Nov. 30, 1999
Hal Mumme
On the team’s health:
“The health of the team is a lot better. We will hopefully get Quentin(McCord) back for practice on Monday. We will have everyone back by thebowl game who didn’t have surgery. Vincent (Harrison) practiced yesterdayand Michael Beirne was out there running so I think the doctors are goingto let him practice in two more days.”
“With the guys we are getting back, it will put us back at the lineup thatwe had against LSU. That will be a real plus, but in the meantime guys like(Bobby) Blizzard, (Derek) Smith and (Artose) Pinner have stepped in for uspretty well. We are just looking forward to being able to play again.”
On what he wants to get out of the pre-bowl practice sessions:
“We are going to spend a lot of time with our young offensive linemen totry and bring them along some more. We are also going to give Dusty(Bonner) off this week and let him work next week. Mainly we are just goingto work on fundamentals. They won’t be complicated practices because wewon’t be working onany game plans since we don’t know who we play yet. We will just be goingagainst each other with the best players that we can put on the field.”
On resting Bonner this week:“He was pretty beat up by the end of the season since we took somethinglike 50 sacks. Like everybody does, I think he got a little weaker as theseason went on so I think this time off will do him good.”
“This is what we did last year with (Tim) Couch and we got a lot of repsfor Bonner, (Mike) Scipione and Chase Harp at quarterback. They all got alot of snaps and I think that went a long way in preparing Dusty for thisseason. It should even be better for Jared (Lorenzen) because he is notsplitting snaps with anyone.”
On the quarterback competition for the spring:
“We have already looked at Mike and had a competition between he and Dustyso we feel like it is Jared’s turn to have a competition. We told him thathe would get that chance when we recruited him. He is redshirting now so wewill let him go as far as he can go now and do the same in the spring.”
“Jared has only been here since August so there are still some things weneed to learn about him. If he does well in the classroom and continues toimprove, then we will have a competition in the spring.”
On Jared Lorenzen:
“He has the size and arm strength that Tim Couch had so he is obviously atalented player. He didn’t come into camp in particularly good shape, buthe has really improved that. He has been working on his weight lifting andtraining and has gotten better in his mechanics.”
On what bowl his team might go to:
“I hate to guess. Right now we just want to go play. The Music City Bowlseems to have been courting us a lot and I think that it is a good placefor our fans, being close and everything, but with all of the scenarios inthe SEC I would hate to speculate.”
On the mood of his staff:
“I think everyone is pretty upbeat and looking forward to working with theguys some more. One thing that our team has pointed to quite a bit is thatif we win our bowl game we will end up 7-5 just like we did last year. Thatis probably the biggest thing that we are pointing to now.”
“From the beginning of the year all we heard was you couldn’t replaceCouch, (Craig) Yeast and the whole offensive line. If they could finishwith the same record overall as that team it would give them a real senseof pride.”
UK Player Quotes
TE James Whalen
On what part of the bowl game he is looking forward to:”The fact that we get to play again, showcase what we can do and the chanceto compete. Basically, we want to have fun. As athletes, that is what wedo. We play and we enjoy it. I am really looking forward to one lastopportunity to play football wearing Kentucky blue.”
On what his last game will mean to him:
“Last year we went to a bowl game and had a lot of fun. We have alreadybeen there and now we want to win the game. That’s really important to us,so I think the next few weeks will be crucial to how well we do. I amreally looking forward to it, and it is going to be a great opportunity.”
On playing in the NFL next year:
“You always want to compete at the highest level possible and that’s thereason I came to Kentucky. I wanted to play in the best league with thebest players. I think I can do well next year. It is definitely going to bea lot of hard work and adversity but that is a good problem to have.”
On where he might be drafted:
“I haven’t been worried about the specifics too much. Right now, I am justworried about winning the bowl game. I am going to work hard and give it mybest shot. If it falls into place, then that’s wonderful.”
OG Josh Parrish
On becoming bowl eligible:
“Nobody thought we could really do it, and we wanted to prove people wrong.”
On the offensive line’s play this year:
“We had our good games and our bad games this year. I think we have astarting point on where we want to improve to, and I think the bowl game isreally a stepping stone toward next season as far as getting better andimproving.”
On his senior year and graduating soon:
“I always promised myself that I would graduate. I will be the first one inmy family to have a degree. I told people that I would play football andthat has always been my goal.”
On returning to the football team:
“I still have a couple of stressful days just getting assignments done, butI know that I don’t have many more left. Every day, I just thank God forthe opportunity that I have.”
On recovering from the high-ankle sprain he suffered early in the season:“It still aches and sometimes I feel it twitch a little bit. My achilles isvery weak right now, but we have a couple of weeks off and I’m doing a lotof strengthening with our strength coach. It is very difficult to gothrough a high-ankle sprain. I was supposed to be out six weeks because itwas all the way up to my calf, but through God’s will, I was able to comeback sooner.”
LB Ryan Murphy
On playing this year after sitting out last season:
“A lot of people dread football practice, but I had a year off so I’mtaking advantage of every practice I can get. Going to a bowl game is agreat feeling because it was something that I didn’t get to do last yearwith the team. It doesn’t matter where we go, as long as I’m there.”
On winning the bowl game to go to 7-5:
“Seven and five was kind of our goal. We have always wanted to be comparedto the team we had last year after losing Tim Couch and Craig Yeast. Nobodythought there was any way we would be as good as last year. It would justgive us more confidence going into next year, knowing we can play goodfootball.”
On UK’s recovering from injuries:
“I think we’ll have a nice break from football with some light practicesthat will help the guys who are injured recover. It gives us time to focuson our school work and get some conditioning in, so we should be ready forthe bowl game.”
CB Eric Kelly
On returning from his hamstring injury:
“My leg feels really good right now, and it feels good that I have anotherchance to play.”
On the next three weeks preparing the bowl game:
“It’s going to be a lot of hard work. We’ll watch a lot of film of whoeverwe play. I’m just happy we get to play again.”
On the goal of going 7-5 this season:“We kind of want to go 7-5 because we hear a lot of talk that we couldn’twin without Tim Couch and that is the record we had last year. If we can go7-5 like we did last year, it will give us something to build on. If we winthe bowl game, it will mean that we had as good a season this year as wedid last year.”
