University of Tennessee Athletics
TENNESSEE POSTGAME QUOTES
September 23, 2006 | Football
Sept. 23, 2006
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TENNESSEE LOCKER ROOMHead Coach Phillip Fulmer: "We did a good job of not giving up anything big (on defense). That was a plus. We continue to build on our football team. I saw some young guys out there making plays. We need to continue that way. In the kicking game, I'm proud of James (Wilhoit). Britton (Colquitt) played well, and the protection was real good. And our coverage was good for the most part.
"Defensively, we didn't get off the field as often and as well as we would have liked, but you have to give (Marshall) credit. They did some nice things. They did a good job mixing up things (in all phases of the game) - some really flat slants and some tough zone blitzes.
"In the third quarter we didn't have the ball, and in the fourth quarter we were able to get the ball moving a little bit.
On LaMarcus Coker's TD run: "It was huge in the ballgame. There were still a lot of people squiggling in their seats, including the head coach. LaMarcus has done well every time he's gotten an opportunity. And he'll get more (opportunities) as we go on. It felt great seeing him run down the sideline. I looked back first to make sure there were no flags. That's just the coach in me. We hadn't had a long run like that in a long time.
"You heard our guys on the sideline talking about (finishing strong). We've been talking to them about that all week. We weren't trying to run the score up on Marshall, but we had some young guys who needed to play."
Erik Ainge, QB: "I thought both teams did a great job handling the weather. We got delayed, and both teams didn't let it affect them. We went out there and played hard. We just made more plays than they did. Our defense did a great job, and we made enough plays on offense. But we need to execute some plays better."
LaMarcus Coker, TB: "I was happy to be out there getting a chance. I was just trying to help the team out. The offensive line did a great job on the touchdown run, and it was actually (Erik) Ainge's call. It was just off to the races."
Xavier Mitchell, DE: "The crowd did a great job with the rain. I was excited just to see the crowd in there, and they got us hyped, just like we got them hyped (at the) beginning (of) the game."
On his tackle for a safety: "It opened up well. We thought they were going to run the draw. It was third down, we ran a twist, and it opened up well. Turk (McBride) did a great job picking the tackle, and there it was."
Jayson Swain, WR: "We did a good job of making plays through the air, and we need to continue to build on that. (We need to) fix the mistakes that we had and get ready for Memphis."
MARSHALL LOCKER ROOM
Head Coach Mark Snyder: "The game was closer than the score indicates. It was an exciting football game for a while. We got off to a slow start again, but I thought our kids played hard against a pretty good football team. I was proud of their effort. I saw some improvement today in my team, and if we take one more step, we're going to be OK. That was a good football team we played out there (Saturday).
"I think our guys were ready to play [after the rain delay]. I really do. We had a good week of practice, and I felt like at the hotel they were ready to play, even with the delay.
"I do [feel better than after losing to Kansas State]. We were closer to putting all three phases together. We got a couple little knicks and knacks here and there that we have to correct, but not nearly as many missed assignments as we had last week. The problem we did have, they were at crucial teams. We're going to have to fabricate some pressure situations in practice somehow, because it seemed like (Saturday) that's where some of our mistakes came. But give credit to Tennessee.
"I tell you what, they have great team speed. There were a couple options where we pitched the ball out there (Saturday), and I thought it was open, and then all of a sudden it closed like that. They have great team speed.
"We rushed it 48 times? That's super. We kind of hoped we could rush it that many times, and that's great. We just came off and ran the basic zone play. The guys got a little bit of movement and our back (Ahmad Bradshaw) made some good cuts out there. I thought he ran hard out there, and there was some good hitting going on out there."
Bernard Morris, QB: "We tried to come out in the first half and put as many points on the board as we could. It's something that we've improved on from last season and we have to continue to improve, and (Saturday) we just couldn't get it done.
"We've gotten better, 110 percent coming off last week's loss to K-State. The ball just didn't go our way, and we turned the ball over on top of that. Tennessee made good plays, and they are the 15th-ranked team in the nation. You have to give those guys all the credit.
"We just can't have little mistakes like (the fumble on the first offensive play). The snaps were OK for the rest of the game."
J.J. Johnson, CB: "They had the long run, but the score doesn't tell you how we played. The defense played pretty well. If you didn't watch the game, then you wouldn't really know what happened. The score doesn't tell what we did.
"We got down, but the defense doesn't ever get down too much. We try to pick ourselves up and just keep playing. We were still laughing (in the locker room), because as far as defense we played pretty well. The offense played well, but we've just got some things to correct. We've got things to correct on defense, too, but we can't get too down. We've got a couple more games to play."
Albert McClellan, DE: "We had a tough out-of-conference schedule, so we feel good going into conference play. Even though we lost, we feel better than after last week. We had a lot of mistakes, but we learned a lot from them and Tennessee is a good team."
