Rick Clausen Quotations

We're playing for everybody in the Tennessee family. If the fans bail on us now, then the fans are not true Tennessee football fans. You can't win every single football game, but we do expect to. The fans expect to, and those are the expectations you deal with when you come to a school such as Tennessee.

When things are clicking, we can be good, ... Eventually things will start clicking. Right now things haven't been and it's unfortunate because we know what's at stake and we can win football games.

None of us are lawyers. We didn't know what was going on, and quite frankly, I don't think it really mattered.

I don't have anything to prove to anybody. The guys in the locker room, family and friends, they know what I'm all about. If I haven't proved (it) by now, then you know what, I don't care,

If the fans bail on us now, then the fans are not true Tennessee fans.

He gave 22 years of his life to this university, ... We haven't gone out and done what we needed to do as a football team.

Whatever happened off the field is not going to help us on Saturday. It's not going to give us three points on the board before the game starts.

He's better than both of us right now.

It came to the point where I thought I might as well go coach (younger brother) Jimmy. It came to that point. I just didn't understand. I just didn't understand a lot. It's not my place to understand. He's the head coach, and he makes the decisions. But I really didn't understand at all.

It hit me once I was talking to my mom (on the phone), because I walked out onto the field after the game to talk to my parents where it was kind of quiet,

Lack of execution was the biggest thing. Their defense was good, but we stopped ourselves a lot. We shot ourselves in the foot,

I think it's the ultimate rivalry in the SEC. There's always a little more passion when it comes to this game.

I think it's the ultimate rivalry in the SEC, ... There's always a little more passion when it comes to this game.

I thought I played well enough in the spring, summer time and two-a-days to win the job,

Wherever the quarterback derby or whatever you call it goes from here it doesn't matter. I'm just glad that we won. Basically, the questions about the whole quarterback thing, I'd like them to stop.

We know it could be a special year,

We beat ourselves tonight. That's it. That's all it boils down to. You can't make mistakes and beat a team like Alabama.

We knew it was going to be a fight and we knew what we had to do,

I've put in the work and I thought I had a good preseason,

The most important thing is understanding your role,

As long as we put six points on the board, I couldn't care less. A lot of people are talking about the big plays and things like that, but we haven't had many to this point. So in essence that means we're due.

That's when it really kind of hit me.

That's kind of been the story of my life. Everything kind of takes a little longer for me in order to be successful.

It was a tough week for myself, ... I called home a few times; I really didn't want to be here.

It was a tough week for myself. I called home a few times. I didn't really want to be here. My family said you got to stay. You never know what might happen. I'm so thankful to those guys and the 70 guys in the locker room. Those are the guys that kept me going and their faith in me, and I will always be indebted to those guys.

It shows he's a man. I think that's the biggest thing. If you do something wrong, you usually say you did something wrong. He did that. It's basically water under the bridge now. We're just trying to beat Ole Miss now.

It's been a roller coaster. That's the best way to describe it,

Everybody makes comments and said, 'I transferred to Tennessee because I wasn't good enough to play here,

They made a decision. You just have to live with it. It is what it is, and that's basically the way I'm going to approach it,

Their defense is good, but they didn't stop us that often,

I'm going to get a lot of treatment this week, as many times as possible, to get the soreness out.

I just wanted to say, 'Thanks for all the good times, thanks for harping on me and writing articles like they did while I was there saying I wasn't good enough to play there,' ... It was just to go and show them I don't care if they like me or not anymore.

I just try to get the ball to our playmakers. That's my job.

He said just approach it like any other game. He said you just have to watch out for getting too tight. He said if people get nervous, that's when they get distracted and kind of let the game consume them. He said just be loose and go out there and play. It's a great college football atmosphere.

The louder it is, the better it is. That's the way I look at it, just because there's nothing better than going to another person's stadium and trying to silence the crowd.