Postgame Quotes - Western Kentucky

Nov. 4, 2017

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Vanderbilt – Western Kentucky Postgame Quotes
Nov. 4, 2017
Vanderbilt Stadium

Opening comments:
“I want to speak to our fan base for coming out and supporting us today. We appreciate you. Your energy was good and we appreciate it.”

On Vanderbilt running back Ralph Webb:
“It’s nice for Ralph to break the school record. It’s a team game, but I wanted to talk about him. He’s battled so hard this season. I knew he would [play in this game] on Thursday. I went to him and he said he was good. He’s never lied to me. I’ve never lied to him … He kept coming up on the sidelines asking for the ball.”

“I love that dude. He has something, and I’ve coached a lot of kids. He works hard. He plays hard. Ralph is as good as it gets … [As a team], we love each other. I love this team. These kids love me.”

On Vanderbilt’s defense:
“We gave up over 300 yards passing, but when you face a team like Western Kentucky, that’s what happens. We stopped the run and made them one-dimensional. We got off the field. We did a good job [overall]. Our guys played really hard. We’ll clean up some things for next week, when we play a good Kentucky team.”

“Western Kentucky is a good offensive football team. It doesn’t matter whether you play teams from Conference USA or the SEC, there are really good offenses. It moves the needle for us a little. We have to play with a chip on our shoulder. At the beginning of the season, we had a chip on our shoulder, then we lost it, and we had to fight to get it back.”

On snapping a five-game losing streak:
“It’s good to get back on track. We’re 1-0. Now, we’ll focus on next week.”

On Trey Ellis’ touchdown right before halftime:
“That gave everyone a lift. Sometimes it’s about being lucky, but you have to work hard for opportunities. I’ve seen a lot of plays like that go against us this season. He happened to be in the right spot this time.”

On whether it’s been a challenge to lead the team during its losing streak:
“It hasn’t been hard. We love our guys. We work extremely hard. We work not to blame. We work to get it right. It starts with me and it ends with them. Hopefully VU Nation continues to support us.”

On Vanderbilt’s five sacks:
“It’s about straining to finish. If sacks were easy, everyone would have one… You have to strain to get to the quarterback. You have to step outside yourself.”

Vanderbilt S Ryan White
On the emotions of finally getting a win:
“It was definitely big. We talked at the beginning of the week that we wanted to go out there, have fun and play our game, fly around and be physical with those guys. We did that and it was very big for us.”

On whether giving up a lot of yards shook their confidence:
“I had confidence the entire game. In the first half, I didn’t like how our DB’s were playing. So we talked about it at halftime about how we had to step up and I think we did that in the second half.”

On how much this win was needed for the team:
“Very big for us. Like I talked about before, we just wanted to get back to doing what we know how to do, just fly around and be physical. The front seven doing what they are doing in the run game and getting sacks so it was very big for us.”

Vanderbilt LB Jordan Griffin
On how they came up with big plays on defense:
“We practiced that type of route in practice this week, watching film over and over again with the defense. The coaches put us in the right situation to make a play on that third down and it was about executing at the right time.”

On the results of the pass rush:
“We have been putting a big emphasis on being able to get to the quarterback, being able to finish on pass rush and we were able to do that today. All of us as a defense put an emphasis on getting to the quarterback and I think we did a good job of that today.”

On how much playing with a lead helped today:
“We always talk about it being a 0-0 game, never us thinking we are ahead. No matter what the score is, we are always thinking we are down and we are playing to come back. I feel with that mentality as a defense, it will keep us hungry the whole game.”

Vanderbilt RB Ralph Webb
On how banged up he was going into today:
“You know just trying to fight through. These guys need me and I need them so I have to do whatever it takes to stay out on the field and help us win ballgames.”

On how it feels to break a record in a winning performance:
“I just take it as it comes, if it comes with a win then that’s great. Win on top of everything so I am just taking it as it comes.”

On how his week was fighting through the injury:
“I was pretty banged up but the trainers did a great job of working with me and coach [Jeff] Genyk did a great job working with me and allowed me to play to the best of my ability throughout the week. Those guys did a great job getting me back and preparing me for Saturday.”

On how it feels to break another record:
“It is more for my family and for them to enjoy. I enjoy my teammates but my family is going to enjoy it more than me. So I am just happy to be here with these guys and winning is the most important thing to me so when we win, it all feels good.”

Vanderbilt WR Trent Sherfield
On the jet sweep being a part of diversifying the offense:
“That is a part of our offense, we just make sure guys that have that specialty utilize it in the game. We practiced that all week and it was open all week so I knew I was going to have a chance to get a touchdown. I knew I was going with C.J., he had the most important block on that play and I wouldn’t have got that without him.”

On if he prides himself on being a guy that can make big catches:
“I take that very personally and coach [Cortez] Hankton always preaches that to the wide receiver group to make sure we are above 45% conversions when the game is over. I just want to be the guy to help this offense keep the chains moving and stay on the field. That is something we always preach; defense get off the field on third down and offense make sure we convert on third down.”

On what it means to play with Ralph after he broke another record:
“I can’t even put the words together. You come in and see Ralph working all the time. He was underrated coming out of high school and it is good to see somebody break through those barriers. He wasn’t recruited by his hometown school and he is just proving a lot of people wrong. It is really good to see him climb and make the marks that he is making. I am always in his ear, telling him that he has another record to break. This isn’t the last one he is going to break, he has more coming.”

Western Kentucky Head Coach Mike Sanford
Opening comments:
“There are two things that we are going to do as the hallmark of our program every day, no matter what happens, win or loss. We’re going to fight and we’re going to stay together. Right now we’ve got guys out there that are battling and fighting their tails off, but when we don’t rush the ball for positive yardage, that’s going to be a problem. [The run game] has been a problem the whole year and we’ve got to find a solution. We’re working hard to find a solution, but we didn’t get that done today.”

On competing against Derek Mason, who was on the staff with Sanford at Stanford:
“Hats off to Coach Mason and his football team. They’re extremely well coached. Mason is a great friend of mine and it was a pleasure to have the chance to compete against him today. I think the world of him as a coach and think the world of what he’s been doing at Vanderbilt.”

On failing to capitalize on a close game in the third quarter:
“We didn’t capitalize on the opportunities when the game was close at 21-17. We had a chance to really make something happen, but couldn’t capitalize and that is what ended up making the difference in the game. Right after that, they had a reverse, trick play for a touchdown and that is a big swing in the game.”

On the road ahead the rest of the season:
“We have a lot of football left. I told the team we have three games left, two of which are significant rivalry games, and each of those games we’ll be fighting tooth and nail for bowl eligibility.”

On the offense’s biggest issue:
“Inability to establish the run game. That is something that eats me up. We’ve worked really hard at (improving the run game). We changed up a lot of our schemes to get more motion and eye distraction to create some conflict of assignments. At the end of the day, we’re not a good enough running team to neutralize the pass rush. We leave ourselves vulnerable to defenses to pin their ears back and rush the passer. We have got to solve that now.”

Western Kentucky TE Mik’Quan Deane
On younger players stepping up:
“It was good to see them make some plays, but it was tough because in that second half, we weren’t playing like we were in that first half. It cost us.”

Western Kentucky WR Lucky Jackson
On the beat-up, injured state of the team:
“It’s always crucial when injuries come around, but all we can focus on is the next man stepping up.”

On his standout week of practice:
I practiced like it was a game. Every day I showed up early and stayed late. I watched some extra film. I put the extra work in and it paid off.”

Western Kentucky DL Derik Overstreet
On how the Vanderbilt touchdown changed the momentum at the end of the 1st half:
“It was good luck for them. It’s statistically proven that scoring at the end of the first half helps you win. It helped them a lot, I assume.”