Post-game quotes from Coaches Meyer and Bowden on UF’s win, courtesy of FSU Sports Information:
UF Head Coach Urban Meyer
Meyer’s thoughts on tonight’s game:
“Very appreciative of the efforts by our players. I have two concerns and that’s Brandon Antwine with his knee, we’ll find out more tomorrow, and obviously out playmaker, Percy Harvin, has a sprained ankle. We’ll know more of the extent as we go forward.
“Very talented opponent. That’s as hard as our guys have played. The environment, the weather, there were all kinds of things that were equalizers, or supposedly equalizers, and I was just very proud. That as proud as I’ve ever been of this football team. What I saw, the effort tonight, the focus and the effort tonight was phenomenal.”
On his concern for the weather pre-game:
“Very concerned. I know a big part of our game is speed and I sat out there and just started at that field as it started getting about two to three inches deep of water. Very concerned but I’ve been saying for about six or seven weeks now, the professionalism and the way our guys handle themselves has been real good.
“To see Chas Henry go out there and launch that punt and we tilted the field right back where we needed it. That was one of the plays of the day. To see David Nelson execute the on-side kick and recover the ball. That’s professionalism. Those are guys that really take their job real serious.”
On how his team has taken it one game at a time this season:
“I’m proud of them. I’ve done this for quite a while and this is the proudest I’ve ever been. That’s a good football team in that locker room, a really good team, really good guys; just a bunch of good people.”
On the Florida defense tonight:
“The defense played fantastic and we had a couple drop on interceptions but our guys played tremendous. That’s a team that recently, I was looking at their scores, FSU the last several weeks have been punching numbers up pretty good. So our guys did a good job.”
On Florida’s offensive line:
“Offensive line I think ran for 317 yards rushing against that defense and that’s one of the top 10 defenses and obviously well coached. But our offensive line is as good as they play and right now we’re playing at a high level.”
Head Coach Bobby Bowden:
(Opening statement)
“That game surprised me because I didn’t think they would beat us like that here. The last time we had a beating like that was last year against them. I don’t think anybody else has beaten us like that. They beat us good last year and they did the same thing today, on our field, that surprised me, I thought we’d make it closer. I don’t know what part the weather played, it wasn’t to anybody’s advantage, wasn’t to their advantage, wasn’t to our advantage. I don’t know what that meant, I didn’t like it and I don’t think Urban (Meyer) probably liked it either. But that was just a real good whipping. If you asked me what happened, I don’t have to say we fumbled or I don’t have to say we threw an interception, I don’t have to say we did…I was a good tail whipping; just like last year.”
About Florida:
“The thing I have seen about them all year, ever since they lost to Ole Miss and probably before that, they score so many points so fast that everybody gets out of their game plan. You’re trying to catch up, you start doing things you shouldn’t be doing: throwing off your goal line, throwing your ball every down instead of running. They get you out of your game. They get three touchdowns ahead of you man and you’re trying to catch up.”
On Tim Tebow:
He deserves to get back in it. He deserves to be mentioned again for the Heisman. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a better leader. After Ole Miss beat them, he stood up and told the press, ‘I’ll never let this happen again’ or something like that. ‘Ya’ll won’t ever see this happen to us again’ or something like that. By golly he lived up to it. He directed everything out there. He’s a tremendous player and a tremendous leader.”
On Tim Tebow’s physical playing abilities:
“It’s a great team builder is what it is. All your team has to work around your quarterback. People who have great quarterbacks usually have great teams. People who have good quarterbacks have good teams. People who have poor quarterbacks have poor teams. So he is a great quarterback that he can run over you physically, too. I’m sure his kids rally around that. His teammates rally around that.”
ROV Myron Rolle
(on the game)
“We were soundly beaten. They played very well. They executed on offense and defense and did well on special teams. They had good field position and we were just outplayed today.”
(On Harvin’s injury)
“They showed that they have a lot of ability outside of Percy Harvin. Obviously he’s a great player but other players stepped up and did very well for them too so it just shows that they have a lot of talent.”
(on trying to stop Tebow)
“He played very well. We expected him to make plays. There was really no way to stop them. You have to contain them and force them into a comfortable position… third and longs, second and longs… but we weren’t able to do that tonight.”
S Jamie Robinson
(on Tebow’s arm)
“Tebow is a dual-threat [quarterback]. He probably doesn’t get as much credit for his arm as he should because he does so many good things on his feet and he’s a big kid but he put some passes on the money this year and put some on the money last year when we went down there so you got to take your hat off to that.
DE Everette Brown
(on whether or not Florida did anything different than the defense expected)
“No. Florida came out and ran their offense and nothing was tricky, everything was simple. We beat ourselves tonight making too many mistakes and letting emotions get in the way of our assignment football and being disciplined out there.”
PK/P Graham Gano
(on field conditions and their effect on the kicking game)
“The balls were really water-logged so it was hard to kick the balls. The equipment guys did a good job of keeping them as dry as they could but the balls were really heavy. After awhile, kicking the heavy balls like down at Miami, it takes a toll on your leg. Your leg starts to get a little tired and the water-logged pants as well, all the weight you are carrying around with that water makes your leg really tired after awhile.
(on his career at Florida State)
“I played every play as hard as I could but I wish I could have played better tonight. Kicking wise, I just strive for perfection.”
(on assessing his year)
“I think I could have done better. I don’t settle for pretty good.”