Aug. 31, 2003
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Kentucky Coach Rich Brooks
General comments…
“We dug ourselves in a hole early in the season. We turned the ball over four times, and that (the punting game) cost us nine points. But I thought our team fought back and did some good things. Louisville just made the plays to win the ballgame and we made the mistakes to lose the ballgame. We do have 11 games left, and even though we did do some good things, we didn’t do enough. They did the things they needed to do to take the game from us.”
On the defensive breakdowns…
“We had some breakdowns… broke a couple of coverages. We are a young defensive team – we were a little uncertain on what they were going to do. We just put our defense in terrible field position all night.”
On the early plays of the game…
“They were huge. They took the ball on the third play on third and 11 and got the first down. They take it in and get the first seven points, but then all we did was turn around and make mistakes.”
On U of L’s defense…
“They mixed blitzes and brought people inside and outside. But we had some physical breakdowns in protection. (Jared Lorenzen) is amazing to me. He got away from some guys he shouldn’t have.”
On being out-of-sync…
“You never know exactly what someone is going to do coming into a ballgame. But again, we had some physical breakdowns, especially in pass protection.”
On Cardinal running back Eric Shelton…
“He broke some tackles, but some of our tackles were sloppy though. I thought he did a good job. He’s a powerful back, and he earned a lot of it because he gained a lot after the first hit.”
On the offense…
“We didn’t have as much success on some things as we would’ve liked, but all of those things are still going to be a part of it (the offense) in the future.”
On the weather…
“The field really held up great. We would’ve preferred not to have that (the rain delay) happen. We had to come out and get re-warmed up, but it happened to both teams so I don’t think it played a role.”
On Shane Boyd’s performance…
“Shane is a good football player. He’ll come back and make some good plays for us this season.”
Kentucky Players
#7 Shane Boyd
On the game …
“You have to give it to Louisville, they’re a good team and they came ready to play today.”
On his intercepted pass …
“It was a misread. I didn’t see the guy and he happened to be right there when I threw the pass.”
#26 Draak Davis
On being down after the game…
“We just had a couple of crucial turnovers. The turnovers hurt us. Coach stressed that we could not have turnovers and they came back and bit us.”
On his family and friends coming…
“It didn’t hit me how special it was until they got here and I saw them. I was trying to play my heart out for my team and for them. I wish I could have sent them home with a win.”
On next week’s game…
“We will bounce back. I’m pretty sure we will see the usual type of practice this week, we’ve just got to clean up mistakes.”
#19 Keenan Burton
On his first touchdown…
“It feels good to score any time. I wish we would’ve gotten the win rather than me getting the touchdown.”
On jumping for the ball…
“My father has always told me, ‘When you see the ball, go get it,’ so that’s what I tried to do. Jared said he would come to me so I was ready for the ball.”
On the first half play versus the second half play…
“I think we started understanding the offense. (At first) I made a couple of mistakes myself but it hurts the whole team when one person gets a little mixed up on the reads.”
#12 Derek Abney
On his hurt hamstring…
“It’s pretty sore but it’s something I can get through. It’s preliminary right now but I got through the second half OK so I feel good about it.”
On the Louisville defense…
“When they can get through it’s obviously a problem for Jared in the pocket but Jared did his usual thing and didn’t go down with that first guy and was able to make plays.”
#22 Jared Lorenzen
On running the ball…
“It was something that I didn’t really want to prove I could do but I got a chance to do a lot of that today.”
On the disappointing loss…
“Of course (it’s disappointing). You have to give Louisville all respect. They played great, played to win. Their quarterback got his first win on the road. I told my team I was going to take them to a bowl game and that’s still what I want to do.”
On Louisville’s surprise play…
“We expected to play a 4-4 over and then in warm-ups they played an eagle series and we thought they were just kidding but they came out and played it so it took some time to get used to it.”
#4 Glenn Holt
On Jared handling the defensive pressure…
“There was a lot of defensive pressure tonight and Jared did a fantastic job. He scrambled and made several things happen for us.”
On his touchdown…
“It felt great. I stayed in the end zone and waited (for the ball). I knew that Jared would see me if I continued to run my pattern.”
On the loss…
“It hurts. I feel bad for the seniors and I feel bad for the team. I hate to lose.”
Louisville Coach Bob Petrino
On the win…
“I was very proud of our players, and our assistant coaches did a great job of preparing them for the game today. They worked very hard and they stuck with themselves. They did a nice job in the walk-through today, and they carried out the game plan very well. We ran the ball very well. I think our offensive line did a tremendous job. Special teams made big plays.”
On the keys to the victory…
“Our coaching staff communicated well. We had different people providing input. We did a really nice job of rotating running backs. Greg Nord made some good calls. Jeff Brohm had some good input.”
On holding Kentucky’s offense in its final drive…
“I thought that showed a lot of character from our players. When their offense was driving the ball on our defense late, our guys became focused and they became more confident.”
Louisville Players
#17 Stefan Lefors, QB
“This win sets the tone for the whole season. It gives us that swagger back in our step. Last year we lost and never got that swagger or confidence. So this is huge.”
On play of the O-line…
“They were great. I barely even got touched. I only really got hit there at the end when I ran the ball.”
On first drive…
“Scoring on that first drive really relaxed me and took a lot of pressure off me. If would have gone three and out I still would have been nervous thinking I needed to do more. We just pounded it down the field on the first drive and got off to a great start.”
#5 Josh Minkins, DB
“Everything they did we had gone over in practice the coaches did a wonderful job on the defensive scheme.”
On play of defense…
“We prepared for this for a long time. We executed well and we are just going to get better.”
# 54 Robert McCune, LB
On difference in defense this year…
“This year we are all together. Nobody seems to be out for themselves. We are all one unit. “
On Lorenzen…
“He’s a great quarterback. There were several times when I got through and thought I had him and he got away. He was able to buy himself time and make plays with his scrambling ability.”
#32 Eric Shelton, RB
“This was my first game back in college football and I got to play in my hometown. This was great.”
On running low…
“Coach really has me running low now. I came in running high and I was big target and easy to bring down. Now I’m running lower and able to break more tackles.”
