Sept. 19, 2015
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Vanderbilt — Austin Peay Postgame Quotes
Sept. 19, 2015
Vanderbilt Stadium
Vanderbilt Head Coach Derek Mason
Opening comments:
“I’m proud of this team. They played a great game. This was a confidence-builder, but there’s still a lot to clean up… We need to continue to work hard and keep playing hard… This is a game we should have won. That’s what confidence-building is all about: beat the teams you’re supposed to beat and surprise other teams.”
On QB Johnny McCrary:
“I’m really proud of him. He did a good job of making decisions… He managed the game the way it needed to be managed.”
On Vanderbilt’s sluggish start:
“It’s about tempo… I said, `Let’s go. Let’s kick this thing up.’ What you saw was Johnny [McCrary] getting into rhythm. Ralph [Webb] ran the ball hard. Those three-yard runs turned into five-, seven-, and eight-yard runs.”
“We need to start faster. We didn’t get going in the first quarter, but we did in the third. We played a great second half.”
On Johnny McCrary’s 16 completions to WR Trent Sherfield:
“Hot guys get the ball. You give it to the playmakers. There were opportunities for a lot of guys to get the ball. It’s based on the match-up. He happened to be the guy on the spot tonight. Sixteen catches — that’s incredible.”
On Vanderbilt’s momentum:
“[Winning] will do a lot for your confidence. `A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down,’ to quote Marry Poppins. It really does. Every week in this conference, you have to ratchet it up. Now, we have to pack up this offense on the road, pack up this defense on the road, and go into a hostile environment [at Ole Miss next week].”
On WR Trent Sherfield:
“I congratulated him two days ago after practice. He works the hardest… He got his just due today… It’s a small taste of what he can do. Now he has to do it every week in the SEC.”
On leaving Sherfield in to break the Vanderbilt single-game receiving record:
“I wanted him to get the record. I wanted him to have another catch. I believe in rewarding players… When he got the [record-breaking catch], I took him out of the game. When there are records to be broken, why settle for second?”
On putting QB Wade Freebeck in the game:
“We have [other] quarterbacks on this roster. We want to develop and evaluate those quarterbacks. We wanted to see what he could do. We wanted an opportunity to get him into the game… He played last year too, but he was kind of a deer in the headlights as a true freshman.”
“We played a lot of guys today. In this conference, you have to make sure guys aren’t just playing special teams. In this conference, you have to be on notice: you’re one play away.”
Safety Andrew Williamson
On falling behind in the first half:
“We had no concern at all. We knew if we came out and played our hardest and our best and just stuck to the game plan, we would come out with a victory. We didn’t skip a beat.”
On momentum coming out of this game:
“You put so much hard work and preparation in throughout the week, and to come out with a W at the end is good. It’s a confidence booster, and it is good to build off of leading into the next week’s preparation.”
LB Darreon Herring
On how it feels to get the win:
“It feels real good. To go out there and grow as a team and get better this week, and to know how it feels to win and teach these young guys the feeling. I think we just grew a lot tonight.”
On QB Johnny McCrary’s reaction to winning the game:
“He’s real happy. We were just talking to him out there, and he was really excited about it. He was talking about what he was going on during the game, we laughed and were having a good time. I think he feels really confident about this game and going into next week playing.
On his influence for the younger players on the team:
“I feel like it’s some of both being a coach and a cheerleader for them. Especially when Jay Hockaday and Jordan Griffin went out there to play, I was really excited. I felt like a father sending them to their first day of school. It was heartwarming to see them going out there and make plays and some tackles for the first time in the SEC.”
Safety Oren Burks
What did it feel like to watch the offense from the sidelines tonight put up that many points and yards?
“We have complete faith in our offense so it’s good to see them go out and execute like we know they can.”
Do you feel like you guys did your assignments and did what you were supposed to do?
“Absolutely. We executed like we know we can and we just go to carry that over into Ole Miss. It is going to be big as far as confidence and we know what it takes to win now so we just have to finish strong and be effective.”
Where you frustrated that you let them score a touchdown after the quick kick?
“Absolutely. We want to hold them to no points a game so that is one of our goals as a defense. But I felt like we bounced back completely positive so we just got to keep moving forward.”
WR Trent Sherfield
You were close to breaking records throughout third quarter, Coach Mason said he knew, how aware were you that you broke the receiving yards record?
“No, I really wasn’t aware.”
What does breaking the receiving yards record mean to you?
“It definitely means a lot. First, it’s important to thank God because it’s all a blessing and I wouldn’t be able to get here without Him. But also, working with Johnny and all the rest of the receivers over the course of the summer, it really paid off and I really want to thank those guys.”
What does tonight’s good result mean for you? Does it make it easier to come in to work tomorrow or prepare for next game?
“No, I don’t want to say easier. You got to come to work every week with the same mentality and that’s to dominate every week. Coming into work with these guys every week it makes me want to get better. These guys are pushing me and I’m pushing them.”Wasn’t long ago Jordan Matthews was here, have you met him?
“Oh yeah. He has come down a few times and we’ve worked out with him. Just talking to him about football and life, he’s a great guy. Outside of the field he is a wonderful, God-fearing man and I’m just trying to follow in his footsteps. The way he worked and seeing what he did when he was here, I’m just trying to follow him and follow the path that he set when he was here.”
Are you going to spend time looking at the records now and focus on what you need to do to surpass them?
“No. Not at all. I am going to celebrate the win with my teammates and then Sunday it is back to business and getting ready to go down to Oxford and face Ole Miss.”
RB Ralph Webb
On the effect winning a game by 40 points has on moving forward:
“It’s definitely a positive effect on the team. We needed this win to get the momentum rolling. We have lots of things to build off and we’re going to clean it up on Sunday, go back to the drawing board and prepare for Ole Miss.
On bringing his mentality from today’s game to future games:
“I come out with the same mentality every Saturday: to run hard and be my best. The receiving game did so well, the running game compliments the pass-game, and it was open tonight and Johnny got the job done.”
On WR Trent Sherfield:
“I worked out with Trent every day this past summer, so I know the type of work ethic he has, and he has a great work ethic. He’s been working for it so he deserves everything he got tonight. And Johnny’s been working, so everything was clicking tonight offensively. We have a year of experience under our belt so we finally came together to play how Vanderbilt should play every Saturday.”
QB Johnny McCrary
On WR Trent Sherfield:
“He made some great plays. He was executing out there, and when you start executing like that things are going to open up.”
On the team’s progression:
“There were some youthful mistakes the last few games, things you can grow from and get better from. I think that coming out there today, it was a team-effort. These guys played really well. How many yards did we have? That was the offensive line. The rushing game opened up the pass. Everything ties in to everything. Defensive line and special teams did a lot of great things.”
On how big of a step this game was:
“It’s great during the off season, we’re waking up at 4:30 in the morning and grinding, hoping to do the best we can during the season, and being able to get a win and for it to pay off is a giant step for us. We have a lot of games left, and this was just one game. We’re looking forward to going to Oxford and to do the best we can there as well.”
On RB Ralph Webb:
“Ralph is a great athlete. More so than that, he is a great person and I trust him a lot. Pretty much I don’t have any concern about throwing the ball to Ralph ever.”
On having a good game:
“It was a team thing. It wasn’t a `Johnny can get it done’ thing, it was a `Vandy can get it done’ thing. I think that going out there and winning is always a good thing, and it is a part of the process that coach talks about, the process of getting our identity, keeping our pride in our hearts.”
On momentum:
“Everything has an effect. Everything happens for a reason, and that’s how I look at life. I think that those tough losses and those tough mistakes are going to eventually pay off as well as this win. I think that this season, and these past few games, will translate into the next few games and the rest of the season.”
Austin Peay head coach Kirby Cannon
On playing well early on both offense and defense:
“I thought our energy was up and we’re in the game, then defensively we can hold our own with quite a few people.”
Is this game a reflection of defense being on the field too long:
“I think that’s certainly a factor, and I think there’s always a level of frustration that begins to build one the defensive side to, when you have consecutive one, two, three and outs and you’re just not playing well on offense. There’s a frustration level then that sometimes can lead to better play, and most times it leads to a little less effort on the defensive side because there doesn’t seem to be much of a chance of us scoring.”
How lack of quarterback pressure affected Vanderbilt’s success:
“I think we moved him (Johnny McCrary) around a little bit, but he’s a good athlete and did a nice job of keeping his head up and finding receivers when we did give pressure. And I thought we did give pressure at times, but we typically had to bring extra people to get it. He did a nice job, and escaped a couple of times. He threw the ball, but athletically one-on-one with our defensive linemen I’m not sure we could drop him in the open field.”
How these games prepare a young team for conference play
“You want to look at it that way. Certainly at the time, you’re attempting to win and to have immediate success. Sometimes after you go home and take a shower and look at what you have on the field, it’s tough to have great expectations. There were several snaps today where freshmen offensive linemen against an SEC defensive line were our best players. I don’t apologize for putting them out there on the field; they learn from each play and each game and make fewer mistakes against Eastern Kentucky and we’ll be a better unit at that point.”
DB Donovan Jackson’s defensive performance compared to Roderick Owens:
“He’s a junior college transfer that I knew back in his high school days in Detroit, when I was at Central Michigan. He’s got a chance to be a really good player. I think Rod (Owens) right now is a really good player. He’s got great explosiveness to him and gets better everyday. He’s going to be an outstanding player.”
WR Jared Beard’s offensive performance after Southern Miss loss:
“I think he bounced back nicely, and that’s all we asked him to do… just refocus and understand what it takes to have success against FBS. You have to go out and you have to do all things right because you’re typically dealing with someone on the other side who is an outstanding player. He found that out the hard way against Southern Miss, but he adjusted really well and was one of the better players on the field today.”
CB Donovan Jackson
On where the team stands as a whole heading into conference play:
“I believe we are making progress to be really good. We’ve got a great coach, Coach (Kirby) Cannon, he’s putting us in great places to make plays we’ve just got to execute. I believe we are coming along very well. We came out and we fought very hard. Like I said Coach Cannon is putting us in a great place.”
On the momentum the team felt after taking the 7-3 lead early:
“I mean it was a good momentum, a good momentum switch. We got a good play on special teams and our offense executed. I think our defense really came out and played hard.”
On the difficulty of defending Trent Sherfield tonight:
“He wasn’t difficult to guard actually. He got me on a post route. He made a play on it, and I give him respect for that. But other than that, we was in a kind of a bail off coverage, and he nickel and dimed his way down the field.”
On what the defense did in the first half to slow down Vanderbilt’s offense:
“That’s just us when we really come out and play, and we are really feeling our self, we are really good players. Our whole secondary, our D-line, our linebacker corps, we are a special group. When we really come out to play we make plays.”
On if the secondary as a whole will be tough to pass against heading into conference play:
“Roderick Owens he’s a really lock-down player. I practice with him every day. He puts in work on and off the field. He’s really a lock-down corner so I believe it’s really going to be tough. With Malik Boynton and Damian Whitfield too, I believe it’s going to be real hard to pass on us.”
On the lack of pressure on McCrary if that affected the secondary at all:
“It makes our job a lot harder. People don’t really understand you are checking a receiver for like six to eight seconds. It’s really hard especially in the SEC.”
WR Rashaan Coleman
On being prepared for Eastern Kentucky:
“I think the two teams that we’ve played recently, they’re opponents we’ve seen, like Mercer. I thought we played well for the most part in the first half but we kind of collapsed in the second half and that’s stuff we can fix, stuff we can build with, stuff we can work on.”
On defense staying out on the field due to offensive inconsistency:
“I think today we did a lot better job of being brothers and being teammates out there. We blocked well for each other. We did everything we were supposed to do from the first half standpoint. I feel that we did a lot better job of protecting each other and going out and looking out for each other and that’s what we have to build off of, build off the positive.”
On being a veteran on the team and building offensive consistency:
“It was really depressing losing Otis because of playing with him last year. He’s a hard worker and a great person to have in the weight room to motivate you. We have a lot of backs that can get that role and they’re being rotated right now and a lot of them got a taste of SEC football tonight, getting hit by those linebackers and what not.
“I think we kept it simple and we ran what we knew how to run. Our linemen are getting confidence back. We’ve played Vanderbilt, and now that we have that under our belt, I’m sure they’re looking forward to playing conference opponents.”
On improving after every game:
“Today we collapsed. But, Vanderbilt is a good program. They have guys who were winners, they were winners throughout high school and a great coach. They gave us a run for our money and we can learn something from it.”
On what worked offensively:
“I don’t think anything didn’t work, I think it was just us being tired, being beat up. That’s what hurts youth, is the constant hits, especially against an SEC opponent. I think our offensive line gave our quarterback enough time and our wide receivers were able to run routes. We can always block better, we can always run better routes, but that’s why the game is so fun because you can always learn something.”