University of Tennessee Athletics
UT-Arkansas Post Game Quotes
November 10, 2007 | Football
Tennessee Head Coach Phillip Fulmer: ???The first thing I want to tell you is never doubt the heart of a Volunteer. I???m really, really proud of this football team. It was a great team win. And the game was won in the preparation.???
???Regardless what else happens in the Southeastern Conference, we are still in control of our own destiny. Our focus is now on Vanderbilt and improving as a football team.???
???I think our young team feeds off the home crowd a lot. It???s exciting. We???ve been a very good road team too. It???s been incredible. I didn???t think there would be anybody at all this morning on the Vol Walk, but it was packed. The people were so supportive.???
On QB Erik Ainge: ???Erik???s playing magnificently. From a coaching standpoint, he???s handling the offense, he???s not turning it over. He???s throwing the ball accurately.???
???They laid it on the line for the 60 minutes that we asked them to lay it one the line.???
???I???m proud of what we accomplished here. I???m looking forward to Vanderbilt and moving past the negativity. I hate negativity; I???m a very positive person.???
Erik Ainge, QB: ???We???re still alive. It???s like we???ve been saying, we have to give ourselves a chance for next week. We will enjoy this for 24 hours and get ready for next week.???
???When (our defense does) what they did on defense, and we???re able to run the football, it makes the game easy.???
"The team has gotten close. We were in (the locker room) singing. Coach (Fulmer) told us today that football isn???t life, but this is as big as it gets for our ???football??? life.
On the mindset of Tennessee???s running backs entering the game: ???They were cranked up. Arian (Foster) never shuts up, and I???ve never seen him this quiet. He was really focused. That makes you feel good as a quarterback.
On the recent media scrutiny: ???We hear what???s being said in general. We don???t get on the Internet and read what somebody who doesn???t know anything says about our football team. But we hear it. We know if we continue to win, we go to Atlanta and get to make the most of a second chance.???
???This is as big as it gets. Playing against a team like Arkansas???the hottest team in the country coming in here. They???re coming off a 500-yard rushing game. They had everything kind of going for them. They had the most takeaways on defense, and this and that and all these statistics. We almost felt ??? disrespected, in a way.???
Austin Rogers, WR: ???(Our defense) made stops and made our job easier. We tried to sustain drives, because Arkansas has great backs. They have great DBs who were in our hip all day. It???s a testament to Erik. He was putting the ball on us even if we weren???t that open.???
Jerod Mayo, LB: ???The front four did an excellent job this week preparing for Darren McFadden and Felix Jones. The secondary did a good job stopping them when they got to the perimeter. We got tired of hearing about it, but they are great backs. We knew we had to come in and play like we did against Georgia and South Carolina. We will enjoy the win for 24 hours, and then focus on Vandy.???
???We have to take one game at a time. Coach Fulmer has said for a long time that it???s just us. Nobody thought we could win this game.???
???Coach Chavis put in a great game plan to stop McFadden, and we executed it well. We weren???t surprised, because we played well on defense at home all year. Our pride has been bruised all year. But Coach Chavis is like a father to us and we have faith in him.???
???A realistic goal (coming into the game) was to hold those guys to under 100 yards rushing. To (the media) that might not sound realistic, but we???re very optimistic when we???re setting goals.???
???Every time you guys (in the media) talk bad about us we come out and play good. So keep talking bad.???
On Darren McFadden: ???He???s a great back. But he???s not going to win the Heisman Trophy in Neyland Stadium. I promise you that.???
Arkansas Head Coach Houston Nutt: ???We got off to a poor start and Tennessee came out and did a great job of executing early on. They were on the field for almost the entire first half. We had too many three and outs and couldn???t make any first downs in the first half. That really hurt us and got us out of rhythm.???
???They did a good job of turning everything inside. They were bound and determined to keep us off the edge and of course with Felix going out, that hurt us a great deal. We tried to make a run there in the second half. I thought we could score just enough to keep it close and then at the end hopefully win the ballgame. That was our intention, but we got down there and sputtered around too many times in the red-zone without coming up with seven.???
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???We couldn???t keep them off the field. They did a good job of executing. You have to give credit to Ainge for mixing up the snap count and finding receivers in critical third downs. They did a good job and we just got beat today.???
Darren McFadden, RB: ???The Wild Hog was a big part of our offense last year when we played them, and we knew they were going to prepare for it. They did a great job on defense of scheming. Losing Felix was a big loss for our offense. They kept us off balance. We never got it going from the first quarter. They did a great job on defense. The whole team was out of rhythm. We never got it going, I never got it going.
???They did everything we expected them to do. For the most part I think we just never got it going but they did a good job on defense too. They did a great job at tackling and I don???t think there were too many times I was missed. They just did a great job.???
Casey Dick, QB: ???They were ready to play that???s the bottom line. They came out played well, stopped the run and we had to go to the pass. We still have to be able to run the ball, regroup and get out there and execute. We couldn???t get anything going and we had to get things going to get some momentum.
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