Auburn postgame quotes

Here’s a small selection of postgame quotes from Auburn following today’s 17-13 loss at Vanderbilt.

Auburn Quotes
Head Coach Gene Chizik
Opening Statement:
“I feel like this was another example of us having a chance at the end of the game to win the game and we couldn’t close the door on it. I thought the kids played hard and without question they felt like keeping the score close in the fourth quarter where we had a chance to win the game. Certainly, that was the feeling that I got on the sideline, without question, that our kids were fighting all the way down to the end. Again, we fell short. It’s kind of the same scenario that we’ve faced a couple of different times earlier in the year. We’re going to keep fighting and again I’m proud of our guys who kept fighting and playing the game. At some point in time we’re going to have to figure out how to get the game at that point and win it and we’re obviously struggling with that. We’ll continue to go back to work and continue to try to improve.”

On the defense causing a fumble late in the 4th quarter:
“The last drive defensively was a situation where we stopped them on a very critical down and got the ball back. We didn’t have any timeouts left on the clock. We went into two-minute mode and really just couldn’t do much with the ball after that. Again, our defense fought down to the end and offensively at the end we just struggled to put together some kind of two-minute drill to get the ball to the end zone, which was what we had to do. The turnover battle today was something that we had to emphasize and I felt like today that happened, but obviously it wasn’t enough.”

On Freshman Linebacker Cassanova McKinzy:
“We made a conscientious decision that it was time to let him go. He really worked hard this week, I thought, in trying to prepare for the game. I can’t really tell you how well he did until I see the game film and where he was supposed to fit and where he was supposed to be in the defense. But you know he’s an active player, and showed up in terms of tackles and things of that nature. In terms of his first game I’m very proud of him.”

Freshman Quarterback Jonathan Wallace
On moving forward, future games:
“We have to continue to work hard, continue to be a team, and to lift each other up even when we’re upset. We’ve been doing that, and it’s a matter of staying positive. Even though things aren’t going the way we want [them] to, we just have to stay together. I believe we’re finding a way to do that. We’re getting there.”

Fullback Jay Prosch
On Problems with the offense:
“I think it’s a group effort. Sometimes you miss assignments here and there, and for offense to work, everyone has to be in sync.

On struggling team identity:
“It’s always hard bringing in new offenses and defenses. It always takes time. I think we’ve got what we need… we just need to execute and sharpen it up.”