Sept. 3, 2011
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Postgame Quotes
September 3, 2011
Vanderbilt Head Coach James Franklin
Opening Statement:
“Obviously, first win, it was kind of special to me. For people that were watching the game closely, the game was a lot closer than the score would indicate. I think on offense [we had] too many three and outs. We’ve got to stay on the field, continue to create big plays. We’ve still got to throw for a higher percentage. We’ve got to be able to run the ball when we need to.
“I thought defensively, we must get off the field. We need more three and outs, we need more turnovers. We had one drive that was 14 plays for a touchdown. We had one drive that was one-play–[an] interception for a touchdown. Those are the plays that we need more of, and then we need more big plays on special teams.
“I thought, overall, we played well and did some good things and it’s going to be great film for our young men, learning opportunities for them to grow from. But I was happy. This was step number one. It’s a step in the right direction but we still have a lot of work to do. Like I said, to go through our first game week that we had last week, we had a change in how we’re going to practice.
“I thought Larry did some really good things. You look at his touchdown-to-interception ratio, obviously being able to get Jordan in there and having an opportunity to play and give him an opportunity to throw a touchdown on his first pass was real positive as well. Overall, some good things. I’ll have probably more feedback for you after I watch the film.”
On three fourth down conversions:
“I thought we needed to try to get some momentum. We talked about being aggressive since I got here, and I felt comfortable with that. They hadn’t stopped us once; we really stopped ourselves with things. We’re going to be aggressive and we’re going to do that all year long.”
On Chris Marve:
“Chris has been getting a lot of tackles since he’s been here. That’s going to continue. It’s a little bit of what we’re doing defensively, but he’s just a great player. He’s going to show up. I’m going to assume he’s going to have thirteen, fourteen tackles or more a game, that’s just the type of player he is. He’s our leader on that side of the ball: a tremendous leader off the field, a tremendous leader on the field. But I think our defensive coaches understand what kind of player he is.”
Did we see a lot of things tonight or is the playbook going to be opened up more for UConn?
“I thought (offensive coordinator) John Donovan called a great game. I made recommendations throughout the game. I think what happens a lot of times as a play caller, you want to stay on track, so when you take a shot or call what we call a money play or a trick play, and those things don’t work, then you end up in second long or third long. So as a play caller sometimes you hold back from doing that, and that’s not who I want to be, so I made a couple of recommendations and he listened to them and called them and I think we worked very well together on the phone today.”
Vanderbilt Players
Senior Linebacker Chris Marve
On the team’s defensive performance:
“We can play a much better game, but we did make our adjustments after halftime and we were able to put more of a stop on what they were doing.”
On Coach Franklin’s decision to push forward on the fourth down:
“He has confidence in the defense and it makes us feel really great to know that we have his trust and his respect. It means a lot to us.”
On the team’s future offensive strategy:
“You don’t put all your marbles out there in game one on film for everybody to watch and prepare for, so we have a lot more up our sleeve.”
Junior Defensive back Trey Wilson
On being able to execute in a game situation:
“The coaches come in and preach this philosophy that you go out there and don’t worry about making mistakes, you go out there and make plays. If you make a mistake, we’ll take care of that the next day. It’s what we’ve been talking about day one since the coaches got here: we’re going to attack from first quarter to last quarter.”
On winning the first game of the season:
“It always feels good to get a W, regardless of time, but especially being the first game of the season. It feels good to come out and get a win and get our season started on the right foot.”
Quarterback Larry Smith
On Coach Franklin calling 4th down plays:
“He’s got confidence in us and I’m glad he does, and we did a good job of having his back tonight.”
On Coach Franklin’s attitude:
“He’s a real high-energy guy but at the same time he remains calm and doesn’t let things get to him.”
Wide Receiver Chris Boyd
On first win, first career touchdown:
“Actually I don’t know how this happened but I had a dream last night that my first catch would be a touchdown and it worked out that way, but I didn’t think my second one would be too.”
On trusting coaches:
“The coaches are really smart and they know exactly what to call. It’s pretty much all them… They know how to win. They’re all very winning coaches, so we trust them and good things happen obviously.”
On changing the image of the program:
“We know that, because of our last few years, people don’t think we’re very good but Coach Franklin has changed the program around. We’ve been working really hard. We’re tired of it too, so we want to show everybody we’re not the old Vanderbilt. We’re a new team. We’re going to come out here and win some games.”
Elon Head Coach Jason Swepson
On Elon’s Play Down the Stretch:
“We ran out of gas, made mistakes with plays, and I made mistakes as a coach. We did everything right for three quarters. We played hard for three quarters and now have experience for four quarters next week.”
On Vanderbilt:
“You have to give credit to Vanderbilt and to [Coach James] Franklin. They played almost a mistake-free game. I’m looking forward to watching Vanderbilt play next week against Connecticut.”
On Elon’s Youth:
“We have some young kids playing. It was a unique experience for our young team to play in an SEC environment. It’s something that will go a long way for us when we get into the conference season.”
“If we can get together and correct our mistakes, we’ll do better.”
On His Coaching Philosophy:
“I surround myself with a great staff. I’ll let them coach and I’ll manage the game.”
Elon Players
Wide Receiver Aaron Mellette
On if fatigue played a factor:
“It was at first, but I try not to worry about that because I think being tired is a mental thing. I wasn’t out there every single play so I could get off and catch my breath.”
On his touchdown catch:
“I told Thomas [Wilson] that it was an ugly pass. I was worried about tipping it and the safeties picking it off. I just had great awareness out there.”
On what he takes away:
“I look at the positives because you can’t change what happened. We have to make some corrections offensively and defensively. We need to make sure we don’t have any pre-snap issues, coach preached that.”
Quarterback Thomas Wilson
On the game slipping away in the fourth quarter:
“The game seemed to roll away from us towards the end. We made some mistakes in the first half that were pretty crucial. The pick-six was the turn-around play and the false start on fourth and one were the big plays that turned momentum on us. We knew at half time that we could come back and play. We had them just were we wanted.”
On taking over the starting quarterback position:
“I’ve been waiting for this opportunity for quite a while now. I felt that I was pretty prepared and that the offense was really prepared. The offensive coaches got us prepared and we knew everything that was coming. We just had to execute, and we did in the first half until it started to get away from us. We made some things happen tonight and that’s exciting against a team of this caliber. We had those first-game jitters playing against an SEC team, but I’m really happy about the way we played and I’m looking forward to the next game.”
On your condition after taking a few hits:
“They got to me a few times, but that’s part of the game. You’re going to get hit and tackled as a quarterback and you have to be prepared for that. The offensive line did a good job picking up the blitzes tonight they gave me a lot of time to throw.”
