UK Coach Hal Mumme
On the possibility of early season success:
“We were hopeful. Our 13 seniors have great character. I thought if they continued to improve in practice we had a chance to knock off some people. They’ve done everything weve asked.”
“It’s not something where it just all of a sudden pops up. It’s something you do on a day-to-day basis and be consistent with. That’s what I’ve thought they’ve done a great job of ever since August. Thats when I started thinking we had a chance to win some games. It certainly showed in the fourth quarter of the Alabama game.”
On the fan support:
“I’ve been saying since I’ve been here that the fan support is wonderful. I think the people around here truly love football. I just think they’ve been disappointed in recent years. I haven’t seen many places that continue to sell the number of season tickets that were sold (during unsuccessful seasons). There’s not too many place like this in the United States. It really shows on game night. It’s one of the reasons we can be very successful here.”
On South Carolina:
“It’s like trying to pick up a wounded rattlesnake. I think they’re very dangerous. They are more athletic than Alabama in certain areas, particularly on offense. They are a team that’s going to be extremely tough to beat down there.”
On the Alabama game:
“We made lots of mistakes. We could have played better than we did on Saturday, particularly on offense. I’m not sure we could have played any better on defense, but offensively, there were a lot of places we had some lack of focus and dropped passes.”
On South Carolinas defense:
“They are going to do what everybody else has done and mix it up and play some zone and play some man. Alabama had some successful plays on big blitzes, so I’m sure South Carolina will try the same thing. We haven’t seen any defense (this year) that I haven’t seen in the last eight years. There’s only so many ways you can line up 11 bodies.”
On the key to the running game against Alabama:
“They played a lot of nickel and dime defenses. They had some defensive backs playing where linebackers normally play. Our offensive line did an outstanding job getting some movement up front. I think our back ran well. Our quarterback did a nice job checking. It was a team effort.”
On coming down from beating Alabama:
“We’re not going to bring them down by telling them look, you might lose. Then again, I’m not going out there and tell them you might win this one because you won the last one either. None of that is very important. The only thing that is important is the next play. That’s all we ever say to them. That’s all were going to say to them today.”
HB Anthony White
On the team’s attitude going into the South Carolina game:
“After beating Louisville and coming out and losing the next week, we don’t want to win one, lose one. We want to try to start a streak. We are going to try to cut down mistakes, watch film and see what we did wrong.”
On beating Alabama:
“It gives a lot of confidence going into the rest of the season. It gives us a chance of getting into a bowl game.”
OT Kris Comstock
“Anytime you play an SEC game you are playing one of the best teams in the nation. That’s why I came here – to play big games and to win big games. The crowd was excellent Saturday. They were loud and they really pumped us up. It was great that they hung around after the game, too. We’re the same team except that we have grown. We expect to win now. Everyone is excited. Its about time the fans had something to cheer about.”
WR Kevin Coleman
On Tim Couch:
“He is such a tremendous student of the game. He is always looking at film. I have been comfortable with him since day one. It was great to get the win over Alabama, but we can’t stay on cloud nine all the time. It was good to celebrate this weekend, but we have to get back to work and prepare for South Carolina this weekend. Our fans like to see offense and they like to see points on the board, but we can’t be cocky. We just have to go out and play our game. Hopefully we can come out on top.”
On his role on the offense:
“I come out and try to do want is needed. The way this offense is designed with the pass open so much, the running game is always going to be open.”
DE Bamidele Ali
On the Alabama win:
“There had been a lot of enthusiasm. The confidence level of the team has gone up even more than it was before the Florida game. As far as going to classes, you can tell that the fans are really behind us. That is all people have been talking about.”
“I think you wait all of your athletic career to get a win like that and to feel the enthusiasm around a win like that. I have never been a part of a win this big in any program at any point of time. I feel that it is something you work for and wait for all of your life. We have to pick up and go from here and not dwell on that too much this week because we have a new ball game coming up.”
On team goals:
“We were 0-2 in the conference and we knew it was going to be hard to go to the SEC championship game. The goal now is to go to a major bowl game. I think we are still in contingency to do that.”
SS Tremayne Martin
On fan excitement:
“I can say that the fans really made the team feel at home. I know that Kitchens could not hear himself breathe, let alone get the signals called out to the receivers. The excitement is still roaming around the campus.”
