Sept. 4, 2008
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Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt Head Coach
Opening statement:
“It was good to win the second one. I was very proud of our football team. I felt they played extremely hard in the second half and overcame some things in the second half. I’m just proud of the gritty effort by them to come out there and win that football game. We had several hurt and we had a bunch on the sideline for a while. I just couldn’t be more proud.”
On what he told the team after the game:
“I told them I was proud of them just like I’m telling ya’ll. We move on from here. This I think ups the ante a little bit. We’ve got a responsibility now to keep playing this way, play better, get better, work hard, and hopefully we can do that.”
On the win’s significance:
“I have no idea right now. Hopefully we had recruits watching, we had potential ticket buyers watching, we had potential donors watching. It could mean a whole lot, but we have to follow it up. We just can’t say, “Hey, we’ve done it.” That’s all it means. We’ve got to work hard to get ready for Rice this week and they’ll present us problems so we’ve still got our work cut out for us big time.”
On executing well when it mattered most:
In the second half we played our best football. When we had to get it done we got it done. We had some pretty tired puppies out there. Jared Hawkins ran hard, the offensive line blocked hard and the defensive line was relentless today. That’s how you’ve got to win these kind of games. You’ve got to play hard the second half.
On the defensive effort in the first half:
“We sort of gave them their first seven, but after that, they got some good plays on us, but we kept fighting, kept fighting, blocked a field goal. They missed a field goal. That’s why you’ve got to keep fighting. Just give yourself a chance to make a play or have them mess up. I think they played hard every play they were out there.”
On beating Spurrier two years in a row:
“I was surprised that so many people thought it would be real hard for us to beat them. We beat them last year and I don’t know why everybody thought they got so much better than what we were getting. I was glad to get out there and play the game. It was fun.”
On using misdirection plays against South Carolina’s quick defense:
“They were very aggressive on defense and we always have those plays in the game plan, but with a team that’s going to be going hard at you, they’re pretty reliable. You can get some things going.”
On Stone’s two sacks:
“To tell you the truth, I was watching every receiver they had to see where he was and I couldn’t describe them to you if I had to right now. I looked down field. I’m an old secondary coach so I looked down field to see if we’ve got them covered and then I hear everyone cheering and I look back and we have him on the ground. I can’t tell you much about them, but I know Steven Stone is relentless and he works extremely hard, and does exactly what you tell him to do.”
On VU’s blitzing:
“We had a zone pressure or full-out blitz on almost every down. Sometimes it was designed to just get the ball out. I think they started taking advantage of it in the fourth quarter, hitting some passes in the flat, but if it was third and nine and you can get them over there and tackle them and force them to punt, that’s the idea.”
On Nickson’s play:
“I think he did a good job. He was rushed very hard all night, made some big plays for us, got us some situations where they had some great defenses called for some of the plays that we had called out of the huddle. I think he didn’t try to force too many things and didn’t try to do something he couldn’t do so I was very pleased with the way he ran the game.”
On the atmosphere:
“It was a great atmosphere here. You could hear the fans, especially the students, and it was great to have those people in the stands pulling for us. I don’t know if we completely blacked it out, but we had a bunch of them there yelling for us.”
On having a win like this at home:
“We talked about it before the game, that it was time to validate some of the wins we’ve had on the road and this is an opportunity we had. We beat Arkansas and then had them on the ropes here a couple of years ago and let them off, we had Georgia on the ropes last year and let them off. We talked about it. I don’t know if it did any good, but we won. They were aware of it. Football coaches try, but they don’t do a lot of motivating right before the game. It’s done out there on the practice field and that’s where our guys won the game this week.”
On the difference in the two halves:
“Mainly it was sorting out what they were doing to us with their defense. It’s a lot harder than most people think to try to change what 11 people do according to what the defense is doing. It just takes a little bit of time and then coach Cain did a great job of getting in the locker room and reformulating the game plan, and it worked.”
Vanderbilt Players
Steven Stone, redshirt-junior defensive end
Talk about how the defense came up with some big plays to halt South Carolina’s final drive:
“We were just trying to get to the quarterback and Greg Billinger made a great play. My teammates thought I made the play but it was definitely Greg. The last defensive series was just a great team effort.”
On the win:
“We knew South Carolina was a great team and we knew coming in that it was going to be a battle fight. It was an overall great team effort on both sides of the ball. The defense came up with some big plays when we needed to and the same can be said about the offense.”
Jared Hawkins, redshirt-junior tailback
About the crowd tonight:
“It was neat to see all of the Vanderbilt fans getting fired up during the game. At times it felt like the stadium was shaking and our players fed off it. We want to continue to build momentum and we want our opponents to be scared to play us.”
About getting a win on national television and how that helps the program:
“Were trying to make big strides on our football team and a win like this is a big stepping stone for our program. We showed tonight that we can win big games.”
Talk about Chris Nickson play tonight:
“Chris did a great job tonight. He did a great job of recognizing what defense they were in and he made the right reads. One thing that stands out about Chris is he is not only a great player but a great leader for us. He spends more time getting prepared and watching film than anyone on our team and obviously it pays off.”
Chris Nickson, redshirt-senior quarterback
“I want to thank our fans for coming out and creating a great atmosphere tonight. Our fans have been waiting a long time for a win like this at home and we owed it to them. Tonight was a good win for our football team and I can’t say enough about how the defense and offense played. I watched my tailbacks and offensive line grow up tonight and it was a lot of fun to be out there representing our team and university.”
“I think tonight’s win was a statement win. We showed the nation that our football team is improving and that we are becoming a winning organization. We showed that not only is Vanderbilt University a great academic school but a great athletic school as well. There are a lot of exciting things happening here at Vanderbilt and I think everyone saw that tonight.”
Steve Spurrier, South Carolina Head Coach
On if the win was more stunning than last year’s:
“No, last year’s was just as stunning and it sort of irritated me that our players tried to say that we weren’t ready. We were ready to play, we just got our tails kicked. I’m sure those Vanderbilt players are wondering what kind of excuse the South Carolina guys have now. We don’t have any excuses, they just beat us. We didn’t play very well. They had good pressure on the quarterback and that is just the way it happens. How do you explain it? We just got beat. They played smarter.”
On the game:
“We didn’t execute very well and the interceptions hurt. There is no question about it. We had a lot of crucial turnovers and they just beat us. They were better than us tonight.”
On the momentum swing after the South Carolina turnover on the punt:
“The momentum did swing. They went and scored. I guess Captain Munnerlyn was on him (on the touchdown pass). They scored quickly there. That was a key turnover and then we had two interceptions that only led to a field goal, but offensively we sputtered around a bit. Then they started running the ball on us. They maximized their scoring chances and we didn’t do that very well.”
On punting on 4th and 15 at the end of the game:
“They have a good pass rush. We got sacked two plays in a row and they rushed only four guys. It looked like the right thing to do. They were three and out the prior time. Technically, if they don’t make the first down, we could have gotten it back with a couple of minutes left.”
On Vanderbilt shutting down South Carolina’s running game:
“Well we ran right into the teeth of them a lot of times. We should do a better job checking some run plays here or there, but we’ve not been very good at checking. Mike Davis had a few runs here and there, but overall they were tough to run on and tough to throw on.”
South Carolina Players
Chris Smelley, quarterback
General thoughts:
“Vanderbilt is a good team. We weren’t able to take advantage of opportunites, we stalled out on offense and didn’t complete drives. We just didn’t play well. Vandy played great and we weren’t able to get the job done.”
On improved play in the second half:
“I was forcing throws in the first half that weren’t open and got settled in during the second half.”
On losing Kenny McKinley to injury:
“Kenny is a great receiver and has been here the whole time. He always makes plays for us and was cheering us on from the sidelines. He was trying to keep everyone else in the game but losing him on the field definitely hurt.”
Emanuel Cook, strong safety
General thoughts:
“Vandy came out and played a great game tonight.”
On losing two years in a row to Vanderbilt:
“We’re going to come out and take it one step at a time and push hard. We have Georgia next week and we will try to beat them.”