Coach Urban Meyer: On the game: “Today was a great day, I must say that I didn’t anticipate. I told our coaches, that’s the best team that they’ve had in years and I asked him what his thought and he said they have good personnel everywhere.
EXTRA – Scroll down and click the play button to listen to a complete audio of Meyer’s press conference….
Offensively Percy Harvin, he’s one of the most dynamic playmakers in the country and the first one in the history of Florida football to rush and receive for 100 yards. He’s strong, he’s powerful and he’s a heck of a football player. Bubba (Andre Caldwell) had nine catches for over 100 yards, glad to have him back. He’s finally back to full-speed, first time that he’s been full-speed at practice. (Tim) Tebow played terrific. Had a couple miscues at the end but played terrific.
On defense
We were all waiting for that. The Gator Nation has been waiting for that, head coach has been waiting for that. That was excellent defense to hold a very talented group to a very limited number of yards and plays. We didn’t have a sack the entire game because we played against the run. Mike Pouncey certainly took care of that – true freshman, back up center who at Tuesday’s practice moved to a starting inside player. That’s just courage. That tells you a lot about the kind of people the Pounceys are, specifically Michael, how unselfish he is to go over there and play in the four, he brings energy to our defense.”
On changes before the game and deferring the opening kick:
“This is it, there is no tomorrow. We tried to do everything possible to get this team motivated. The seniors, a couple of them, came in and said something to me and I said no chance and then we came in and put them in blue pants. I’ll set my hair on fire if it gets them to play like that. Our coaches want to set an example so we deferred and put our defense on the field. That’s risky because if they go down and score and they take all that energy out of the locker room, but they went three and out and our offense went out and got the job done.”
Sophomore Quarterback Tim Tebow
On the offensive line: “When you can move the ball multiple ways, it is outstanding. When we can throw the ball around and then bring out the power game, it makes it easier and takes the defense off of their toes. Our guys did a great job of just rotating people and the guys came in and played really well today.”
On approaching today’s game: “We needed to have a good day. That was our mindset. This was the best week of practice we have had in terms of being focused and having guys ready to go. We came in with a chip on our shoulder, upset about last week, and our goal was to score every time we touched the ball. We were pretty close to that today.”
Sophomore Wide Receiver Percy Harvin
On the game: “Our offensive line made great holes and anyone could have run through them. I just tried to hit the hole at the time and take over. All the credit goes to the offensive line.”
On playing at home again: “It’s good to get back on the right track. We’ve had good weeks of practice. We are just ready to turn this thing around and get back to playing Gator football again.”
On running the ball: “We knew a lot of teams were going to take away my outside running, so we faked to the outside and ran it inside. One thing I wanted to work on this year was being patient behind my blockers. Last year I just used my speed to get out on the outside. I just tried to slow down and get my blocks in front of me.”
Sophomore Running Back Brandon James
On importance of special teams: “We consider special teams to be a big factor in the game. I just try to change the game anytime I get the ball to make a big play for the team. Everyone is disappointed if we don’t get a big return.”
Vanderbilt Head Coach Bobby Johnson
On the game: “They just took it to us today, they whipped us. They took it to us in the first half. We couldn’t match-up on a lot of things that they were doing offensively and had a tough time stopping them. We gave up a big play to start their scoring and it just went downhill from there. We’ve got to regroup, which is going to be tough, because we thought that we were going to be able to come in here and play a good game. But our guys have been pretty tough, pretty resilient, so I expect them to come back from this.”
On the performance of Florida’s sophomore wide receiver, Percy Harvin: “He’s pretty good, I’d take him, take him back on the plane. They do a lot of great things to get you in mismatches and he is part of that. He’s either carrying the ball or they put him out on a linebacker or even a defensive back is going to have a hard time covering him.”
On Vanderbilt’s defensive struggles: “They had us sort of discombobulated. When those guys are able to be running backs and wide receivers, that gives you a little bit of extra doubt on what you are doing defensively and gives them a little bit more flexibility to get mismatches.”
Junior Receiver Earl Bennett
On trying to get back into the game: “It wasn’t that tough. I mean, we came back into the second half with every intention of getting back into the game. Unfortunately we weren’t able to, they’re a good team.”
On Percy Harvin: “He’s good, he’s fast. He did a great job, we just weren’t able to stop him.”
Junior Safety Reshard Langford
On the game: “They [Florida] had a really good game. It seemed like they were doing everything right. They didn’t have a great game against Georgia, but they definitely came back this week and showed that they’re a good team.”
On Tim Tebow: “He’s a great player. There’s no doubt he’ll become one of the best in this conference.”