Sept. 11, 2010

Recap | Final Stats | Notes |

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Postgame Quotes

Kansas 28, No. 15 Georgia Tech 25

September 11, 2010

Kansas Head Coach Turner Gill:

On the Win:

“I would say we were playing for the whole Jayhawk nation. It’s great for our staff, great for our players, great for our alumni and great for our student body. We appreciate all of their support that they gave us today during the game. It gave us energy. It’s like I told the fans, we need all of them to come to our games and give us that energy like they did today.”

“We’ll enjoy this one for about 24 hours and then we have to get ready to go for the next one because we have an even shorter week as we get prepared for Southern Miss.”

On turning things around:

“I can’t speak enough about our staff, and that’s really the core of this football program. I’ve been very fortunate and blessed to bring in the people that I was able to bring in here. These guys have been through all of the up’s and down’s of life, through football and they understand how to teach. I brought in people into this staff who knew how to teach and knew how to build a relationship with young men so they know how to handle the prosperity and the adversity that comes their way. That is what football is all about and what life is all about.”

On the performance of the KU defense:

“Coach (Carl)Torbush did an excellent job, no doubt about it. Torbush and (Vic) Shealey, those two have seen this offense before. Coach Torbush coached against them when he was at Mississippi State. So I think that those things gave confidence to our players and that’s the key thing; our players buying into what we’re teaching them. Once they really get it into their hearts and their minds, then they can go out and go play. That’s what we talked about, playing fast, playing physical and play with a lot of energy and effort.”

On thinking James Sims could have a 100 yd. true freshman game:

“I knew he had the potential to do that. I wish it were up to the offensive line and defensive line. I challenged those two groups of people because they were the ones who were going to help us to win this football game. They did fairly well in this game so hats off to all of those guys, receivers, blockers and everyone else too.”

On proving something today:

“No, I didn’t prove anything. It’s just one ball game. We’re here to be successful over a long period of time, many years. One game doesn’t define our program, two games doesn’t define our program. We’re trying to do something over a long period of time and we’re just trying to move forward.”

Kansas Player Quotes

Freshman Running Back James Sims

On his mindset going in to the game knowing that he was going to play:

“I just motivated myself, after not playing the last game, I was a little upset. I just had to bounce back and work even harder – I know my opportunity was going to come, I just took advantage of it and it paid off.”

On the nerves going into the game playing a top-20 team:

“I was a little nervous, just since it was my first college game; but I give all of the credit to my offensive line, they told me that they were going to get the job done, and that’s what they did, I’m glad that I believed them.”

On if he thought he could have 100 yards in his college debut:

“I was just going out there to play, I wasn’t going into the game trying to keep up with my stats – I was just trying to help my team win.”

On his hurdle against the defender in the second half:

“That was the first time I’ve used that move, it was a quick decision I had to make since I was going against two defenders – so I just had to jump.”

On how they turned things around:

“Coach (Turner) Gill just told us to let the game go by and focus on Georgia Tech, he said you can’t look back on the past, because if you do, then it will affect what you do in the future.”

Sophomore Wide Receiver Bradley McDougald

On how the team bounced back after a loss:

“We didn’t want to feel sorry for ourselves, we knew what we were capable of. We got back on the practice field Tuesday and just worked at it. And drilled at everything.”

On the confidence of the team during the game:

“We were very confident – I don’t know if the fans were confident. It started with us, if we aren’t confident, we can’t expect the fans to be confident. During the course of the game, the fans knew we were ready to play.”

On what James Sims brought to the offense:

“He is a great running back – he reminds me of Toben (Opurum) last year, that’s what the guys in the locker room were talking about. He came in with a lot of intensity – we believed in him and he believed in us, that was the biggest thing. He is a very tough runner.”

On if they were nervous facing Georgia Tech:

“Not at all, it’s just white shirts and yellow helmets to us, it doesn’t matter what opponents we play, the teams we play we just go out and we’re ready.”

Junior Wide Receiver Daymond Patterson:

On what they changed from last week:

“We didn’t change what we did last week, we just opened up the offense, and we executed a lot better. Some of the plays we ran last week, they just didn’t look the same, because we executed better.”

On how it feels to end the losing streak:

“It feels great, especially facing a good Georgia Tech team.”

On how it feels to give Coach Gill his first win:

“It feels great, he’s a first-class guy – he works hard every week. I’m just happy for him. It feels great, especially against a team like this.”

On Jordan Webb’s leadership ability:

“Jordan is a great leader, he really showed that today, he and Kale (Pick), they’re both young guys, and they’ve been great leaders.”

Kansas Quarterback Jordan Webb

On getting the team energized:

“I think at quarterback you kind of have to have that in you. Some guys are a little more mild mannered than I am, but I am definitely a hyper guy on the sidelines. You see me jumping around , I get excited when the defense makes plays. I get excited when special teams makes plays. That is just my personality. I am going to be in your face. I am going to try to get the emotions out of you.”

On the fans on the field:

“That was sweet. That was awesome. After last week I didn’t know how the fans would be going into today, but they really supported us. I think our fans were really good today.”

On what the win means to the team:

“I just think we gained our confidence back. That’s the biggest thing. Coming in after we lost last week, of course you are going to have that doubt in the back of your mind, but we didn’t play like it. We played like we were ranked in the top 15, not them. We just played as well as we could.”

On throwing his first touchdown pass:

“It was awesome. My first touchdown was pretty sweet. I really can’t explain how I felt. I mean I am excited. After that I knew we were going to be in the game so that was the most important thing.”

On using Webb and Pick:

“We can do a lot of things with this offense. With their defense I think it just suited us best using shotgun. We can go under center if we need to. We can pretty much do whatever we need to do.”

On being the starting quarterback:
“It is huge, but you just can’t be satisfied at this position especially. I am going to have to work my butt off every day. Kale is a good quarterback. He will be right on my tail the rest of this year. I think we have two really good quarterbacks.”

Junior Wide Receiver Daymond Patterson:

On the turnaround from last week:

“A lot of people out there thought, `Well, maybe they’re just soft,’ which last week we did need to play a lot more physical to win. But it’s just execution. When you do things you’re supposed to do and do what you’re taught, things happen like they did today.”

On snapping the eight-game losing streak:

“It’s a huge relief just to get off that losing streak and start a winning streak. Hopefully, we can keep this one going.”

On what people were saying about the team after last week:

“You heard it everywhere, social websites, through the media in the paper, people just talking on campus, people calling you on your phone. You just have to let it go. We knew we played about as bad as we could. The only thing we could do was get better than last week. We really went out there and focused this week. We had really great practices and it really paid off today.”

Junior Tight End Tim Biere

On Jordan Webb’s performance:

“I think he did a great job. He kept a cool head out there. He just led the team up and down the field. I definitely think we saw a leader being born out there. He just has a calm attitude. You can see it in his eyes. He’s just fired up and ready to go.”

On hearing people talk about last week’s performance:
“I had the worst game of my life, so I wasn’t looking at anything or hearing anything. I knew what they were saying. We lost to a I-AA team and then we all got this fire. It’s us against the world out there. We went out there and had something to prove today.”

Senior Linebacker Justin Springer

On the motivation from losing last week:
“I had the same motivation I had last week. I didn’t care what anybody said. Nobody said anything to me. I knew what was going on. People were telling me about it but at the same time I don’t care what they say. It’s in the back of my mind. I’m not going to lie but at the same time I wanted to play the same game I played last week with more effort. We did that.”

On the last time he had 15 tackles in a game:
“The last time was my senior year (of high school). I had 18 tackles. That’s why I got recruited.”

Georgia Tech Head Coach Paul Johnson

On the loss:

“I thought their kids played hard. They made some plays and we didn’t make any plays. We left too many points on the field, had a chance to score, didn’t get them. Their kid made some plays. Number 15 (Daymond Patterson) made some unbelievable plays.”

On the Georgia Tech defense:

“There were a lot of missed tackles. We didn’t have a lot of guys getting off blocks. You know we should have scored more than 28 anyway. Nobody played good enough to win.”

On KU’s performance versus Georgia Tech’s performance:

“I think they played well. It didn’t surprise me. We’ve got to go back and I’ve got to do a better job of getting our guys ready to play. Clearly, they think it’s a walk in the park sometimes. I think you have to get Kansas credit. They played hard and I’m not going to take anything away from them.”

On KU’s rushing game:

“They ran the ball well. It started with mostly draws and they did a good job protecting the quarterback. We didn’t do a very good job protecting the passer.”

On Georgia Tech’s passing game versus KU’s defense:

“When the other team fires the corner about every play, you probably should be able to throw one and complete it.”

On KU’s upset win:

“It’s good for them and bad for us, that’s usually what happens. One team’s happy and one team’s not.”

Georgia Tech junior inside linebacker Kyle Jackson

On the big plays:

“There were times that the offense would make a big play, and then defense would come out and couldn’t get a stop. Then there were other times when defense would make a big stop, and the offense couldn’t get a score. It’s just one of those things that worked both ways.”

On the interception:

“It was nice. It was one of those plays where we came off of the formation recognition. They were in a formation that we knew that the play was likely to happen. So I was able to be in position to either make the tackle or get the pick.”

Georgia Tech junior outside linebacker Steven Sylvester

On the up-tempo Kansas offense:

“It was defiantly something that caught us off guard. We’d seen it on game film, but it’s nothing like game speed. You can’t prepare for that during practice. So you have to come out and adjust on the fly.”

Georgia Tech senior center Sean Bedford

On the Kansas defense:

“I don’t think they did that much out of the ordinary. They were squeezing the tackle pretty hard. The linebackers did a good job flying over the top. All in all, they outplayed us and outhustled us today.”

On the intensity of the Jayhawks:

“We knew coming in that this was a team that didn’t play to their potential last week. We knew they were going to be fired up and ready to go, and if we gave them an inch they’d take a mile.”

Georgia Tech senior quarterback Joshua Nesbit

On the lack of intensity:

“Overall we just didn’t show up to play. We just got to show up to the next game.”

On the dropped passes:

“At first, I was getting frustrated, but I realized I have to have a short memory and just forget this play. Then I’d move on to the next play.”

On defending the option:

“They were just getting to the ball. We just didn’t have a chance to get going.”

On practicing for North Carolina

“Just working on the little things, and just going over all of our plays. We need to work on throwing the ball.”

On the loss:

“I take every loss the same way. It just hurts, but we need to have a short memory and move on.”