University of Tennessee Athletics
Postgame Quotes: #8/8 Alabama 19, Tennessee 14
October 24, 2015 | Football
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Head Coach Butch Jones
(Opening Statement)“I’m really proud of our team. I thought our team showed some grit, some determination and some resiliency on the road against a quality opponent, a top ten opponent, in a hostile environment to go down and drive the ball and put us in a position to win. At the University of Tennessee, there are no moral victories.
"I’m very proud of our defense. Five sacks and 10 TFL’s (tackles for losses). You had individuals playing through aches and pains. [Sophomore defensive end] Derek Barnett is simply a warrior. [Redshirt sophomore defensive lineman] Kendal Vickers, the productivity of [junior linebacker] Jalen Reeves-Maybin and [freshman linebacker Darrin] Kirkland. I thought those players really stepped up against a senior and junior dominated football team. I thought our strength and conditioning with youngsters really showed. I thought the strength and conditioning program showed tonight what we’re building and what we’re becoming.
"What can I say about [sophomore running back] Jalen Hurd? 92 tough yards. I think he deserves conversations as one of the best backs in the United States of America. You look at what he’s doing and the tough yards that he gets, I think he needs to start getting more attention on a national stage. I thought [junior quarterback] Josh Dobbs was gritty. I thought our whole football team was. We’re going through some growing pains right now, but I see great progress. It’s about closing games out, making critical plays when the game is on the line.
"But, we’ve got a group of resilient young men in that locker room and I hurt for them. We all hurt together, but we’re going to come back to work tomorrow and continue to improve and get stronger from it and continue to progress and move forward."
(On if the loss feels different than the others)
“No, every loss is painful because you invest so much in it and everyone talked about the culture. We believed that we were going to win the football game coming here and we came up short. These kids, the coaching staff and support staff invested so much. Every time you lose, it’s tough.”
(On if he talked to kicker Aaron Medley about the missed field goals)
“First of all, I love Aaron Medley. We believe in Aaron, he is our kicker. Those were difficult kicks as well, especially on the road. I believe all three of them were 50 yards or more, so he will be fine. Absolutely, he hurts because he is a competitor and he is a great key player, but like I told the team we win together and we lose together. That’s part of being a family. Those were very difficult kicks but there isn’t any other kicker that I want instead of Aaron.”
Brian Randolph, Redshirt Senior Defensive Back
(On how this loss against Alabama compares to the others)“It’s not the exact same, but from previous years it was a lot better. We competed. We showed them that we can compete. We just have to finish. A loss is a loss. There is still a lot to look forward to. We have five games left and we’re not going to let Alabama beat us twice.”
(On the secondary’s performance)
“We communicated well. We flew to the ball. We had some missed tackles, but we had each other’s back when we did. (If) they broke one tackle, two other guys were there to make the next tackle.”
Joshua Dobbs, Junior Quarterback
(On the final drive)“They had a good push up front. They were able to make a play. There were times in the game where we needed to execute better and capitalize on opportunities we had. We have to come out and be ready to go next week.”
(On how this Alabama game feels compared to others)
“It hurts. It’s a loss. It doesn’t feel good, but there are a lot of learning opportunities. We can’t let this loss beat us twice. We have to be ready to go, because Kentucky doesn’t really care about what happened this weekend.’”
Alabama Head Coach Nick Saban
(Opening statement)“It’s a great win for our team. We were tired out there today and we didn’t look really quick or fast. We didn’t have a lot of energy like we usually do, and I think that’s due to playing eight games in a row. The best thing I can say is that you have to really respect a team that finds a way to win and makes plays when they have to make plays. It was a great drive that we had to score the touchdown, and the defense did a great job of stopping them inside two minutes. I think Tennessee has a really good team and they’ve lost three or four games that were really close or really tough. Obviously, this bye week is going to be very welcoming for us in terms of getting some guys healed up and rested up so that we can be at our best down the stretch. I can’t tell you how proud I am of how our guys competed in the game. They just found a way to win. We didn’t play that great. We had some really critical penalties on offense that stopped drives. We also had some negative plays that stopped drives. We’ve got a lot of work to do. The focus in this bye week will be to heal up, rest up and to try to improve. We are going to try to get more guys ready to play. I thought Jake (Coker) did a fantastic job did although he did not have really good protection a lot of the time. He got sacked five times, and he got out of some other sacks, so we certainly need to clean that up. Derrick Henry had another really good day running the football. On defense, they had two drives against us, and make a couple big plays on that last drive which was a little too easy for them, but that’s a good offensive team and they’ve got some really good weapons. They do a great job with the quarterback (Joshua Dobbs), the quarterback runs, the runners that they have, and the personnel that they have. For the most part, we did a good job, but I’m just really proud of the way our guys competed in this game and found a way to win. It’s always a big win for us, no matter what the score. I think in rivalry games, I think you can throw out all that statistical information out the window. Their team really competed well in this game and played hard. Our guys looked a little bit sluggish, and that’s something that we need to work on to get our tempo back up and do what we need to do so that we can become a better football team.”
(On defensive adjustments after first two drives)
“They run the quarterback to the back side of trey - which is three receivers on the side and the tight end, and then they run it to the tight end. We were playing some defensive [formations] where we didn’t have a good edge to the opening side [of the line] and they were running it to the split end side. So we played more 40 defense and I think that helped us a lot. We were able to stop the run well enough except for the big play run right before the half which almost set up a field goal for them. It was a third down and long situation and we weren’t playing [to defend] the run, [we] missed a couple tackles and the guy made a good run. The thing that they hurt us on in the second half was putting Alvin [Kamara] in the rocket-motion and they hit a couple of big plays on the rocket-motion passes, which you’re really trying to keep the edges [of the field defended] all the time and it gives you single-coverage outside and they hit a couple plays on us. It’s tough to defend that stuff - I’m sure we could have done a little better, but you’ve got to give them a lot of credit for what they did.”
(On the go-ahead drive)
“I think the third down conversions, especially the two fade routes, were really good catches and really good throws. We were able to run the ball, and ran the catch-sweep counter on the touchdown which was a great misdirection. The line did a good job, Derrick did a good job, and we scored a touchdown. It was a go-for-two [points] situation that would have made a big difference if we converted it there, but the defense did a good job on going out and getting a stop [after the failed conversion]. But the third down conversions [offensively] were huge.”
O.J. Howard, Tight End
(On how the win feels)“It felt good, man. I think our team went out there and played hard. It was a tough game but we kept our head on straight and got the W.”
(On how they were able to gain the energy for the last drive)
“We know what it takes. We never gave up and we fought hard. The plays were being called and we executed. We know we needed to score at the end to win the game and that’s what we did.”
(On Calvin Ridley and ArDarius Stewart)
“Those guys really made some big plays. They really stepped up. They showed that they have matured a lot.”
Cyrus Jones, Cornerback
(On how the win feels)“We knew it was going to be a tough game and that it was going to be a 60-minute effort. At halftime, we had to dig deep, come out on fire and I think we accepted the challenge. We weren’t going to back down and we finished the game strong.”
(On what they were saying when they come out for the last drive)
“We knew it was going to come down to defense. We knew the offense was going to make plays when they had to. It was just about execution. We executed when the time was needed.”
(On the offense’s confidence)
“I mean, we always have confidence. Sometimes they start slow and they count on us to keep the game close. We knew they were going to make plays when the time came and they did that.”
