University of Tennessee Athletics
TENNESSEE VS. GEORGIA POSTGAME QUOTES
October 08, 2005 | Football
Oct. 8, 2005
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TENNESSEE LOCKER ROOM
Head Coach Phillip Fulmer: "Obviously we're very disappointed in the loss. I thought we really had a great week of preparation coming into the game. Give Georgia a lot of credit. They did a good job playing field-position football, not turning it over and waiting for an opportunity - like the short field that we gave them at the end of the first half
Offensively, (we had some improvement in the passing game. Georgia didn't do anything in particular that we didn't expect, necessarily. I thought we'd run the ball better than we did. I'll have to look at the tape to see (exactly what) happened there. The penalties kept us in bad down-and-distance situations. That was obviously an Achilles heel tonight ...
Defensively, I thought we played well enough to win the ballgame. (Georgia's last offensive) drive was really disappointing. For the first half, it was just a good old Southeastern Conference field-position football game
We'll go back and study (the offense). There were some better things. The receivers made some plays. We have the open date to work on things."
DT Jesse Mahelona: "We didn't play as well as we should have. We can't bend and break now that we have two losses. It's very frustrating, the loss to Florida and this loss to Georgia. We stress character a lot. I believe we have it."
TB Gerald Riggs Jr.: "It doesn't matter what you do between the end zones, you've got to get it in the end zone. We're just not getting it done. We'll keep working and try to fix it. The hard part is we seem to get something going but shoot ourselves in the foot. You execute and you win ball games. We're going to see exactly how mentally tough we are. We're not going to split this team up. We win as a team and lose as a team."
LB Kevin Simon: "In the SEC you're not going to win too many games beating yourself. Georgia beat us, but we helped them out a lot. It just comes down to making plays. When you can make an interception, make it. Don't jump offsides. In the game of football, sometimes the ball bounces your way and sometimes it doesn't. We didn't get any breaks tonight. On top of that, we made too many mistakes. Our guys came ready to play. We prepared during the week. It just didn't happen for us."
QB Rick Clausen: (On the interception) "There were too many plays to pinpoint one, but that was a big one. The lack of execution was the biggest part. Their defense is good, but they didn't stop us that often. We shot ourselves in the foot. Just because things have gone bad early (in the season), you can't pack it in. We have enough pride in ourselves to play for each other. We're going to keep competing and pushing through it."
GEORGIA LOCKER ROOM
Head Coach Mark Richt: "I don't know where to start. I am very excited and thankful for the win. We played a great football team tonight, and we played great. We kept our poise and stayed united. There was no finger pointing when bad things happened.
"The defense was phenomenal. They almost got the goose egg. I thought we needed to win the special teams. Gordon Ely-Kelso had a great effort and Thomas Flowers had a great return with great blocking. At the end, we were trying to use as much of the clock as possible, and we put it into the endzone. It was as pretty as I have ever seen."
"I am proud of everybody involved. There were a lot of scout team members who couldn't come, who did a great job of simulating Tennessee. I want to thank them publicly."
"We may have gone to the well once to often on the bench route. Their player (Jonathan Wade) did a beautiful job. That was a real change in momentum. I didn't think we were going to be able to knock the ball out on the next possession. The coverage they were in, I felt we had an opportunity to get the guy open and we did. They were giving us that route and we protected well, D.J. Shockley saw him and he (Kenneth Harris) made the play.
"That helped stop the bleeding. It gave us field position and would force them to drive the length of the field. We did a good job of mixing the coverages.
"These guys believe in the team concept and they believe in unity.
"Shockley had to fight adverse conditions and handled things like a champion.
"I am real excited about where we are and I thought we showed a lot of mental toughness."
QB D.J. Shockley: "This win is big for me. Coming into the game I wanted to play well. I wanted to do enough for us to be able to win. It was a hostile situation and we were not sure how everything was going to go, but I wanted to play well and get us the win."
"A lot of people doubted our team, even through these first four games, but I think this game will do a lot of justice for us in how we prepare and play a quality team like Tennessee."
TE Leonard Pope: "Shockley played great tonight. He ran the ball well and he threw it well. We feed off of each other. I saw how calm he was throughout the game and it calmed me down as well, and we kind of got into a groove."
On the play that Tennessee CB Jason Allen got injured: "I made the turn and he (Jason) tried to get low, and I just got as low as he did and I guess I just ran over him. He dropped down there and I just lowered my shoulder. When I looked back he was still lying there. But I made sure to go over to him and check on him and told him to be strong."
DB Tra Battle: "DeMario (Minter) is my roommate and all season long he has been trying to keep up with Blue and me on interceptions. He kept saying he was going to get one. He kept saying he was going to come back toward the end of the season and catch up. That has been his mentality to get that pick and I am happy that he got that first pick, because it came at a crucial moment. He picked a perfect time to step up. He made the big play in a crucial situation. If he doesn't make that interception the receiver was open for a touchdown."
On the win: "Challenge. That is how I would describe this game for us. I feel like we met the challenge tonight. Even though we made some mistakes, we came up with enough big plays to overcome those mistakes."
FS Greg Blue: "I think we have a great team. I don't know why people say we have not been challenged in a game. The teams we played before were a challenge for us, but now they question us if we could beat Tennessee. But we came in here and beat them."
"I know as long as we keep winning we are going to be there down the stretch. I know the other teams are watching us."
On Tennessee's getting the interception and fumbled in the fourth quarter and Georgia still shutting them down: "It shows a lot about our character. We knew that the interception was a big play, as was the fumble, and it was a momentum swing. But we stayed focused on defense during that series after the fumble, and it shows a lot of character on our part to stay in there. "
