Articles by Category
By: LARRY VAUGHT
Opening Statement:
“It’s good for us to get back into conference play and last week’s game was huge to get a win to wrap up the non-conference schedule. This is the third game in that middle stretch, and we have a bye week coming up afterwards, so it’s really important. We were talking to our guys. We want them to try to win all three games during this home stretch right now and we’ve won the first two. We have that opportunity now, playing a very tough game, a very tough Kentucky team, a team that has improved every year we have played them. Under Mark Stoops, you can just see that he has recruited a bunch of talent. They have a lot of playmakers on the offensive side of the ball, led by a quarterback that had a big game against us last year. We got to see everything he could do last year, running, throwing, everything. You watch the guys that just understand their defense. You watch how hard they play on defense. They run the ball. They play stout physical defense. In similar ways, like us, they lost some guys on the defense side of the ball to the NFL last year but you see guys stepping in and just making plays. They don’t really seem to miss a beat on that defensive side of the ball with those guys out. It is going to be a huge challenge for us this week. Obviously, being at home in this conference is a big advantage. We need all our crew. We need the fans there. To have that home field advantage, creating the crowd noise and environment, the excitement, and the energy in the stadium, give you the home field advantage.”
On the Kentucky rivalry:
“I think anytime that you have your crossover games, a team that you are going to play as your locked-in crossover, there becomes a little bit of a rivalry with that. That’s the team from the East that we are going to play every single year, so you know that team, you kind of know each other and I think that it brings a little different edge. When you play other SEC West teams, there is that edge because you play each other every year, then you crossover to the East who you play every year. I think it just makes it a little bit different and it is. If you watch the games over all six games, they are pretty close exciting games. It has come down to the wire every single year. I think that speaks to the nature of how both teams view the rivalry.”
On Kentucky quarterback Patrick Towles:
“He is a quarterback. He is going to step up in big games. They know this is a big game. He tried to put the team on his shoulders last year, running and throwing. He had a huge game at their place. The best way to trump any quarterback is to have home field advantage, to our student body and fans on their feet making an awful lot of noise, and making it uncomfortable for the visiting quarterback to communicate at the line of scrimmage and just to be in that hostile environment.”
On Kentucky’s Thursday night game:
“One thing that helped us was that we played at 11 a.m. this week. We had the film graded by seven o’clock Saturday night from that game. You come in Sunday and you are a little bit ahead of schedule at that point and you are rested. I came in Sunday and I was ready to get to work off more than two or three hours of sleep. I think for them playing Thursday that they got to do that Friday. They got to start on us on Saturday and be rested. Their players get a couple of days off, couple more days to heal bumps and bruises. I imagine that they are practicing today coming off a Thursday game and a bye, so if they come out to practice today, they don’t have guys that are still limping around or are still on the injury report or aren’t available until midweek. They’ve had guys that have had 72 hours of rest coming out fresh to practice. I think there is an advantage to that.”
On what Kentucky taught them last year:
“He (Towles) made some huge throws. He was very accurate with the ball, got it out of his hands, scrambled around, made things happen, and ran physically. I don’t know if there is something different we would have done. I think they have a guy that’s on fire at the quarterback position that is tough to stop. I don’t think there is much different we would have done. For him, he just played an outstanding game.”
KSR Twitter Feed
vBulletin Message