BATON ROUGE — Coming off his team’s upset victory over 11th-ranked Tennessee, LSU head coach Nick Saban addressed the media on Monday afternoon concerning the upcoming contest with Florida.
“Obviously that was a good game for us in a lot of ways. I’ve gotten a lot of calls since then, and it seems as if we made a lot of people happy Saturday night.”
“That is what makes this job worth while and self gratifying to see so many people happy about what happened. I think that this is the kind of enthusiasm and passion that we love to have around our football team.”
“I was especially proud of our players in the game. We had several opportunities in the second half especially, where we could have cashed it in and not continued to fight to overcome the adversity when the momentum of the game shifted.”
“Even though we had several opportunities to make plays and get off the field on defense especially, we didn’t take advantage of them. We kept fighting and when we had to make the plays at the end of the game and in overtime we made them.”
“When we had the opportunity in regulation on offense to get ourselves out of the hole and give us the chance to win the game or at least go to overtime we got the job done.”
“It was key because Tennessee would have had a very good chance to win the game if we would have had to punt the ball from our own five or six yard line. We made those plays, and I am especially proud of the players for being able to do that.”
“There were some things that I think we want to work on this week. We need to improve the consistency in the way that we play in games. In the first three offensive series’ of the second half, the first series we fumbled, and in the other two we didn’t have a positive play.”
“Defensively, we had too many situations where we could have gotten off of the field by making plays on third and 20, fourth and four, and there were several passes that we could have intercepted.”
“We ended up ultimately getting too tired and playing too many plays in the game which hurt us, but we are especially pleased with the effort in which the players played and the way that they hung in there and competed in the game. Ultimately I think that is why we were successful.”
“We want to recognize as many players as we possibly can for their performance in the game, and obviously Rohan (Davey) is the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week in terms of what he accomplished, and he is certainly one of our Players of the Week.”
“We also thought that Josh Reed had a particularly good game. He had the three touchdowns, which were all big plays. He also made the big play at the end of the game when it was third and 21 to make the first down. Rohan also contributed to all those plays and many more, so they are both the Offensive Players of the Week.”
“Ryan Clark had the highest production point total of anybody this year so far as a defensive player, but Trev Faulk played an outstanding game as well, so those two guys will share the defensive award.”
“Ryan O’Neal had two tackles inside the 20-yard line on kickoffs, and he did a very good job on special teams, so he’s the Special Teams Player of the Game.”
“Looking ahead to Florida, they have a lot of outstanding players. They have outstanding speed on their team. Especially the skill guys. The quarterbacks are as talented and well-coached then any of the guys that we have played against, regardless of who plays quarterback for them.”
“Their defense certainly has a lot of speed and a lot of ability, and has played well at times this year. They struggled a bit last week against a big old powerful Mississippi State team in the running game. They got behind in the game, but their defense is very capable of playing well and they have a lot of athletes on special teams.”
“The key for our team this week is going to be our ability to refocus and get back on track in terms of what we need to accomplish in this game. We’re playing on the road, which takes special preparation and special poise.”
“Our ability to deal with the success that we’ve had is going to be the key to our preparation that we have, and the preparation is the key to the way that we are able to execute in the game. That is what we are going to focus on this week.”
“From an injury standpoint, we have several guys that will sit out of practice today, but I don’t think anybody will be out for the game.”
Player Quotes
10/2/00
Ryan Clark, FS
“A lot of guys are really up beat right now. We are just thankful that we were able to come out with that win. It’s probably the biggest game that I’ve been involved with. It gave us that taste of how sweet victory really is, and we don’t want to lose that taste. We just want to go out practice really hard, and come Saturday try to win another big game.”
“It’s a great feeling. As a player you want to be able to know that your play helped the team win.”
“Saturday, guys stopped depending on people to tell them how they need to play or what they need to do. They went out and did good things on their own in order to try and win the game.”
“I know in my situation, I want the them to throw the ball at me. I like to see if their man can beat me. That’s a mentality that the secondary has to take, you can’t take the mentality that you want them to throw the ball the other way.”
Lionel Thomas, SS
“The crowd was excellent, we really need to work on staying focused.”
“We just need to practice hard and get the game plan ready. We need to be prepared to stop Florida.”
“As a defensive back that’s what you want, that’s what you practice so hard for. You want the ball to be thrown your way so you have an opportunity to make a play. It’s something for you to be challenged.”
“Our confidence level is up, but we know we have to face another great team this week (Florida).”
Commenting on Coach Tricketts” grading scale…
“I scored an 86 (0-100) on Coach Trickett”s grading scale for my performance in the Tennessee game. You need a 65 to pass, and everyone on the line passed this week. It helps us assess our performance and it gives us something to gage our improvement by.”
“The pass protection has gotten better as the season has gone on. But we’re still giving up too many hits on the quarterback, we need to improve on that.”
“We need to be aggressive an establish the line of scrimmage against Florida so we can run the ball.”
“We picked up the blitzes Tennessee threw at us last week pretty well, we just need to continue to improve and keep the communication alive.”
Fred Booker, CB
“The biggest key to stopping Florida is going to start today. We need to prepare ourselves to go out and practice well. Florida is always going to have a good offense, they keep a good core of receivers done there and they have an experienced quarterback.”
“I’m really excited to go back to the Swamp. I’ve been away from the Swamp for a while and last time I was down there I had a pretty good game. So I’m looking forward to the chance to prove myself again.”
“I really wasn’t surprised they (Tennessee) threw the ball so much. We stopped their running game and because our offense put up so many points they had to come from behind. They had no choice but to put it in the air.”
“I think the secondary is coming together. With coach Saban you always learn something new every day. We need to go out and practice like we play. We’re a very close group.”
“That’s a confidence booster, winning a close game. We needed to overcome the adversity and win a close game. We haven’t won a close game in a while.”
Brandon Winey, OT
“I’m a fifth year senior, the classes of ’96 and ’97 were the only ones around when we beat Florida and lost to Ole Miss. So we try not to bring back the past.”
“We just need to go out there and run the ball well against Florida. If we can establish a running game our passing game will come around and we can move the ball well.”
“We just try to get the job done. Our offensive line does well as a group and I believe we can be really good.”
“I believe there’s a lot of pressure on both of us. We are the underdogs, and they just lost to Mississippi St. So we both need a win. Which ever team plays with the least amount of mistakes and plays the most consistently will win.”