Here’s your post game quotes from the Cat and Gator coaches & players, courtesy of UK Sports Info.
Kentucky Head Coach Rich Brooks
Opening statement…
“Obviously, it was a tough game. Florida is a very good team. We competed tonight but we couldn’t always execute as well as we needed. When we got behind and it kind of negated us from running the ball as much as we’d like. Their pass rush got to us a little more than I would like. We had several situations where I thought we were in position to get off the field in the first half. We missed several scoring opportunities early in the first half that we needed to convert some points on. We got into the red zone a couple of times and didn’t get anything. Obviously, it put us behind the 8-ball. The defense made some stops. We scored first but it took us a while to break serve again. They did a good job.”
On the on-side kick attempt…
“That was one of those decisions if we just kicked the ball a bit further, it was a gimme, as you could see. But we didn’t execute that on-side kick. We thought we could get that. I think if we’d have gotten that and executed a little better, it would have been a major play in the game. But as it turned out, we held them to a field goal, but they still scored on us.”
On Florida’s big kick return in the first half…
“Well it was a killer. It looked like their people were trying to bust the wedge. Their return guy is the real deal and we knew that coming in. That was a huge play in the game to answer after we had scored to tighten it up and that opened it up again. Our kicking teams did not perform at the level we needed them to, and I told (you) that it was difficult to prepare for what Florida does. We did get the first return yards on them in the season. We didn’t get very many but we got a few. But the rest of the things we didn’t do well.”
On Florida coming off of a bye week and Kentucky a triple overtime win…
“I don’t know. They were probably fresher than we were. You play as the schedule falls. I mean you have byes or you don’t have byes. You can’t control who you are playing or what the situation is when they come along, so you got to rise up to the occasion. I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. But we didn’t do enough in critical situations to get the victory.”
On why Florida is difficult to defeat…
“Their scheme is difficult. They have great athletes, big linemen, playmakers, and a guy who has the skill and size of Tebow it becomes difficult. We’d do a good job and then, bam we’d mess one up. They kept the ball and their drives alive. The disappointing thing was in the first half, we out-gained them and out-possessed them but we didn’t outscore them. We missed too many chance and you just can’t miss scoring chances against Florida and get a win.”
On how he feels about rest of season…
“In the loss column, we are still tied with the two-loss teams for the lead in the SEC East. The disappointing thing is if we had won tonight, we’d have been alone with the one loss and we would have been in fantastic shape. If we take care of business moving forward, we still are alive. I just think this league is a mess right now. It’s competitive and week to week you better be ready to play or someone is going to jump up and spoil it. Who would have ever thought that South Carolina would score six points, and Alabama, after getting five players suspended, would upset Tennessee? There is a lot of football left, we have four games and we need to take care of business next week against Mississippi State.”
Kentucky Players
#3 Andre’ Woodson, QB
On the team’s feelings after the loss…
“We are pretty upset about the game, but I still think we did a good job laying it all out on the line. All we can do is bounce back and get ready for Mississippi State. We played a great team tonight, and now we need to refocus.”
On Kentucky’s play in the second half…
“We usually do a great job of a getting in the position to win the game in the second half. We were able to move the ball against Florida’s defensive schemes. Unfortunately it was too late to get points on the board.”
On Florida’s defense…
“Their defense was a little quicker than what we’ve seen. They are very physical and are quick coming around the corner. We tried to contain them and get rid of the ball, but they got to us a few times.”
#56 Braxton Kelley, LB
On his feelings after the loss…
“It was a tough loss tonight, but we need to regroup and try to get a victory next weekend at Homecoming. Florida did some things that we knew they’d do, but it was hard to stop them.”
On containing Tim Tebow…
“I think we did a pretty good job with Tebow’s running game. They (Florida) got behind us on some pass plays, and we can’t let that happen. We bit on a couple play actions and couldn’t recover after the ball was thrown.”
#41 Derrick Locke, RB
On bouncing back for the Mississippi State game…
“It’s one of the biggest games of my life. We lost this game. Mississippi State will probably come in and try to take over what we have accomplished. We have to prepare for them as if we were preparing for LSU or Florida. It’s another big game that we have to step up and be ready for.”
On Kentucky’s running game…
“I had some good runs. Coach said that we needed to run the ball down the middle. We needed to try to open up the pass game and try to get a good pass and open up the run.”
On losing the Florida game…
“It was down and out. It was rough. It was a close game and we played rough. It was a good physical game. The mistakes that we made came back to haunt us. We made mistakes early on in the game and we came down to a good team.”
#20 Dominic Lewis, DE
On playing against Florida QB Tim Tebow…
“Our game plan against him was good. We had guys in the right spots. He just made better plays.”
On playing in the second half…
“We were pretty good all year on third down. I didn’t think it was going to be as big of a problem as it was tonight. We had some young guys in there and that was one of the causes. We had trouble adjusting in the second half.”
#13 Steve Johnson, WR
On losing at home…
“We’re not used to losing at home, at least not after eight in a row. We fought and played hard but it was just too little too late.”
On the lack of execution in the red-zone…
“We beat ourselves in the red-zone. The defense didn’t really stop us, we just beat ourselves. We had that play in the end zone where I’ve got to stay in bounds. I’ve got to do my job.”
On the play of Florida coming off of a bye week…
“We expected them to play just like they did, strong and fast. We just didn’t expect them to win. They played though. We just didn’t do what we needed to do to win.”
#99 Jeremy Jarmon, DE
On the play of Tim Tebow…
“He is strong, more like a running back or tight end. He has a very unorthodox way of throwing the ball, but does it with a high trajectory. He just kind of flips the ball to tight ends and backs.”
On Florida’s level of play…
“It’s Florida. It’s an SEC opponent. We expected them to come in and be sharp and they were. They made the big plays and we didn’t. We didn’t do a good job of getting off the field on third down. We did well on first and second down but couldn’t get off the field on third down.”
On losing a tough game…
“It hurts tonight. Once I wake up tomorrow and talk to my family and a couple guys on the team it gets better. Once we go through the light practice tomorrow that definitely helps.”
On no turnovers in the game…
“We didn’t force them into any mistakes. We maybe should have forced some and deflected some passes. Our game plan was great. We just didn’t make the plays we had to make.”
#4 Micah Johnson, LB
On Florida’s third-down conversions…
“It’s tough when you don’t get players off the field. As a defensive team we need to do a better job of coming up with big stops in order to win.”
On the ability of this team to bounce back next week…
“We don’t have any time to waste. We can’t keep our heads down. This can still be a great season.”
On Tebow’s ability to take the big hits…
“He tucks the ball like a running back. He’s 6’3”, 235 pounds, which is bigger than most running backs. He is just able to make plays. He runs really hard and can bounce off some tackles.”
#16 Wesley Woodyard, LB
On the inability of the defense to create turnovers…
“It was a good game, a battle. Their offense didn’t turn the ball over, but neither did our offense. We needed to come back then and be ready to go.”
On where Kentucky is in the standings right now…
“We’re 6-2 and tied for first place in the SEC East right now. We need to take advantage of mistakes by our opponents. We’re in contention we just need to keep playing hard.”
#12 Dicky Lyons, WR (Note: Lyons became ill Friday night and was ill during the game.)
On his 50-yard catch-and-run touchdown…
“They were blitzing and we were working on it all week. The ball came to me and all I had to do was run.”
On if the game plan was designed to get the ball to him…
“The game plan wasn’t designed to get the ball to me, it just happened. We play the game, and when the ball comes to you, you have to make plays.”
Florida Head Coach Urban Meyer
Opening comments…
“We made a couple comments throughout the week that we saw this Kentucky team a couple years ago. Rich (Brooks) is a very good friend of mine and that’s one of the best coached teams. Obviously that offensive personnel is greatly improved as well as the entire team personnel, so we saw that coming two years ago when we played them here. That was a big win against a quality football team, a very quality football team.”
On going deep on the last drive…
“It was 3:30 (left on the clock) if I remember right, and they had two timeouts if I recall. With a kid like Tim Tebow, and if we can get two first downs, we probably win that game. So I kind of thought they’d go hands team and they kicked it to Brandon (James). There were two game-changing performances; one was his kick return early in the game and he knocked that thing out to the 43 yard line. You don’t take that shot if you’re backed up because you could lose the game. Around midfield you can start moving the ball. So we actually took two shots. The first one we thought we were going to launch it, take a shot down the field, and we threw it to (Percy) Harvin. But we weren’t blocking very well and we had to get a couple first downs to win that game.”
On Tim Tebow’s overall performance…
“He’s as competitive a human being as I’ve ever been around. He’s a great leader. He gives you a weapon on offense. Someone said, ‘Can he throw?’ Yeah sure he can throw very well; 18 of 26 for 256 and four touchdowns. He throws fine. I think the thing that makes Tebow very good too is the fact that he’s got some very good personnel around him. Quarterbacks tend to dry up whenever the personnel around him dries up, so we’re protecting him decently, but he’s got some guys outside him making some plays too.”
On the SEC East…
“You go look at those young guys in our locker room and if you’re worrying about anything other than going to Jacksonville next weekend against Georgia then we’re mistaken. Yes, it’s wide open, it was wide open last week; who beat who, just take care of your business. We’ve got a tough game and great rivalry next week.”
On the importance of answering UK every time…
“When you get down to one score that’s when the ulcer and the gray hairs and all that and that’s when you have to match them. I thought our offense did a heck of a job matching score for score. They (Kentucky) have three guys with over 30 catches and a dynamic runner, that little fast guy (Derrick Locke) and obviously I think (Andre’ Woodson) is one of the best quarterbacks in America.”
Florida Players
#81 Aaron Hernandez, TE
On the game…
“It was a huge win and a good game. It was just big-time players making big plays. All the players played hard today.”
On Tebow’s jump pass for a touchdown…
“When they called that play my heart was pounding. I was really nervous right before we ran it. I just kept my eyes on Tim and the ball and then they blitzed us. I went right behind him and tried to sell the play as a run. We ran the play against LSU last year, but we didn’t sell the run as much then. We sold it better today.”
On Tim Tebow…
“He is just a great quarterback. He can run, he can pass and he’s just an all-around great quarterback. Tim is definitely a better player this year than he was last year. He has worked on every part of his game. Everybody thinks that just because he’s a runner he can’t pass, but he can.”
#32 Dustin Doe, LB
On the physicality of the game…
“The game was really physical. A couple of guys went down. It was the same way against LSU though. We just have to go with it and get our guys back in the training room and rested up for next week.”
On the advantage of having a bye week last week…
“Not playing last weekend was very good for us. Coach Meyer kept telling us last week that we had no games – just practice, practice, and practice. It gave us a chance to get back to basics and technical things.”
On Andre’ Woodson…
“Andre’ Woodson is a phenomenal player. He plays a little different when guys are in his face, but he is phenomenal. He kept his composure and he kept control of the offense.”
#15 Tim Tebow, QB
On throwing the deep ball…
“We have worked on that a lot in practice and when you have great receivers you can put that out there for them to make a play. It really isn’t that hard for me to put the deep ball out. Coach was very aggressive all day making calls.”
On Coach Meyer calling him last Saturday night…
“He was jacked up after the game. Coach was very excited about football. This has been a crazy season with all that has happened. Coach’s excitement is very contagious. The emphasis is still out there. He is a great motivator and he always gives us an extra spark.”
On being tied for first in the SEC East…
“It feels good, real good, to be in control. We have to go out there and play hard to get to Atlanta. Today was a great day for Florida. I’m excited.”
On answering Kentucky’s scores…
“We had to go out there and play with control to answer their opening touchdown. Kentucky has a great offense and with a quarterback like Woodson then you have to answer. We were still calm after their opening-drive touchdown. I just knew that with our offense we could go out there and finish tonight.”