Nov. 3, 2008
Head Coach Rich Brooks
Opening statement:
“It’s not a great day from an injury standpoint. (offensive guard) Jess Beetshas a torn ACL and will have surgery at a later date. (wide receiver) DeMoreoFord is out this week with his second concussion. (cornerback) Robbie McAteeis a little better today with his back that had been bothering him last week.The other guys look to be okay to practice tomorrow. That would include: (tailback/fullback)Moncell Allen, (tailback) Alfonso Smith, and (defensive tackle) Myron Pryor.(linebacker) Micah Johnson looks as if he is finally getting over the high anklesprain, which is good news.
“On looking at the Georgia game, they are a team that obviously has a lot of weapons. They have a really good quarterback, probably the best running back in the league, and are the number one in the SEC in total offense. They are a team with great speed on defense, and are coming off a tough loss at Florida. It seems like that’s a broken record the past few weeks, but certainly Georgia is a team capable. They were preseason number one. They are an explosive football team that can score points, and their defense is very stingy. This is going to be a very difficult game for us. We are going to have to play extremely well, and better than we have played in recent weeks to have a chance in this game.”
On becoming bowl eligible for the third consecutive year…
“It’s something we had as a goal to go to a third-straight bowl game. We’re notthere yet. We haven’t gotten an invitation so we need to play this season outand try to accomplish more things that will enhance our position to achieve thatgoal. It’s a pleasure to see the players bounce back after our worst defeat ina long time two weeks ago to come back to battle and compete, and find a wayto win a game on the road. That part is very pleasing. Now we just have to tryto find a way to have a chance against another really good football team. That’sgoing to be our focus week to week. We need to find ways to win some games inthese next three games we have. We just hope that we can show our fans that wecan get a first down and that we can convert third downs. Hopefully our fanswill encourage us on Saturday to do that.”
On leadership and production…
“I think our leadership on this team has turned out to be fine. Our productionhasn’t turned out to be as good. We lost leadership and production a year ago.We are starting to get production in different areas and different ways. I knowit’s not pretty. I know it’s not aesthetically pleasing sometimes, but we’refinding ways to win games. To me, that’s a mark of a program trying to establishitself as a viable team year in and year out, rather than an occasional blipin the radar.”
On the offense playing better the second half of the Mississippi State game…
“We certainly played better in the third quarter than we did in the first. Athalftime, we were just trying to get things corrected and made some adjustmentson how we were going to come out (in the third quarter) on offense. We startedin the pony backfield a little more and started running the read play with (quarterbackRandall Cobb) more than we did in the first half. It worked… for awhile.”
On (defensive coordinator Steve Brown) commenting that they remind the team of their assignments and how to do them better during halftime …
“Well, there’s that and then there are some adjustments, but sometimes, as amazingas this may sound, when you prepare a team and you explain to them, they don’talways listen. They hear you but don’t listen. So when they go out and somethinghappens to them in the first half and you have a chance to remind them, all ofa sudden the light goes on and it’s like, `Oh yeah, I remember. We were workingon that in practice all week, weren’t we? I think maybe we should do it thatway.’ Sometimes you can remind them and get things to sink in better after they’veexperienced it in the first 30 minutes.”
On the level of significance of the win against Georgia two years ago…
“How significant was the Mississippi State win two years ago? How significantwas the Ole Miss win that same year? This team over the last three years hasbeen doing a lot of first-in-a long-time type things. I think (Georgia) was justone step in that direction. It was a significant step because it was a team thatwe hadn’t beaten in quite awhile. There are still a lot of those guys (teams)out there that we need to do that with as well.”
On the special teams’ positive impact on the Mississippi State game…
“It (the win) wouldn’t have happened without plays in the kicking game. The kickoffreturn was significant, and I have to say that the Mississippi State punter hada career day. He changed the field position dramatically on us on several occasionsthat took us from good field position to terrible field position. If our kickinggame hadn’t stepped up, it would have been a very difficult game to win. Notjust the blocked extra point, not just the fake punt… but the kickoff return,(Tim) Masthay’s kickoffs… our kickoff coverage pinning them deep … (Tim) Masthay’spunting. That game, in relation to field position, was similar to some of ourearlier season games where we played better defense and a better kicking game.Those two phases were able to win a lot of games for us. The offense did whatthey needed to do to score enough points to win. That’s kind of what happened(against Mississippi State). Our defense stepped up and shut down the runninggame of Mississippi State, which was critical. Our special teams gained us anadvantage.”
On if there are risk factors in using two quarterbacks…
“I’m not a proponent of the two quarterback system. I never have been, and Ithink I’ve stated that before. As I see it right now, the two quarterbacks areour best opportunity to win games. Depending on who’s hot and who’s not, onemay see more action than the other. Certainly it is a change of pace. Is thereany danger in it? I don’t see any danger in it. If someone’s doing great andyou run up and down the field and score a lot of points, then you make a changeand the guy throws an interception for a touchdown, there’s a danger. I don’tthink that’s been a problem for us so far. No one is running up and down thefield scoring a lot of points. I hope that one of them can start doing that.It would be a nice thing.”
On the danger of an injury to the quarterback when also playing other positions…
“We’re just trying to do what we can to win football games. We’re going to utilizeour players the best we can to do that. If that’s (Randall Cobb) catching passesand returning punts, then that’s probably going to happen. Beets, unfortunately,blew his knee out without any contact. He was running out on a screen pass anda guy changed direction. He just planted his foot. Cobb could get hurt walkingdown the stairs of the dorm, too. It’s just one of those chances that we haveto take. In a perfect world, I probably wouldn’t be doing that. But it’s nota perfect world right now. We’re just trying to get the most production we canout of the team we have.”
Tight End Maurice Grinter
On the win against Mississippi State …
“This win against Mississippi State is very big because we needed it to becomebowl-eligible. It was something we wanted to do for ourselves and for UK history.This win is very important because it helps build the Kentucky program.”
On Saturday’s game against Georgia and having won the game in 2006…
“I expect a hard-fought game against Georgia . We are both good teams who willplay with a lot of emotion. We need to be sure to give it our all when we playthem. The 2006 victory against Georgia won’t be much of a factor for me becauseit’s in the past. We need to build off the momentum we create.”
On winning six games and becoming bowl eligible…
“Everyone is aware of the bowl situation and we want to work hard in practiceto get to a better bowl. Of course everyone wants to go to a bowl, so we’re justtrying to do it. We don’t talk about it too much because we know we can succeedif we put our minds to it. Coach Brooks reminds us that six wins won’t guaranteeus a bowl, and we need to win a few more games so we can get to a better bowl.”
Defensive Lineman Ventrell Jenkins
On Kentucky ‘s defense…
“The defensive linemen are my friends and I love them to death. I couldn’t doanything without them. The sack I had against Mississippi State would have beenimpossible without the other guys. On the sack, Myron Pryor and I both beat ourmen, and Pryor sent just him my way.”
On being named SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week…
“I don’t want to take all of the credit for SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week,even though it does feel good. If I was out there by myself, I would lose everytime. Without them (teammates), I wouldn’t be (the award winner). I would reallylike to thank the defensive line along with Coach Rick Petri for helping me achievethis honor.”
On Saturday’s game against Georgia …
“Against Georgia we have to be physical. We won’t let them bring the fight tous, we have to be the aggressor and take the fight to them.”
On winning six games and becoming bowl-eligible…
“It feels good to be bowl-eligible, but as a team we want to stay away from thebowl talk. We like to use South Carolina as an example from last year, becausewinning six games is not enough. They won six games last year and they had tostay home during bowl season. We understand we are bowl-eligible, but we haveto go win more games to secure a better bowl.”
Linebacker Micah Johnson
On being bowl eligible and the possibility of more wins the rest of the season…
“Six wins is what we needed to make a bowl. And that’s what we have. Right nowwe are shooting for about nine wins for the season so we can get to a betterbowl than we did last year. We just have to win our games first and take onegame at a time. I just think that we are a better team and in a better positionto be in a better bowl then we have been in.”
On the 2006 game versus Georgia compared to this year’s upcoming game versus Georgia …
“I just remember the excitement and pandemonium from the fans. We are tryingto get that same feeling this year. I think that this is a very highly anticipatedgame and I think that we can come out on top. But last year doesn’t have mucheffect on this year’s game. They are a better team then they were last year.We have to be prepared to stop the running game. They have one of the best quarterbacksin the country, so we have a large task at hand.”
On playing Georgia ‘s outstanding running game …
“We need to be prepared just like we did with Mississippi State . They had agreat offensive line and we just came out and attacked them hard and we knewour assignments.”
Cornerback Robbie McAtee
On going into the next three games…
“The focus right now is just to win as many games as possible. We just want toget to a better bowl. We are trying to do something greater this year and that’sour focus right now.”
On matching Georgia ‘s intensity…
“We have no choice but to match their intensity. Georgia ‘s a great team andthey have a lot of offensive weapons. They have (A.J.) Green, (Mohamed) Massaquoi,(Matthew) Stafford , (Knowshon) Mereno. So, we really have no other choice. Wecan’t come out flat. We are going to come out ready to compete.”
On the health of the team…
“As far as health-wise, I think we are pretty good. I know that Micah (Johnson)is back and all of our linebackers are back. So, for the next game we shouldbe pretty healthy.”
On the 2006 game versus Georgia as something that could be helpful for the upcoming game…
“The only incentive is to get another win. We just want to get as many wins aspossible. We just want to make it to a good bowl game but, what happened twoyears ago is what happened two years ago. That’s something that we are not goingto focus on.”
