Nov. 8, 2008
Season Stats | Recap | Box Score | Notes | 
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Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt Head Coach
Opening Statement:
“We played a really outstanding football team tonight. Their speed is really impressive and we helped them out a whole bunch with an interception and a blocked punt. That’s no way to compete in one of these games. It had to be where we were making them earn everything and play smart on offense and not turn the ball over and we didn’t do that and we didn’t play very well to help ourselves.”
On Tim Tebow:
“The thing I like most about him is that he is a cool customer. He doesn’t get flustered even though he’s getting pressured, people around his ankles, and we just couldn’t tackle him. He comes out of it and makes big plays, looks like he’s going to be sacked and they throw a touchdown. I think he’s a really outstanding player.”
On Florida’s offense:
“They executed really well, but they have some outstanding athletes and it’s hard to match up. We had six defensive backs in the game and we still had trouble matching up on pass plays. They have quality receivers for every play. One time Percy Harvin is on the weak side, next time he is on the strong side. When you have that many weapons, you can get those match-ups and they win those match-ups. Obviously we could have played better; we could have tackled better. That was the most disappointing thing to me all night. That’s where it starts. If you can’t tackle, you won’t get a chance to play against those great athletes.”
On penalties:
“We had some penalties early in the game and it was too hard to make first downs after that deficit. We were moving the ball, getting to be 4th and 3, 4th and 4, and we’re not going to go for it in those situations. We just couldn’t make first downs and we were digging ourselves even deeper with those penalties. We had the interception and the blocked punt and that just complicated things. We had a couple of holding calls, so I would imagine that someone was losing their block and desperation aided that. We had a bunch of young guys playing on offense at the end and we had procedure penalties and that knocked the total up there. The pressure of trying to be perfect all the time, it’s pretty tough, but that’s what you have to do. You have to be realistic. They have more athletes than we do right now, that’s the truth. We did not go about winning this game in the right manner.”
On Vanderbilt defense:
“We didn’t tackle well, but they have guys that are hard to tackle. They run the ball extremely well inside and outside, run the options. They have an outstanding passing game. When you try to defend all those things, it’s pretty difficult and they did a great job tonight. This game was probably a combination of a good Florida offense and our miscues on defense.”
On Florida’s touchdown going into halftime:
“Well that’s what happens when your defense falls short. We pressured hard at the end of the first half. 2 or 3 plays in a row, we were putting pressure on him (Tebow) and he was throwing it short or running the football, but it looked like we had him. D.J. (Moore) thought he was going to throw it short (since he had in the previous plays) and instead Tebow took off and he got an extra second to throw the ball. That was an enormous play; going from 28 to 35 at the half is tremendously different.”
On Vanderbilt’s touchdowns at the end of the game:
“I was encouraged by our two scoring drives. I believe one was 15 or 16 plays and even if they (Florida) were a little disinterested after that, they (the touchdowns) were still executed well and our guys fought hard. We were glad to get those two drives and we’ll try to build on that and see what we can do offensively.”
Vanderbilt Players
Chris Nickson, quarterback
On Vanderbilt’s two scoring drives:
“I think we did well. I think we finally stopped making stupid mistakes and started moving the football. I think the coaches kind of settled in on what we wanted to do.
“I think we moved the football pretty well in the first half, but we just had crazy penalties hurting ourselves. In the second half, we came out and executed our plays, eliminated the penalties and just moved the football the way we know we can.”
On Mackenzi Adam’s injury:
“He’s feeling pretty confident about the injury. He’s confident about getting healthy and I don’t think it will take long. I think he didn’t want to jeopardize the team moving the ball, and took himself out. I admire him for what he did and I’ve done it before. It’s something that shows how much he wants the team to win.”
Ryan Hamilton, safety
On Tim Tebow:
“He’s a good quarterback. One of the things that makes him so good is the weapons he surrounds himself with. If you put a good quarterback in there with a lot of good players like the players they have it’s pretty tough on a defense.”
On Florida’s offense:
“It was an out of character night for us. I don’t think it was that we didn’t react to it. It was that we didn’t go out there and make the right plays at the right time to get that game turned around. We got ourselves in a hole and it was hard to get out.”
On approaching the last three games:
“We’re going to practice really hard this week and try to improve on everything we didn’t do well today. We don’t want to lose another game this season. We are going to try to forget the last four games and start fresh.”
Urban Meyer, Florida Head Coach
On the game:
“Great win. I was really impressed with the way that we jumped out early. It was a product of a very good defense and very good special teams. If we play like that and the offensive line blocks for the quarterback then we’re great. The attention to detail and the fact that we represent the eastern side of the SEC as a champion is a great accomplishment for our players.”
On the first half:
“It was a very good half. Tim Tebow came out and played tremendously. It all starts with defense. I want to say we held them without a first down for 4 series. You play good defense and you control the line of scrimmage and you have a good kicking game. It’s a good team. There were a lot of plays that weren’t designed. They made decisions that forced them to run the ball and caused us to get a few hits on them.”
On the team:
“I’m awful proud of them. I admire the maturity level and attention to detail. This is a tough place to come play and a quality football team with some very good players that at one point was ranked in the top 15 in the country. To keep the attention to detail was a very good job by our assistant coaches and by our players.”
On blocked punts:
“He had a good feeling that he would do the rugby kick and we had a check against that. Our fast guy came off the back and just missed it a few times, and Carlos got his hands on two of them. His wingspan and arms are weapons.”
On the punt block team:
“It’s all about the personnel we have. I think it’s the best punt block team I’ve ever had. We have 5 or 6 blocked punts, 2 punt returns for a touchdown. The people on that team are weapons. They know that and they enjoy it.”
On the defense:
“I enjoy watching them play and I enjoy watching the coaching that goes on. They come up with really good plays and the players are playing really hard right now. You can’t say it’s any one part of the defense; collectively they’re playing very helpfully.”
Florida Players
Tim Tebow, quarterback
On being aggressive running the ball tonight:
“We’re just trying to get to Atlanta for the SEC Championship game. We came out with some option keeps and our offense just tried to make the most out of every play.”
On winning the SEC East:
“It’s definitely exciting, but we’re just going to take one game at a time from here on out.”
Is that the best the offense has looked all year?
“It was pretty good first half. We came out and executed early and our defense came up with some big stops. We were able to manage our offensive drives well and we were able to put some points on the board so overall I think we had a good half.”
On Penn State losing:
“We’re just focusing on our team winning and if we take care of ourselves that things will fall into place. Who know what is going to happen. Making it to Atlanta for the SEC championship was one of our goals at the beginning of the season but our goal is to take care of business every Saturday.”
Louis Murphy, wide receiver
On the team’s win and Penn State losing:
“We’re just playing Florida football right now and we’re not worried about what other teams are doing. I think our whole team is locked in right now. We’re all playing our best football right now and hopefully we can keep it going.”
On the strong play in the first half:
“I thought we played pretty well. I mean I don’t know what else we could have done to play much better than that.”
Brandon Spikes, linebacker
General thoughts:
“I thought we prepared hard all week for this game and the coaches put us in a great chance to win this game.”
On winning the SEC East:
“I think it’s a great accomplishment for our team but we still have to play South Carolina next week so we’re just trying to focus on one game at a time. Were not going to overlook anybody. We are turning our focus on South Carolina and that’s it.”