UK Coach Hal Mumme
On the similarities of Alabama’s defense to Florida’s defense:They are similar to Florida’s defense mainly in the speed, size and depth factors. They like to press and play a lot of man coverage.
On the Florida game:
I think we moved the ball pretty well. We looked back at all Florida’s records last year and I think only Tennessee had a few more yards than us against them, and Florida’s defense is supposed to be better this year that last.
On UK’s receivers communicating to Mumme what plays are open for the offense:
They are learning how to communicate with the coaches. In the first game we went over to the bench during the game and sat down and I said What can you get and they would say Well we can get a hot dog if you let us go. Now they say I can get a post or a corner or a curl.That’s when it really gets fun (when they learn to communicate the plays). They are learning that. It’s strictly a communication and participation game between the receivers, quarterbacks and backs.
On Alabama’s defense:
They try to come after you. You’ll see their linebackers up on the line of scrimmage, trying to fake blitzes and then drop out and sometimes they’ll come. Everybody has kind of gone to that Nebraska, Kansas State and desert swarm from Arizona where it originated in the early 1990s. Alabama is playing that style.
On the Kentucky players’ attitudes during the Florida game:
They really responded. You have to do something to let them know you still believe in them. That was one of the reasons we called the fake punt. At that point in the game we needed a lift and we needed to do something radical. We certainly didn’t have much to lose by doing that. When we did that and we went down the field and scored, it really showed our players Hey, we can compete with these guys. And I never saw them get down again. They went into halftime feeling pretty good about themselves.
On the edge Alabama has had in the Kentucky series:Really good competitors thrive off the fear of failure more than anything else. So each year is really a new year and the past is down in the history books. But you cant afford to look at it too long because youd be focusing on things that arent going to help you win.
OL Jonas Liening
On playing with a knee injury:
The brace is giving me the confidence that I need to go out there and be successful. As far as the knee goes, everything is okay.On the Alabama game:Anytime we play Alabama there’s a big time aura. They are always going to have a good team. Anybody who follows college athletics knows Alabama is known for their football. They’re coming into our stadium and theyll be ready. I guarantee you they are pumped up ready to come after us. We’re going to be ready for them. We’re coming off a loss to Florida that was on national television. We want to prove to everyone out there and to ourselves that we can compete at a very high level with the top caliber teams in the SEC.
LB Lee Wesley
On Alabama:
“Alabama is a good football team so we have to forget about last week and work on them. They are a power football team and will run the ball a lot. We don’t look at the history really. We just have to worry about this year. Everyone is really positive and we are going to go out this week and work hard on Alabama. We are striving to beat a ranked team and it is good that we are at home. The crowd on Saturday was great. Their intensity was great.
CB Willie Gary
On what to expect from Alabama:
“I know we are going to see a lot of run from Alabama. Mississippi State ran the ball a lot on us too, so I would compare Alabama to Mississippi State in that respect. They (Alabama) will definitely power the ball right at us.
On Florida:
“The first half seemed like a nightmare, but the second half gave us confidence. We got pretty good experience against the No. 1 team in the country, so that will only help us this week going into Alabama.
DT Marvin Major
On Alabama:
“They run a lot which is what we don’t especially run at practice. Bama should be an interesting game because they run the ball a lot and pass the ball a lot and hopefully we score more points then they do.”
WR Craig Yeast
On playing Alabama this week after playing Florida last week:
“They are a good defensive team. It’s not going to be an easy game–it’s going to be a game that where we go out and play four quarters.”
On offense:
“From running the offense you know what they are going to give you and what they are not going to give you. It is just a matter of being able to give that information to back to the Coach (Mumme) so he can make the calls and they can get the ball to you.”
