Sept. 13, 2008
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Season Stats | Photo Gallery (Russell) 
| AP Photos
Bobby Johnson, Vanderbilt Head Coach
Opening statement:
“Tonight was an exciting game, there is no doubt about it. Our team has to give Rice a lot of credit, they came out there and put us on our heels during the first half. The one thing that I liked about the first half was our offense responded to everyone of their scores.”
“I thought defensively we did a great job of shutting them out in the second half. Sometimes luck helps out your football team and I think they dropped a couple of passes on key situations but sometimes you make your own luck.”
“I was very proud of the way our guys hung in there and our coaching staff didn’t panic. We came out of halftime and put together a very good second half.”
On the adjustments made to their passing game in the second half:
“Well, we quit trying to make so many adjustments. We were trying to match up every little thing that they were doing and we started to make fewer adjustments in the second half. We went to a more basic defense and just tried to put more pressure on the quarterback. Clement gets rid of the ball so quick so it was hard to put a lot of pressure on him. He does a great job of running their offense because he can hurt you with his feet and his arm.”
Coming into this game against Rice, did you think that your offense would have to put up a lot of points?
“We knew coming into this game that they scored 98 points in their first two games so we figured they would get their points. Although, when our guys had to step up, they did. Our offense and defense came up with some big plays tonight. Our offense controlled the ball the second half. I was very proud that our offense didn’t give them the ball back during the last drive. We were able to run for first downs and run out the clock.”
On Bryant Hahnfeldt setting the school scoring record:
“Everybody was wondering if he was good enough and now he is the leading scorer in the history of our program. He has been a good kicker since he has been here at Vanderbilt.”
It seemed like Chase Clement was trying to find James Casey everytime he threw the ball, did you do anything different to try to stop that?
“No we didn’t do anything special. I know one thing, he is a good football player. He is a big, strong player that can run. Jarett Dillard and Casey just have a knack of getting open. Rice tested us tonight with some very good players.”
On how encouraging is it to have a lot of different players step up and make big plays:
“We had a lot of people contribute tonight. We had some big plays in the kicking game and D.J. made some big returns. D.J. punt return in the fourth quarter was huge because it put us two scores up.”
Vanderbilt Players
Myron Lewis, cornerback
On the defense:
“We knew the offense was going to play well today, even though the offense didn’t play that well. We’re just coming together as a defense.”
On facing Rice’s offense:
“They were going pretty fast, but we started off a little slow on the defensive side of the ball. But as we came together, we pulled it out as a team.”
On stopping Rice:
“We just needed to settle down and everybody needed to be under control and play together. (Rice) was playing pretty fast, but after a while we picked it up. Playing as a unit, we were able to stop them on every down.”
On Vanderbilt’s offense:
“It was pretty nice for the offense to be playing well. They played really well as we kind of struggled in the first half on defense.”
On the defense in the second half:
“Our defense is a four-quarter team, not a second half team. We struggled a little bit in the first half, but we settled down.”
D.J. Moore, cornerback
On the defense in the second half:
“I think in the second half we really got it going. We got more pressure on the quarterback and that settled our defense.”
On his punt return:
“On a punt return, as long as I catch it, I believe I should score or get close to scoring just about every time. I thought I scored. I don’t know about that one.”
On being 3-0:
“It feels fine. We’re trying to go for 4-0. Every team is trying to not lose a game. It feels fine right now. I thought it was pretty much the same team. Everybody pretty much prepares hard. Whoever executes the best is going to win the game.”
On halftime in the locker room:
“We didn’t say too much. It felt like we were losing. Everybody knew they had to do stuff. Nobody had to say too much.”
David Bailiff, Rice Head Coach
General thoughts on the game:
“We gave up good field position too often in the game. We have to make plays. I was frustrated with our kicking game, especially our coverage. We’ve been practicing it throughout the week and we’ll have to work harder at it.
On lack of offense in the second half:
“Vanderbilt is a physical team and that wore on us. We couldn’t establish any rhythm or timing in the second half. We also had some dropped balls by seniors.”
On losing defenders before and during the game:
“We were missing some players tonight. Our starting defensive ends didn’t even make the trip. However, our young players need to step up and make plays.”
Rice Players
Andrew Sendejo, safetyOn Vanderbilt running the clock out:
“We knew they were going to try to run the clock out at the end of the quarter, so we were just trying to get a takeaway because that was the only way we’d be able to get the offense the ball and have a chance to win the game.”
On what contributed to the shift in momentum:
“Like Coach (David) Bailiff said, a big part of it was just making plays. We had plenty of opportunities to tackle guys and we had lots of missed tackles. I don’t know as far as missed assignments until after we watch the film, but I know we didn’t make the plays we needed to and that was a big factor.”
On building on this:
“I know for the first three quarters, we had them going. That is something to build off of. For us, we just have to work on finishing in the fourth quarter. We can definitely build off what we did early in the game.”
Chase Clement, quarterback
On the difference in Vanderbilt’s defense in the second half:
“(The Commodores) started mixing up their fronts. They started changing between three down and four down (linemen) and that was kind of screwing with some of our protection. We had opportunities, we just didn’t take advantage of them.”
On the Rice’s play calling in the second half:
“We got into situations, which change how we run our offense. We just have to make sure that we are getting the yardage to move the chains and we just didn’t do that. Against a good team, you have to make plays and at certain times we just didn’t make them, whether it was a pass that was too high or a dropped ball. It was just a matter of making plays.”
Bencil Smith, defensive back
On the play of the defense despite the injuries:
“This is football, so if you play the game you know it is going to be hard on the body. Of course we were hurt by the losses of our two seniors, Vernon James (LB) and Brian Raines (LB). We talked about it in practice and that’s when you count on those guys to step up and fill the void. That was on their shoulders and it was something they had to do. I think they did a good job. We were in the right places at the right time, but we have to learn how to finish. We knew that we were good enough defensively to come in and get a win.”
