Tennessee Post-Game Quotes

TENNESSEE COACH PHILLIP FULMER

Opening statement “It’s just been a heck of a trip. Everything’s been great. Obviously we’re really proud of the win, without question. It finishes off a season that’s been a very challenging season to say the least for our football team. To finish with 10 wins is a real honor for them. It does kick off 2008 for us in a positive fashion. I want to say a really special thank-you as I did in the locker room to the seniors. There’s four or five of them that are really, really special to us, have been just outstanding players. But the whole group of seniors have been really outstanding as leaders this year on the field and off the field. I’m very appreciative to them.”

On whether he’s had a line that protected the quarterback as well as this year “No. It’s been an amazing year that way. I complement them, the five linemen, actually eight that we’ve played during the course of the year. Greg Atkins (offensive line coach) has done a tremendous job, Erik (Ainge) himself in managing the protections. We’re awful proud of what we accomplished from that standpoint. I don’t think we gave up a sack today.”

On the offense facing several third and long situations in the game “I don’t know the stats on third down; I know there were way too many third and longs. To put a quarterback and a line protection in to manage that, you’re putting yourself at risk. I know we converted a good number of big plays on third down which was huge. David (Cutcliffe) calling the plays, the quarterback making the throws, receivers catching the ball, the offensive line protecting; it doesn’t happen unless the whole thing works together.”

On Antonio Wardlow’s interception to preserve a Tennessee victory “It’s just so typical of our year. Ricardo Kemp’s not here. He would have probably played that position. Somebody else steps up. Antonio has had some really big plays here. I’m proud of him for staying the course and doing what he’s doing. He’s been a real contributing partner to our football team.”

On his team’s defensive effort against the Badgers “Even when we started 1-2 there was reason for optimism for our defense. We were playing good defense and we would have things that would happen to us. We just had things that happened to us; we’re out of gap or we don’t cover somebody and they throw the ball in the flat like at Southern Mississippi and they run for 50 yards before anybody even gets in the film to be able to tackle them. We stopped giving people plays. Today we don’t win that football game unless our defense has that kind of courage and toughness.”

OUTBACK BOWL MVP ERIK AINGE

On receiving the Outback Bowl MVP “That’s fun. We’ve had a great time since we’ve been down here. Everything Outback Bowl has done has been great. This isn’t a one-man trophy. It’s like Coach Fulmer said, that goes to the defense as much as it does me because without them all those stats don’t mean anything; we lose the game.”

On finishing his career with a win in the Outback Bowl “Winning and losing games, if anybody says that’s not everything, they’re lying. If we did everything we did and lost we wouldn’t be feeling like we feel right now. You can win 3-0 and still feel great. I wish all our coaches the best. I’m sure they’ll have great careers, and all the seniors that are leaving and hopefully the juniors if they come back. Winning the game puts that good face on it now for the next few months.”

On Tennessee handling the Wisconsin defensive pressure “I’m not fast, but I’m fast enough to get away a little bit. The receivers understand that they need to cut their routes shorter and they need to get themselves open fast because I’m about to throw it. That’s one of the reasons we’ve been so successful when teams have brought a lot of pressure. From the booth upstairs to the guys on the field and the sideline everyone understands what’s going on.”

On his performance in the Outback Bowl “The way I played off Atlanta to myself is that I’ve still got another football game. To come out here and to be as successful as we were today as a team and as an offensive team most of the game; that means a lot. That’s all fun, but winning the game and having all my teammates in the locker room and all that kind of stuff, that’s what it’s all about.”

On how much thought he’s given to playing in the NFL “I’m just trying to get some Outback Steakhouse coupons first. They can go ahead and give me all of those they want now. I’ll do all that. I’ll be training and trying to figure all of that out. I feel lucky that I’ve been blessed to be able to be a competitor and do that as a job.”

DB Antonio Wardlow

On Interception - “When I saw the receiver taking a vertical route I knew they were going to try me sooner or later so when the ball was thrown I made a move to the ball. With the ball hanging up that long I just knew I had to make a good catch.” We had a terrific call from our defensive coordinator we ahd a corner blitz and I knew I had to stay over top and had to cover the underneath receiver and once the the quarterback lobbed the ball I had to make a good catch and I attacked it at the highest point.”

On pressure the put on Ainge – “I believe we got a lot of pressure on the QB. We had many hits on him and some hits after the throw, especially from the corner blitz.”

On everybody stepping up when needed- “All year we’ve been asked to play key roles on the defense and the offense so once I knew I was going to be playing I had to take the opportunity to make the most of it.”

LB Jerod Mayo

On the changes on the defensive side – having to make a stop at the end- “When we saw the offense struggling in the second half we said, hey, if we’re going to win this game it’s going to be up to us. It’s the same attitude we had in the LSU game and the same attitude we had in the Arkansas and Georgia games. We just felt like we had to get the job done and we were fortunate to come out with a victory.

Were you surprised at how much success you had against Wisconsin offense- “I wasn’t surprised at all. Even though we lost some guys on the bench who could play really well.

On thoughts going on the field in last series- “Somebody needs to make a play. And Antonio made the play.”

On the team hanging in to win 10 games this year- “we’ve been through a lot this year, it’s been a rollercoaster ride, but it’s really a complement from Coach Chavis, Coach Cutliffe and Coach Fulmer because it trickles down from there. They never broke under pressure from the media, the fans or anything, they prepared the game plan for us and we went out and executed.”

On fans influencing his future at Tennessee- “I love the fans, I love Tennessee. My family is are these coaches, coach Chavis and Coach Fulmer and we’re going to sit down in a few days and go over what’s best for me and I trust those guys. They’ve been with me through my ups and downs.”

DE Xavier Mitchell

On Wisconsin going for it on 4th and two late in game- “The offense was sputtering and we felt we felt we were going to have to win it on defense and we said to each other if we lost this game it would be on us.”

On pressure in that situation to have make a stop- “We love it. That’s why we play defense. You win championships with defense, you win bowl games with defense, so we took that opportunity and ran with it.”

On importance of getting to the Wisconsin quarterback early- “We definitely wanted to set the tempo. We knew that Donovan liked to run the ball if he couldn’t find anyone open and we wanted to bring the wood to him to say if he was going to run he was going to pay the price for it. He’s a tough quarterback and my hats off to him but that was the statement we wanted to put out there in the beginning.”

Coach Cutliffe-

On Erik Ainge- “He has matured, fundamental better, he’s competing harder.. I think twice against zero coverage he bought time in the pocket just the way we teach him to do it, he moved to his left be bought time and got the ball out accurately and things like that were he is really respond and starting to show it just now in his career.”

On Gerald Jones on 3rd down package- In hindsight we should have put Erik back in there but the way they lined up on second down I thought the option was going to work and we’d score not just make the first down. I kind of believe in Gerald Jones, he has a way of making plays. He’ll break tackles and he is a special player and what I look most about him is I know he can take care of the football.

On Denarius Moore- “He’s continued to grow, he’s a savy guy and I’ll tell you what I like about him is he has physical skills and football is really important to him but what I liked about him from the get go is he really knows how to practice and what you saw was the culmination of a year of practice so by the end of the season when he got a chance to play he looked like a veteran. He has a bright future. We have a special group of receivers and I think they’ll do nothing but get better and better.”