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Tennessee 42 - Montana 16
Team Quotes
Tennessee Head Coach Derek Dooley
(Opening statement)
“Let
me start by giving Montana a lot of credit. That is a good football
team. We knew it coming in here. They whipped us at the line of
scrimmage the whole game. That is a real tribute to them. They are a
veteran team with some big physical guys, and we did not run (the ball)
the way it needed to be run. So, we need a little improvement there but
we did make some big plays in the throwing game which stretched the
game out a little bit early. That was good.” “It
was a good win. They all are and they are all never easy. But there is
a lot of work to do, and we need to make a big jump from game one to
game two if we want to be competitive next week. We made a ton of
mistakes, a lot of them from young guys. We have to go look at the i
lm, clean it up and show some improvement next week.” (On the running game)
“We
were hoping we could run it a little bit better but Montana did a good
job. They have all seniors and juniors on defense, and you could tell.
They did a lot of stuf - moving, shifting, blitzing - and they
are physical. (Tauren) Poole had 100 yards and averaged four yards a
carry but we were hoping to run it a little bit better than we did. “ (On Tyler Bray)
“Tyler
did a good job. He was poised out there. There are still some plays he
could have done better but for the most part he managed the game very
well. He had three touchdowns, and we have some guys who can make some
big plays on the perimeter.“ (On playing against the no-huddle)
“There
were a lot of mistakes. We settled in pretty good. There were some
times when it got a little edgy on the no huddle when we were late
lining up. I thought we managed it a lot better than we did last year.” (On the first-half fumbles)
“We
have not had the wet ball work we needed to. Every time we had
lightening when it rained so we were not able to go outside, and it
showed a little bit earlier. We were not protecting the ball the way we
needed to. Fortunately, we
did not have a turnover. Sometimes that’s luck and sometimes it means guys are running to the ball.” (On the weather delay)
“It
is all in how you manage it. It is amazing but I think this is my sixth
coaching where we have had a lightening delay. So, it is like old hat
to me. The guys managed it really well. They were relaxed, and they
just shut it down in the locker room. I was pleased with them for being
as young as they were.” (On the play of Marlin Lane)
“Marlin
showed what I thought he would. He has some good ability. He scored a
couple of touchdowns and made some guys miss. He had some good tough
runs, and he is going to get better and better.” (On the big plays of WRs Da’Rick Rogers and Justin Hunter)
“They
have both being doing it all camp. They both have big play ability, and
we are going to need them to have a lot of big plays this year for us
to win some games. They showed you a little taste of what they can do.
We have to do a great job as coaches to put them in position to catch a
lot of balls.” (On senior defensive back Art Evans)
“Give
Art a lot of credit because he had a lot of reasons to shut it down
last year. He went through a tough time last year, and we signed all of
these DBs. But to his credit he has never complained. He has never
griped. He has just gone to work. He made probably the biggest play of
the game. They had kind of inched back in it. He played the bubble the
way we want him to play it, and he got rewarded.” (On his orange pants)
“I
admit I was inspired when I saw “The Color Orange.” There’s nothing
better than old footage. I just remember seeing the old footage of the
coaches out there and they all had orange pants on. So I asked Fraiz
(equipment manager Roger Frazier) if he could get a pair of orange
pants. He didn’t think I’d wear them. He thought I was wasting my
money. So Fraiz got it done and I felt like, let’s put it on. I’m not
at the blazer yet. Everybody else wanted me to wear white shoes and a
white belt. My wife intervened on that. That’s why you never do
anything without asking your wife.“ Senior TB Tauren Poole
(On the l ea-l icker play)
“Normally
it doesn’t, but I say him out of the corner of my eye and normally you
aren’t supposed to pinch it, but I pinched it anyway. I tried to turn
around as fast as I could and you try and make a play to make a play
and I did.” Sophomore QB Tyler Bray
“We
saw them when we were watching i lm and we were working all week in
practice to make these combinations ready for the game.” Got some young
guys in there tonight and we got them some experience so it helps us
out a lot to get everyone experience. Glad we got out of there with a
victory. We were running the ball, throwing the ball and it was just a
really balanced of ense tonight. We were just trying to finish. “We
did okay, there were a few throws I should have made and a few reads I
should have made dif erent. I kind of left Da’Rick out to dry and I
didn’t like that at all and I owe him one for the next game. Tauren ran
the ball great, we ran play action and that’s what we wanted to do.” Senior DT Malik Jackson
(On Montana Of ense & Tennessee Defense)
“I
think we played very well, you know the young guys really
had a great week of practice and everyone knew what they were doing
pretty much. With their tempo it got pretty hectic, but once we settled
down and got there tempo down it got easier. We had some problems in
the beginning but we worked it out.” (Dif erent than what you expected)
“We
knew that they ran plays every 13 seconds, but once you get in the game
and get a team that really runs, it gets hard, and I come out the i rst
series hui ng and pui ng and you just have to get it used
to it. It’s the i rst game of the season and we were just happy we went
out there and got coached up and everything fell into place.” (On not having any scrimmage work)
“I
felt pretty good out there. I felt the weeks of practice more seriously
and went pretty hard this week. I work my butt of this week and
the game was pretty easy this week.” (Surprised by the size of the of ense of Montana of ensive line)
“I
thought they were bigger, they looked athletic, but I guess that is
what you can say about any team on video. It was surprising, but they
were still very good and I wish the best for them."
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