University of Tennessee Athletics
TENNESSEE POSTGAME QUOTES
November 26, 2005 | Football
Nov. 26, 2005
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Tennessee Locker Room
Head Coach Phillip Fulmer
Opening statement ... "It was good to finish up the season with a win. It sounds weird coming out my mouth. We usually end up coming in here and fighting for a win then have a couple weeks to prepare for a bowl game. It has been a very frustrating year, but a great ending for our seniors. I thanked them in the locker room for all of their effort. They have been good leaders. I hate to see the season end this way for them. Now, we are going to look at a lot of different things in terms of decisions and adjustments to be made in order for us to get back on track. Erik Ainge had a solid day especially in the first half. Our defense once again carried the loud. We gave them three points on the turnover and turnovers were a concern coming into today but overall, we did the job."
On Erik Ainge's play ... "We tried to get him going early with a couple of short passes. Sometimes the short pass can turn into a long pass. The receivers did a good job of making some plays. Erik is a confident person. He has had some struggles this season at times - some his own doing, some of other things around him - and that has been the downfall of the consistency of the offense. We have 70 or 75 plays and 68 of them will be good, but the ones that are bad are the ones that beat you. Those errors are what we need to eliminate."
On UT's season ... "The tendency is to be relieved that the season is over but I really wish we had another two weeks of practice, a bowl game and the young guys some more experience. You take whatever lessons you learned and try to make the most of them."
On today's game ... "It was the first game in a while where we didn't give up a huge play that ended up hurting us. It was a relief to our defense to finally get a game where the other team was forced to throw the ball to catch up. We haven't been able to do that most of the year. We let the pass rush lose today and if they ran a draw, it took up valuable time. We haven't been able to get teams into that situation enough this season."
#2 Kevin Simon
About the win ... "We feel good to get a win today. I think the team you saw out there today, that's how things should have been all season. It's good to get the guys a good start for net year. I've enjoyed my opportunity to be a Tennessee Volunteer. Not many people get to play on this big of a stage at UT and in the SEC. I'm blessed and hopefully this will be a springboard for me in the future."
On the season ... "We played hard and gave a good effort all season, but the ball just didn't bounce or way much this season. It's not like we didn't care or play hard, but we just didn't get the breaks this season that we've gotten in the past."
"We played hard week in and week out even when we had adversity. Guys still went out there every week and laid it all on the field."
#27 Arian Foster
On the game ... "This was a good day. We got the win. That's the most important thing. It's always good to win the last game of any season. It gets our confidence up and gets the ball rolling for next year."
On his play ... "You can't worry about personal statistics in a game. I just go out there and try to make the plays for my team."
#98 Parys Haralson
On the season ... "We were disappointed in the season and it obviously didn't go the way we thought it would. But we played as a team. Even with all of the ups and down, we came in and played hard. Mistakes are going to happen throughout the course of a season."
Kentucky Locker Room
Head Coach Rich Brooks
"The game obviously didn't go the way we wanted it to. We couldn't run the ball effectively. They came out, in a little bit of a surprise to me, and tried to throw on us rather than running it right out of the barrel. We didn't take advantage of a couple of key turnovers. One of them -- Draak Davis made a great play on the punt - and we only get three out of that. We have to get a touchdown when we get a field position situation like that. Then we get another turnover and we end up with two field goals at halftime after missing a third. That's not good enough against a team like Tennessee. Tennessee was able to mix up the run and the pass on us. They did a good job, I thought, of controlling both sides of the line of scrimmage. We ended whatever chance we had, when Curtis (Pulley's) ball got batted up in the air. We had an assignment error in the backfield. We were supposed to block that guy and he came in untouched. The ball bounced up in the air, he intercepted it and scored a touchdown. That pretty well ended whatever hope we had because we were still in a position (to have a chance) if we could have generated any offense. I thought Curtis did some good things in relief, but he's still a true freshman. We didn't protect him very well and they got a little too much pressure on him."
On the seniors ... "I'm extremely disappointed that the whole year hasn't been better and particularly this game. I was hopeful they could leave Commonwealth breaking the streak. But, I've been very impressed with the way they have handled themselves on the field and all this year. I know we weren't winners today or this year, but these guys will be winners in life because they've taken care of business, worked very hard and tried to do the right thing. I was very impressed with what they did over the whole year."
On how the offseason will look ... "It'll be basically the same approach. We have a lot of work to do. We have a long way to go to climb up the ladder in the SEC. At one point on the field in the second half when Curtis was in there, we had four true freshman on the field. The three linemen played a lot and the rest, with the exception of Glenn Holt, were sophomores. We have a lot of young guys who have gotten a lot of reps. They haven't always been productive reps this year, but it will prepare them for what's ahead. That's our future, the young guys returning and the people joining on because they seem to have some life we can move forward with. We need to continue to recruit well and finish out this recruiting year. (We need to) go into the offseason and get stronger and get healthy. We have a lot of guys who will have surgery this week after the season. We just have a lot of healing and lifting and conditioning to get ready. We have a lot of work to do in the offseason before spring practice."
On Tennessee's defense ... "Tennessee's defense - and I said all week for this team to be 4-6 with three conference wins and the players they have on defense - is amazing. They had some bad luck and for a little bit it looked like it might continue. They turned the ball over, but we returned the favor. We didn't take advantage of those turnovers. When we lost Andre' (Woodson), we lost confidence from a team standpoint in the passing game. Curtis went in there and competed and did some good things, but he didn't have the experience that Andre' has in throwing the football. It became obvious that's what we needed to do against this team because we weren't having a lot of success on the ground."
#42 Muhammad Abdullah
On Kentucky's play ... "Today we couldn't get a stop when we needed it and we couldn't get points on the board when we needed them. It's the way it's been all year. Hopefully next year guys will make those plays."
On the senior class ... "We left a base of how you carry yourself. A lot of these seniors are good guys and they've showed the younger guys how to carry themselves."
#89 Taylor Begley
On playing against Tennessee ... "Despite their record, they still have a lot of great players and great athletes. When you have opportunities, you have to cash them in."
On being second all time in field goals made at Kentucky ... "I'm in pretty good company. There have been a lot of good kickers here. I've been blessed to have the durability to kick here for four year. I have to give a lot of credit to the offensive line for protecting me."
#19 Keenan Burton
On the senior class ... "These seniors are really emotional. Being around the receivers who are seniors has taught me a lot. With them leaving, it's taught me that I have to step up and teach players who are younger than me how to play the game."
On Kentucky's play against Tennessee ... "It's frustrating to know that we're right there if we get in the end zone. There's no excuse. It's not the play calling, it's the execution. We have to do what the coaches tell us to do."
#26 Draak Davis, TB
On senior day ... "It puts a little bit of a different emphasis on the game. You know it's the last game of the season. I kept telling myself that I wasn't going to get emotional, but when you have Tommy Cook standing next to you during the ceremonies, it's difficult not to do that. We know we have to go out in the real world now. It was good to see all of our families out there to support us."
On his causing the fumble and recovering the ball ... "I was running trying to make a play on the ball, and luckily I timed it well. He fumbled the ball, and I saw it land right in front of me, so it was easy for me to jump on it."
On the season ... "We were so close to having a great year. I think we proved that we can compete with anybody. There were always a few little plays that prevented us from winning games. We were always looking for that last thing to take us to the next level."
#16 Wesley Woodyard
On the outlook for next season ... "We hope that the fans continue to support us, and we're going to continue to work hard. Football is a year-round sport, so we're going to take advantage of all the opportunities to improve. When one guy leaves, another guy has to step up, so we'll be counting on our recruits to do that. There are a lot of young guys on the team who look forward to the future, and we're still going to come out and work hard."
#36 Antoine Huffman
On his career at UK ... "I don't regret any of it at all. I've learned some tools that I can use in real life because I'm going to face adversity and go through struggles. The things this team has been through won't do anything but make us stronger."
On the season ... "I think this was a positive season for us. I've never seen this many injuries since I've been here, and for us to continue to come out and fight for the rest of the year-that's a positive thing."
