Postgame Quotes

Oct. 4, 2003

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Quarterback Eli Manning
On the win:
"We're 2-0 in the SEC. That's where we want to be."

On the Gator defense:
"They had a good plan against our passing game and they did a good job executing."

On the game-winning touchdown:
"We had two plays to put it in. You don't want to take two. You want to put it in on the first one."

On the offensive line:
"The offensive line played great all day. They were handling the (defensive) line."

Wide Receiver Mike Espy
On the final drive:
"The feeling was, it's now or never. It's do or die. We have to get it right now. If we don't, Florida is going to win the game, and we handled business."

Running Back Tremaine Turner
On the rotating running backs:
"Whatever we rush for, we rush for as a team."

Running Back Vashon Pearson
On the winning touchdown:
"I knew when he put me back in, I had to get it in. I knew if I didn't get it in (Coach Cutcliffe) was going to cuss me out."

On the running game:
"The last two games we haven't been able to run the ball like we ran it today."

Defensive Lineman Jesse Mitchell
On the defense:
"We made the plays when it really counted. That was the difference in the game."

Defensive back - Von Hutchins
On the win:
"To beat Florida two years in a row, not too many people can say that."

On coming in to the game:
"We had a lot of pressure coming into the game by ourselves, by the media and by the coaches. We have to stay focused and know that we aren't the worst secondary in the country."

Florida Head Coach Ron Zook
On the game:
"Obviously it's not very happy in that locker room right now. We've got a long way to go. As I told the players, we've got to circle the wagons. There is going to be a lot of noise in the system. We're still a good football team. Obviously we didn't do the things we needed to do in the second half. Defensively, we gave up a few big plays, but we played well. Offensively we turned the ball over too many times and you can't do that. We have to go back to the drawing board. We're halfway through the season, and it's going to be imperative that we continue to improve and get better."

"I think we put the defense out there too many times and too many situations. Offensively, we have to get a rhythm going and keep the defense off the field. You can't go out there and turn the ball over and put them in that situation."

On why Ben Troupe didn't have the ball in the second half:
"A couple of times he was open, but we didn't get the ball to him. Obviously, he's a weapon that we want to get the ball the ball to."

On Ole Miss' running game:
"They ran the ball much better than we can let happen. We talked to our players all week long that they [Ole Miss] were going to come in here and try to establish the run. It's the one thing they want to be able to do, and they did that. Basically, they were running to the weak lead and they did a good job. Their one big run skewed the stats a little bit, but still they did a nice job. We've said this all along, we cannot let a team run the football like that."

On the defense:
"That's the one thing I think didn't happen on defense today--fatigue. I thought they played hard, and we kept them fresh."

On freshman QB Chris Leak:
"Obviously I think anytime you play a young guy like that, things are going to happen. We've tried to make the offense quarterback friendly for him. It is as simple as it can be. On the same token, you have to be able to do things as well. He didn't come out and play the way he needed to in the second half." "I think he'll come back strong. I think he'll work that much harder. It's probably the first time he's been in a situation like this. He'll grow a lot from it."

On whether the SEC Championship is still a goal for this team:
"Absolutely. Last year, Arkansas lost their first two SEC games and they went to Atlanta. In 1992, we lost our first two SEC games and we went to Atlanta. There is going to be a lot of people out there that say we have no chance, but that's why you play the games on Saturday. It's going to be important that our football team rallies. We're not done. We're only done if we say we're done. It's going to be important as a staff and as a football team to get back together and get back to work."

On LSU next week:
"It's going to be important to have a good week at practice and go up there and play the best we can."

On the game:
"I'm real proud of our staff and I am real proud of a bunch of our players that gave a really gutsy effort. They competed from start to finish like you have got to compete. We were fortunate because we did some things to shoot ourselves in the foot. And we were fortunate at the end of the game because people made plays. We will grow and learn from this, taking it one game at a time to move forward."

On second half performance:
"All I can say is that the whole game we were close to making those plays and in the second half we finally made those plays. It made a significant difference. One of the things that I like is that we got obviously better as the game went on. We put a lot of pressure on the quarterback, we got closer to their receivers and we were doing better things as the game went on."

On the game:
"I'm a bit tired and drained. It was an emotion-filled game. It is definitely a whole lot easier to plan after a win. It is certainly more interesting. We just need to keep the same focus and continue to get better."

Wide Receiver OJ Small
On his touchdown catch:
"We just didn't make plays when we needed to.

On the mindset of the team:
We just have to get better every week. We cannot afford to lose anymore. We just need to win."

On what needs to be done:
Right now we just need to make plays and win out the rest of the SEC season.

Defensive End Darrell Lee
On recovering from the loss:
"Everybody's pretty down right now, so we just need to come back to practice on Monday and flush it. We need to prepare ourselves the second half of the regular season."

On not playing full games:
We are not playing full games. We'll come out and play a good first half. I don't know if it is because we are getting overconfident and not coming out to play a second half, but we are not playing full games. Whenever we put together a full game, we will be good.

On chances of winning the SEC east:
We are going to need some things to happen, but we have to just focus on what we can do. We have to go out and play the best we can play every week.

Running Back Deshawyn Winn
On the mood of the locker room:
The mood in the locker room is very quiet, with nothing to be excited about. We have to just keep going on from here. We have a long way to go, but we have a lot of football yet to play.

On his injury/play:
I have a little high ankle sprain but it was nothing to hold me back. I might have gotten a little timid because I was trying to read the holes and not attacking first-level like Coach Locksley told me to do.

On the offense's production:
We have to keep the defense off the field and keep some drives going. We had a lot of penalties which killed some of the drives we had going, but the defense can only take so much. We need to just sustain some drives and score.

Linebacker Earl Everrett
On the injured starters:
We are definitely looking forward to those guys returning because it definitely helps out the run defense.

Cornerback Johnny Lamar
On the Gators' loss:
"I think we just didn't execute plays we needed to execute, and we did not make the tackles we need to make. The calls were right, but we just missed tackles and didn't get them down when we needed to get them down."

On the effect of the injuries to Florida's linebackers:
"I think it's more of lack of execution, knowing what we need to do and executing it. We have a lot of young linebackers, but I think they all can play well. We just need to execute the plays."

On losing to Mississippi two consecutive years:
"It's pretty frustrating. It being my last year and not being able to play them anymore is pretty frustrating. I think I just need to stay focused on the rest of the season because we have a lot of big games coming up the rest of the year."

Running back Ran Carthon
On Florida's loss to Ole Miss:
"I don't even know when the last time Florida was ever 3-3 at this point in the season. We just have to find one way to find something to pull together. We just have to go back out there and play Gator football."

On Chris Leak throwing three interception:
"You can't fault Chris. He's a playmaker trying to make plays. You can't fault him for that; He's trying to make a play. All is forgiven. The seniors and everyone on the offense has to rally around him and allow him to make the short passes."

On Ben Troupe not receiving the ball in the second half:
"You might want to credit the Ole Miss defense. I guess they started to try to double and triple team Troupe in the second half. Week in and week out, he's showed that he's a vital part of this offense. When we have him involved in the game, we're pretty unstoppable. We just have to find different ways to get Troupe the ball and allow him to make plays."

Tight end Ben Troupe
On the mood after the loss to Ole Miss:
"It's always down when you know you can beat a team. They were a good team. We don't want to look past Ole Miss. They came out and really played hard, played us for 60 minutes, and they came out with the win."

On if this is "Florida football":
"It's Florida football. We just have to come out and play two halves of football. We came out in the first half really firing, and in the second half we really didn't play as well as we did in the first. That's why Ole Miss took advantage of our mistakes."

On not getting the ball in the second half:
"I don't really worry about getting the ball. It's all about the team. I can't be out there focusing on how many catches I get in the first and second half combined because when I do that, it's only going to hurt the team."

Quarterback Chris Leak
On his third interception:
"The safety made a great play. Coming off the hash, I saw Carlos [Perez] and threw it up. I thought Carlos was all by himself, and the safety made a great play."

On not getting the ball to Troupe in the second half:
"They made some adjustments in the second half. I was trying to spread the ball around like I always do, and they did a great job adjusting to it."

On where his confidence is at this point in the season:
"I'm still going to keep working hard. These are the times that get you better. Once you get through these, you can move on and be a lot better."

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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