Sept. 29, 2001
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KENTUCKY VS. OLE MISS
POST-GAME QUOTES
SEPTEMBER 29, 2001
Head Coach Guy Morriss
“We found a little more offense today. We found our running game. We did some good things offensively. However, we need to find a way to get all three phases of our football team playing together on the same day. We have had our defense show up some weeks and not our offense and then vise versa.”
“We played well on first and second down, but we couldn’t stop them on third down and get them off the field.”
“In fairness to Shane, he had some drops from his receivers. So we made the switch to Jared (Lorenzen). That’s the luxury of having two quarterbacks.”
“We have worked hard on the running game. We think we have good enough backs that if we give them a seam, they will get through it – and today we were opening up some good holes.”
“We have good character kids. We coach them hard, then we fuss at them, and then we love them. I think they believe in themselves and in the coaches. I think they will come back and be ready for South Carolina.”
On next week’s starting quarterback…”I don’t know yet who will start next week. It will be the same as every week. We will look at the game tapes, see how effective each one was, talk to them and then evaluate them throughout the week at practice.”
On Artose Pinner…”Once he clears the line of scrimmage, it is up to the running back. The offensive line cleared some good holes today. He is a good powerful back and he played well today.”
QB Jared Lorenzen
On playing:
“I only had about a minute to warm up when I found out I was going in. Shane (Boyd) came over and let me know that he would help me out in whatever way he could. I was real nervous on the first play. But everything returned to normal after that.”
On Ole Miss QB Eli Manning:”He is a great quarterback and he is certain to set some records at Ole Miss.”
On his friendship with Shane Boyd:”We’re competitors but we’re friends too. We aren’t going to let the competition at quarterback get between our friendship. When Shane’s out there, I’ll be an extra set of eyes for him on the sidelines. And I know I can count on him to help me out when I’m in there.”
DB Patrick Wiggins
“It was frustrating at times. We would stuff them on first and second down and then they would convert the long third down. Ole Miss deserves a lot of credit for the big third down plays.”
On Eli Manning:”He is a very intelligent quarterback. He’s still young but he sure doesn’t play like he’s young. He stacks up to some of the best SEC quarterbacks I’ve played against. He has the talent and intelligence to move to the next level.”
On their plan for the game:”We really worked hard this week, as we do every week. And we felt like our plan was there. We tried to disguise our defensive coverage but we let them run too much in the first half. We have to learn how to close a game. We have to come out with the killer instinct in the fourth quarter.”
QB Shane Boyd
On the quarterback situation…”When I am on the field I do my best to help the team win. When Jared is on the field I am on the sidelines supporting him and helping him out. He took the reins today and I am happy as long as this team is moving in a positive direction.”
On the dropped passes…”Receivers drop passes from time to time. I can’t expect them to catch them all. I will continue to have faith in them and give them positive reinforcement. We all make mistakes and we need to learn to keep our heads up.”
On today’s loss…”Although today was a loss I think we continued to make some steps in the right direction. The defense struggled at times, but the offense didn’t do all that we could to help them out. We could have kept Ole Miss’s offense off the field more.”
Artose Pinner, RB
On the running game…”Today I think we established a running game that hasn’t been there. In the lockerroom we all know that as a team we have all the facets of the game. We just have to learn to put it all together on the same Saturday.”
On the rest of the season…”The Southeastern Conference is not an easy conference to win in. We know how hard the rest of the season is going to be on us. We are one big family though, and we will pull together and learn from these losses.”
Ole Miss Head Coach David Cutcliffe
“The first thing I want to do is commend our staff and our players. With this layoff, they obviously did a great job of preparation, we were prepared to play at the start of the game and that was very important. I also give credit to Kentucky and their staff. They were ready to play, they played an outstanding game and they are a well-coached ball club. It was a good SEC contest.”
On three-week layoff…”We finally got a game under our belt. We felt like we were starting all over again but it gives us something to look at and build upon. We’re going to have to nurse some people back to health rather quickly but it’s a chance for our team to grow. We’ve definitely taken it one game at a time this season and nothing beyond that. We still have to get better in all areas.”
On the offense…”To a degree it was a roller coaster ride. We did get the running game going early in the second half and that certainly helped us, but you’ve got to give Kentucky credit. They tackled well at times and competed the entire time. We’ll look at the tape and concentrate on where we need to improve on and build on the things we do well.”
On second half…”Coming out in the third quarter, I think our offensive line took charge and certainly Joe Gunn ran the football like you want to see a back run it. Our staff did a good job talking about some things at halftime – we felt like we had a chance to come out and establish our running game early. It was short-lived, two-touchdown lead but it was a great to come out and start the second half.”
On Eli Manning…”They put some pressure on him early in the game and I thought he played tremendous under pressure. They were finding ways to get to him and hit him and he made numerous completions letting the ball go at the last second. He knows where his people are, he has great vision and he’s a very well prepared quarterback. He understands what we are doing – he is extremely accurate with the football and has great control of where it’s going. He’s an outstanding player and he’s going to improve as he plays more football.”
On WR Chris Collins…”He’s been right on that verge, he’s played well and obviously he was hurt in our last ball game. He’s an impact player and possesses great speed and explosiveness as well as being a big, strong guy. He’s an athlete with a great work ethic and that enables him to be consistent in his play when he’ out there. He takes everything he does seriously and I appreciate a football player like that.”
On being picked last in the SEC West…”We’re certainly aware of that and have been aware of that. We’re probably the youngest team in the Southeastern Conference – we’ve lost big numbers to graduation. We understood it but it doesn’t mean we have to accept it.”
Eli Manning QB
On the second half…”I think we could have gotten out there and been too relaxed. When you have a lead that can happen, and we have to learn to play a complete game before getting too comfortable.”
On UK’s one-on-one defense…”We knew they were going to bring pressure. They brought one more guy out to block and left guys open so we had to make a play when we could. They brought seven with six blocking so we had to step it up.”
“We had some good play action to seal the game, but when the lead was within four we knew that we had to get some more points up. We ran out and had to execute. With the field goal, the offensive line knew they had to do something before it got too close, so our energy really went up.”
Jamie Armstrong Wide Receiver
“We felt a Kentucky comeback so we knew that we had to step it up. Once we got a few more points up there we felt more at ease with the game.”
On Ole Miss…”I think we are a very versatile team. We use our weapons and can execute both ways. I think that with a team like this we can have a great season.”
On the game…”We came out with confidence in the beginning, but we knew with an SEC road game the momentum swings. Teams can come back at a moment’s notice so you have to be focused and ready to play.”
Eddie Strong LB
“We came out with everything and did a lot of things. Once Kentucky got touchdowns we knew that we had to keep pounding to stay in the game.”
On the change of Kentucky quarterbacks…”Before games we watch everything. We knew from last year that Lorenzen likes to throw to Derek Smith. He was his big-time man. The different quarterbacks brought on different games so we just had to adjust our defense from what we already knew.”
“Kentucky has played well all three weeks. They played Florida and were inches away from great plays to grab the game, so we studied that. We were prepared in case they were to try that on us. I think we did well on defense to stop that from happening.”
