What the Florida Gators Said After the Narrow Loss to No. 1 Alabama
It didn't take long for Florida to play the respect card after the 31-29 loss to No. 1 Alabama on Saturday afternoon.
Here's some of what the players said:
Emory Jones, Redshirt Junior, Quarterback
On what are some of the ways Florida is being underestimated:
"All together as a team. I feel like people didn’t think we would come out here and fight. We didn’t play our best game the first two games, and today we came out here and we still didn’t play our best game, but I think we showed that we have a lot of fight in this team. This game right here meant a lot to us even though we didn’t get the outcome we wanted. We got a lot of confidence from this game. I feel like we are just going to keep building from this game and keep being better.”
On what the energy was like in The Swamp:
“We knew this was going to be a big game and a big environment in The Swamp. It was going to be packed and rocking, and it gave us a lot of juice. We knew coming into the game that we needed the fans to help us out, and they showed up and did. They helped us out a lot.”
On being down early and never giving up:
“We just told everybody that we need to keep fighting. We knew coming in, there were going to be a lot of ups and downs in the game. We knew that if they ever got up like that, we would just going to keep fighting. We have always been a team that always keeps fighting no matter what the score is. I walked around and told everybody just keep going and keep trying to score. Eventually we put up some points.”
On what was Anthony Richardson saying throughout the game:
“He was helping me out the whole game. Every time I came to the sideline, I asked him if he saw anything that I didn’t, and he would just let me know and tell me what I could’ve done better. Talking with him after the game, he told me I played my butt off and I need to be proud of myself from this game. He had a lot of good energy on the sideline.”
On the first two games’ ups and downs and how he felt like he fixed them:
“In some ways, I improved. I still made a couple of mistakes out there that I wish I could get back and I missed a couple of throws that I don’t usually miss. Those are the types of things I am trying to eliminate every week. I am getting better, and I saw a lot of improvement. At this point, I am just trying to improve from this game, watch the film on it, and keep getting better every week.”
Trey Dean, Senior, Safety
On how the crowd affected the Alabama offense and helped the defense:
“Yes sir, most definitely. There is no place like The Swamp. We really appreciate our crowd each and every game and hope everyday will be like tonight.”
On what the defense can take away for the rest of the season:
“Coach Grantham will call the right plays and put us in the right position. We need to go out there and execute. We’re going to take this and continue to build on it. The ultimate goal is to win a national championship, but first is to win the East.”
On whether he felt they were right there and what it takes to make the next step:
“Coach Mullen is a great coach. He’s going to continue to prepare us each and every game, every time we step on the field against whoever we play against. We need to go out there and execute. Our coach will put us in the right place to make the plays, so we need to go out there and make them.”
On the several pass-interference calls against the secondary:
“At that point, you have to control what you can control. You have to go out there, and if they call it, play the next play. We’re going to correct the one’s we need to correct. We need to go out there and play to the best of our ability.”
On the improvement the defense has made from last season:
“Definitely improved. We’re going to continue to grow on it. This isn’t our last or first stepping stone. We’ll continue to grow on it and continue to be better to be the best defensive backfield in the country.”
On the locker room feel after the game:
“Tough loss, but we have to go back to the drawing board. We have to go out there and continue to build on things. Correct the things, we need to correct. On to the next game. We’ll see them again.”
Nay’Quan Wright, Redshirt Sophomore, Running Back
On how Florida stacked up against the No. 1 team in the country:
“I feel like our program is going in the right direction, each week we come out and compete at a high level.”
On how Florida stuck to the game plan:
“Just trusting the coaches, the calls, the GA’s and the guys upstairs… We have to see what we can take advantage of and just keep trusting the coaches calls.”
On Emory Jones:
“To me, Emory wasn’t up and down. I’ve seen this guy work for two years in a row. I’ve seen the preparation and the time he has put into this game. Each week he is building and building and we are going in the right direction.”
On the offensive line:
“Our O-line played huge and we can’t do anything without our O-line. They played pretty huge and showed up for us. We took advantage of it and ran behind those big guys.”
On who’s trying to pick up the kickers:
“I reached out to him. I don’t know exactly which guys reached out to him, but we are a united team. I’m sure everyone is going to reach out to him if they haven’t already. That wasn’t on him, honestly, we just have to execute more.”
On the 99-yard drive:
“I thought we were going to get the stop on defense and I told the guys we are going to go 99 yards after we get the stop. But, we drove down and were able to get a touchdown.”
On Emory Jones’ attitude affecting the team:
“He’s the starting quarterback. He has to lead us and is one of the leaders on the team. Everyone on the offensive side knows he’s the leader, so we have to go out there and show the world what he can do. If he’s down, we are going to pick him up, and if we are down, he’s going to pick us up. He does a great job leading.”
On the run game:
“We did it the first two weeks. We are going to just continue to do it, whether it is against Bama, Tennessee, LSU, or whoever it is. We are going to continue to run the ball, it doesn’t matter who’s out there. We are just going to put the ball down and run the ball. We did it the past two weeks and we we’re really efficient, so we are just going to keep it going.”
