Northwestern University Athletics
Northwestern vs Minnesota -- Postgame Quotes
10/13/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 13, 2007
Recap |
Final Stats |
Notes |
AP Photo Gallery 
|
Homecoming Photo Gallery
2007 Northwestern Football
Northwestern 49, Minnesota 48 (2 OT)
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Post-Game Quotes
Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
On his team's focus and intensity...
"We lost our focus somewhere between the locker room and the opening kickoff. The players recognized that. The coaches recognized that. We just try to go out and make something happen in the second half."
On the victory...
"We find a way to win, and I'm proud of our players. That's why they're true character men. They find us a way to win football games at the end, when things get tough and things get tight. I'm proud of them for that."
On going into next week...
"We've got a lot of work to do and a short week to do it, against a coaching staff that will know everything about us. It's going to be a great challenge, but I'm extremely proud of our young men."
On the performance of quarterback C.J. Bacher...
"Someone told me a stat: he's got over 900 yards in two weeks. That's outstanding, and that's part of our offense."
On Malcolm Arrington's third-quarter interception...
"That goes back to the old high school days when he played tailback. He's got really good hands, and he's really starting to come into his own. I'm proud of the way Malcolm is playing. He has grown."
On his mindset when his team is down...
"Well, just take it one step at a time, one series on offense at a time. Then all of a sudden we get the momentum back, and go out and make the plays winner makes. That's what we did."
On Minnesota's decision to go for two in the second overtime...
"I could see myself making the same decision Tim (Brewster, Minnesota's Head Coach) made on the road, especially the way the game was going. You have to make decisions like that, to try and give your young men an opportunity to win the game."
On the play of his kicking game...
"We missed a couple of field goals today, and my thought process was that usually the football gods don't allow you to win a game after misses in the kicking game. But our guys picked each other up, and everyone just has a great belief in our program to win these games."
Northwestern Player Quotes
On how the defense turned things around...
"We are all very confident in our abilitiy as a defense, so we were all confident we could turn things around and that the offense would help us out. We stuck to what we've been taught and executed, and it worked out for the best."
On having confidence in C.J...
"We have always had confidence in C.J. He's our quarterback. He's the starter for a reason. There's no doubt."
On knowing the offense will score points...
"With C.J., we know we're going to score points as an offense. But our job as a defense is to eliminate that. They have been saving us the past couple weeks, but as a defense we need to step up."
On maintaining motivation throughout the game...
"We talk about that week after week. Coach does things in practice to motivate us. Our teammates do as well. Our captains have done a great job doing that; getting us revved up for the game to sustain that momentum."
On being down 21 points in the third quarter...
"We were disappointed. We all kept our heads in it. We all stayed focused. We knew our defense would give us an opportunity with the ball."
On the last play in regulation...
"My read is from Eric to Ross and then back to the end zone. It was actually the same play we scored on in the third quarter. Eric gave a move inside, his slant, and got wide open and made it pretty easy on me."
Adam Kadela
On coming through in close games...
"I apologize to some of the old fans or anybody with heart problems. It's fun to be a part of these games. You don't want to be a part of them, but we have been, and you just have to take it in stride and do what you can to win the game. Defensively we still have a lot to work on. We've given up 90 points in the past two weeks. That's just not good enough. Especially with the way our offense is playing right now. We have to get off the field and get them the ball. That's critical to the season and how successful we're going to be."
Minnesota Post-Game Quotes
Minnesota Head Coach Tim Brewster
Opening statement...
"This is hard. It is hard to think about where to start, but let me just say this: when you pour your heart and soul into something like we do, like our kids do, like our staff does, we pour our heart and our soul into this effort and to come out short at the end of it, I can't even tell you how bad it hurts. It is just absolutely gut-wrenching. I told our football team that I am proud of their effort. As was the case this season, we haven't always played well but we play with tremendous heart. My conviction to fixing this is unbelievably strong. We're going to win games like this sooner than later, more often than not. That's just a tremendous resolve that I have. It's a tough game to deal with, but we'll learn from it and grow from it and we'll go right out next week and play North Dakota State."
On going for the two-point conversion at the end of the game...
"My team deserved to win. My football team, our football team deserved to win and that's why I went for two. I felt 100 percent that we'd get the two. We had a good play called. Northwestern did a nice job in defense of the play, but Adam [Weber] was on the edge and had a number of different options, throwing, running. But without question, I'd do it again, tonight, tomorrow, the next day."
On the most disappointing aspect of the game...
"I thought our defense was really trying to play extremely well and really do some good things. And then we didn't help them on offense. We turned the ball back over with an interception after they got a turnover. When our defense gets a turnover like that, we've got to be able to help them. We've got to be able to pick them up, lift them up on offense. So that was disappointing to me. It's about slamming the door. It's about shutting the door. The most dangerous animal is a wounded animal. We've got to continue to learn to finish the job and that's a process that we're going through."
On the two missed third-down opportunities following the Northwestern interception...
"Execution in critical situations. The center thought he heard something that he didn't hear on the mishandled snap. Errors are part of the game. Obviously you'd like to eliminate them and not have them happen, particularly in those critical situations. But as long as humans are playing the game, there're going to be mistakes. A young, true freshman receiver in that situation, he should have stayed flat on the route and he turned it up. That's a mistake that a lot of guys will make."
On Minnesota's inconsistency during the game and losing the lead...
"You've got to have a killer instinct. We've got to have a killer instinct on both sides of the ball and just to play 60 minutes and to finish. That's what we talk about. Execution in critical situations, just making one play, that's all we need. There are four or five defining plays in a game. We had opportunities to make those plays and we've got to be able to make those plays."
Minnesota Player Quotes
Adam Weber
On two-point conversion attempt...
"It was a little crossing pattern. They actually ran the same play against us for their fourth down (conversion). It was our guys against their guys this afternoon and they made a play and we lacked execution. You are looking for it quick, but with that rolling out you have a double option to run it or throw it and Northwestern did a good job defending it. We were going to have to go for two in the next overtime anyway, and we had a good play. Nine out of 10 times, we make that play, and it shows our coach's confidence in us to run plays like that."
Dominique Barber
On the loss... "This one definitely hurts. We played so hard, so long. Give a lot of credit to Northwestern. They battled for 60 minutes and then into extra time. We just couldn't pull it off."
On Northwestern making fourth- down conversions... "The game comes down to who makes more plays, and they definitely made more plays. We had opportunities to make more plays, and we couldn't do it and I give my hat off to Northwestern."
On where Minnesota goes from here... "We have got to continue to keep going at it. We are fine, we still have five more games to go and yeah we're 1-6, but we still have a chance to go to a bowl game. We just have to win out. We have a great team here. We just have to keep plugging away."
