Post-game Quotes
10/22/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 22, 2005
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Michigan State Football
MSU vs. Northwestern
Oct. 22, 2005
Northwestern Head Coach Randy Walker
Opening statement...
"I want to give a lot of credit to our kids. We have a tremendous amount of respect for Michigan State, the kind of program they have, and the kind of football team they are. This is a very difficult venue to come in and play and I'm really proud of the way our kids played and the way we continue to improve over the course of the season. As I said in the locker room, I'm not sure three or four weeks ago many people would have bet on this, but all that mattered was a handful of guys believed in it. We've just got to keep getting one week better, and that's been our goal through the course of the season. We're playing a lot of young football players, and we knew we'd go through some growing pains as a football team, and we try to get a little bit better each week."
"I reminded them in the locker room, there's still a lot of football left in the season. Of course enjoy this win and celebrate it, that's what it's all about, but we need to make sure we get back into the right place tomorrow and start the right things because every week in this league is crazy. This thing is going to be a wild race to the end, and hopefully we can keep getting better as a football team."
On the play of his defense...
"The nature of football is the other team is going to make plays. We're reducing the big plays as a defense. As we like to say, make them snap it again. Pretty soon you hope their offense malfunctions, I know we do. The essence is if you can sustain your drive play after play. It's harder to do than you think. And then when there's an opportunity, you capitalize on it. The last couple weeks I think we've reduced the big plays we've given up, we've made some plays, created some turnovers and some opportunities."
On the defense's ability to contain Drew Stanton...
"We didn't do anything different, we just played our game. We continue to try to work and enhance our pass rush. We're going to get different people in to get pressure on the passer. It's been my experience that if you pressure the quarterback you've got a better chance of defending the pass. I think we've improved there. I just told our kids to play heads up football. We got on top of some balls that got away from Drew and we made some plays on them."
