University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes
September 06, 2003 | Football
Sept. 6, 2003
Recap?|? Final Stats?|? Notes
TENNESSEE HEAD COACH Phillip Fulmer
"I take my hat off to Coach Pruett and Marshall. They did a fabulous job coming in here and playing well. They are a good team. I was glad to get the win considering the upsets today.
"Defensively they kept us on heels by putting us in 3rd and long. They were able to convert. We'll go back to work on fundamentals and schemes. This was a good game for us before SEC schedule to play a tough team like Marshall. I don't think we played our best. We'll have the opportunity to play better.
"Offensive we made plays. Casey played well. Cedric Houston and Jabari Davis did nice things. We did some good things on both things on both sides of the ball, but we have to get more consistent. We have to work on some things during open week as we get ready for Florida.
"I was proud of our kickers. Wilhoit had a pulled groin during two-a-days and that's why he's not been kicking off. I was pleased for him. He kicks the ball well. He hit two clutch field goals today and by the end of the season he will have a good percentage.
"Dustin Colquitt turned the field over several times for us. I don't know if we'd won the game without them (kickers). It was a good day that way.
On penalties: "We our own worst enemy. If we want to be a good team, we can't do the retaliatory kind of penalties. Our captains addressed that in front of the team after the game.
"I thought we came to life in the last two minutes of the first half. We took it in and scored. That lifted us up. At halftime we made the adjustments we thought we could make and executed in the second half. I thought we would put them away early in the third quarter.
"Marshall threw it quick to the backs and tight ends. We are not where we need to be at defensive tackle. We are making some progress there.
"I thought the linebackers played well. We have six guys to rotate in there, so we are fairly deep.
"We tried to keep it balanced out there today with the run and the pass. It was good that we had a tough game.
"Casey is a competitor. I admire him for his toughness. He managed the offense well today."
TENNESSEE PLAYERS
Troy Fleming, FB: "Marshall came out fast and tried to put some points on the board quick like we knew they would. [The offense] knew we had to step up and make some plays. And like we've all been saying the whole offseason, we're a team, and when one part of the team is not playing good--whether it's special teams, offense or defense--the other two parts have to pick up their game and pick the team up."
Casey Clausen, QB: "We definitely picked it up today--in the passing game as well as the running game. We played hard and we played well. We started off slow and that's one thing that we'll have to watch on film and see what happened there. But after the first quarter, we picked it up and started making some plays downfield."
"I thought we moved the ball pretty well. It's all about attitude, and that second half we just started clicking and it really didn't matter what (Marshall's defense) did, we were going to try to move the ball and score on them."
After the TD pass to freshman Jayson Swain: "I said `Welcome to college football,' and he just smiled at me. He looked really good out there today."
Kevin Burnett, LB: "First, I'd like to take off my hat to Marshall. They gave us a run for our money. We gave them more yards (through penalties) than they actually got one drive. We just have to be more disciplined and stay at home. We knew we were in for a shootout. We knew they were going to make big plays and put up big yardage. The thing is how you react to it. We knew they had a good offensive line, but that's our style of defense."
Constantin Ritzmann, DE: Marshall's a good opponent. We're happy we got the win. They did a lot of shifting back and forth. It took a while for the linebackers to get the calls right and left. They blocked well. They took away the (defensive) linemen, but we could still blitz (with the linebackers). Coach Chavis took advantage of that. We expected a good game. Ten points is a good win. We're getting ready for next week."
Robert Peace, LB: You've got to give Marshall credit. They came out and played hard. They have a lot of good schemes. It's better to play overaggressive than not play aggressive enough, but at times we gave Marshall too much (in penalties). It's good to have an open date to correct that. We were well prepared. Stan Hill is a good quarterback and made some good plays. Skill-wise they have some players who are SEC caliber players. We've got to cut down (penalties) in the SEC and be more disciplined."
MARSHALL HEAD COACH BOB PRUETT
"Our players certainly gave good effort. Tennessee has a fine football team. We made the key mistake at the end of the half. Our quarterback got excited and called a timeout. We're used to going for it. I would have rather run the clock down.
"We didn't do well in the punting game. We had two freshme out there who got better. We made a number of mistakes and a number of plays. Tennessee had to have realized they were in a game. I was pleased with our team the whole day. They had a number of long runs we really had stopped. There were a lot of young players who underwent a hard learning curve.
`I told people we had another outstanding quarterback and nobody believed me. I thought he was the best quarterback on the field. Our thought was that they'd make one play and we'd make two. We didn't think we couldn't win. We had a chance in the fourth quarter at 28-24. I thought we would win.
"We didn't want to come here and play it close. Stan Hill was hurt on the quarterback draw and then when he threw the TD pass to Josh Davis he jumped up and hurt it again.
"We're growing as a program. Our kids held together. Third downs hurt us. We're usually pretty good there. Casey Clausen was better than I thought he was. The score at the end of the half was disappointing. We gave them too much time. I thought their receivers did a good job blocking. We're 1-1 and have to play Toledo."
MARSHALL PLAYERS
Earl Jones RB: "I was out there trying to get the job done and help the team out. We didn't get the job done in the end. We felt good because we let people know that Marshall is for real. Tennessee is supposed to be the No. 4-ranked team in the country, so that should open some people's eyes and let them know that we could be ranked to. As for Tennessee's defense, football is football. Once you strap the helmets on it's all the same. You se fast defenses, but our defense is fast; everybody's defense is fast. It is just a matter of what you are going to do when you get the opportunity."
Jamus Martin RE: "It was a good effort on our part and it was a close one. We should have won this one. We felt like coming at halftime that we played hard and that the game wasn't over yet. At times big plays hurt us on defense. That's what done us in was big plays. The punt return hurt us but we believed coming in that we could win and in all four quarters we still believed that we could win."
Jason Rader TE: "Today we came down and put some points on the board early and it kind of shook people up. I don't think anybody had any real respect for us. That is what we came down here to do. We came down here to win and we didn't succeed and I am disappointed."
