Northwestern vs. Penn State Post-Game Quotes
9/26/2005 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 24, 2005
Northwestern vs. Penn State Post-Game Quotes
September 24, 2005
Evanston, Ill.
Northwestern Head Coach Randy Walker
Opening Statement
"It was a tough loss, but I've always been impressed with my team's resilience and I think they'll bounce back. I think we'll have a great week this week. I think we'll get ready for Wisconsin and I think we'll play our best football game of the year. I think that with Wisconsin and the type of rivalry we have with them, we'll need to play our best football.
I'm always in a little bit of fog after the games. Just looking at the stats, we ran about 160, 170 plays out there, so I'm not always sure what happened exactly when out there. I thought Joel Howell had a great day and a clutch kick at the end. But I would sure like to see some of the takeaways get turned into scores. We run a fake punt and made a play, and you would like to see points off of that. With a gamble that big, you would like to see some scores.
So we played a very good defense, and we knew coming in that they were a very good defense. Again, they have nine seniors back and 10 starters back and they're good players, but we need to make a couple more plays, and defend a couple more plays on defense.
If I sum up my sentiments, it's tough to lose a game like that. But I have no regrets and I don't think our kids have any regrets. If you can do everything you need to do to prepare...you're not going to play a game perfect, especially when you're playing a good team like Penn State. They're going to make their share of plays. They made their share, and they made the ones that counted down the stretch. But I'm proud of our kids, I'm proud of the way we prepared, and we're going to be a better football team. "
Did the Penn State defense adjust to anything after your early offensive success?
"They're just real good. We made a couple of plays on our first drive. I believe Brett (Basanez) made a couple plays with his feet, he had a couple good scramble plays to keep the drive alive. The first drive was probably one of our best drives all day because we made some plays against a real tough defense."
There were a lot of high snaps today, will Joel Belding see some time at center?
"Well, Joel Belding played today. It's not what you want, the exchange problems, but I reminded our kids that I refuse to point fingers because I could have done a better job coaching. Instead of worrying about one individual, I told them that this is a program defeat, and there's enough blame to go around including me, the coaches and everyone in the program. I give them a lot of credit, they're a good football team. I'm disappointed because we had them on the ropes, we had some things going our way, and they made the plays down the stretch that good teams make to win games."
On the defensive pressure on Penn State's last drive
"I thought we did a good job of pressuring the quarterback today. I don't know how many sacks or hurries we had, but we got in the backfield and disrupted some throws. On the last drive, we got in there and forced that fourth-and-long. Pass defense is a combination of pressure and coverage. The kid (Penn State quarterback Michael Robinson) made some plays and had guys to make some plays for him. He made the one that counted down the stretch.
I'm pleased with Barry Cofield. In a very dismal night a week ago, he was the lone bright spot of the defense, and he's carried that into this week as well. Just watching from the sideline, he's had better practices, he's stepping up as a leader in a lot of respects, so I'm very pleased with Barry. I don't know what kind of game he had today, Ill know tomorrow when I watch the tape, but I have no regrets."
Brett Basanez had a lot of rushes, was that by design?
"Brett had a lot of quarterback runs today. They make it extremely difficult, they were giving up only 70 yards per game or something like that. So we felt like some of our best offense was Brett running. We felt like Brett was going to have to make some plays on the ground, and he was running the option. From the looks of it statistically, I don't know how many other teams have racked up 400 yards on them. They're a good defense, so for us to run the ball and move the ball like that, I think we played pretty well. Brett's going to have to do that all year, he's going to have to make those types of plays. He's going to get hit some, but he'll bounce back. He has as lot of courage, he's one of the toughest quarterbacks I've ever been around."
Penn State Head Coach Joe Paterno
On a sloppy, yet exciting victory...
"We weren't that bad in the second half. The first half we had a lot of turnovers. When you turn the ball over that many times on the road you usually lose. But our kids hung in there and pulled out a victory. Northwestern is a helluva football team. You've got to feel bad about losing a game like that. I've been on both ends of it. Northwestern is a very good football team."
On Michael Robinson's performance...
"You gotta give Robinson most of the credit. I've always been a Michael Robinson fan. On the last play of the ball game I almost choked. He decided to run, and I'm yelling, 'get rid of it, get rid of it.' Then he ran 4 or 5 yards and ran out of bounds."
On the 4th and 15...
"He (Robinson) made a great throw, and that was a great catch by Smolko."
On Penn State's performance...
"Obviously, we are in a stage of getting good and I think you only get good when you overcome some adversity. And I think they had some adversity today and they hung in there."
About being down 23-14 at halftime...
"I knew we were still in it. I thought we could make some changes. I didn't know if we could hold them. I thought we'd be okay if we just didn't panic."
On holding Northwestern in the red zone and holding them to field goals...
"That was big. Big, big , big! If they had it to do over I think they would probably do a couple things a little different down there, as we would. We were down there a couple times and didn't do much at all. But when you get in a good ball game all those things mean something-defense in the red zone, turnovers, kicking game. They got the one shank punt. They did a better job running the kickoff than I thought they could."
Northwestern Player Quotes
Place-kicker Joel Howells
On making five-of-six field goal attempts...
"I felt pretty good. I felt like I got comfortable out there and was striking the ball pretty good. Unlike the past couple of weeks, they were going in."
On making a 46-yard field goal...
"It felt good to make that kick. It was good to have that ball go in. In the past couple of weeks I had some in the same range and had missed them so it felt good to hit that. It was definitely a confidence booster."
On having a open date early in the season...
"I think an off week might be alright. A couple of guys are hurt, and it will give us a chance to get some of those guys back. Now is as good a time as any to let everyone rest and get focused again for the next game."
On making three field goals under 30 yards ...
"It would have been nice to punch a couple of those in and get six points instead of three."
Running back Tyrell Sutton
On his first Big Ten game ...
"It's a lot different than high school football. It's an experience. Everyone hits a lot harder. Everyone is a lot faster than me and definitely bigger. It's unfortunate the way we went out."
On the Penn State defense ...br> "They closed really fast. It was a good thing we played Arizona State the week before because those guys were definitely swarming to the ball just as fast as Penn State was."
On not executing in the red zone ...
"It hurts so bad to go from the 20-yard line to the other 20 and then not be able to put it in for six points. We don't like putting that much pressure on our kicking game. It was frustrating at times to have 80-yard drives and stop ourselves basically. We had mental errors, penalties, holding calls, everything we could do to stop our drives, we were doing it."
On breaking the record for touchdowns scored by a freshman ...
"I honestly didn't know I did it. I'm not into personal accolades. It would have been even greater had we gotten a victory this afternoon. It happened. Records are meant to be broken, and it will be broken again."
On his career-high 32 carries ...
"I don't care how many carries I get, as long as I can make some kind of contribution. Whether it's protecting Basanez or helping out the line, I'm all for it."
Defensive Tackle Barry Cofield
On Penn State's game-winning drive ...
"It's a disappointment. You get them fourth-and-long with the game on the line. If you stop them there it's game over, and we're 1-0 in the Big Ten. Even without stopping them there we had plenty of opportunities to make plays. A drive like that at the end is a disappointment."
On batting down several of Robinson's passes ...
"It was weird. I don't know if it was luck or what. I was just fighting and throwing my hands up. That's what we are taught as defensive linemen, and it happened to work out today. I wish I could have got one more."
Quarterback Brett Basanez
On the game ...
"We needed to score more points. The defense played great. We got a lot of turnovers. As an offense, we need to respond and score touchdowns. We left too many out there for Joel (Howells) to ring up, which he did a great job of for us. I'd rather have him kick extra points than 46-yard field goals."
On the defensive pressure and center-quarterback exchange ...
"They are very good up front. They put pressure on us a lot. We have some young guys on the offensive line and they need the reps. It was good to see this team. They brought it every play. Up front they were very aggressive. Not every snap is going to be perfect, and we just need to adjust. Austin (Matthews) has done a great job. A couple bad ones here and there is nothing serious. It happens to everyone. We just have to get better this week."
On failing to finish drives with touchdowns ...
"We just need to put it in. It's not play calling. We just need to execute our plays and score. That's basically the bottom line."
Penn State Player Quotes
Wide Receiver Deon Butler
On the performance of freshmen...
"I think sometimes people aren't expecting us to make plays like that, but we come out with the attitude that we don't care what people think about how freshmen should perform. We just know that we need to play older than freshmen in able to perform out there.
"Our wide receivers are not only catching the ball, but were doing all the little things, like we're blocking to help spring big plays."
Quarterback Michael Robinson
On what he said before last drive...
"This is what we wake up for, this is what we put all our time in for, games like this, situations like this, and we need to make our statement right now.
"In the first half we were giving them the game, and then in the second half we struggled a little bit, but that last drive was all heart. The offensive line just stuck with us, they did a great job."
On Northwestern's coverage...
"They've been playing us a lot of man, and we figure when their playing man coverage we are open."
How will the game affect PSU's confidence...
"It gives us a lot of confidence. Our guys just came up big at the end. We were put in a lot of tough situations in this game. I figured a lot of that was on the offense. We've got to try to eliminate mistakes, eliminate third downs and we will win games.
"There's one quote that I live by from Frederick Douglass, 'There can be no progress without struggle.' And you know that's how this team thinks. We have stuck together, but you know this isn't the Rose Bowl, this is our first Big Ten win and we've got to move on from there. We are very focused, we've got to mend our bruises and get back out there."
