Oct. 31, 2009
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery 
Kentucky Head Coach Rich Brooks
Opening Comments
“It’s extremely disappointing. You have to give Mississippi State credit, they outcoached us, and they outplayed us. We were in position at halftime to take care of business, then immediately turn it over and allow them to go right through us. I’m not sure I remember a team running a ball as effectively on us the way they did and most of it was between the tackles. You’ve got to give them a lot of credit, they came in here and did what they had to do, and we didn’t do what we had to do.”
On the second to last offensive possession deciding to not go Wildcat…
“We decided not to do it and when it doesn’t work we open ourselves to be second guessed on a lot of things. I can sit here and second guess myself on it as well. We just decided that we thought we had some plays that were working and they took them away and we had a young mistake on the interception. They did a good job, maybe it should have been Wildcat.”
How much of it tonight was UK not doing what it needed to do to win?
“Quite a bit of it was not doing what we needed to do. The disappointing thing is that we didn’t really tackle; we weren’t as physical as we were in the Auburn game, or most of our games. They were more physical up front on both sides of the ball tonight. I guess I didn’t get my message to the team. We talked about how physical this game was going to be and they came in and took care of it and we didn’t.”
Talk about the decision not to play Will Fidler…
“We thought (Morgan Newton) was doing some good things and tried to get a little rhythm going. We talked about it on several occasions, but decided to stay with him. It’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t almost. He made some really good throws and did some good things, as well as making some mistakes. Right now it seems like we don’t have anybody that isn’t going to make some mistakes.”
Was Randall (Cobb) tired at the end?
“Randall’s a little beat up. He’s been beat up all week. (Derrick) Locke is a little beat up, we’re all beat up. I’m beat up now and I’m going to get beat up a lot more I think. They (Mississippi State) should be too, but they came in and played through theirs and we didn’t play through ours very well.”
On the series when MSU stopped UK inside the five and Morgan (Newton) ran it on first and second down, were they good defensive plays or not the right read on his part?
“The first one, we wanted to check out of it and he didn’t look over to us. That’s us, and that’s coaching and that’s our responsibility. The other one, they just closed it up real good and made a good play on it.”
Did they do anything to take Randall (Cobb) away from you?
“They were bringing outside pressure on our Wildcat. The first several times we ran it, it was a disaster. We were thrown for losses and then we decided to do a couple different things and got something going out of it, but it certainly wasn’t as successful from start to finish as it was in other games. It’s bound to happen, when you’ve had so much success with it, they’re going to try and do something to take it away from you.”
Kentucky Players
#22, Danny Trevathan, LB
On the loss to Mississippi State…
“This was a tough game and we really needed the win. It really hurts because we couldn’t execute like we practiced and hoped. It’s going to stick with us for a while, but we need to build on it.”
On Mississippi State’s Anthony Dixon…
“We did a good job preparing [for him], but I feel that there were little gaps here and there, and we just gave up. He hit it pretty hard and we made minor mistakes. He was looking for creases and he found them. He got big plays out of them and he need to learn how to avoid big plays.”
On moving on from the loss…
“It’s going to stick with us for a while, but we’re going to try to do a good job of getting over it as fast as we can. We have tough games ahead of us and we have to go out and play, put everything on the line and execute. We need to stick together through it and work together.”
#91, Corey Peters, DT
On what it like trying to tackle Anthony Dixon …
“He’s definitely a tough back, big, powerful but he’s still shifty at the same time, he’s just tough. He did a great job and we didn’t.”
On what can you attribute to Anthony Dixon running the ball like he did …
“They were definitely more physical and ran the ball down our throat. They just wanted it more but it definitely wasn’t a lack of pride. I don’t think we’ll have an answer until we watch the film and I am looking forward to that.”
#12, Morgan Newton, QB
On how he felt about his performance …
“I’m a competitor. So I didn’t think I played all that great, I think I made some plays but left a lot of plays I could have made out on the field. I am just going to take this and get better and try to win back the trust of my teammates.”
On what happened on the interception …
“On the interception I just made a rookie mistake, I was thinking about watch Coach Brooks always tells me and that’s not to take sacks in the red zone and that’s all I was thinking about. I was just trying to throw it away and I didn’t manage to do that.”
#18, Randall Cobb, WR
On the loss and how you feel right now…
“This is a big loss for us. This took a lot out of me, and I just hope we can pull things together and get better next week.”
On trying to get to the bowl game that you wanted…
“Definitely, this is a big game for us as far as the pecking order for the bowl games, and for us to not come out and play with any emotion – this was a big night with Halloween, a lot of alumni in attendance, we had a blackout – I mean just so many things and we didn’t play with any emotion. I don’t really know what to say right now.”
On what happened against MSU…
“We didn’t play across the board, offense, special teams, defense. We didn’t do what we had to do to get a victory today.”
On not being in the Wildcat formation during the second to last possession…
“I trust this coaching staff. I know they are going to put us in position to win. They call plays and we have to execute them. Would I have liked to have the ball in my hands? Yes, I would have. But I didn’t have it. So we have to execute the plays that are called.”
On the Bulldogs beating UK on the line of scrimmage…
“I think they beat us across the board, every aspect of the game. We didn’t do anything right. We didn’t run our plan coming into the game. We didn’t run the plays we wanted to run. They put a lot of stress on us offensively. We couldn’t move the ball when we wanted to, it was just tough for us.”
#4, Micah Johnson, LB
On how you feel right now…
“Very upset. It’s a real tough loss. At one point we had the game and they continue to make big plays. One play over and over again, it killed us and that play worked. We got out-executed. That was a game we should have won. We were counting on a win. It’s very frustrating for me personally. I played as hard as I could, fighting the pain that I had in my knee. Even before, I got sick on the bus on the way to the stadium. We wanted to play well as a defense, perform well as a defense. They did a really good job offensively. This was very disappointing.”
On how Dixon played in this game…
“I can’t believe how he played. We did such a good job against him last year, of course they ran a different offense this year. He got his yards off the same play over and over so it’s really frustrating.”
On if it was the same play over and over, why could it not be stopped…
“It was not mistackling, but the tackling wasn’t great. It was just our scheme at that point. That particular play, they had more against us on that side. We were trying to do different things to slow it down, but it still continued to work. I was in a position trying to get over the top of the counter and he cut back. Then I tried to stay behind the counter and then he moved forward. I went over the top to try to bring the safety down. It was just a tough play to defend.”
Mississippi State Players
#22, Jamar Chaney, LB
On the win…
“We worked hard out there, and it feels good to go out and get a win. We didn’t play perfect tonight, but we played good enough to win and that’s all that matters.”
On creating turnovers…
“It’s real important. At the end of the game, if you look at who forced the most turnovers, that’s usually who won the game. We try not to have turnovers on offense and we create them on defense, that’s the name of the game.”
On Anthony Dixon breaking the record…
“I’m happy to hear he broke the record, he deserved it. He works hard each and every day during practice.”
#24, Anthony Dixon, RB
On setting the career rushing record …
“It is just another one of those goals that I made and it is a dream come true. It is a goal that I talked about since the first day I stepped foot on campus. I was just out there trying to grind for my team tonight. I am really trying to get to that bowl game. That is the thing that is on the top of the list of goals this year. With this win, we are inching closer to that and for that reason I am happy. I was telling the team, I want to get as many as it takes to get a `W’ and I did that tonight.”
On him being able to get yards after contact tonight when last year Kentucky was able to keep him in check for most of the game …
“I had that on my heart, plus the game that I had when I came up here a couple of years ago. I had some fumbles and I had that on my heart. I was thinking a lot of redemption. I was definitely running hard tonight and my big boys up front were just chugging along too. It was a total team effort. The receivers and tight ends were making the reads and all that. I am just happy right now.”
On getting the Wildcat formation rolling tonight …
“Yeah, it felt good. That was a dream come true I guess I could say too. I always wanted to take a snap from the quarterback position and I am happy with it. It was an important first down and I just didn’t want to be denied. I just found a hole, lowered my head and tried to go get it.”
#70, J.C. Brignone, OL
On what this win means for the team …
“It has been a big thing for us this season to just come out and play ball and build on what we have been doing. The things that we did in the offseason and in the summer, we took all of that and used it to play games. We have played a lot of close games that came down to the wire and we couldn’t finish so we knew that coming into this game that we had to win if we wanted a chance at a bowl game and how we wanted things to work out for us. A win like that, coming out and shoving the ball down their throat and doing what we have been doing, is great.”
On Dixon setting the record …
“When you got a running back like Anthony Dixon and you know every time that you block somebody he is going to get three or four yards and sometimes taking it for 60. It is a big thing for us when we see up on that board that we had 316 yards rushing, it just gives us a bigger boast to try to get 400.”
On Anthony struggling against Kentucky in the past and if he said anything about wanting redemption …
“I don’t think that he said anything about it. I know that he was focused this week. I think that kind of showed in how he played this week they way he really came out and ran the ball well.”
