University of Tennessee Athletics
TENNESSEE POSTGAME QUOTES
November 12, 2005 | Football
Nov. 12, 2005
Recap | Final Stats | Notes
Tennessee Locker Room
Head Coach Phillip Fulmer: "It's great to get a win. It's great to sing in the locker room with the kids. I hope we can enjoy that again. We're not dead yet. This team is beat up a little bit and discouraged with the way this season has gone, but they haven't stopped fighting ... (Memphis) had as nice little plan. (They were) using the freeze play and picking on some (man-coverage) things. I thought in the second half we did a much better job with that.
"Offensively it was a struggle getting started. Rick (Clausen) gave us a lift. The drive right before the half was vintage Rick Clausen. I hope Erik (comes out of this well) because he's going to be a good player.
"It's never not a fight with Memphis. It's always competitive. I take my hat off to them and the effort they gave. The quarterback (Maurice Avery) gave us fits. We're just glad to get the win. It's not the prettiest win we've ever had, but it's a win.
"We're fortunate to have a guy that can distribute the ball and handle pressures in Rick. Erik has to learn how to take care of the football. That has to become a priority. We need to put ourselves in a position to win rather than put ourselves in a position to lose games."
LB Omar Gaither: "It was great to get the win. I think sometimes at a place like Tennessee you take winning for granted. I'll wake up and feel a little better in the morning because of the win. We got a "W," but we can't act like this is the end. We've got two more wins to get starting with Saturday with Vanderbilt.
"We came out in the second half and played a little slower, played our cues. Hats off to the Memphis team. They played us tough. They were spreading us out, putting three receivers out wide. It was a great play, a good scheme. One thing about the losing streak we just got over, we came out and practiced hard every day. We practiced like we were playing for a championship."
QB Rick Clausen: "Whatever the circumstance, whether I play or don't play, I don't care at this point. It was a win. The best thing our offense did today was not turn the ball over. You can't give them a short field. (On the drive before halftime) It was fun. Driving the ball 94 yards in the last minute is why you come to Tennessee.
(On DeAngelo Williams not playing) "They could have had Walter Payton in the backfield. We still needed to got out and play, stop the run and put up more points."
DT Justin Harrell: "It seems like it's been forever since we got a win. It wasn't the best performance by us. (Regarding second-half improvement) We played our responsibilities and made the plays when they came to us. We played another fast quarterback, very illusive. We know we've been in a lot of tough ballgames, but we've kept playing hard."
PK James Wilhoit: "In the fourth quarter the game was close. We knew every point was going to count. Kickers get in a rhythm. I feel like I'm getting into a rhythm, kind of like my freshman year. It was great to have a win. We'll build on this. I think I'm kicking with a lot more height this year. The fact that we've had so many pressure games can only help you."
Memphis Locker Room
Head Coach Tommy West: "It was a good ball game. I'm disappointed we couldn't find a way to win the fourth quarter, to close it out. I feel good about our effort. We're a makeshift bunch right now. Our guys knew what we had to do to win. We had it and couldn't close it out.
"Tennessee did a nice job in the fourth quarter.
"DeAngelo Williams had practiced and I expected him to play. He felt like he would be better coming off the bench. I knew we had to play like men today and, with him playing or not, we're going to play. He had a problem going to his right. We knew he wasn't going to play before we came out for the game.
"Joseph Doss was outstanding. He ran with power and found the holes. He was seeing the holes and getting north. He was finding the crack and getting north. Against this defense, three- or four-yard runs are good.
"Maurice Avery did good, did what we expected. He's a wide receiver playing quarterback. He managed the game, the clock wasn't a problem, and he gave us a chance. He didn't do anything to cost us the game.
"The team was down after the game. We thought we could win. Tennessee did a good job with the adjustments. They got out of man into a zone and showed us a three-deep we hadn't seen. It was a good adjustments. There was a series or two they had us flustered. They have a lot of NFL players up front and we don't. We have to step up and battle and had a chance.
"I challenged them to play like men. We're young in spots. I was embarrassed the way we played up here the last time, four or five years ago. We acted like we belonged. We've made a lot of progress and had our chances to win."
TE John Doucette: "We did not expect DeAngelo to play. We pretty much knew all week he wasn't. I was expecting (Joseph) Doss to get the call and he did his job."
"We had the game won. But we just did not bring it in the second half like we did in the first and second quarters. You have to take advantage of your opportunities and we did not do that."
WR Ryan Scott: "We should have won the game, but we had a couple of big drops that hurt us."
"A lot of people had us down and out. We came out and kept on driving the ball when we first came out. We made a couple of mistakes and that turned the game around."
"We have to win these last two games to get into a bowl game. We are going to go into practice and prepare to win these last two so that we can get into a bowl game. We just have to keep practicing hard."
QB Maurice Avery: "We came out and played hard. We should have won the game but we made too many mistakes against a team like Tennessee."
RB Joseph Doss: "We are very disappointed. We came out and were on top early, and it was a good feeling. The way they came back and won really hurts."
"I came into the game with the mindset to be prepared for anything. I was not sure whether or not that DeAngelo was going to play. I was ready for whatever."
