Nov. 16, 2002
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South Carolina Head Coach Lou Holtz
On the game:
“There were some things we felt we had to do to win this football game. One of things was not to turn the ball over, which we were successful with. Second thing we thought we had to do is not have any penalties. Third thing we had to do was not miss any assignments. These were the things that we thought we had to do tonight.”
On the game:
“Our game plan was to control the football for good field position. Once again, the first time we had the ball we go down and miss a field goal. A very makeable field goal. When you throw the football you have to create some turnovers or get some sacks. We didn’t do any of those. It has been our problem all year on defense, third downs.”
On South Carolina’s performance:
“Our players played hard. I thought they played well. I thought they competed. I thought that Corey Jenkins did great as our safety man. We are definitely disappointed. If they hadn’t invented the forward pass we would not be hurting as much as we are now.”
On the game:
“We played hard but Florida played well. We had chances for sacks, but we were pulling them down instead of knocking them down. It was a game of missed opportunities.”
Quarterback Dondrial Pinkins
On his play:
“I think I played very well. We didn’t have any turnovers during the night. We had one fumble but we were fortunate to get that fumble back. We drove down the field and got inside the 30 a couple of times and didn’t get any points, no field goals, no nothing. If we could have gotten those, they would have been big. Unfortuanetly things didn’t work out.”
On his nervousness as a starter:
“I was a little nervous at first, but once the game got started the butterflies started to leave and everything started to settle down. You just have to go out and do what you are told to do and what you are coached to do and hope things go the way you want them to go.”
Saftey Corey Jenkins
On the game:
“We didn’t get the win. There are still some things we have to work on as a defense and an offense. We have one left and it is all or nothing right now.”
On QB Pinkins:
“I am proud of him. I grabbed him and kissed him on the head and told him that I was proud of him. He came out today and competed. He did his best. That is all you can ask for. He didn’t try to do too much or too little. He did exactly what they wanted him to do. They didn’t turn the ball over. That is a plus. I told him I was proud of him.”
Defensive Back Deandre Eiland
On the game:
“The touchdown in the second quarter was due to my inexperience. I can’t blame anyone else for that.”
On Jenkins’ play:
“I think he played excellent. He played just as good as any saftey in the league now. He came in and did a good job.”
George Gause
On the Pinkins’ play:
“I thought he did a good job out there. We were moving the ball well and he was composed in the huddle. I thought he played well. We didn’t pass the ball very much but I thought he did a good job.”
On the problems:
“I can’t tell what the problem is right now. I thought the running game was going well. I thought there we times when we stalled. I think we ended up with about 200 yards rushing. That is alright. That is not great, but not bad. We came in saying we were going to run the ball and I think we did an alright job. We could have done better.”
Florida Head Coach Ron Zook
“I’m proud of the fact our team beat everyone in the division. As I said, I’m proud of the way they hung in there. They’ve (seniors) kept this football team together, they’ve handled adversity. We have an opportunity to have a big, big year, possibly win 10 games. This is a great win for us, I’m proud of the way they came out.”
On the SEC East games tonight…
“It wasn’t meant to be. The thing I told our football team, our younger guys, we all know how good a conference this is. You have to play all eight games, you can’t take a game off. It’s going to be a lesson for us next year. We still have another game, a big game. We’ll have an opportunity to go to a bowl game.”
On wide receiver OJ Small…
“I think it’s a tribute to the offensive coaches, and Rex. Someone keeps stepping up and doing the things they have to do. Guys step up and make things happen. It’s a tribute to our coaching staff and Rex getting him the ball.”
On finding out about Georgia’s win at the half…
“We prepared for that, we focused. We talked about the fact that that could happen, there was never a doubt. It didn’t really hit me until after the game, it was important that we take care of business. Our seniors were able to go out of here as a winner. The last time, Norm Carlson, Bud Fernandez, the last time we go out through the tunnel together and that’s what we wanted to focus on.”
On the kicking game tonight…
“We did kick, protect well, and cover well. You’ve just got to continue to improve.”
On the approaching off week…
“We’ll approach the offweek exactly as we did the last time. We’ve coached these guys hard, they’ve responded. Everyone needs a little break. I’m very proud how well conditioned this team is. Our football team is in condition. We’ll rest mentally and hit that last week hard.”
On wide receiver Carlos Perez’s injury…
“I believe it’s a broken (right) fibula. He’s out for the remainder of the year.”
On quarterback Rex Grossman…
“I feel the same about Rex Grossman as I’ve felt for the last ten, eleven games. He’s a winner, he’s a competitor. He gets you in the endzone. Everytime he takes a snap, he thinks it’s a touchdown. Everytime he takes a snap, I know he’s got a chance for a touchdown.”
On tight end Darrell Carpenter…
“They step up when they get the opportunity. We’ve told him, everybody’s important. It takes everybody, you never know when your opportunity is going to come and you have to be ready to respond. He made a couple great catches last week and tonight. I’m really happy for him.”
Quarterback Rex Grossman
On the game:
“It was a fun win. It just seemed that we were on top of our game tonight, both offensively and defensively. It was a fun game to play because we knew exactly what they were going to do and it was just a matter of executing and going out there and having a good time.”
“South Carolina has a bunch of good players on defense and they stopped us occasionally, but they didn’t stop us four times and that was obviously the difference in the game. It was one of those games where everything went our way.”
On the second half:
“We got off to a slump in the second half. It has kind of been a trend this year that we haven’t played well in the second half, but 14 points is pretty good.”
On the Darrell Carpenter:
“We were kind of thin at tight end and Darrell [Carpenter] is a good receiver and he could probably play receiver, but he is a little tight end. He is fast and he ran a good route and they didn’t respect him, so he scored a touchdown.”
On Kelvin Kight’s touchdown catch:
“Kelvin didn’t get many passes thrown his way and that was kind of a check to make him feel good and it turned out to be a good touchdown.”
On the off-week:
“We like this off week, to heal all injuries with our tight ends and receivers. We are going to take this week to heal and start watching tapes of Florida State. Obviously it is a huge game, we haven’t won it at Florida State in a long time and that would top off our regular season as a great one.”
Strong Safety Todd Johnson
On the win:
“It was a big win. We wanted to go out as winners and we wanted to beat every team in the [SEC] East and that is what we did. So we felt good about the win tonight.”
On the defense:
“Our coaches talk about stepping up when we need to and that is what we try to do – just step up and not give in when they get a little run us. We just keep fighting the whole night.”
On FSU game:
“We haven’t beaten Florida State in a long time in Tallahassee. That would be a big accomplishment. They are a very talented team and we are looking forward to the challenge.”
Running Back Earnest Graham
On the game:
“We just knew we couldn’t control what was happening in that [Georgia vs. Auburn] game, so we just tried to focus on this game and go out and win this game. We can’t really think about that right now, we have two weeks until we play Florida State and we got this win tonight. Its too bad we can’t go to the SEC Championship, but we still have a season to finish.”
On the game:
“We beat everybody in the [SEC] East and that says a lot about this team, because we wanted to finish in the top three in the East and it’s a great feeling to know we did that.”
On the final home game of season:
“It’s a great way to go out. We appreciate all the fans and everything we went through here.”
