University of Tennessee Athletics
TENNESSEE POSTGAME QUOTES
September 03, 2005 | Football
Sept. 3, 2005
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TENNESSEE VS. UAB - Sept. 3, 2005
Tennessee Locker Room
Tennessee head coach Phillip Fulmer: "I told the guys, whatever it took, in the end result we wanted to get a win. Obviously it's hard to feel great about it because I thought we should have played better on offense and defense ... You have to give UAB credit for playing as well as it did. Their quarterback (Darrell Hackney) was a heck of a ball player. He understands the offense their system ... We were our own worst enemy with three turnovers and a fourth-down failure ... One ball slipped out of (Erik Ainge's) hand. On the naked bootleg his hand was wet and the ball just slipped out. The play of Rick Clausen was a very good thing to see. Rick was disappointed that we wasn't the starter, but he handled it with class. We talked about it, and we just need to worry about winning. The opportunities will come. Just as we thought he had a calming effect on everybody (when he entered the game.) We're going to have two great quarterbacks. The great thing about it is that they're over there encouraging one another (on the sideline.) The first guy who runs out there - to you guys - is a big deal, but to us it doesn't matter ... We didn't run the football as well as I thought we would (today) ... There are always challenges in the first ballgame."
DB Jason Allen: "We won and that's the biggest thing. The defense played well at times. We made some big stops on the goal line. First of all, football is a team effort. Sometimes the offense has to have our backs. Sometimes they (offense) have to get our (defense) backs.
(On UAB QB Darrell Hackney) "I think in a lot of cases he put himself in position to make plays. He reminds me of a baby Daunte Culpepper. (Before final fourth-down stop of UAB) We said this is the play of the ballgame. We have to have a stop here.
"I feel like we could have played better at times. At the same time you have to tip your hat to UAB. They have good athletes. It's just our mentality as a defense to make big plays and not give up big plays. I feel like the offense did a great job of moving the ball downfield and running the clock down."
DT Justin Harrell: (On UAB QB Hackney) "He's tough. He's an athlete. It looked like he was sacked several times. Give credit to their offensive line. They're a very experienced group. There were several times we had him, but with his strength, he just slipped away."
QB Rick Clausen: "First of all, we're excited about the win. Their quarterback is very talented. Their defense is very good. They gave us everything we could handle. As you can see we have a lot to work on. It was exciting to get them down (early). But when you get them down you've got to keep them there. It was good to see us put the nail in the coffin at the end. Attention to detail separates the good teams from the great teams.
"Whether I'm starting or not doesn't matter. My job on this football team is to go out and be a leader. I have to lead the offense the best way I know how. I'm just glad we won. I'd like this question about the quarterback (starter) to stop."
WR C.J. Fayton: (On his dropped pass) "That's the reason I was still in. I wanted to come back and make a big play for the team. I felt like I let them down. Whoever's out there (at quarterback) will get us the ball. We (UT's wide receivers) really don't mind."
DT Jesse Mahelona: "I believe UAB is a better team than most opponents. They played good today. (On UAB QB Hackney) He's a big guy. Seeing him out of his pads, I was like wow! He's as big as they say. He looks even bigger in pads. We are a good defense. We knew we were going to stop them and step up to the challenge. The offense gave us a lot of rest out there. Coming into the first game that's when you see how good your team really is. We have a lot to work on going into the off week. UAB's a good team all around. They're mature."
UAB Locker Room
Head Coach Watson Brown: "It's so disappointing to get big plays to get that close and need to make another play. We made a lot of big plays to get them, but not the big one to finish it out on both sides of the ball.
"We make a first down late in the first half right in front of their bench and Tennessee doesn't get that last touchdown. Their interception on the goal was big. I thought the ball was close on that final play.
"I thought we lost the game in the first half. We didn't show the poise and confidence in the first half we showed in the second half. I thought Darrell Hackney was phenomenal. All our receivers made a lot of plays. I'm proud of the effort and the attitude our guys displayed. We've always played the run pretty good. We do have some issues on pass defense. We did find a way to hang in there.
"Both teams are cat-and-mouse type teams, with a lot of checks. I really didn't know which quarterback was in the game. They don't really change things much. We tried to get behind them some. They have such a great defensive line you can't hold it too long. Darrell can come out of the pile and find somebody open. Darrell is much quicker and more athletic this year with the loss of weight and a good knee.
"We couldn't run it on them and we gave up too many passing yards. Darrell probably felt he could carry the team. We wanted to mix the run and the pass, but couldn't get anything going. We try not to let Darrell overdo it running, but I should have called a few more of his plays, like the option he ran in the second half. When it's close, we need to give him a shot.
"Tennessee has great ability and has some huge games coming up that will set the tone for their season.
"This is one of those games I want to se on tape. We have the biggest part of our season coming up. We came here to win. I'm not surprised we played well. We're all disappointed."
QB Darrel Hackney: "It is nice to come up here and show them what we can do from Conference USA, but nobody is satisfied with losing. We didn't make the best of our opportunities. When we got inside the red zone, I rushed the pick that I threw. I didn't let the play develop."
"Our offensive line did a great job. I think I only got sacked once. I also think that Coach Brown did a great job of mixing things up, run and pass, and the quick throws. We understand when we play teams like Tennessee and Florida State that we have to get the ball out quicker."
"Defensively, their front didn't scare us none. Their secondary didn't scare us none. At the beginning we came out flat I think. We showed people we could move the ball, but we just didn't execute the way we wanted to execute. I don't think we should stop ourselves on drives, and I think we did that a couple of times."
OL Cornelius Rogers: "I thought we started out a little slow at the beginning of the game. We had a couple of mistakes. But I thought in the second half we came back strong. We just couldn't get it done."
"Last season we had a tendency to start off real slow. This season we wanted to get off to a better stop. We did get better in the third quarter and that was because we reminded ourselves of the things we wanted to accomplish, and that helped us get going."
"We have been talking about Tennessee the whole month. We had been focusing on No. 55 (Jesse Mahelona) and No. 98 (Parys Haralson). Once we got out there it was just like any other game. It wasn't like last year when we first started out against Florida State. We have another year under our belt, and we weren't concerned with Tennessee the way we were with Florida State with the atmosphere like that."
LB Mastaki Smith: "It is a little tough to evaluate things right now right after the game coming from the heat of the moment and then assess what happened. It is something we will have to look at the film and see what we need to do to get better."
"We been preparing hard for Tennessee. We began preparation for Tennessee after the Hawaii game and we know they are a great team but we felt like when we came in we really had a chance to get a win here, and we fell just a little bit short."
"During our off-season we put a lot of emphasis on stopping the passing game. Last year we weren't too good in that category. It wasn't any individual, but more of us just not getting it done. All summer we tried real hard to tighten up on the passing game and I felt like we did better at that, but we still have more work to do to be successful."
