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Texas A&M 56, Vanderbilt 24
Vanderbilt - Texas A&M postgame quotes
Vanderbilt Quotes
Head Coach James Franklin
"Starting
out with a three-and-out against a high-powered opponent is not the way
you want to start the game on offense. We have a problem at punting
that we have to get fixed. I thought we started the year punting the
ball well, and that is not happening right now. The turnovers on
offense were the story of the game. We got some momentum with the
onside kick, and we closed the gap. Starting the second half with an
interception return for a touchdown is difficult. Turnovers on the road
are difficult to overcome, especially on the road in the SEC. We will
focus on Vanderbilt this next week, and then we'll start focusing on
Florida."
Junior DE Kyle Woestmann
"A&M was a phenomenal
team, with a returning Heisman Trophy winner. They are arguably one of
the most prolific offenses in the country--up there with Oregon. We
needed to play a hard-nosed defense to stop them, and we didn't do
that. Our hats off to them, but we didn't do a good enough job up front
putting pressure on them."
Senior WR Jordan Matthews
"There
were some ups and downs with Patton [Robinette], but I think he's going
to be just fine. I'm happy with him, and he will continue to get
better."
Senior LT Wesley Johnson
"Last week we did a good
job of playing well in the first quarter. Today, we didn't go out and
do that. We can't have as many mistakes as we had. We have to
communicate better on our blitz calls. We thought we could come back
and win, but we didn't execute the way we were supposed to."
Texas A&M Quotes
Head Coach Kevin Sumlin
On the defensive performance...
"It's
always important. As a team, obviously we've made some changes, as I
alluded to last week some tough decisions, we got to play a lot of guys
today. Inserted some new people who got some more turns, it's really
the first game, believe it or not, that we had all four of our
secondary guys start the game that we planned to start the year with,
either due to injury with Floyd Raven or suspension or what-have-you.
So, there was some continuity, the back end, I thought Noel Ellis and
Toney Hurd Jr. gave us some depth at the nickel position and gives some
flexibility. Donnie Baggs, in some of the bigger sets made some big
plays for us today, which we needed that to happen, too. Sean
Washington, [one of] just a number of guys we got that involved and
were really able to rotate some of the D-linemen. Hardreck Walker
played a lot today, the most he's played the whole time and giving
Isaiah Golden some rest because Alonzo Williams didn't play. From a
confidence standpoint, that's got to help our young guys and the number
of turns that they got and not only just playing but having some
success, particularly in the second half, we're giving the ball right
back to them and they're still getting off the field, either with
turnovers or stops."
On Texas A&M's four fumbles...
"I
don't know what was going on, we started fumbling the ball, which we
don't do. Put another guy in there and he fumbled. So, I think it
became very evident that when you fumble the ball, you don't go back in
the game. Brandon Williams got his turn, I think he took care of the
ball and played very well, with some flashes. We've got some guys that
are pretty talented at running back, but we've got to take care of the
ball. You hit the nail on the head. In my two big stats for the day, we
lost the turnover margin with five turnovers to their three, but third
downs were big for us and that's offensively and defensively. That's a
big deal for what we do as a no-huddle team. When we're converting 60%
or so on third down, we're moving the ball and our defense its holding
them to 3-of-11 that's as good as it's been here this year.
On Johnny Manziel's health...
"He
practiced yesterday at the walkthrough, which we go about 20-25
minutes. Ours is not really a walkthrough but it's a full-speed
walkthrough that's not padded. He went through that without any mental
errors. Actually got up this morning and was a little sore from that. I
was a little concerned with that. We really didn't make a decision
until warm-ups. People thought I was being coy, we didn't really know.
We worked Joeckel and Kenny Hill the whole week, and I think that
shows, because both of those guys were prepared to play today. Both of
those guys operated in the offense very well. Those two guys were
prepared to play today, they practiced right until yesterday and Johnny
took the snaps yesterday, we go about 30 plays or so, and during
warm-ups today he said he felt good and was ready to go."
Defensive Coordinator Mark Snyder
On defensive performance...
"I
thought we had a really good week of practice. The challenge before we
hit the field was transitioning it from the practice field to Kyle
Field. I thought the kids did that for the most part today. We've still
got some things we have to get cleaned up. We had a bunch of
three-and-outs. We kept them under 100 yards rushing. Those are things
that we should do. It was nice to have the whole secondary together and
to practice together for a week. To me, it's about improvement. I want
to continue to see improvement. I think we are at a juncture where that
should start happening."
On increased quarterback pressure...
"I
dialed it up. We pressured a lot more than we have been. We finally
could. I felt we finally got to the place where all the pieces came
together. I felt comfortable calling these pressures because everybody
knew where we were supposed to be. I told the TV crew on Friday that
this would be our game where we started becoming who we have been, who
we are going to be and who we have always been."
On personnel changes...
"I
know we played a lot of young guys. I have a feeling that between now
and our bowl game and bowl preparation that those guys are going to get
better and better. We made a conscious effort to get data in the game a
lot. Also, we made sure to get Noel Ellis and Shaan Washington in the
game a lot and roll with those guys. They are coming into their own a
little bit. I was pretty proud of them. There is more to do but this
was a far better performance than we have had."
On Howard Matthews...
"He
did well. He had a lot of tackles. Howard could have made more plays
and he knows that. He got it from me on the sidelines a few times. He
had chances for a few more turnovers. He is good, though. He is going
to make a lot of money. At the same time, we felt like Howard could
have made a few more plays to get the ball back to the offense."
Senior OL Jake Matthews
On playing on the right side...
"I
found out that I was playing on the right side literally right after
warm-ups today. I think I did pretty well even though I haven't played
the position in over a year. We beat ourselves on a couple of things,
but overall: good feeling, great win, got the job done."
On the offense's performance despite multiple turnovers...
"It
just goes to show how good we are. If we didn't beat ourselves, the
margin of the game would have been much wider. The coaches keep making
that a point each week: don't beat yourselves. We've yet to put a
complete game together and that's a goal of ours. Hopefully we can get
it done next week."
Junior WR Malcome Kennedy
On the 5 offensive turnovers...
"It
was really frustrating for us because we don't normally do that. Every
time we turned the ball over we just looked at it as an opportunity to
bounce back and score when we got the ball back. Things just happened
like that today; we had an unfortunate string of events, but we never
let that get us down because we know what type of offense we are.
Everyone played great today, and though it's unfortunate that we had so
many turnovers, we won the game by a great margin so there's nothing we
can do about it now."
On the three different QBs' performances...
"It
was amazing to witness. I've seen Kenny [Hill] do it before, I've seen
Joeckel do it before, and Johnny always does it, so to see that is
inspiring because we know that when any one quarterback goes down, we
have guys that are fully capable of coming in and leading the offense.
I'm so proud of Kenny Hill and Matt Joeckel because when Johnny is out,
they're the man."
Sophomore DB De'Vante Harris
On having all four projected starters all on the field together for the first time this season...
"It
was great. We all gelled together and made some great plays when it was
time to. I think the defense had a great day overall as well."
On whether the defense played with a chip on its shoulder...
"We
had that attitude in a sense, but we all know what were capable of and
outsiders are just outsiders. We just do our thing, fix our mistakes,
and play hard. As far as redemption, you only have to redeem yourself
if you couldn't get it done the first time. Last week we made our
mistakes, but I think we played a complete game for the most part
today."
Sophomore QB Johnny Manziel
On first half...
"After
they got the onside kick they got some more momentum; we had held them
to a field goal and we were about to get the ball back and they got it
back and scored again. That took a little air out of us, but then we
went and got a fourth and one. Then we had a fumble and things went
against us for a minute. If we can keep from getting too many penalties
and keeping our turnovers down then the game would have probably been
different in the first half. Regardless we came out and played well in
the second half and got a win."
On injury and run game...
"It
wasn't really in our game plan this week for me to run. My shoulder is
just a little sore, I don't know if its bruised or what is going on. I
kind of got squished when I went down last week against Auburn. It
didn't cause me too many problems today, so that was positive."
On Mike Evans and Jordan Matthews...
"Mike
had a good day. They did some things to keep a guy over the top of him
to try and limit his big explosive plays. But when they did give us a
good look, he ran some good routes and on the fade route had a
forty-yard fade, and that's a big play and he scored a touchdown. Just
watching Jordan and getting to see him live today; it's been fun
watching him throughout the year and even last year. They are both
really good players that played really well today."
On the season thus far...
"It's
been a little frustrating as of late, just with some games a little
closer than we wanted. We thought that we played pretty good all
around. We just need to continue to get better and grow as a team. We
aren't where we were last year as far as all around in every aspect of
our game, but we are getting better. We have a coaching staff that
won't quit until we are where we need to be. If we just give into them
and understand that they have a big plan for us and buy into all of
that then we will be fine."
On knowing if he would start...
"In
my mind I was always going to play. It would take a lot to keep me off
the field and away from these guys. These guys count on me and they
expect me to be there, so if I have to come in and get treatment or
whatever I have to do to get back, I have to do it for those guys. This
offense and this team mean everything to me, so to miss a game wasn't
really an option for me. I didn't really respond to too many people
this week. I just knew in my mind that I was going to play."
Sophomore DL Julien Obioha
On pressure and sacks...
"We
have been working on the pass rush tremendously in practice. We made it
an emphasis because we know how little pressure we put on quarterbacks.
Today we just saw the fruit of our labor with how much we worked on the
pass rush, and it was great to see."
On second half pick-six...
"It
fired us up. Coach Snyder is always saying to cause turnovers, get the
ball back to our offense with good field position, and go score
defensive touchdowns sometimes. Those defensive touchdowns really help
to give the team momentum and fire us up."
On Gavin Stansbury...
"He played a great game. I think he had a couple sacks and about 10 tackles so he played a great game today."
On defensive performance...
"We
need an example to show us how we should play. This is the type of
standard we expect from our defense, so it's good to have a game like
this."
On Vanderbilt offense...
"We just came out and played
hard. We played well against the run game. We made them pass the ball
and we put a lot of pressure on the quarter back."
On energy of the defense...
"We
just worked on keeping the energy up and not being flat at any time.
Sometimes in last week or other games we didn't play so well because
the energy level was flat. Today we just made sure we maintained a high
energy level and that produced a great defensive performance."
Junior DL Gavin Stansbury
Key to turnaround...
"I
believe it's my teammates. Today everything that I got came from my
teammates- pressuring the quarterback and forcing him to me. We've been
giving a lot effort lately and everybody has been going with the
coaches and things have been going pretty well."
On impact on pressuring quarterbacks...
"There
has been a lot of pressure lately. We basically decided that we needed
to get back there and make some plays. People have been looking for us
to get into the backfield and to make big plays on the quarterback."
On young defensive line...
"The
Freshman kind of fed off of us, we brought energy every time we got on
the field. Every time that we got on the field no matter if the offense
scored or if we threw a pick or turnover we came out with energy, so
everyone just fed off of that."
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