University of Tennessee Athletics
UT-ASU Postgame Quotes
September 22, 2007 | Football
Tennessee Head Coach Phillip Fulmer: ???It???s a darn good win. We???re glad to get it. I appreciate the leadership on this football team during the course of the week from the coaches and the players. It wasn???t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it sure feels good to win. It sure feels good to be able to run the football better. It sure feels good to be ahead at halftime. And it sure feels good to win at the end.
???Defensive takeaways were huge in this ballgame. Marsalous (Johnson) and (Brent) Vinson had interceptions, and (J.T.) Mapu had a (forced fumble and fumble recovery). Erik Ainge played extremely well. LaMarcus Coker is getting back to being himself. I though he played extremely well. Robert Ayers looked like he played really well.
???I???m really proud of Daniel Lincoln and Britton Colquitt. They give us a really solid kicking combination.
???It was an important football game. It was important to get a win and bounce back. We???ve got a lot to do to get to where we want to be. We???ve got an open date to get better. I really want to give a special thank you to the fans. They were incredible on the Vol Walk and in the stadium tonight, and they were a great encouragement to our football team.
???We came out ready to play. We were up in our facility getting ready to come down for the Vol Walk, and it was a real special moment. You could tell (the players) were tense and tight. They were looking for leadership. We???ve been working on that all week long. And I said ???Just stand up, and go around and hug everybody in this room.??? And they got up and hugged everybody in the room. And you could hear the chatter, and it got louder and louder, better and better, and more enthusiastic. It just broke the ice, and they were more relaxed and came out ready to play.???
Josh Briscoe, WR: ???Overall as a group, we came out and knew we had to make plays. Lucas (Taylor) made two great plays, and we caught balls in traffic well. This was the most experienced secondary we???ve faced. I???m focusing on being consistent and making tough catches. This is the first game we???ve seen a lot of press-man coverage. They pressed us and allowed us to throw the ball downfield.???
Eric Young, OT: ???Having (LaMarcus Coker) out there was big. He hit holes and has that speed ??? speed kills. The run game was emphasized a lot in practice this week.???
Demonte` Bolden, DT: ???Today I think we came out in the second half and executed very well. We made some mistakes on defense but got the job done. Since the Cal game, (our focus as a defense has been to stop the big plays). And tonight we did that. We let one big play go unanswered, but for the most part, we stopped the big play.
???We felt the best we could do was play for each other. Coming off a bad loss, we wanted to come out and play well.???
Erik Ainge, QB: ???I thought we played good. With the exception of that turnover (interception for a touchdown), I thought we did a good job on offense. It wasn???t perfect. Our biggest problem so far has been just giving teams things. We gave them seven more (points) tonight, but they earned everything else.
???Lucas (Taylor) made that great play in the first quarter, and Austin (Rogers) made a good catch on the sideline. (Josh) Briscoe played well, and there were a couple more passes I could have thrown better. The offensive line did well. Third-and-short was better, and it had to do with (the offensive line) and the running backs.
???Southern Miss and Arkansas State are good teams and we played well against them.???
Arkansas State Head Coach Steve Roberts: ???I???m obviously disappointed with the outcome of the ballgame. I thought our players played very hard in a very hot and hostile environment tonight. We came out and we were able to make some plays, we just weren???t able to make the critical plays.???
???We couldn???t get off the field defensively, we had some opportunities there but you have to give credit to their quarterback. We tried early in the ballgame to come after him a lot and he was able to see things before we could even get to him. He made the correct adjustments and got the ball out early and made a lot of plays. We couldn???t get there with our four man pressure and that really hurt us. Again, you have to really give a lot of credit to their offensive line and quarterback. Ainge is a heck of a player.???
Corey Leonard, QB: ???The environment was everything we expected it to be. It was a loud environment but I think we were ready for it. The noise really didn???t cause too much problem throughout the game. Like I said, we were really prepared for the environment and it isn???t what hurt us. Mental mistakes is what hurt us and two interceptions. You can???t have that especially when you???re playing an offense as good as theirs and a quarterback as good as theirs. When you throw two interceptions against an SEC team that is what will beat you. To beat teams like this we can???t make mistakes and we made too many tonight and that put us in bad situations.???
Montis Harrison, CB: ???Ainge reads the defense before it even happens. He is a great quarterback.???
Tyrell Johnson, SS: (on his interception return for a touchdown) ???I kept my eyes on the man and got a great jump on the ball.???
(on the loss) ???Life goes on. We have Memphis next week. Football players need a short-term memory and we have to move on. The bottom line is they won the game and we didn???t.???
Reggie Arnold, RB: ???I think we learned in a game like this that you can???t beat yourself by having turnovers and penalties in critical situations.?? You have to go out there and execute and play near perfect football to beat a team like this.???
