Phillip Fulmer's Tuesday Comments

"I know everybody -- at least we are -- is ready to move on to Wyoming and all the preparations for that. (It's) homecoming weekend, and get back to work. I think it would almost be inappropriate if I didn't say how very grateful I was and am for the outpouring of support and people responding or contacting me, just being grateful for what we've done here, to me and my family and that's very much appreciated.

"I've never been, really, more pleased and honored than with the response of my football team. Sometimes when you're not doing as well as you would like or anybody expects you to be, you don't always know where your team is. But this team, I've found, is a really unusual group, even though it's been a tough season for us along the way. They've continued to respond and practice hard and fight through the injuries, as we've played eight straight games and five of those being SEC games. So, I really do appreciate that.

"There have been a lot of former players, obviously, and great calls and e-mails. I will get back to all of them at some point. I obviously can't do that all here at one time, but I appreciate them and all the friends and family and everybody concerned. But our focus right now is to turn toward Wyoming. We were in earlier this morning as a staff working, trying to get our team ready. We look forward to the challenge.

"Most of our concerns continue to be with just being more consistent and efficient from an offensive standpoint. That's been our challenge, when we do well with things not to have a penalty or something take that effectiveness away. Our coaches, I'm proud of the way they've responded. They continue to work hard. They're professionals and they'll continue to do that.

"A little bit about Wyoming. They had a really big win last week against San Diego State. They played very well on both sides of the ball. They've been all over the place from an offensive standpoint. They've been doing a lot of different things, almost an offense of the week so to speak. One thing that's been consistent, the run game has been solid. Last week it was outstanding as they rushed for about 240 yards against San Diego State, so that's not something we want to take for granted at all. We're going to have to play well and our defense has been good against the run and consistent most of the year. They certainly are a challenge for that.

"Looking at their defense, they're a solid defensive football team. We've been kind of our own worst enemy offensively. If we can eliminate those and take some further steps forward, then hopefully we'll be able to manage that. They're solid in the kicking game as well.

"We're focused on Wyoming, but also really focused on ourselves to take those steps we need to take to be a better offensive football team."