Georgia/Alabama 10/5/02 - Dennis Franchione druidcityonline.com your guide to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and the Deep South
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Druid City Online's unique coverage of Alabama football brings you up close and personal with players and coaches after every home game. Click below to read pieces
of their post-game interviews ...

The media locker room is packed postgame.

Dennis Franchione (Head Coach - prev. HC @ New Mexico 92-97 & TCU 98-20)

These comments came during Coach Fran's postgame comments to the press pool ...

Coach Fran - It was a tough, hard fought game. I was proud of our team. They played very hard, and with a lot of heart and determination. We played the Number 6 team in the nation pretty tough. We’ve two games to two teams in the Top 6. We’ve taken them to the wire both times. They were good football teams and we just came up a little short. We are proud of the way they fought though, and there’s a lot of things we continue to build on. There were a lot of big plays in the game. I’ve got to commend Charlie Peprah for making a big play there in the fourth quarter and giving us the chance to win the football game. Got to commend their receivers. They were some big time players that made some big time plays for them. They certainly did well. I thought the swing of the two fumbles that we didn’t get anything out of there at the end of the first half was kind of a big swing for us. We certainly had the chance to get some points out of it, and we didn’t and it hurt us. Never quite got in rhythm and in sync offensively today. Never got the running game going like we wanted to today. Got to credit their defense. They played real solid and sound and made us earn everything. We didn’t earn quite enough. I need to comment on Mike Ziifle. He had a great game for us. He probably would have been the MVP if we had won the game. He did a lot of things for, being called upon beyond the call of duty a little bit for him in the situation that we were in today. But I’m certainly proud of our guys.

Reporter – How big was that kick-off return after you had scored to go ahead?

Well, it was certainly big. It was worth about two first downs for them. It was a hard decision. We thought about kangaroo-ing it, thought about kicking deep, thought about squibbing, thought about a lot of different things. But again, one of their guys, Number 82 (Fred Gibson), made a good play.

Reporter – You mentioned that your offense was kind of dysfunctional. They scored on their first drive, and you were playing from behind the whole game. Was that a problem?

Oh I don’t think so. I don’t think the behind or ahead factor really came into it that much until the fourth quarter. We’ve been behind and responded. We expected this to be a close, hard fought football game. It was just more of a function of how they played on defense, that it was playing from behind.

Reporter – What were your thoughts on how Georgia was able to establish its running game, and have you seen anyone do that to the D-Line this year?

They did a good job with it. They kept us off balance. I don’t know how many yards they had, but they got enough to make it effective for them and they were able to remain a two-dimensional offense. That helped them stay effective offensively.

Reporter – As far as your running game not being able to get into rhythm. What kind of solutions do you have for that?

My gosh, we just finished playing!

Reporter – Well, as you were watching the game and trying different things … why couldn’t you get it to work?

First off, I’d give credit to their defense. They had a good plan, and got off their blocks well. Obviously, we didn’t block as well as we wanted. We couldn’t get into situations as we needed to. Maybe I needed to stay with it more. We tried to be balanced and keep them off balance, and maybe we could have stayed with it a little bit more. But you have to have a little more first down success than we did. It seemed like there were a number of times we were operating behind the chains and that affects your running game.

Reporter – Clarify the play where Pope ran the fumble back. Did the referees tell you that the play had been whistled dead? You seemed to be kind of mad about that one.

I cannot clarify it at this time. Wish I could. I’m not sure anybody can.

Reporter – Were you told it was whistled dead on the field?

I can’t remember if he told me it was whistled dead. I heard so many things today; it’s hard for me to sort them out.

Reporter – Can you comment on how Brodie played today and the toughness he showed?

Well, he played good. He had some pressure on him and he moved around, showed some toughness, got the ball pitched on the option some. He probably got asked to do more today in a tougher situation than he did last week. And I thought he responded pretty well to it. He’ll grow from it. He made some plays. I think he was above 50-percent throwing the football. He made a number of plays that gave us a chance. He had an interception late, but with 30-some seconds to go, that’s pretty tough for him. But I’m not disappointed with his performance.

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Click on the name for parts of their post-game interviews ...

Dennis Franchione (Head Coach)

Michael Ziifle ( #40 So. K 6-0 236 lbs. Newnan, GA - Newnan High School)

Kindal Moorehead (#54 Sr. DE 6-4 304 lbs. Memphis, TN - Memphis High School)

Shaud Williams (#21 Jr. A-Back, 5-8 189 lbs. Andrews, TX - Texas Tech transfer)

Wesley Britt (#70 So. QT, 6-8 312 lbs. Cullman, AL - Cullman High School)

Charlie Peprah (#26 Fr. CB, 5-11 195 lbs. Plano, TX - Plano East High School)