Nov. 11, 2007

Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery

Head Coach Steve Spurrier

“We moved the ball somewhat the second half but to no avail. We were getting shoved around at the line of scrimmage. The guys are trying, but we’re just not that good. The other team toyed with us. We’ll see if we can play better. If we can’t, we’ll need to get in the weight room and see if we can’t stop getting pushed around.

“We’ve been run against all year. We got some turnovers. They moved the ball on third down. They were 12 of 16. Our third-down conversions have really taken a hit. They’re just a better team than us right now. If we played them 10 times they’d probably beat us 10 times.

“We’ll do what we have scheduled to do. We slowed them [Clemson] down a little last year. Not a lot, but we beat them last year. We have a problem stopping the run. We have a lot of problems stopping a lot of stuff. It’s a team effort.

“We knew he [Tebow] was an excellent runner, passer. He did what we thought. It’s fun when you can stand back there and throw the ball and no one’s near you. We’ve won a bunch of games struggling. We just got shoved around. I don’t know how else to say it.”

(On the fumble on the first play)
“We called a run play. Web Brown told me the ball slipped out of his hands. What difference would it have made? Until we can stop people from moving, until we can force people to punt, what difference does it make?

“We didn’t run very far. Cory ran 17 times for 44 yards. You can tell we didn’t knock anybody back on offense either. When a team controls the line of scrimmage like they did, it’s going to be a long night.

“Defensively we have struggled the past two games. Scored a few more points on offense though, but we’ve been losing so maybe that’s misleading.”

Defensive Coordinator Tyrone Nix

“When you get beat, you probably feel worse every time. You go out and get used to losing and I hope we don’t start doing that.”

LB Casper Brinkley

“We had a lot of missed assignments. We got beat by a good team that made good plays. We can beat anybody when we execute and we have proven that already, but we have to execute our plays and stop the missed assignments. (Tim) Tebow is a great player. He caused us a lot of our missed assignments.”

QB Blake Mitchell

“We started off giving them 14 points and that doesn’t help us. We left too many points out there. We scored 31 points tonight, but it wasn’t good enough to win.”

(On the upcoming Clemson game)
“We have to go out and practice hard and cut down on the mistakes. We have to trust the game plan the coaches give us. We know we can win. We have won big games in the past. We have to step up and play a lot better offensively and defensively.”

CB Stoney Woodson

“We just have to keep playing hard because the season isn’t over yet. We have to keep working hard. We have not quit – we owe it to the seniors to go out and keep playing hard and finish strong. We need to play as one because right now we aren’t playing as one. When we do play as one we will do alright. To get ready for Clemson we will watch film and make corrections and then watch film vs. Clemson. It will help us to have the week off because it will help us have a clear head and come back strong the next week.”

DE Eric Norwood

“We have been struggling to get back on track whether the Clemson game is our last game or not. We have to get back on track. We won’t quit. We are still working and playing hard. To the outsider it might not look like it’s working, but we have to do the same things – we just have to do it better. We need to play better. The loss is a combination of their good play by Tim Tebow and our bad play on defense, but I leave the losses on the field so I look forward to Clemson.”

SS Emanuel Cook

(On Florida QB Tim Tebow)
“He is a pretty good player. They spread us out. They ran him up the middle and we didn’t stop him.

“We have to come out and work hard. We need to work hard and worked harder. Hopefully, good things will come out of it.”

TB Cory Boyd

“We still have a chance to do some things. We have to keep the guys’ mind frame right. We have a week off, and that’s good.”

(On the upcoming Clemson game)
“That is a season of its own, the game coming up. We have to go out there and play.

“Defense carried us the whole season when offense was sluggish, defense was always there. We have to keep on playing.”

Head Coach Urban Meyer

“Great team win, great for the SEC. The defense started us out right.

“We knew Percy [Harvin] was a no go on Friday before we traveled.”

(SEC championship talk)
“There is light at the end of the tunnel but there are still some SEC teams left to play. We will be big Wildcat fans for the next couple weeks.

“Tim Tebow did a great job. I didn’t know about the statistics on him, but this was a Heisman performance and I don’t say that to often. We do need to take care of the ball in the red zone.

“Team has five seniors that play out front and then we have a bunch of young guys playing in veteran’s outfit.”

QB Tim Tebow

“We had an idea that (Percy) wouldn’t be here tonight, and we needed guys to step up. You can’t replace a good player like that, but we stepped up and played a good game.

“Any time you’re put in a category it’s an honor. It reflects on the team and the great job the team did. It’s an honor for our team.”

WR Andre Caldwell

“(Tim) played great. He did everything you would expect a quarterback to do.

“It’s a great feeling to win a game like this. It’s unexpected to go in someone else’s house and win like this, and it feels great.

“Everything happens for a reason. I felt that since (Percy) wasn’t going to be here I had to step my game up and make plays.”