Nov. 26, 2001
FOOTBALL PRESS CONFERENCE
KENTUCKY VS. INDIANA
NOVEMBER 26, 2001
WILDCAT DEN
Head Coach Guy Morriss
On Saturday’s game…
“We talked to them before we let them go for Thanksgiving and stressed to our kids that it’s another opportunity for them to compete and play another ballgame. It will be an opportunity for this football team to win its season-ending game for the first time in 17 years – since 1984. That would be a nice send-off for our seniors and I think it would springboard us into recruiting and into spring training.”
On Indiana now compared to originally scheduled date of game…
“They’ve really improved tremendously. Obviously, the significant change they made was moving Antwaan Randle El to quarterback and they’ve come out and won three of their past four games. They’re moving the football, scoring points and their defense has gotten better each week. They keep them close in ballgames and allow their offense to score enough points to win. It’s a completely different team than we saw in early September.”
On presence of IU quarterback Antwaan Randle El…
“He’s probably the most athletic quarterback we play, the best athlete at the position that we’ll play this year. The fact that they’re running the option and running it extremely well right now is another facet that we haven’t faced this year. You don’t see that a lot and you’ve got to be very disciplined and strict to be able to defend it. I think going into this game they’ll try to beat us with the running game and I’m sure we’ll see some isolation plays this weekend.”
On Randle El…
“He has all the weapons. We’ll have to know where he’s at and what he’s doing at all times. He can beat you with the running game or throwing. In all the tapes we’ve watched so far, you think the defense is going to stop him but he finds a way to get out of trouble. He’s such an athlete and he gets himself out of trouble with his outstanding athleticism.”
On UK defense…
“Again, it’s a matter if we can handle the option game as it’s something you don’t see every week. If you get to the point where you are overcommitting to stop the run then you have to deal with play action and the deep ball. Our number one priority right now is to shut down the running game.”
On coming off Tennessee game…
“It was obviously our best effort. Hopefully we can go out with the same emotion and excitement and get ourselves ready to play Indiana. The thing about Tennessee is that they are more of a traditional I-formation offense, something we see all the time. The option game is something we don’t see, it’s good to have the extra days of practice but you can run the scout team to death and it will not be what we’ll see in Bloomington on Saturday.”
On week off…
“We did some work, it helps you. We got them introduced to Indiana’s offense and defense. We spent a couple hours a day working our kids before Thanksgiving. It was a good week and I’m sure it will carry over into tomorrow.”
On UK improvement…
“It’s obvious that our offense has improved. I think that’s due to the fact our kids have adjusted to basically a new staff and getting to know each other. We’ve added some new terminology in the offense and they had to learn that as well. Any time you make a coaching change, you’re going to have a philosophy change and attitude change and those types of changes don’t happen overnight. It’s been a general overall growing process for our kids.”
WR Tommy Cook
“As the season’s gone on, I felt like I’ve helped the offense quite a bit. I feel a lot more comfortable in it and when you get comfortable, you can relax and things start going your way.”
“We have to focus on practicing great and then we can come out and do the best we can on Saturday. It would be a great feeling all around to end the season on a good note.”
On Randle El…
“It takes a special athlete to do what he can do. It helps out quite a bit to be a receiver and a quarterback. He knows what it takes for a receiver to get open. It’s amazing what the guy can do with the football.”
LB Chris Gayton
On this season…
“I am surprised. I really expected us to have a much better season. However, we have a lot of talent on both sides of the ball. We have a great coaching staff. This team is going to get better. I’m not unhappy with this team at all.”
On Indiana…
“They run the option really well. Antwaan Randle El is an amazing player. He has great vision and runs the option well. If we don’t fill the gaps, he could really hurt us. They mislead you with the dive. They may fake it and go to their fullback. So we definitely need to watch for that.”
On his fondest memory of playing at UK…
“The whole experience. I’ve been here for five years playing college football. The whole experience has been great.”
S Patrick Wiggins
On Indiana’s rushing ability…
“Indiana is probably one of the best rushing teams in the nation so we have to step up and stop the run in order to succeed.”
On Randle El…
“Randle El is a unique player. He’s all instinct on the field, which makes him hard to prepare for.”
