URBAN MEYER: “The plan to win, I thought that if you’ve ever seen a team prepare better than they prepared last week, ever seen a team execute as far as against quality of people like great, great football players. That’s as good of week as we had, we have to build on that and continue to mature and grow and the week of preparation led to a really good performance for our guys.
The field position battle was a great job done by our players. We played great defense, held Georgia to 400 yard which is a lot of yards. They threw a lot of completions, but once again the personnel you’re dealing with in keeping out of the end zone were tremendous. Third downs they were only 33 percent, we created four turnovers, two of the four turnovers came in the red zone. We had 172 yards of field position gained from turnovers. That was the 88, 64 and 2. So you had an 88-yard interception return, which I thought was the play of the day, a 64-yard interception return, and Terron Sanders had the 20-yard fumble recovery. Tremendous day on defense.
Field position: this is from the competitive drives we had and not the end of the game. This is an amazing stat: The offense average start of field position was the 50-yard line. If you look, the percentage of scoring touchdowns obviously increases by a great deal when you start at that position on the field. Our opponents started their drive at the 21-yard line so the field position tilt was phenomenal, maybe as good as we’ve ever had here.
Zero times did the defense have to start in the Florida territory. Near the end of the game when we had some down the line players on kickoff coverage they brought it back a little bit, but for the competitive situations our opponents started at the 18 and it ended in a punt. They started on 19, missed field goal. Started on a 2, interception. Started on the 20, resulted in a punt. Started on 17, resulted interception. Started on 15, interception. Started on 20. That was seven times they started inside the 20 yard line, which is a great tribute to great defense, offense taking care of the ball, and excellent special teams. For the night we were 44% on third downs, Georgia was 33%.
Champions on offense: The left-hander did pretty good, Tim Tebow, graded a champion, Phil Trautwein, Maurkice Pouncey, Mike Pouncey, Jason Watkins, offensive line was playing very well for the five graded champions. You can run any style offense you want if you’re blocking them. Louis Murphy graded on a champion, Riley Cooper played very well, Aaron Hernandez, those are the champions, along with Jeff Demps and Emmanuel Moody, who came in and ran real hard. The player of the game was Percy Harvin graded out very high and very explosive. He was very explosive in blocking and touching the ball. He’s preparing as well as he ever has as a college football player.
Champions on defense: Ahmad Black, Joe Haden, Major Wright, Will Hill, Brandon Spikes, Jermaine Cunningham, Carlos Dunlap, Justin Trattou, Dustin Doe and the defensive player of the game was Terron Sanders.
On AJ Jones: “I could talk a long time about his transformation. He struggled and is now a quality guy who is in a very good program. That means our nutritionist, our strength coach and our OSL department. He’s really come a long way. Not just maturity level and strength, but as a grown man. That’s a great product. I’m very proud of that kind of a story in our program.”
On Terron Sanders: “He’s a completely different player now. He wasn’t taking care of himself. I considered him a recruiting mistake. Coach McCarney has been good for him. He’s matured a little bit. When you come to Florida the expectation is so high they think you’ll be a Joe Haden a Percy Harvin or a Tim Tebow and that’s very rare. Usually the maturation process takes a couple of years. Sanders is right on schedule. He’s starting to look like a grown man. He’s doing much better now.”
On Butch Rowley: “He was with us at Utah and transferred here as a walk-on. We put him on scholarship. He’s a guy that comes in and spends an enormous amount of time on preparation and watching film. I trust Butch and often ask him how are team is doing. He gives me great insight on where we are at on off the field issues and attitude issues. He’s a very valuable member of this team. When he recovered the on side kick that’s not a big surprise. He’s there because that’s his world and he won’t forget that the rest of his life.”
On players on special teams: “One of the great things that ever happened here was Reggie Nelson. He didn’t start until midway through his first year. He did start on punt block, kickoff coverage and punt coverage. I use that over and over again. A lot of the great players didn’t start until they made their name on special teams. The ones that come in and expecting to start and expect to play are in the wrong place. Other places will do that, and they are welcome to go to those places. You come here and you are going to make your impact on special teams. You are going to have great success and follow a plan or you won’t. It is their choice.”
On Percy Harvin: “He’s got the best first step in college football. He’s matured. He is a guy who had great success early. I’m not sure that is a negative, but at times his preparation and injuries. He’s healthy and taking care of himself. He’s playing the best football of his career and I think he’s one of the best players in America.