Oct. 11, 2014
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Vanderbilt – Charleston Southern Postgame Notes
Oct. 11, 2014
Vanderbilt Stadium
Vanderbilt Head Coach Derek Mason
Opening Comments:
“It was a good win for the Commodores. It wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win… We had a nice drive at the end of the game offensively. Our finish was the way we wanted to finish – our offense had the ball and imposed its will on Charleston Southern. We have to build off that momentum, continue to get better, and eliminate penalties.”
On QB Johnny McCrary:
“He played well coming off the bench. We’ll take the next two weeks and move forward.
“He took what the defense gave him… He earned the opportunity to get on the field. I told our coaches I wanted to see him in on the third or fourth series tonight.
“He’s talented. He does a good job of using his legs. He was able to extend plays in the pocket. He’s more versatile than the other guys we have.”
On his emotions after Vanderbilt’s second win of the season:
“Resolve… We need to be cleaner. We had too many penalties tonight. We wanted to go 1-0 today and that’s what we did.”
On Vanderbilt’s quarterback situation:
“Hopefully [Patton] Robinette can come back. But, we’ll look at the tape. We’ll make sure that decision is well thought out over the next two weeks.”
On Vanderbilt’s identity:
“We’re 1-0 in the back half of the season. We’re going to work on the things we do well. Offensively, we know we can run the ball.”
On the status of Vanderbilt QB Stephen Rivers:
“His ankle blew up on him. In two weeks, he’ll be back.”
On the status of RB Jerron Seymour:
“He was suspended for violating team rules.”
On Vanderbilt’s ground game stalling tonight:
“Too many penalties. That got us behind the chains. We need to make sure we know what holding is.”
On the team’s confidence:
“A win is a win… We have to continue to move forward with the idea that we’re 1-0.”
On handling the team’s quarterback rotation:
“We have to live with it. We have to play around it.”
QB Johnny McCrary
On the game:
“It was amazing. It was a great experience being out there with my boys. It was pretty much one of the best experiences of my life being out there with my guys, playing in the huddle. The huddle was my favorite part. The guys would calm me down and tell me to just be calm and make smart decisions. The wide receivers kept saying ‘I’ll make plays for you’ and the defense kept saying ‘I’ll hold ’em for you.’ That made my confidence so much better.”
On his touchdown pass:
“Honestly, when I threw it I was thinking ‘normal play, normal play.’ And then I looked back, and he was so wide open. And I was like, it’s made to happen! I just threw it up, and when I threw it up, I was thinking ‘I threw the ball way too far, I’m going to miss him.’ But when I threw it, he just caught the ball, and it was amazing. It’s breathtaking watching your ball being caught by your wide receivers. Then you go to the sideline, and everyone’s just happy. That helps make it possible for us to win games like this.”
On knowing whether he would be playing this game or not:
“I was prepared for this game like I would be prepared for any other game. The last game, the first game, it’s pretty much the same thing. You’ve got to be prepared for anything. You never know, so you’ve got to just prepare for it. All my teammates said ‘Hey, if you get in there, just play.’ That’s pretty much what I did today. Whenever I get my opportunity, I have to step up.”
WR C.J. Duncan
On the team’s performance and Johnny McCrary:
“It was good to see Johnny out there. It was a testament to his work ethic, patience and positive attitude. He’s been waiting a long time for this moment. He stepped up in a big way. He’s well deserving. It was a sloppy game on our part as far as penalties are concerned. But it’s nothing that we can’t correct. We’ll get a week off and fix some things. We’ll be ready for Mizzou.”
On the potential of the offense:
“I think the offense has a lot of potential to do a lot of things well, not only in the run-game but the pass-game. If you look back on it, it’s the little things that need to be corrected. This offense, the way it’s set up and the way Coach Dorrell has coached us and the way he calls the plays, there are opportunities like tonight for big plays at all times. It’s up to us as a team and as players to execute once we get out there on the field. But like I said before, we got a bunch of penalties at very inopportune times. It put us in tough situations and put our quarterback in tough situations. But that’s nothing we can’t correct. I’m still really positive and I know Johnny is too about what the future holds.
On feeling better about the team after the win:
“Oh yeah. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a win over a loss any day. But to say we’re satisfied as a team, I don’t think that’s the case. We’ll definitely enjoy this win. It’s tough to win in college football regardless of who you’re playing. We’ll enjoy this but definitely look back at the film and correct some little things that can help us in the future.”
On if he felt relief toward the end of the game:
“Honestly, I wasn’t that nervous just because of the confidence I have in Johnny, the experienced O-line we have and also the receiving corps. And we have two great running backs. Dallas Rivers came out of nowhere and ran like he was a vet and he’s a true freshman. So having so much talent across the board, you’ll have opportunities. And you got to just take advantage of them when you they come.”
On getting a win and the confidence going forward:
“Coach Mason has told us multiple times `tough times don’t last but tough people do.’ I mean he’s just always encouraging us. And like he said, after the game, don’t let anybody take away from this win. A win is a win and that’s two on the board for the season. It lets us know that when there’s tough situations, tough times, we’re bold enough to step up and make plays and do the right thing like taking care of the ball and managing the time. We’ll definitely take this win to help us in the future.”
CB Taurean Ferguson
On the interception:
“We pretty much had a man coverage and a man came at me. I had seen they ran a slant, and the quarterback undercut the ball and I had it picked.”
On the bye week:
“It’s going to give the freshmen, sophomores and juniors another week to get better and prepared for the next game and pretty much recover from injuries.”
On being down by one late in the game:
“As coach says, we practice the way we’re going to play, we had the opportunity on fourth down. It wasn’t anything we could be afraid of, we just go out there and stop them to get our offense off the field.”
LB Nigel Bowden
Thoughts on the win:
“I feel like it’s the same feeling as any other win, we get that win on our backs and it builds our confidence to keep moving forward.”
Buckling down on the last drive:
“I feel like we ran the ball more, which was something we did in practice this week, so that was a key factor. I feel like the communication got better and a lot of times the line got better too.”
On the team’s confidence, McCrary’s leadership:
“The confidence is a lot higher, we have a lot of freshmen coming in, especially Johnny McCrary, and I tell you about a guy that’s patient, over the week and he just kept being patient and he kept working hard and he comes out there and shows progress and builds the team confidence even higher than what it was.”
On a `sloppy’ win:
“It was sloppy with mistakes, but a win is a win and that’s going to help us with Missouri, especially with a week off. A lot of guys made mistakes on the field, but we’re going to combat that in practice, keep at it, watch the film and get better.”
Charleston Southern Head Coach Jamey Chadwell
Opening Statement:
“What a great game. I never thought coming in that we would get overwhelmed by the environment and the opponent. I thought we played that way all game. We struggled early against their defense. That blocked punt right before halftime gave us a lot of energy. We felt like we controlled the second half but we just couldn’t make some plays down in the red zone when we needed to. Our third downs were atrocious, we had to go for it on fourth down a few times. We put ourselves in the position to win the game when they were backed up there on the one-yard line and you feel like if you get a stop there or safety we would have a chance. For their credit, they ran the clock out. I’m proud of our team. I thought their effort and the confidence coming in here was tremendous and we played pretty well for the most part. Our special teams did a nice job of keeping us in the game. I’m proud of the way we played, but disappointed in the result. We didn’t come for moral victories, we felt like we could’ve won the game”
On Vanderbilt’s final drive: “It looked like for us, we had a chance of getting a safety there. We felt like there was a holding call but the official didn’t see it that way. The running back broke contain and made a big play. After that he started leaning on us. That was our worry that they were so much bigger than us that they’d wear us down physically. I felt like when we had drives, we controlled the ball well.”
On the decision to go for a field goal instead of a touchdown down 21-17:
“Back when it was 21-17, there was eight or nine minutes left. That was within our range. The other plays we went for it on fourth down, we did so because we don’t have a lot of range with our kicker and that was because we can’t make it in that instance. I was more disappointed in that drive after we got a pick. We got a great play on first down and we didn’t line up right. I was more disappointed in that drive leading up to that last drive because we had the ball in good field position but couldn’t make it happen.”
On the sideline interference call with the referee:
“It was a bang-bang play, it doesn’t matter if he hits us and we are sitting on the bench if he hits us there’s going to be a penalty so there’s not much I could argue. That was unfortunate for us but the next play we got down to the eight yard line and we just couldn’t make something happen. That had no determination on the outcome of the game. It was unfortunate for us, but it is what it is.”
What CSU taks out of the game:
“Everyone is going to pat us on the back but we open up conference next week and they don’t care a lick. It’s still a loss in the record book. What I told the team is that they are a SEC team and I know they are building to get to a competitive SEC team so I’m realistic. If we’ll play with that type of passion, energy and emotion we’ll be fine the rest of the year. That’s one thing I hope people saw, we played with a purpose and played with confidence. I want to take that from it. If we play at that level then I feel good going forward. At the end of the day, it’s still a loss and no one we will play cares.”
QB Austin Brown
On not being able to pull out a win:
“It’s frustrating whenever you don’t come out with the victory. We are going to learn from it, and get ready for conference play next week.”
On his individual performance during the game:
“I had a pretty rough game. I didn’t play very well. I’m going to do my best to learn from it, and come back and perform better next week.”
On momentum of the blocked punt:
“That was huge. Special teams did a great job for us. They did a great job all game. That was a very big play for us.”
On frustrations of not finishing drives:
“It’s frustrating when you move the ball pretty well between the 30 and 30, but we just need to finish better. And that’s on me.”
On if the defense was doing anything to slow the offense down:
“A lot of times we were just killing ourselves. You know that’s apart of football”
LB Zack Johnson
On not being able to pull out a win against an SEC opponent:
“It’s tough. The mission of our school is basically believing in Jesus, and glorifying him in everything. This would have been huge for us. This would have been big for the Big South.”
On what was the difference in the outcome of the game:
“We had some penalties that really hurt us. I think we played hard. I think everyone knows we played hard. We played an SEC school with more scholarships, and a lot of great talent. They had nine wins last year, and we played them to the wire. We gave what we have.”
On the penalties throughout the game:
“We have struggled a little bit with penalties. I think it’s just hard because everyone is coming in as the coach calls it ‘geeked’ up. I just think everyone is ready to go, and when we got the interception. We’re like – ‘Let’s go’ – but that leads to people doing a little bit too much. On both offense and defense.”
On the quarterback switch:
“We prepared, and they basically ran the same thing (offense) with both quarterbacks. One just preformed a little better. Number two (McCrary) came in, and hit that corner out for a touchdown right when he got in. He kind of hit them with a good spark. From then on out it was a grinder.”
On what happened on the long touchdown pass from McCrary: “We had a lack of communication. We had a little breakdown in coverage, and he ran wide open down the corner of the field. We were in three deep coverage, and it should have got picked up.”
On the blocked punt:
“It was huge. I think it was Larenzo Mathis that blocked it and got the touchdown. That was huge. Special teams played really hard.”
