Sept. 20, 1999
Hal Mumme, UK Head Coach
On former UK coach Jerry Claiborne’s Hall-of-Fame induction:
“I think it is great that we are honoring Jerry Claiborne and I willcertainly let the team know how much this game means to us is in terms ofhim because he is the last guy to beat Florida. Obviously, most of thestuff that we enjoy around here in terms of facilities and things of thatnature were started when Jerry came and he has always represented theuniversity with so much class and positive attitude. He is a great rolemodel and somebody I have always looked up to.”
On how to beat Florida:
“We have to play extremely well on both sides of the ball and take care ofspecial teams. It has to be a really good football game for us, but ourguys are really eager to get after it.”
On this year’s Florida team:
“They are just a bit younger in spots. Their receivers and defensive backsare mainly sophomores. Of last year’s defense, I think six of the elevengot drafted in the first two rounds and two or three years from now I thinkyou will see six of these eleven drafted in the first two rounds as well.”
On UK’s leading receiver, tight end James Whalen:
“Whalen is a great competitor and he has really done a nice job in thefirst three games. It means a lot to our offense to have a threat at tightend so I am glad he is playing well.”
On Florida defensive end Alex Brown:
“Alex is just an extremely quick player, very much like Jevon Kearse was,and he is probably a better pass rusher than Kearse was. He is somebodythat you really have to be concerned with.”
On UK pass rush:
“We are definitely getting better in that area, but we are just so young inthere. I thought William Orr played well on Saturday and thought Dennis(Johnson) played well. What really hurts us is not having Anwar (Stewart)out there on the other end. We really have not settled on one guy overthere. On Saturday, our pass rush did not start until the fourth quarterbecause we were focusing on stopping the option. This week we will bedealing with a different set of problems.?
On last week’s win:
“It is a lot better to be 2-1 than 1-2. It was the most important game weplayed last week and this will be the most important game we play this week.”
On Dusty Bonner and his award as CNN/SI Player of the Week:
“I am glad to see Dusty win that award because he did a great job onSaturday and he is getting better each week at taking command of theoffense and making plays and checks. He has had great growth so far, we arepleased with him. He has great field vision and really good pocket feet. Wehave seen those things in Dusty since he got here and with his leadershipyou are really seeing Dusty emerge. But it is a growth process and he hasstill got a way to go.”
On what type of defense he expects Florida to play:
“It is hard to know what they are going to do. They played two teams thatthrow it around pretty well early and they played a lot of zone, but theydid blitz them and come after them at times. This week, of course, theyplayed Tennessee and you could tell that they really geared up to stoptheir running game so Tennessee had more opportunities to go deep. Theyjust did not hit many of them. I suspect we will see some zone and thenthey will possibly come after us at times.”
On his team’s improvement this year:
“This has been the best team in my time here at trying to getting better inthe first three weeks of the season. I think a lot of it is that they areso young and are really trying to do everything that we ask. They arelearning some lessons.”
On surprises this season:
“The list is way too long to just single one guy out. I am pleased with alot of our guys? improvement. Start with all five offensive linemen. ErnestSimms is growing and Brad Pyatt is getting better every week, he got hisfirst touchdown catch this week. Defensively you could list a bunch ofguys. William Orr would be a good choice for this week. Anthony Wajda isanother good choice.”
On how UK’s young players will respond to the challenge of playing UF:
“I think our youth is a positive just because we are enthusiastic aboutplaying. We have enough guys back from last year that I do not think thatwe are going to be afraid of these guys. They are obviously a greatfootball team and to have any chance at all to beat them, you almost haveto play a perfect game. There are enough veterans around that I do notthink that our younger guys will be overly intimidated. You look at guyslike Gerry Davis who caught a touchdown pass against them last year, andAnthony White and Derek Homer who had good games against Florida last year.We have enough older guys and sophomores out there that have played thisgame before and know that we can compete.”
Matt Brown, Offensive Line
On UF’s Alex Brown:
“He’s a great pass rusher. He knows how to get around guys. It’s acombination of speed and quickness, plus he uses his hands well. It will bea big challenge. But I’ve been up against great players before, likeCourtney Brown of Penn State, and I’m looking forward to the challenge. Idon’t want him counting off his sacks against me.”
On UK’s offensive line improvement:
“I think we’re getting better each week – by big strides. Just compare ourwork last week to our work against Louisville. We’re playing so much better.”
Kendrick Shanklin, Running Back
On the fear factor:
“When you play an opponent, you really can’t be afraid of them. We have ayoung offense and they have a young defense. We just have to execute.”
On Dusty Bonner’s play:
“I think that Dusty had some big shoes to fill, coming in behind Tim(Couch). But Dusty is playing within himself. He knows that he can sit backin the pocket and then run if he has to run. He really knows his strengthsand weaknesses.”
On the mindset of playing UF:
“We have nothing to lose. Everyone is picking us to lose, and lose big. Nowwe can just go out and have a good time, and hopefully come out victorious.There’s nothing to be scared of.”
Dougie Allen, Wide Receiver
On his recent play at wide receiver:
“A lot of things have been goinggood for me and I’m just thankful and blessed. Things are starting to pickup for me and I’m gaining more confidence. From the first day I got here Iknew I wanted to be a part of things. I worked out extremely hard in theoffseason so that I could be in this position and everything is just comingtogether. We have got a lot of guys who are stepping up and playing goodball so it’s opening up for everybody.”
On coming to UK from Lexington’s Dunbar High School:
“I could see myselfbeing a part of many programs but it just so happens that I was luckyenough to come here. Now that I’m here everything is starting to work outfor me.”
On UK quarterback Dusty Bonner’s progress:
“He’s doing a really good job.He’s come along great and there’s many compliment about him. He’s throwingthe ball really well and putting it where it needs to be.”
On UK’s upcoming game Saturday against Florida:
“We’re going to come outand play as hard as we can regardless. It doesn’t matter if it’sLouisville, Connecticut, or Florida, we are still going to come out andplay hard.”
