[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B]Kentucky Football Postgame Quotes[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B]Kentucky vs. Ole Miss[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B]Commonwealth Stadium – Lexington, Ky.[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B]Nov. 5, 2011[/B][/FONT][/COLOR]
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[CENTER][COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][B][U]Kentucky Head Coach Joker Phillips[/U][/B][/FONT][/COLOR][/CENTER]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]Injury report …[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“E.J. Fields had a hip pointer on about the first play of the game. He tried to come back and just couldn’t feel it, so he went back out. Donte Rumph had an ankle. He missed the second half. He tried to go back in but couldn’t make it back for the second half. Ridge Wilson had a shoulder that we will evaluate tomorrow and see how he is. Bud Depree went in and gave us some quality snaps. [/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]Opening statement … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“Where do we start at? Big win. Our plan to win that we go over every week is first win the battle. Win the turnover margin. Again we didn’t have any turnovers. Not sure of our record when we don’t turn the ball over, but that is two weeks now (NOTE: UK is 7-1 under Phillips when it wins the turnover battle). That is how you win games. You look at last year. We turned the ball over three times against these guys. This year we made them drive the field and that is how you get yourself a chance to win. Run the football. We had a 100-yard rusher. The other one is stop the run. We didn’t stop the run like we would like to but we didn’t give up many big runs. We gave up the big run on the reverse early in the game and that hurt us. Get ourselves off the field on third downs, 7-for-17. We gave up a couple early in the game. And then keep ourselves on the field on third down. We were only 5-of-13; that was not good. But the thing we did was we also won field position, we won the fourth quarter and we got the ball in the end zone in the red zone. Those things equal wins. As long as we stick with our plan we feel like we have a chance to win games. [/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“We also did some special things on offense and defense. One was how we protected our quarterback. Our deal was to make sure we kept him upright and keep him clean. But a lot of those things he has to do on his own, which is help the protection, get the ball out of his hands when he needed to, defeat man coverage which we did a good job of beating man-to-man coverage. Whether it is running away from them across the field, and we actually got behind people today in the first half, we had some chances for some big ones but they came out as foul balls. We got behind them and they were foul balls, but in the second half we hit some home runs, which you have to have when people play you in man-to-man coverage. Defensively we got ourselves off the field on third down and caused a turnover that was big. And in special teams we didn’t flip the field on our return game but we did flip the field on our coverage teams, so that means it was a total team effort. All phases did a great job to help us win the football game.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On the play of freshman quarterback Maxwell Smith … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“Max did an unbelievable job of picking himself off the ground. He did take some hits now, but he did a good job of picking himself up off the field. To me a big-time quarterback takes it right in the lips and stands in there and delivers. He is performing like a freshman at times with some of the things he is doing but at times is he showing bit-time flashes of being a great quarterback for us.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On if Maxwell Smith will start at quarterback next week … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“He definitely deserves to be the starter next week. We aren’t making a quarterback controversy or anything like that. He deserves to be the starter next week.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On if getting CoShik Williams involved in the running game has opened up the passing game …[/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“I was thinking that as soon as our offensive line starting getting healthy we started getting banged up in other positions. But we started making plays. CoShik (Williams) is seeing things. Once you can run the ball, once you can do one of the things good, it helps the other phase. When you can run the ball, it helps you throw the ball because you get more people in the box because they say we have to stop the run, we can’t give gaps to the run and we throw the ball. You get more one-on-one coverage and we said we have to beat man-to-man coverage. Once you start throwing the ball it helps you run the football. Then it becomes a cat and mouse game. When we are able to do one of the things well, I think it helps the other areas of our offense.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On getting quality plays on the deep passing game … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“Another hat in the box and again our goal was to beat man-to-man coverage. In the first half, it was a foul ball. We tried to throw to (La’Rod) King, we tried to throw to (Matt) Roark but in the second half we hit a couple of them for home runs. Now you start playing a little softer in your coverage, you start putting a safety over top of those defenders and we start the running game.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On the deep passing game … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“I think today definitely it was there. It’s our receivers’ jobs to get them into cover two, the two safety looks. Then it becomes our running job to get them back into one-safety looks. And you just keep going back and forth and we did a good job of that today. Our run game did a good job of getting them into single-safety looks. Once they went into single-safety looks our receivers did a good job, and our quarterback did a good job, of saying we weren’t going to let you play us in single-safety looks. And we got some two-safety looks and we got back to the run game.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On if Maxwell Smith was given many checks to make at the line … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“We tried to take most of them out of his hands and let him play. A lot of that stuff that we were doing was just check with me, meaning check with coach (Randy) Sanders.” [/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On how Maxwell Smith looked pregame … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“He was relaxed. I think last week helped that, a lot. He went in and had a good week of practice and just came out and played.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On if the offense has been “fixed” … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“It is far from being fixed. Did we score every series? No. That is when you offense is fixed. We only score 13 in the first half. No it’s not fixed. It is far from being fixed. It is being repaired. It is in repair mode.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On Maxwell Smith’s toughness … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“The guy is a tough individual. Tough mental guy. That is what it takes to play that position because there is so much stuff on the quarterback that he has to manage.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On the team rallying around Maxwell Smith … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“I don’t know if it was rallying around Max, our guys were rallying around each other. We have been talking about locking arms and going to work together and working for each other. It wasn’t so much for Max.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On the fan support … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“The other thing I would like to do is thank the fans. I really liked the energy those guys had. You do not know how important it is for kids to see them out there. That was big and it was big in the fourth quarter.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On the play of the receivers … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“What changed with them? They started catching the balls. I think that helps. Once you make a couple of plays and get a little confidence. And it changed with Max too, he started making some plays. The game started getting a little slower for him and he got some confidence. Our offensive line, those guys did some good things, even in those four losses that we had. You start to see those guys gain confidence. When players gain confidence they start to practice harder, they prepare harder and it shows up on the game field.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On the season turnaround for receiver Matt Roark … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“It has been a lot of guys who have changed their seasons around. Matt (Roark) is one of those guys who has changed his. He had seven catches today. This guy came in and caught 13 last week and has battled. He plays a lot of plays. He got dinged up on the first big one he caught and we weren’t sure if he was going to be able to go back in. He was dazed but got back in there and made some big plays. I am proud of him but I am proud of this whole football team. The way they have stuck together. We have talked about it, there is a lot to play for and this only helps.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
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[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”][I]On Danny Trevathan’s 17-tackle performance … [/I][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=#000000][FONT=”Arial Narrow”]“He had 17 again this week. He is unbelievable. Danny is definitely the leader of this football team, not only does he lead by the way he plays but he leads by the way he prepares for the game. Now he is starting to lead vocally. That has definitely helped bring some other people with him. Danny is trying to bring some people with him.”[/FONT][/COLOR]
