Nov. 8, 2014
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Vanderbilt – Florida Postgame Quotes
Nov. 8, 2014
Vanderbilt Stadium
Vanderbilt Head Coach Derek Mason
Opening comments:
“Hats off to Coach Muschamp and Florida on coming away with the victory. They did a good job of not turning the ball over. We didn’t possess the ball well; any time you talk about four turnovers – we need to continue to get better.
“Our defense, initially, played stout and gave us a chance. We needed momentum… We leaked oil late in the game.
“That game was much closer than the final score indicated. We have to get better about eliminating mistakes.”
On how the game would have ended had Vandy not turned the ball over:
“It would have been a fist fight. It would have come down to the fourth quarter and the last possession. We knew they’d throw it a little more. Our corners could have made plays on a couple of balls. It would have gone down to the wire without turnovers.”
On Vanderbilt running back Ralph Webb’s fumbles:
“The first one, he had it high and as he was coming through, his elbow got hit. In the second one, he got hit high and the ball slipped out. We have to protect the ball.”
On the impact of losing two fumbles:
“It’s about rhythm. It takes you off the field. Then, you look at time of possession.”
On Vanderbilt’s spirit:
“It’s good. We still have ball games to play. We’re not going to excuse this game to four turnovers. It is what it is. Tomorrow, we have to get back to work.”
On whether Florida QB Jeff Driskel crossed the goal line on his second quarter touchdown:
“I didn’t think he got in, but they called it a touchdown, looked at it, and the call stood. I know our guys played their tails off. Whatever the refs say – hey, he we have to play football.”
On when in the game to change quarterbacks:
“It wasn’t about doing anything differently. Turnovers changed the complexion of the game.”
On whether Johnny McCrary will remain the starting quarterback:
“We’ll look at the tape and evaluate it… I’m not ready to comment on a quarterback.”
On Vanderbilt QB Patton Robinette:
“I felt good about him coming into the game. We had a couple of things for him and wanted to get him his own series early on. We felt like we were on the cusp of something, so we stuck with [McCrary].”
On Ralph Webb setting a freshman rushing record:
“He doesn’t care about records. If you told him we’d have a win and he’d get 12 yards, he’d take it. We don’t want to be about records. We want to be about playing winning football.”
TE Steven Scheu
On turnovers swinging early momentum:
“A lot of it has to do with momentum. Right out of the gate, we came out with a lot of energy and a lot of poise. We had an edge to us. I think those turnovers just really hurt, kind of shot our mood. Turnovers in general are just really tough to overcome.”
On the offense’s continued improvement:
“I absolutely think we’ve improved a ton. The score may not have showed it tonight, but we’ve definitely taken strides in the right direction. It’s really things that are on us. Just shooting ourselves in the foot, self-inflicted wounds like that. We’re moving the ball, doing things like that, up and down the field. But turnovers will kill you, penalties will kill you and that’s really what it comes down to. We’ve definitely taken a lot of strides in the right direction so I’m happy with where we’re going.”
On being eliminated from bowl-eligibility:
“We’re not focused on [a bowl game]. We’re just focused on improving as a football team each week. That’s really all you can do so we’re just going to take this bye week and try to get as much out of it as we can and just try to get these last two games.”
On the timing of the upcoming bye week:
“I’m happy with the bye week. We have a lot of guys that are banged up, just in general. That happens in the tenth, eleventh week of the season. I don’t think a bye week’s going to stall our offense at all. If anything, it’s probably going to help us so we can come back healthy and ready to go.”
QB Johnny McCrary
On the impact of turnovers in today’s game:
“Turnovers in general [were a problem]. They caused me to commit turnovers, as well. It’s not like myself. We were a bad team, just didn’t show up today. It showed up through the turnovers.”
On facing pressure all game:
“When you play this game, you can expect pressure. I knew they were going to bring some type of pressure each play. It was just one of those intense games where I was going to get hit a lot, and I was ready for it.”
On the team’s motivation moving forward:
“We’re always motivated. That’s just who we are at Vanderbilt. We go out there each and every game and give it our all. It’s just, like you said, turnovers and penalties. You can’t win a game when you have turnovers. Can’t win a game like that. As for the rest of the season, we’re going to go out there and play like it’s our first game and try and win.”
On Ralph Webb rebounding from a pair of fumbles:
“He’s like me. He’s hard on himself but I looked in his eyes and knew he just wanted to get the ball again and be what he was in the past few games. It’s hard when you just made a turnover. I did the same thing, you make a turnover and you have to keep yourself up and he was doing that, as well. It’s just that, late in the game, it’s hard to bounce back from that.”
On Webb breaking the freshman rushing record, but committing two big turnovers soon after:
“Ralph’s not like that. I think he’s moreso focused on growing as a player. He’ll break a record and still worry about what he did wrong in a game. I think that’s how we’re coached, to not worry about accolades and records but moreso to learn the game of football and I think that’s what he’s going to focus on now.”
LB Zach Cunningham
On having to return to the field seconds after a big stop on defense:
“You got the high energy from the last stop you made so it didn’t bring you down that much. You know you have to go out there and make another stop.”
On how convinced he was on getting that fourth down stop despite the touchdown call:
“It is one of those calls that could have gone either way. I’m pretty sure if they didn’t call it a touchdown the booth would have called it too. Could have gone either way with it.”
On the defensive breakdown in the second half:
“I guess that was the DBs and the coverage we had, I guess we weren’t expecting the deep throws. All week we stressed the stopping the run and the deep throws caught us off guard.”
LB Stephen Weatherly
On is it hard to keeping the momentum going after earning the first stop:
“No, love playing defense love going out there to make stops. when they got that turnover the whole defense said let’s go out there and do it again so we went out there and did it again.”
On where does the defense needs work during the bye week:
“I actually believe in this game, especially in those two short yardage fourth down stops, we clicked as a defense. We fired on all cylinders. Everyone was where they were supposed to be. Everyone was striking, making great plays. Great tackle by Zach on the first fourth down. I felt like we need to ride that through the bye week to prep for Mississippi State.”
On being eliminated from bowl contention:
“No, as long as I have been here our mentality has been one game at a time. Now we have a bye week and what I am looking forward to is going to Mississippi State.”
Florida Head Coach Will Muschamp
Opening statement:
“Turnovers. They had four turnovers for 13 points that certainly changed field position for us in our favor multiple times. The penalties really disappointed me. We’ve actually had a pretty good run of that until I got asked that question this week. Self-inflicted wounds right before half, you just have to pull off in those situations. I’m really proud of our football team. We had a big win last week and we came back and took care of business. Defensively, we lost our eyes a little bit on things in the second drive of the game that created some momentum for them. Again, really proud of our team. We took care of the ball and we had some explosive plays. We’re really proud of Treon Harris in the way he played. We put some things on him tonight if they’re going to load the box, we have very talented guys outside that can go and get the football. We still created some things in the run game and hats off to our offensive staff for finding ways to run the ball. Again, a lot of stuff we can still work on. Getting back home is very important to us and playing well in a noon kickoff against South Carolina. We look forward to getting back home. “
On play of offensive line:
“We were make-shift. I have to see where we are at but I think we’re OK. Chaz Green had a little banged up knee but I think he’s fine. Tyler Moore had an ankle and couldn’t come back. We did have some guys banged up here and there. Roderick Johnson just got a little bit of a shoulder there in field goal PAT but he’ll be fine. We had to move things around but hats off to our offensive staff that we were able to stay productive.”
On the status of Leon Orr:
“Leon hasn’t started since the Alabama game and he has not started all week in practice. He came to me today and didn’t understand why he wasn’t starting and he said he was going to go home. That was his decision. I said if you go home you’re done. You’re not a Florida Gator anymore. I appreciate Leon and his contributions to our football program. He felt like he should be starting but I think we’ve been very productive with the four guys that have been starting. He left today, he left our football team on game day.”
On the play of Treon Harris:
“Treon is a guy that has been overly coachable since he’s been on campus. He continues to work hard. He’s a guy that the game comes easy to him. He makes some plays and we had an opportunity where we had a drop in the end zone where we should’ve had another touchdown. He’ll continue to get better and continue to improve. We have all the confidence in him moving forward. The thing that strikes me is his maturity. He doesn’t get fazed. He’s been accurate in practice so that’s nothing that shocks me there. The maturity of carrying it to a game has been outstanding. He’s got a competitive edge about him and that’s a talent. It’s hard to measure a competitive edge until you get in those situations. He has a competitive edge about him but he’s a winner. He played at one of the highest classifications in the state of Florida and he has produced and won. There’s no question we’ve played well on the offensive line especially in the last two games. We’ve protected well, ran the ball extremely well and we haven’t put him in a lot of adverse situation in my opinion in a down and distance standpoint. There has been a lot of good things happening right now.”
Florida DB Vernon Hargreaves, III
On chasing interceptions:
“I finally got one, so I think I’ll be alright. I was just doing it to make plays.”
On seeing the offense come alive as a defensive player:
“It was great, just like last week. It gives us rest, and we’re hard to beat when we’re rested on defense.”
On Treon Harris:
“He’s a special player. As a freshman just to come in and do whatever the coach asks, whether it’s handing the ball off six times or throwing the ball however many times he did today, he does it to a high level and that’s impressive for a freshman.”
On Harris’ composure:
“Before the Georgia game, I was kinda nervous for him, just because it’s a big game. I went up to him and started talking to him, and he’s like ‘I’m ready,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay?’ and he obviously was.”
On how the team has improved in the past couple of weeks:
“We understand where we need to go now. It’s technique, being where we’re supposed to be, and just effort.”
On coach Will Muschamp’s handling of Leon Orr’s departure from the team:
“He didn’t really say much about it. He kinda told us the situation, he kept it short with us. There’s not really much we can do about it as players. We just have to move on and keep trying to win games. If a guy wants to say he made his decision as a head coach, that’s his decision. I’m not really sure if Leon had a choice, so I don’t know.”
On creating turnovers:
“I’m pretty sure every defense in the country preaches about forcing turnovers, I know we do, and when we get ’em, we’re hard to beat.”
Florida OL D.J. Humphries
On the accuracy of Treon Harris:
“He surprises me a lot. I think about him like he’s my little brother. So when I see him doing something like throwing a deep ball down the field, I just look back and say `let’s go Tre and get another one.’ He’s been real focused during practice so it’s starting to pay off for him.”
On switching to guard and offensive line injuries:
“I didn’t think anybody was going to see that tonight. Coach Summers turns to us so much. When everyone starts going down, this is where we’re going to see how tough we are. When you have that type of sense of urgency coming from your coaches, it’s like alright whatever, let’s keep it moving.”
Florida RB Matt Jones
On the play of Treon Harris tonight:
“This game was great for him and definitely got him confident now. He had a great week at practice this week. This is just great for him on the ground and throwing the ball. He threw a couple shots deep and had no hesitation doing it.”
On the turn around past two games:
“That just tells me that my team has heart. My team doesn’t want to be denied. They still want to play for a SEC championship. At the end of the day, you just want to play for something that has meaning.”
On the running ability of Kelvin Taylor and him:
“We do compete a lot. But we just have fun and compete. I mean that guy is a great guy and he runs the ball extremely well. He gets me going, I get him going. And we do what we do best which is run the ball.”