Nov. 1, 2014
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Vanderbilt – Old Dominion Postgame Quotes
Nov. 1, 2014
Vanderbilt Stadium
Vanderbilt Head Coach Derek Mason
Opening comments:
“You have to tip your hat to Old Dominion. They played a very hard fought game. I want to say to Commodore Nation – if you weren’t here in person, I hope you saw it on TV. This is your football team of the future. I’m proud of the guys.
“Johnny McCrary played well tonight. He set a record in terms of touchdowns… He did a great job of distributing the ball.
“Ralph Webb set a freshman record for yardage… He ran well. The offensive line blocked well. It’s a testament to our kids and coaches.
“Defensively, I’m proud of those guys. Old Dominion’s offense can score in bunches. They average 33 points a game. They had a couple of quick scores tonight. We told our guys not to panic.”
On having five players with receiving touchdowns:
“It’s what we’ve been looking for all year. We’ll continue to move forward. It’s about our ability to balance the run and pass. It’s about our ability to give guys the ball in different spots.”
On Vanderbilt’s 45:17 to 14:43 time of possession edge:
“Forty-five minutes of time of possession – you’ll take that all day long. Our offensive line blocked well. There were holes. We wanted to be aggressive – that’s who we are. This team is starting to find its identity.”
On Vanderbilt’s offensive confidence:
“They have confidence in what [Offensive Coordinator] Karl Dorrell is calling. They have confidence in each other and what we can do. We needed to put it all together and get in a rhythm. Kudos to those kids. They’ve ignored all of the white noise.”
On Vanderbilt’s individual player accolades:
“It’s a team victory. We wanted to leave it at that. Individual accolades will come on Sunday. We’ll give the game ball to our offense.
“I don’t think Ralph Webb is concerned with individual accolades. He’s concerned about the mindset of the team. Records are great, but you’d trade them all for team wins.”
On Vanderbilt’s ground game with Ralph Webb and Dallas Rivers:
“It’s like thunder and lightning. They balance each other out. It’s nice to see those guys running through.”
On Whether Johnny McCrary will remain Vanderbilt’s starting quarterback:
“We’ll continue to play football.”
RB Ralph Webb
On opportunity of reaching all-time freshman rushing record:
“We just come out here and focus on winning each and every game. If it comes it comes, if it doesn’t then it doesn’t. At the end of the day we’re all just trying to get a win.”
On Offensive line rhythm:
“The offensive line was great tonight. Everybody was on their blocks and doing their job. Receivers on the outside did a great job of blocking on the perimeter. But a huge shout out to the O-line they did a heck of a job out there tonight.”
On team’s young talent:
“There is a lot of young talent on this team. A lot of people from my class are playing. We have a great young group of receivers in that same class. I think we have a bright future as long as we keep working hard and playing like we’re playing.”
On career-high in yards and carries:
“Coach said we were going to come out here and take their defensive will. We were going to run the ball until they stop us. And we were going to keep running the ball no matter who was back there; we’re just going to keep pounding.”
QB Johnny McCrary
On tying the school Passing TD:
“I look at Jay Cutler all the time, really any quarterback in the NFL, and learnas much I can from them personally. When you go out there and execute, and you have a line like I did and you have wide receivers to make plays for you, of course you’re going to break some type of record eventually. That’s what we’ve been trying to do all season long, was trying to have a really cohesive, efficient offense, and that’s what we did.”
On being pressured by the return of Patton Robinette:
“He pretty much has been coaching me up, just like the coaches and the other backup quarterbacks as well. We pretty much go out there and compete every single day and your job is never promised. Whoever is out there we just play.”
On how much fun having a successful night on offense:
“For me it’s just going out there and playing with my guys. The next day is never a promise, that’s something I will remember the rest of my life. You look in the huddle and you see these guys’ faces. Some of them are scared, some of them are smiling. You just go out there and you throw touchdowns, you fumble… That was my fault, I took some bad steps, I tried to do something I shouldn’t have done, and we spotted them a touchdown. Luckily, we got back on track and started playing how we should.”
On the young talent on the team:
“There’s a lot of young talent on this team. A lot of people from our class are playing, this is a great group of receivers, and as long as we keep playing hard like we’ve been playing we have a bright future in front of us.”
TE Davis Dudchock
On the high scoring game:
“We definitely believed this game would come. Like Johnny said, we’ve been focused and bent on having a full cohesive offensive attack: rushing the ball, passing the ball, putting both together. We were excited that it happened tonight.”
On being part of a nine minute drive that produced no points:
“I’m not sure if I’ve been a part of anything like that before, but we had plenty of long drives tonight. Like Ralph said, the O-line was playing their butts off and playing past the whistle every play.”
On whether it was tiring having the ball so much:
“I think the offense definitely starts to feel better, you start to develop more of a rhythm when you have backs like Ralph and Dallas, pounding it, you just want to go out there and keep playing on them.”
On three of the TE’s getting touchdowns during today’s game:
“Like I said on Tuesday, there are a few guys that can play several roles on offense; they have great versatility and make the most of every opportunity. I think they did a great job of that tonight.”
On his touchdown:
“Johnny did the work. He got the ball up and Steven Sheu threw a great block for me, and I needed that to get to the end-zone .”
DE Kyle Woestmann
On the locker room’s postgame reaction:
“The first thing I said was we’re just pumped to be 1-0. I think, collectively, that’s the best we’ve played as a team. Our defense, we had two drives where we gave up two bad touchdowns but, throughout the game, I think that’s the most solid we’ve played in terms of defensively. Offensively, I think that game speaks for itself. They did the most unbelievable job from the run-game to the pass-game, grinding it out then airing it out. Like I said, I think as a whole we are really excited because, as a whole, we were yet to play a really good game of football this season and that was a big step in the right direction for our team.”
On watching the offense work from the sideline:
“I always say my favorite part of the game is watching the offensive line, because they do it to us at practice and it gets kind of old, so it’s nice to see them do it to someone else. So I actually enjoy being a fan, I love getting a chance to scream at those guys and watch them do their thing. Honestly, we’ve got those nice heaters on the sideline, you just sit there and keep stretching in front of the heater, watching the game, and you’re still warm and it feels like you haven’t missed a beat. It’s not bad at all.”
On why the offensive performed so well in the game:
“Offensively, I thought they played tremendous. Johnny McCrary’s done an unbelievable job as a redshirt freshman stepping up and delivering for us. Ralph Webb and the offensive line, that’s the best they’ve played as a unit, protection-wise and in the run-game. It’s just incredible to see the growth of our team, especially the young guys like McCrary, guys like [Taurean] Ferguson in our [defensive] backfield that are starting to step up. He had a beautiful interception. Young guys are making plays. That’s the biggest thing, because we are a young team, it just gives a lot of positivity and confidence for the rest of the season and in seasons to come, because these are guys who are still developing every game.”
On the team coming together and playing its best game:
“As a whole, it makes me feel like that’s the Vanderbilt we should be. It was just hard because, going into the season, we have a very talented offensive line. We have some talented young quarterbacks so it’s good to see one step up and emerge as that guy. We have very talented running backs, you knew Ralph Webb was going to be a stud in the spring. That’s what we’d been waiting to see from the offense. Defensively, the rush got pretty hot tonight, there was a lot of pressure on the quarterback, getting hit and rattling him. On the back end, there was good coverage for the majority of the game, making the interception. I think there was a ball or two on the ground we should have gotten. I think you’re seeing good plays being made, sounder offense, sounder defense, and then special teams has been on for the majority of the season. You’re just really starting to see the Vanderbilt team come together and I know it’s late in the season, but it’s better late then never. I’m just really, really proud of everyone on this team, and how we’ve banded together through some tough times this season, getting to where we should be.”
On a sparse crowd at Dudley Field:
“In my four years here, it’s been up and down. There’s been a lot of times where they’re with us, and a lot of times they weren’t with us. We love every Vandy fan that comes, we love the people that fair-weather us, but it doesn’t matter because, at the end of the day, it’s the guys in this locker room who are most important. We go out there together and have a great time. The louder it is, the better environment it is, we feed off that. So it definitely helps when the stadium is packed but, I can tell you, whether it’s filled or not isn’t going to affect the way we play because that’s not who we’re playing for in the end.”
CB Taurean Ferguson
On Old Dominion’s pass-heavy offense:
“Their passing game, it’s something we’ve looked at throughout the week, as far as their passing concepts. So just going out there today, it wasn’t anything we hadn’t seen. Just with the defensive line getting their rush, and their back half getting their unit, it worked out perfectly at the end.”
On Johnny McCrary’s improved play:
“Same old Johnny to me, except he’s on the field now. Same old Johnny.”
On preparing for an up tempo opponent in ODU:
“It always starts in practice. Practice is where it all started the whole week. Just going out there during the game today, it was nothing new we hadn’t seen before.
On his third quarter interception at the one-yard line:
“Got the call, something that we’d seen in practice before. I came down, played the right coverage, got two hands on a guy, and stopped his momentum. The ball went up, I turned my head around and made a play on the ball.”
Old Dominion Head Coach Bobby Wilder
Opening statement:
“I felt like we competed and played really hard. I was proud of our guys. I think Vanderbilt at this point is a better program than we are. It was evident particularly up front in the offensive and defensive lines both size-wise and strength. We tried to get some stuff going in the run-game and we just couldn’t. They dominated us on the line of scrimmage. They average 305 pounds across the offensive line and they are 250 pounds at tight end. They were just physically bigger and stronger up front and that led to dominating the time of possession. The game comes down to third and fourth downs and they were 9-for-15 and we were 2-for-9. It was our inability to stay on the field offensively and their ability to keep drives going that ended up being the difference in the game. At 28-21 going into the fourth quarter, I felt like we could win the football game. We just didn’t have enough at the end to do it. The fact that our defense was on the field for 85 plays is probably the statistic of the game. They dominated the fourth quarter by scoring two touchdowns.”
On staying competitive in games:
“The only game I feel like we’ve been out of this year has been the Marshall game. We just haven’t been able to grab a lead in this losing streak. The biggest problem has been playing from behind. We got ourselves down 21-7 and then 28-14 at the half so we’ve been playing from behind. The one thing I’m taking a lot of pride in is how hard we are competing and playing. We are staying in football games but we just don’t have enough to get over the edge. We have to get that back. It’ll be good to be back home since we haven’t been home in five weeks. That’ll be really good to get back home and get some energy from our fans because we need that.”
On the crucial penalties:
“One of the critical ones was the late hit on Justice Davila. He didn’t realize the guy didn’t have the ball. He thought he was tackling the guy with the ball. When he realized, he let go of him. He didn’t take him to the ground. The flag came late from the back judge. That was a third down play when the score was tied at 7-7 and we would have pinned them deep in their end and would’ve made them punt. But it’s part of the game and those things happen. We got one back late they when they called a personal foul when our player blocked them into it. I do think we had a couple penalties on defense that I wish we could have back. A couple of pass interferences really hurt us.”
On the team’s mood on the five-game losing streak:
“They are dejected right now. No one around here is used to losing. The goal right now is to get a win and get the confidence level back to where it was. I truly believe that we have a good football team I think we have good players and have really good kids that want to do well. But this is part of the process when you move from FCS to FBS. We just need to get that one win to get everyone’s confidence back to what it was after the Rice game.”
LB D.J. Simon
On third down penalties:
“The penalties really hurt, but I feel like we are just one play away, getting out of line and learning to get off the field on third downs.
“Flags can go either way depending on what side you are on. But like I said, we have to battle through that and learn how to get off the field on third downs.”
On the end of the game:
“They wore us down towards the end. You can see on the time of possession, they just had the ball for a long time. So play after play the team is already down.
On finally have a home game next week:
“It will be huge coming back and playing in front of our home crowd. Basically like the 12 Monarchs, just getting behind us. I think our defense, we play better at home. So we’ll try to get the ball to Taylor’s hands.”
On tackles:
“I felt like everyone ran to the ball, so we gain tackled a lot better then we did earlier in the season.”
QB Taylor Heinicke
On tonight’s game:
“Offensively, we were good and bad. I feel like we played really well at times. Vanderbilt’s a good football team. They outperformed us.”
On the difference in time of possession:
“It was kind of strange. I think we only got three or four possessions in the first half when we usually get about eight or nine. They definitely took their time with the ball, and I don’t blame them… They had 45 minutes with the ball. We only had 14. So that’s going to take a toll on the defense, and you could see it at the end of the game.”
