Leak, Caldwell, and Lewis on loss to Auburn

Florida Gator Quarterback Chris Leak, wide receiver Andre Caldwell, and cornerback Reggie Lewis reflect on the Gators’ loss to Auburn at Jordan-Hare.

Quarterback Chris Leak

Talking about the fumble…

“I feel like my arm was coming forward. That’s how those calls go sometimes. The main thing is that we just didn’t take advantage of our opportunities we had to score. You have to give Auburn credit. They played a great game.”

About the interception he threw off his back foot on the following possession…

“They’re safeties did a good job of getting back deep. I tried to get the ball to Andre. You’ve got to give them credit, they called a great defense in that play.”

You were way short getting that ball to Andre. Were you leaning back? Do you know what happened?

“You know, I really can’t say until I look at the film. I probably didn’t get as much as I could on that pass.”

You looked as though you were ready to get back out there. Did you feel as thouhg that was the possession you had to score?

“We want to drive down and score on every possession we get and we knew that was a big drive in the game. We just have got to get into a rhythm and score on the opportunity you have.”

You’re out of the national championship picture?

“We’re just going to keep playing. We’re not going to worry about everything. We’re going to stick together as a team. That’s the thing, when you face adversity, you have to stick together, stay strong, and get stronger as a team.”

You still control your own destiny in the SEC…

“We’re just going to go back to the drawing board and correct our mistakes and keep working hard. The main thing is to stick together as a team and have great attitudes and get better.”

It must be hard on you to have two turnovers as the quarterback and leader on the team…

“We’ll as the quarterback you have to have a short memory out there and you have to get ready for the next series. Because that next series could be the drive that gets you the win, that gets you in scoring position. That’s the main thing you have to do is when adversity comes your way is to face it head on.”

Does this one hurt as much as the other losses you’ve experienced?

“It’s always disappointing when you don’t play as well as you want to and you don’t take care of the opportunities that you have to score. We’re going to continue to work hard and stick together and keep playing hard football.”

Wide receiver Andre Caldwell

On Chris Leak’s mistakes…

“That comes with being a quarterback. Sometimes your going to make mistakes and sometimes your going to make good plays. We don’t fault him. He’s been a great quarterback. He’s just to go learn and move forward from there.”

You don’t blame him, but do you expect a little more?

“He’s our leader. We expect a little more, but we don’t blame him. We still love him as a quarterback. He’s a great player. I know that he’s going to make up and make plays in the future.”

Talk about the Auburn defense tonight..

“We came out and went fast paced on them early in the game. In the second half they just came out and made more plays and were in the right spots at the right times and ended up with a victory.”

On the fumble after it was reviewed…

“We were a little shocked. We thought it was going to be reversed. When it didn’t happen, it stunned us a little bit. That hurt us knowing that they were going to try and wear down the clock and get out of this game with a victory. We had a good feeling in our head that it was going to be overturned and that we were going to get the ball back and kick a field goal.”

Cornerback Reggie Lewis

On the game…

“We went out and played hard. We hate for it to end like this. They just made the plays that they had to make and they came out on top.”

On Florida controlling its own destiny to win…

“It feels good, but right now we are down. We let this game slip out of our hands. We were in a situation to take the lead and win the game, but things didn’t go our way. It hurts right now because it’s out first loss of the season and we had high hopes this year. If we make it to Atlanta, we want a rematch with Auburn. We feel like we’re the better team, but like I said, they made the plays that they had needed to make.”

On the national championship race…

“We just have to go out there and stay focused. Anything can happen. Just like we lost, someone else can go out there and lose We just have to go out there this off-week and prepare for Georgia. We can’t worry about this anymore. It’s over. Now, we just have to get ourselves ready to take care of Georgia.”