University of Tennessee Athletics
UT-ULL Post Game Quotes
November 03, 2007 | Football
Tennessee Head Coach Phillip Fulmer: ???It was great to get the win. I???m really proud of our football team???s preparation during the week. We worked a lot on fundamentals. It will be interesting to see (on film) how much that actually showed up.???
???I think we scored on all but one possession. As you can see, they were a very dangerous, up-tempo offense. A lot of our young players got a chance to play and played well. I think that bodes well for the future.???
???This is three (straight home games) we???ve led by a score of 73-0 at halftime. Our defense has pitched shutouts (in the first half).???
???We blocked kicks; we scored on defense; we scored on offense. We kept the other team off the field pretty well. It was a complete game, but we???ve got a lot bigger fish to fry.???
On Antonio Reynolds??? interception return: ???Wasn???t that a great play? He looked like a truck running down there. I didn???t think he???d ever get there. But he knew what to do with it when he caught it, and he ended up with a convoy. It was great to see the defense score.???
Erik Ainge, QB: ???A game like that, we were clicking on all cylinders. Special teams made big plays. Defense made big plays, and the offense made big plays. We put a whole game together, and that???s what we were looking to do.???
???One thing we do good in this program is that the starters and second string get about the same amount of reps during the week. Sometimes the second-stringers get more because of injury. Guys like Quintin Hancock, Denarius Moore, Gerald Jones and Kenny O???Neal get reps, so we know when they go out there they can get the job done.???
Ryan Karl, LB: ???We???re kind of like a bend but don???t break defense right now. We gave up a lot of yards but only seven points. We got turnovers when we needed them.???
On his strong performances the past few games: ???It just seems like they???re not blocking me right now. It???s easy to make plays when they???re not blocking you.???
Antonio Reynolds, DE: On his interception return: ???Coach Chavis called a good defense. I saw the ball in the air, and that???s something we work on everyday???team pursuit. So I just pursued to the ball. I went and got it and just took off. I saw (the quarterback) coming from the left. I knew was going to come at my legs, so I made a move.???
Arian Foster, TB: On the reshuffled offensive line: ???Chris (Scott) has been there all year. He???s pretty solidified; it was just an adjustment from (right tackle to left tackle). Jacques (McClendon) has been getting a lot of reps already. He did well from what I saw.???
???It???s a confidence builder anytime you can put a lot of points on the board like that. The defense held them to seven points, so it was a confidence builder for them. We have three big games left, and everybody knows we control our own destiny.???
???Coach Cutcliffe said we had to go out and put it on them. South Carolina scored 21 (in the second half) last week. And when Louisiana-Lafayette scored to start the second half (today), we said it won???t happen again.???
On reaching 2,000 career rushing yards: ???It???s a good accomplishment, I guess. You look at the records here, and the guys that did it ??? there???s a lot of talent here. I???m proud of it.???
Louisiana-Lafayette Head Coach Rickey Bustle: ???That was a big play when we threw that screen and it got popped up in the air. I think it was 17 at the time and that made it 24. That was a big play. We felt like we could move the ball some and I think we did that, but defensively we just didn???t get any stops. They just ran it right at us. We were trying hard, but we just couldn???t get off the blocks.???
???I thought we had some positive plays throughout the game defensively. But we line up offsides on fourth down and give them an extra play and those are things that we usually don???t do.???
???Offensively it was a consistency thing. We threw it a couple of times and didn???t complete it and then we came back and threw some nice passes. We have to be able to mix it up and do both but we have to be able to throw the ball too.
???I think Tennessee is a heckuva football team and I thought that coming in. I think they have great speed and I think they have one of the best quarterbacks in the country and their running backs all run hard. We were out manned in some positions and there???s no doubt about that. I think the effort was there through three quarters and then we had a lot of backups in and really didn???t slow them down either.
Michael Desormeaux, QB: ???We knew coming in that they had some great athletes. They did some things differently tonight as far as coverages but they played well. They played well and we have to give them credit. We always go into every game planning to run the football. That???s what we do and we felt there were some things we could do and luckily we were able to at times. At times we really executed and played well and moved the ball. We just weren???t consistent enough with the execution.???
Antwyne Zanders: ???They have great athletes. They are the SEC and we???re the Sun Belt. We didn???t execute the game plan, mistakes happened, and their athletes scored. Coaches had a good game plan, we just didn???t execute. They have big, physical backs and in the second half we had a lot of missed tackles.
