Postgame Quotes

Nov. 18, 2006

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Northwestern Football
Northwestern vs. Illinois

Northwestern Coach Pat Fitzgerald

On the graduating senior class... "I could not be more proud of our 13 seniors. They've battled through as much adversity as a group can go through in their senior year. To keep our team united, to go out and play the way they did today-words can't describe. All 13 are going to graduate, four already have. When you chose Northwestern, you want the best of everything and you want excellence. That's what they stand for-excellence in the classroom and excellence on the field. They are prepared for life after football and I couldn't be more proud of a group."

On finishing the year at 4-8... "We obviously have a long way to go to get where we expect to be and that's to compete for a Big Ten championship. We are in no way, shape or form where this program expects to be. That's why they pay me and call me head coach. We'll get to work right away. We've got a lot to work on. Ball security and protecting the football will be my number one priority in the off-season. I'm not happy with the way it went this year at all. I would look myself in the mirror and say, 'coach you need to work a lot harder on that, you need to come up with new drills.' We take great pride in giving our guys the best plan and the best drills and accentuate ball security. We dropped the ball this year. I am going to re-look at everything we've ever done, analyze it all, and we are going to have a great plan come next fall."

On the successful onside kick... "If you rewind back to some earlier weeks, I looked for a lot of things on tape. I have a checklist of things I look for in the kicking game and on offense and defense and I thought the time was right. It was a great play by Reggie (McPherson) to get there. It's not a surprise that Eric (Peterman) came up with. He just makes plays everywhere and it was a play we thought we should make."

On holding on to the Sweet Sioux... "Just to finish with a win-we haven't done that since 1998. To win the Sweet Sioux for four straight years-we haven't done that since 1947-50. To send our seniors out the right way-I couldn't be more proud. The wins are going to come. We have a long way to go and you do that through development. We have a lot of young players. They aren't freshman anymore. It's time to go. We get to work right away. We'll hit the ground running in the first week of January."

On the play of QB C.J. Bacher... "I just want him to throw the ball to guys in the purple jerseys. I thought he made good decisions today. The one that was reviewed was his only poor decision of the day. He just needs to play within the framework of this offense. Does he remind me of Brett Basanez's first year? Maybe on the field, but off the field it just doesn't compare to what C.J. had to go through this year. You can't describe what it feels like to lose your head football coach. But when you go through that kind of growth process it makes you a better player. I remember when I was a freshman here I wasn't ready to play. I went out there in Ryan Field and got my hind parts whipped. But, it made me that much more hungry in the off-season. We played a lot of the young guys this year-it's so invaluable for the future of this program.

On RB Tyrell Sutton reaching the 1,000-yard mark... "Tyrell is a special player. He's been banged up for the past month and to keep going out and battling each week is a mark of a champion."

Looking back on the loss of Coach Randy Walker... "It kind of takes me right back to be quite honest with you. It's been a hard year. We all miss Coach (Walker). Hopefully he is looking down us right now with a real happy look. Him and Bo (Schembechler) are probably having it out right now. I know how much coach respected Bo. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schembechler family. He coached as an assistant here. I never had the opportunity to meet him. But he meant so much to college football. But the adversity you learn through football doesn't prepare you to lose such a great friend and mentor as coach (Walker). He was the leader of this program. It's been a tough year. But I know his spirit was with all of our young men throughout the year-through the ups and downs. You just have to trust in the plan, but first you have to trust in yourself. I'm so proud of those guys in that locker room. I know that they trust in themselves, I know that they trust in this program. I'm just really excited in the future. I think about coach all the time."

Illinois Head Coach Ron Zook

Opening statement... "First of all you have to give Pat (Fitzgerald) his due. (Northwestern) did a great job. I told our team all week, 'This is going to be the toughest game of the year.' It was going to be one of those games that came down to every single play. It was going to be a fistfight, and they won more fistfights than we did. That is the bottom line. We had some opportunities to do some things, but we shot ourselves in the foot. It was a recap of the whole year. I told our team, 'If you are a loser, you are going to stay down.' I am not a loser, our coaching staff is not a loser, and we are going to continue to improve. We have made great strides and sometimes you forget how far we have come. Obviously we have a way to go yet and we need to start getting out on the road next week to bring some more student-athletes in here that can help our program continue to improve."

On Juice Williams' play... "A lot of times there was concern about his accuracy. What I can say about that is that there are a couple of big-time programs, Georgia and Arkansas are examples, where a true freshman quarterback is playing. It is next to impossible to come out of high school and be a quarterback and do some of the things we have asked him to do. I am not concerned about his accuracy at all. You saw the last pass he threw; it was right on the money. As he gains experience and the game begins to slow down for him he'll get better and better. There are so many things going through his mind. I have told him many times, 'Just go out there and do what you did at CVS (Chicago Vocational School).'"

On the defense... "Defensively I think this wasn't one of our better games. We didn't get off the field on third down. (Northwestern) had a great plan on third down. We never did the things we needed to do to get off the field. Once again that is a credit to them and something that we need to improve on."

On the receivers dropping balls... "Chris (James) has really surprised me a little bit. He has been pretty steady even in practice. I am going to go grab him and he will take that to heart. It will be crucial to him, as it was a fourth-down play. Of all the receivers we had out there, if you asked me who I would throw the ball to, I would have said CJ."

On whether or not this game was a microcosm of Illinois' season... "It has been like this the last three or four games. I have never been involved with some of the things that happened. The onside kick was a great call on their part, but it was something that we have worked on, talked about and saw before. You still have to go out and execute."

Northwestern players

Cornerback Marquice Cole

On the pass deflection in the end zone... "What happened on that play, before the play started, Bryan Heinz was talking and he told me to watch for the crack so I could replace it. When the receiver went down like he was going to crack and he released on the route, I had to get back and just make a great play on the ball."

On winning the last game of the season... "Coach talked to us about how Northwestern hasn't won their last game since 1998. We wanted to turn it around and just get something going for next season."

On battling through adversity this season... "Coach Walker always put us in situations where we had to go through adversity. So we were ready for anything that could happen. Coach [Fitzgerald] stepped up and led us in the right direction and we just battled through it."

On Coach Walker... "Every game I've thought about Coach Walker. He was a great mentor, a great teacher, and he helped me out a lot from getting me here to letting me play and make plays. I think about him every game and for this to be my last game, I thought about him a lot today."

Running back Tyrell Sutton

On the 1,000-yard season... "For personal reasons it's a good thing, but we all came out here trying to get the victory for the seniors. We knew that for some of them this would probably be their last game playing ever and what better way to beat our rival and keep the Sweet Sioux [Tomahawk] here for four years and keeping the Illinois' seniors from ever seeing it."

On winning for the seniors... "I'm pretty sure that the seniors who have been here, they have got to be ecstatic. To end their career with a victory over their rival and to have the Sweet Sioux here for four consecutive years is something that no one here could ever talk about. I think that's a great accomplishment for the young guys who wanted to go out there and play for them and just get them that victory."

On the offensive growth throughout the season... "I think we have a great combination. The last four or five weeks we have come together as a balanced attack. Some things weren't going too well in the first six games of the season. We had more rushing yards than we did passing yards and that's something that we've learned to balance out over the last four or five games. I think we have a great upswing going into next season."

Place-kicker Joel Howells On ending the season with a win... "To end the season on the positive note was just a great feeling for me considering last season was very tough to end that way. Even though last season overall we might have done a little better and this season we had a little bit of struggles, it definitely felt good to me to end on a positive note."

On the onside kick... "It was at halftime. We were sitting there and Coach [Fitzgerald] came up to me and said, 'We're kicking the onside to start the second half.' So I said, 'Alright.' We work on it at practice and try to always keep it as a play we can use. I didn't kick it perfect but those guys made a play and got the ball."

On the improvement throughout the season... "I guess overall this season we didn't win as many games as we would have wanted to win, but I think the team really came together and I think this was really a good way to end the season heading into the off-season because there are a lot of young guys and I think next year they'll be ready to do really well. I think the second half of the season was when we really started to play our best football. The first part of the season we weren't playing as well. I don't think there was really a reason or an excuse for that, it just started clicking later in the year."

Illinois Player Quotes

Wide Receiver Chris James

On losing the final game of the season... "It's a tough way to end the season but you've still got to look forward to the off-season by getting better. It won't happen again like that. We've had some high points and some low points. We had a lot of opportunities to win the game. We just didn't come out on top this time."

On his dropped pass on fourth down... "One play won't haunt me. I've got three more years, and a lot more games to play, so I'm just moving on."

Linebacker J Leman
On the play of the team since their win against Michigan State... "The games we should've won, we haven't. The games that we had a chance to win against teams people said we shouldn't win against, we didn't. Every game's been really competitive since then and we've just come up on the short end of the stick every time. We've got to learn how to win and finish the ball game."

Quarterback Juice Williams
On improving his accuracy... "The accuracy right now; it's just a matter of fundamentals. The small things: technique, footwork, all positions, balance, all that's going to come. They are some of the things I'm still new to. Everything is just fresh on my brain right now so I need to just repeat them over and over in the off-season. I'm pretty sure we'll see some better results next year."

On assuming the role of the leader of the offense... "That's part of being a quarterback. That's the type of role it is. You're the general on the field whether you like it or not. That's got to be your job because everyone's looking at you; everyone's feeding off you. So that's what I'm definitely ready to do now."

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