker room.
DEMETRIN VEAL: "It was back-to-back mistakes tonight. We weren't a disciplined team.
FLORIDA POSTGAME QUOTES
FLORIDA COACH RON ZOOK: "I'd like to say that our football team is doing exactly what we've said they've been doing. They're getting better each week. We're not where we need to be, but we are getting better. There's a lot of football left to be played. This one was big, but they're all big. I'll enjoy it tonight. We're taking one game at a time and we'll have to be ready next week. The next one up is Kentucky. The conditions obviously weren't conducive to holding on to the football. We were fortunate to hold on to it more than they did. We've practiced in the rain and played in the rain last week. That helped us a lot. We were fortunate to come out on top. Rex is a competitor and a winner. He's getting better every day. He knows the system and he feels it. I knew he was getting more and more confident. We've played two really good football teams. I felt confident coming in. I could see the look in their eyes. There are seven games to go in the SEC East. I don't think the team that wins this game has always won the East. Our special teams were improved immeasurably in bad conditions. The field goal at the end of the first half helped us immeasurably. It helped our team have confidence in our kicker. We can't overreact. We have to stay the course. You have to keep doing what you're doing. We got more people involved, not just Taylor Jacobs. I thought the players did a great job of responding. Coach Thompson and his staff did a great job."
RAN CARTHON: "I just tried to do anything to help the team out. We just had to prove that we were a better team than most people thought. Once we got things going, we just kept it rolling. The defense played well. They played their butts off.
SHANNON SNELL: On second quarter play "It just got sloppy and they took us for granted. We got the turnovers and we capitalized on them. We went out there and got our respect from Tennessee. We were up by 14, then 21 and then there was that fumble at the end and then it was 24 and that's where we won the game.
TAYLOR JACOBS: "Whenever somebody doubts me, I take it as a positive, go out and work harder.
On TD catch: "The guy was playing on the outside and I had to work my way around him. Once I got around him, it seemed like forever for the ball to come down.
"I feel we believed in ourselves. Our coaches had a good game plan and we went out and executed it.
