WR Quentin McCord
On the LSU win“It motivates the team and lets us know we have the ability to beat a ranked opponent. As for the rest of our SEC games’ we’ll just take them one at a time.”
On anticipating plays from Tim Couch“It’s just a matter of being patient. You have to be ready to step up. You have to run every route because you don’t know what Tim will do. You have to be on your toes.”
On his play this season“I still think I haven’t played my best game yet. I’m just going to be patient and wait for it to come.”
FS Jeff Zurcher
On the UK defense“I feel a lot better with the defense we’re playing now’ because you know before the snap who you will be covering. That allows us to be more aggressive.”
On the defense“We may give up some big plays but we’ll make some big plays’ too. I compare it to full-court pressure defense in basketball–you’ll make a lot of steals and lay-ups’ but teams will also throw over the top.”
On his sack of LSU QB Herb Tyler“That was my first sack since freshman year of high school. Plays like that give you a lot of momentum and confidence. You have to give Coach (Mike) Major a lot of credit. He had a great game plan.”
On the Georgia game“We’re confident because we were able to compete with them last year, but we realize they are a different team.”
On how the LSU win affects the team“It was a huge win for our program. Personally, it’s easier for me to forget about a win because after a loss’ you think about everything that went wrong and how to correct it. We know Georgia’s a great football team, so we have to forget about LSU.”
John Rader
On UK’s injury situation“We’re going into the eighth game of the season. We’ve got some guys with bumps and bruises’ but besides Willie Gary, we’ve been able to avoid any serious injuries.”
On UK’s confidence level“We’ve got a lot of confidence now. After the win (at LSU), we know we can play with anybody in the country.”
On UK’s pride after the LSU win“We hadn’t beaten a ranked team on the road in over two decades, so we’re very proud of what we were able to do. But now we have to focus on Georgia if we want to win again this week.”
Gordon Crowe
On UK’s defense“We’re getting better at what we do. We went to a slightly different package this season and we’re seeing how the pieces fit together.”
On the outstanding play of DT Mark Jacobs “Mark is a tremendous competitor. He just refuses to lose. He just continues to make plays.”
On big plays by the UK defense“We’re just getting in there and doing what we’re supposed to do. Of course we love to make big plays. It helps the entire team.”
On the LSU win“It was a great win. It was probably the most fun I’ve had in a while. I just kept running around and hugging people.”
Head Coach Hal Mumme Quotes
On the LSU game“Obviously, we feel pretty good today. You all are giving me way too much credit (on the call of the reverse play). I was trying not to lose the game. I felt like we could beat them in overtime. At halftime’ we talked about the reverse. I believe it was the beginning of the fourth quarter and it was either Liening or Comstock that came up to me on the sideline and said’ ‘What about the reverse?’ Offensive linemen never call the reverse’ so it was pretty obvious it was there. I wanted LSU to have to use their timeout. If we could get the ball out around midfield’ we felt like we could go into our normal offense and have a shot at getting ourselves in position. So’ when the first two plays didn’t pan out like we thought’ I felt like it was time to call it and we did. I knew when they called the timeout’ they thought we were playing for overtime.”
What the win meant for the UK team“Certainly, the win helps us with recruiting, being on national television. Beating a ranked opponent on the road was one of our goals this year. We haven’t done that for quite a while. So, we were happy to accomplish that.”
On the UK team attitude“I didn’t see a lot of difference in our team in that game than I did against Arkansas. Success builds success’ but it does it in small increments. We’re just trying to take that approach and play the next play. The only difference in this game and the Arkansas game is that we scored on the last play. I think that teams either believe that they’re going to make plays or they don’t. They expected to win the Arkansas game all the way down to the last play.”
On the Georgia defense“Georgia held us to the lowest point total all of last year. They’re just big and physical and they play real hard. They don’t gamble a lot. They’ll blitz just enough to keep you honest. They’re very similar to LSU in that respect.”
On Georgia’s linebackers“I think all of their linebackers are probably as good as we’ve faced since Florida. They’re very athletic. They can run. Their four down peoplethey really use about eight. They all look the same to me. They’re big, strong and fast. They’re just very talented. They’re a lot like LSU, they don’t blitz that much.”
On Jeff Zurcher“Jeff Zurcher is a late bloomer in football. He came here as a walk-on. He was mainly a basketball player in high school. It took him awhile to learn the game. The last couple of weeks’ he’s a much more confident football player. That comes from being successful. He’s also a very bright guy. The last three weeks, he’s had some great open-field tackles on some great backs.”
On Kendrick Shanklin“The way I see it right now, if we need a “relief pitcher” so to speak, he’s the guy we have a lot of confidence bringing in. We try to get him some carries early in games. But’ he’s really coming on. He’s a very intelligent young man. I was very impressed. I can’t think of many times that we’ve had a true freshman go home and play well. I think that was very impressive that he could focus on the game so well. He had a long time in Baton Rouge before we kicked off. He had a lot of folks there to see him’ but he really did a great job.”
On Tim Couch“I’m proud of him. I’m proud of our team. You look at those three touchdown passes that he threw. Those are two strikes to Craig Yeast in the corner.”
