Anthony Jones
POST-GAME QUOTES FROM HEAD COACH ANTHONY JONES...
"My guys did a great job. I told them that I'm very, very proud of them. A lot of people don't understand, I got here too late for spring ball, so we didn't have spring ball. And the first time that I saw most of these guys practice was August 8.
"But we kept working. We kept working. We kept working and God blessed us. He gave us enough guys out there with the will to go out there and compete. An that's what I told them, 'Find a way to compete.' An we were able to do that today. I'm proud of them."
ON THE DEFENSIVE PERFORMANCE...
"I believe this team we played is going to score some points, but they weren't able to score points today. We gave up a big play and we gave up a big drive that ended up in a field goal.
"We had a few hiccups out there, as we would expect. But again I thought we did a great job. We stayed together which I thought was the most crucial part. Cause even when we gave up a big play, there wasn't any negative stuff going on. We just stayed together and we came right back."
ON ROOKIE QUARTERBACK KEDRICK PATTERSON...
"I'm going to give (freshman quarterback Kedrick) Patterson a great amount of credit. He's a freshman coming in here, playing college football. He'd never worked in my system and never worked under my leadership. But the kid kept growing, kept growing and kept growing. With (junior quarterback) De'Abrie (Smith) banged up, we told him, 'Kedrick, you're going to have to go the whole ride.'
"I'm proud of the young man. He went out there and stared some defenses down. He threw the ball and took some good hits.
"I think that he can be as good as he wants to be. He's just got to learn to focus on the task at hand."
ON THE OPENING PLAY...
"I've never opened up a season like that. I do remember a play like that when we (Alabama A&M) played Texas Southern. We took the ball from them and scored a touchdown. We ended up scoring like 70 points on them. But his (sophomore defensive back Taeyonn Reynolds) return was a heck of a play. He went in there, made the tackle, ripped the ball out and went the other way.
"A lot of players, particularly starters, don't like to go out there and cover kicks. He went down there and I told him, 'Somebody's got to make a play.' That's been our motto. That's been our theme. That got us started and, in essence, was part of the difference in the ball game."
ON THE LIGHTNING SUSPENSION...
"Of course we would have loved to have finished the game. I've got a lot of respect for Coach Pearl. We worked together for a very long time and I knew he was going to be a tough out. But I've always told our guys except for their safety, the most important thing for us to do is to put ourselves in a position to win. Safety became an issue. We waited and waited and waited. Every time we tried to get started, there was was another lightning strike. I don't know how many times or how long we sat up in here waiting to get back on the field. But we couldn't. Central's administration understood it as well."
