Oct. 4, 2008
Season Stats | Recap | Box Score | Notes | 
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Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt Head Coach
Opening statement:
“Obviously it was a big win for us, and it was a tough battle, but I’m proud of how are guys hung in there, because the first quarter was kind of a scare. But, we came fighting back. But, I thought in the second half our offense started to do some good things and started throwing the ball a little bit more effectively, and won the field position battle in the second half, which was huge since they only needed a field goal to win.
“It was a tough hard nosed fought game, and it’s good to win those.”
On why the second half defense has been so good:
“I think our staff does a fantastic job of looking at what we’ve been running the whole first half. It allows our guys to play fast and confidently, and just go out there and execute a few things and execute them well. The other thing is we stay aggressive. We don’t get into a shell because someone is moving the ball. We kept going at them, and I think it paid off.”
On his excitement level:
“I’m extremely excited. This is what coaches live for. I live to walk in that dressing room at the end of the game and see how happy our players are. That’s what makes me emotional. They earned it and it was good to see.”
On ranking this win in Vanderbilt history:
“I don’t know where this one ranks. Back when Dan McGugin was the coach his teams beat teams 150-0. We’ll gather all of that information up at the end of the season, and see how we do. We still have a lot of work. We can improve in so many ways and we’re going to try and get better. And the thing about is, we need to get better. We’ll see better offenses and we’ll see better defenses probably.”
Vanderbilt Players
Reshard Langford, safety
General thoughts:
“This win feels good. We played hard. We’ve been confident in our skills for a long time and know that we’ve been working hard for a reason. The first quarter wasn’t how we wanted it to turn out but we still pulled out the win.”
On beating Auburn while being an Alabama resident:
“It’s a great feeling for all of us Alabama guys on the team, but we’re happy with getting the win and getting ready for the next game.”
On the crowd atmosphere:
“We’ve been focused the entire season to defend out home turf. The fans have been great to us and stuck with us through the good and bad times.”
On the defensive efforts of the second half:
“Our goal this season has been to not allow points in the fourth quarter. We may have to change that goal to include the entire second half. We train hard and that is going to keep us going well throughout the season.”
George Smith, wide receiver
On attitude of team:
“The attitude in the locker room throughout the season has been to expect to win. We’ve turned a corner in the program. We’ve brought in better players and work hard to bring a winning attitude to our work”
On team expectations:
“Its important for us to know that we’re a good team. We’re a close team and its showing on the field.”
On Vanderbilt fans in attendance of game:
“I want to thank the fans for being loud the entire game. I didn’t think that Dudley Field can get that loud during a game.”
Chris Marve, linebacker
General thoughts:
“The offense and defense got game balls tonight. Tonight was a team effort and was a big game for us. Auburn fought hard and played tough but we earned the win tonight. We practice hard and work on our conditioning to make sure that every play counts.”
On extra attention to program:
“Its been great being on ESPN but we knew that we had to bring a great effort to get the win. We’re going to keep working hard to get more wins.”
Mackenzi Adams, quarterback
On entering the game after Chris Nickson injury:
“I’ve been prepared to start the entire time and am ready to go. We split reps throughout practice this week and he looked good. It’s a good feeling to help the team and get the win.”
On playing well on the national stage:
“It’s been great getting all of the attention and being on ESPN. We’ve had doubters in the past about our program but this was a good win for the program.”
On gaining validation in the SEC:
“Auburn is a great SEC team and we played in a great atmosphere tonight. The win does validate us in the conference, but we’re focused on making ourselves better as a team.”
On playing with Justin Wheeler:
“Justin and I came into Vanderbilt together and were on the scout team as freshman so we have a connection. I have confidence in all of my receivers to do well.”
On turning corner as a program:
“We’re close to doing that but we have to continue to work hard to reach that goal.”
Patrick Benoist, linebacker
General thoughts:
“We’ve preached the entire time that we have to give maximum effort through the whole game. We knew that people were going to think our defense was going to struggle this season but we’ve worked hard to improve. The attention is great for the program but we’re going to get ready for our next game against Mississippi State.”
Tommy Tuberville, Auburn Head Coach
Opening Statement:
“I want to congratulate Vanderbilt, they played hard, they played well, they made plays in the second half when we didn’t make any. I want to thank our players for how they played, in terms of their effort. We played hard. I thought that they figured out a few things defensively on our offense in the second half. We weren’t able to run the ball; I think maybe we had four yards in the second half. You can’t beat anybody doing four yards. I apologize to the players for not giving them a chance in that second half. We didn’t make very good adjustments. You can’t take anything away from Vanderbilt. I’m not going to make a bunch of excuses. They played well all year long. They made plays. In the first half we had one penalty and in the second half we had ten penalties and you’re not going to beat anybody doing that. This one is my fault and we’re going to go back to work tomorrow.”
On Vanderbilt’s defensive adjustments:
“They put eight or nine people up there and forced us to throw it and we came out and threw it and scored the touchdown on the second drive. We didn’t have any rhythm from then on. We couldn’t run it. We tried both quarterbacks and they played us a little in the second half, got in our face, gave us bad plays, got in long yard situations. We’re not making any excuses. We lost this game; I did. Our players didn’t lose it in terms of their effort. Vanderbilt played with enthusiasm the whole game and we kept reaching for something but could never find anything.”
On Auburn’s passing game:
“You got to start with what they did on defense. We tried to attack them with crossing routes. We didn’t have enough time to throw it at times. They did a good job of zone blitzing and bringing five guys and it seemed like we never picked a guy up. We tried to cut the screens. It seemed like the only thing we could do to get going was to get a penalty.”
On improving the offense:
“We’ve got to turn it around. We scored two touchdowns tonight. That’s about half of what we scored the first three games. We’ll go back and we’ll look at it and see who’s healthy. Our protection broke down when we were throwing the ball. When you can’t run the ball, you can’t slow them down. In the second half, they got us on our heels and started bring people and we didn’t have time to get it off.”
On preventing lapses:
“We’ll have another game next week and then we’ll have an open date. We need that; it’s been a pretty long haul. Especially defensively, they played a lot of plays and had their backs against a wall. We just need to find some answers on offense and until we do that, it doesn’t make a lot of difference. These kids will come back tomorrow and get after it again. They know it’s a tough loss. We knew it was going to be a tough game coming in here. We didn’t make any plays in the second half.”
On the Auburn offensive line:
“The chemistry is there. We didn’t create any running game. When we lost our running game they started bringing guys. You can’t block them all. You have to find the open receiver really quick, and we’re not good enough to do that right now.”
On Mackenzi Adams:
“He did good. That’s the third backup quarterback a team has brought in on us and done pretty well. He did well against us last year. He threw the ball well. They hit us on deep crossing routes. Him sprinting out was a big key to the game. He threw it on the money on the run. They made plays. It’s not like we didn’t give them anything.”
Auburn Players
Kodi Burns, quarterback
How are you feeling about the fourth quarter?
We played terrible. It’s just a bad deal overall… it’s just a bad deal, it’s not a good feeling.
What could you have done differently to win this game?
We kind of got away from doing our bread and butter, which is running the ball.
How are you feeling about the pressure from this game?
It’s really hard to come into a game like this. We were picked to win, we were the higher ranking, and we just couldn’t come away with a win.
What is the feeling in the locker room right now?
A lot of guys are upset, a lot of them. We just have to pick up and move on. It’s another game next week and then a bye week after that. We have to keep pushing.
Montez Billings, wide receiver
Was Vanderbilt better than advertised?
I don’t know about that. I think it’s our fault. We couldn’t make plays, we couldn’t push the ball.
What was frustrating about the second half? Week after week, you come in and it’s something about the offense.
Yeah, it’s really frustrating because it’s always something and this time it was penalties. We just have to make progress.
Mario Fannin, wide receiver
Opening Statement:
We gotta make some changes. We made too many errors today.
Do you have the players available to make the changes?
That’s the coaches’ decision. It’s our responsibility to go out there and win, and we didn’t do that today.
Is the two quarterback system frustrating or disruptive to the offense?
Not at all, I think it’s an asset. We just have to learn how to utilize it and make an advantage rather than a point of confusion. We have the ability to confuse other teams, but we weren’t able to use Chris (Todd) and Kodi (Burns) to our advantage tonight.
