Courtesy Florida Sports Information...
Josh Huepel
Opening statement...
“Extremely disappointing start to the football game the first half. Not very good in any sense of the way. Offense had the one drive and the defense got the one stop. Other than that, not the way you want to start. I do appreciate the competitiveness of the guys that come out to compete and play in the second half. Still didn’t play as clean as we need to, as well as we need to in a lot of ways. We got to get a lot better. Hats off to, give credit to Florida. They did a good job, but we got to get a lot better. We need to be cleaner.”
On third down defense...
"Didn’t get off the field. Had them in some third-and-long situations. Applied some pressure to the quarterback. We didn’t match out on some things. We got to be better. We got to get off the field.”
On the final timeout...
"The timing of when it was, a chance to try to push one into the endzone. Obviously, at the end of it, by the time of when it happened. You weren’t going to be able to have a full sequence of plays to try to get back into the endzone.”
On the offensive line...
"We’ll go back and watch it. The first half, at the end of the day, nobody is doing what they need to, at the level that they need to. It can be run game. It can be protection. It can be quarterback play. It can be wide receiver play. I’ll tell them. It’s me and our coaching staff too. We’re in it together.”
On communication and tempo...
"The first half we didn’t get it going. We were behind the chains the entire time. You’re not going to see the tempo at that point.”
On the team’s capability...
“They are capable of it, absolutely. We got to be better. We got to go back to work and continue to grow.”
On team tackling...
“Not very good in the first half. It was part of the problem. You can look at tackling and not getting of the field on third down, defensively. Offensively, you can look at pre-snap penalties and lack of efficiency.”
On improving throughout the game...
“We did some good things down the stretch. Early in the football game, we as a unit weren’t playing the way we needed to, to move the football consistently. Joe [Milton III]’s done some very good things. He, like the rest of them, I was proud of the way that they competed in the second half. Not playing as efficient as we needed to be, but they came out and competed.”
#7 Joe Milton III, Senior, Quarterback
On how much the environment impacted them...
“Not as much, man. You know, when you’re in environments like this as a team you gotta come together as a collective and just gotta execute plays. We didn’t start off doing that in the beginning of the first half so that led up to the score tonight.”
On his interception...
“It happened, man. It happened. I can’t go back and change what happened. I can learn from it. It’s totally on me, I understand.”
On what him and other leaders said in the locker room postgame...
“It’s just all about if we’re going to come together or separate. These game right here lead you to the most important things in life. You look at the game and you be like, ‘oh man, we lost to Florida, right?’ and you go back in the locker room Sunday and you watch the game and just see all the mistakes you made as a team, personally. You want to just fix those and go execute the next week.”
On what changed after the first drive...
“Just got to keep executing man as an offense. You just got to keep going no matter what. When you score that easily and things can be so easily scored you can’t just ride the wave. You got to be able to execute and attack.”
On adjustments made at halftime...
“Don’t shoot yourself in the foot. Just keep going as an offense, as a defense, as a special teams, you just got to execute."
#15 Bru McCoy, Redshirt Senior, Wide Receiver
On the impact of the crowd...
“Early in the season and haven’t played in an environment like that so far. Probably just focus and being dialed in with the things that practiced throughout the week and we will look back on things we didn’t do right and see what we can improve on moving forward.”
On what changed after the first drive...
“I cannot pinpoint exactly, but we came out fast and started fast and then sort of lost are momentum I think that me personally we started thinking back that we couldn’t do it again and it’s a mindset thing and a confidence thing, and going out there and doing what we are capable of doing.”
On mistakes and missed opportunities...
“A loss like this will really light a fire under anybody. I know me personally; this feeling and the way it feels I’m not going to take this lightly and I think everyone else on the offense will fall in line on that. So, hopefully moving forward, there won’t be laboring days and nights not that we will be perfect but we are going to work for it.”
On how to correct the offensive mindset in practice...
“Once you’re being coached on about it, now it’s about the mindset along with the focus and just applying it. And it can be reps with just more and more reps, just taking what you know and working at it in whatever way you feel necessary and as a teammate, you have to go out and do things on your own with the guys around you in the right direction and just show up.”
#6, Aaron Beasly, Senior, Linebacker
On what lead to Etienne’s big game...
“They were just running the offense on our end. I feel like it was just a lot of mistakes. We really weren’t playing sound football in my opinion, just undisciplined on our part.”
On the lack of discipline...
“We just gotta be more intentional with like always, we could have improved our urgency and our intensity, just the way we work throughout the week, we could start there for sure.”
On the last ten seconds...
“Yeah, I think we were just trying to get the ball back and I say that they went in a little barrier call, trying to run the clock out and we were trying to get them down and get the ball back to the offense.”
On whether the team has the leadership to bounce back...
“Yeah, most definitely I do. I feel like all in all we have the team to do that, so we shall see.”
On the message from the seniors...
“Yeah, just stick together. We are not defined by this time in the year. You know what we want to accomplish in this season is still not off the table. That was a main thing, just telling the guys, you know it’s about how you respond, it’s not just this moment in general, but it’s how we respond, too.”
Josh Huepel
Opening statement...
“Extremely disappointing start to the football game the first half. Not very good in any sense of the way. Offense had the one drive and the defense got the one stop. Other than that, not the way you want to start. I do appreciate the competitiveness of the guys that come out to compete and play in the second half. Still didn’t play as clean as we need to, as well as we need to in a lot of ways. We got to get a lot better. Hats off to, give credit to Florida. They did a good job, but we got to get a lot better. We need to be cleaner.”
On third down defense...
"Didn’t get off the field. Had them in some third-and-long situations. Applied some pressure to the quarterback. We didn’t match out on some things. We got to be better. We got to get off the field.”
On the final timeout...
"The timing of when it was, a chance to try to push one into the endzone. Obviously, at the end of it, by the time of when it happened. You weren’t going to be able to have a full sequence of plays to try to get back into the endzone.”
On the offensive line...
"We’ll go back and watch it. The first half, at the end of the day, nobody is doing what they need to, at the level that they need to. It can be run game. It can be protection. It can be quarterback play. It can be wide receiver play. I’ll tell them. It’s me and our coaching staff too. We’re in it together.”
On communication and tempo...
"The first half we didn’t get it going. We were behind the chains the entire time. You’re not going to see the tempo at that point.”
On the team’s capability...
“They are capable of it, absolutely. We got to be better. We got to go back to work and continue to grow.”
On team tackling...
“Not very good in the first half. It was part of the problem. You can look at tackling and not getting of the field on third down, defensively. Offensively, you can look at pre-snap penalties and lack of efficiency.”
On improving throughout the game...
“We did some good things down the stretch. Early in the football game, we as a unit weren’t playing the way we needed to, to move the football consistently. Joe [Milton III]’s done some very good things. He, like the rest of them, I was proud of the way that they competed in the second half. Not playing as efficient as we needed to be, but they came out and competed.”
#7 Joe Milton III, Senior, Quarterback
On how much the environment impacted them...
“Not as much, man. You know, when you’re in environments like this as a team you gotta come together as a collective and just gotta execute plays. We didn’t start off doing that in the beginning of the first half so that led up to the score tonight.”
On his interception...
“It happened, man. It happened. I can’t go back and change what happened. I can learn from it. It’s totally on me, I understand.”
On what him and other leaders said in the locker room postgame...
“It’s just all about if we’re going to come together or separate. These game right here lead you to the most important things in life. You look at the game and you be like, ‘oh man, we lost to Florida, right?’ and you go back in the locker room Sunday and you watch the game and just see all the mistakes you made as a team, personally. You want to just fix those and go execute the next week.”
On what changed after the first drive...
“Just got to keep executing man as an offense. You just got to keep going no matter what. When you score that easily and things can be so easily scored you can’t just ride the wave. You got to be able to execute and attack.”
On adjustments made at halftime...
“Don’t shoot yourself in the foot. Just keep going as an offense, as a defense, as a special teams, you just got to execute."
#15 Bru McCoy, Redshirt Senior, Wide Receiver
On the impact of the crowd...
“Early in the season and haven’t played in an environment like that so far. Probably just focus and being dialed in with the things that practiced throughout the week and we will look back on things we didn’t do right and see what we can improve on moving forward.”
On what changed after the first drive...
“I cannot pinpoint exactly, but we came out fast and started fast and then sort of lost are momentum I think that me personally we started thinking back that we couldn’t do it again and it’s a mindset thing and a confidence thing, and going out there and doing what we are capable of doing.”
On mistakes and missed opportunities...
“A loss like this will really light a fire under anybody. I know me personally; this feeling and the way it feels I’m not going to take this lightly and I think everyone else on the offense will fall in line on that. So, hopefully moving forward, there won’t be laboring days and nights not that we will be perfect but we are going to work for it.”
On how to correct the offensive mindset in practice...
“Once you’re being coached on about it, now it’s about the mindset along with the focus and just applying it. And it can be reps with just more and more reps, just taking what you know and working at it in whatever way you feel necessary and as a teammate, you have to go out and do things on your own with the guys around you in the right direction and just show up.”
#6, Aaron Beasly, Senior, Linebacker
On what lead to Etienne’s big game...
“They were just running the offense on our end. I feel like it was just a lot of mistakes. We really weren’t playing sound football in my opinion, just undisciplined on our part.”
On the lack of discipline...
“We just gotta be more intentional with like always, we could have improved our urgency and our intensity, just the way we work throughout the week, we could start there for sure.”
On the last ten seconds...
“Yeah, I think we were just trying to get the ball back and I say that they went in a little barrier call, trying to run the clock out and we were trying to get them down and get the ball back to the offense.”
On whether the team has the leadership to bounce back...
“Yeah, most definitely I do. I feel like all in all we have the team to do that, so we shall see.”
On the message from the seniors...
“Yeah, just stick together. We are not defined by this time in the year. You know what we want to accomplish in this season is still not off the table. That was a main thing, just telling the guys, you know it’s about how you respond, it’s not just this moment in general, but it’s how we respond, too.”
