Northwestern University Athletics
Northeastern vs Northwestern -- Postgame Quotes
9/1/2007 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 1, 2007
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Northwestern Football
Northwestern 27, Northeastern 0
September 1, 2007
Northwestern Postgame quotes
Head Coach Fitzgerald
On today's game...
"It's great to start the season with a victory. I had two goals going into today: obviously number one was to win the football game and number two was to stay healthy. We accomplished both of those goals and based on today's performance, I'm very excited to get back on the football field to practice on Tuesday. We've got a lot of room for improvement. I saw some improvement from when we played Illinois (in the final game of 2006), but we've still got a few things to improve for when we play Nevada next week."
On the defensive effort...
"Obviously to have our first shutout in 10 years is a great feeling. It's great to see a big goose egg on the board, but we have a lot of respect for Northeastern. They came in here and made some adjustments early from what we saw last year from them on tape and made us adjust accordingly in the first half."
On the difference between last year's team and this season's...
"As I look at where we're at right now, I think we're a team that's grown a lot over the off-season. I think we're a team that's made improvements, but I think most teams make their biggest improvements between weeks one and two and it's important for us to do that this week."
On the offensive line...
"We're a completely different football team from one year ago. I'm very proud of our offensive line. We rolled a lot of guys through and we'll go back and watch the tape, but our protection was really good."
LB Adam Kadela
On the defensive performance...
"We're happy about the shutout. Whenever you can shut anyone out, especially in Division I, it's a great thing. But if you look at the stats, I don't think we had any sacks or turnovers. We pride ourselves on being able to take the ball away and give it back to our offense and unfortunately we didn't do that today."
On the team's overall game...
"I think we played very well defensively. Our offense picked up 27 points, that's another good thing. It was awesome to be able to wait for eight-minute drives. As a defense we were very well rested. We played pretty efficiently, but we still have a lot of room for improvement."
On preparation...
"For the most part, our coaches did a very good job preparing us as a defense. We knew what they liked to do and they did that."
On the defensive scheme...
"We ran a very basic defense today. You don't want to show the other teams what you do and we've still got a lot in the bag."
On Sherrick McManis ...
"Everyone on the team recognizes Sherrick's ability. He's a special, special player and the great thing about him is that he is only a true sophomore, so the sky's the limit."
CB Sherrick McManis
On the speed in the Big Ten...
"It's pretty fast to go out there and play Big Ten football, but our coaches do a great job making practice a lot faster to help prepare us for the games."
On the team defense...
"I am fearless. I think our whole defense is fearless. There's nothing for us to be scared of, especially with how well we prepared for this game and prepare for any game."
On not being recruited highly out of high school...
"Everything happened for a reason. Not being recruited highly out of high school, I'm not mad about that at all, because I was led to Northwestern and this is where I want to be."
On the defense's performance...
"I think we performed very well out there. We did get a shutout without sacks or turnovers, so that's what our defense will be anxious to get to next game. It's something to look forward to."
DL John Gill
On the game...
"We really wanted to go out there and prove to the country that we're the real deal and I think we did that today. It was exciting to get the shutout. They're a good team and we prepared for them like every other team and we were fortunate enough to come out on top. It was really exciting."
On what is needed to improve...
"We didn't get the production we wanted to. I thought we played well when it came to our assignments, but we didn't get the sacks, turnovers or tackles we wanted to. We really want to pick that up and get better and better as the season progresses, but we're happy with where we are. I think we have a lot of potential. We're really excited for the next game."
On the team defensive performance...
"Overall, I think we were effective in stopping the run. The linebackers played great. Even though the defensive line didn't have that much production, I thought we did a great job containing the running back. It doesn't matter who makes the play."
Northeastern Quotes
Head coach Rocky Hager
Opening statement
"First off, Northwestern in and of themselves created some situations for us that made the finishing of some tasks difficult. We continued, I think, three of their scoring drives via penalty. When you're playing a team that has a bit of an advantage over you with number of scholarships and that kind of thing, you can't give away that kind of stuff. We put ourselves into a bind. We had a couple of players that had some missed assignments on the offensive side which prevented some drives from getting up the field as far as we'd like. Our first drive, we actually had things going very nicely, and a new look that we didn't react to quite the way we'd like to, left us in a situation where the Wildcats were able to make a play and we weren't able to keep them from making it. In my assessment, we played hard, didn't have as many thoroughbreds in the stable as maybe what they had and maybe got a little worn out. We played some things pretty well and they were some good lessons for us. We had an awful lot of young guys play this afternoon. There were times when we had as many as five freshmen on the field at one time. Now not all of those are true freshmen, but a freshman is still a freshman, haven't been on a game field before and made some good progress. These gentlemen played pretty hard. I'm pleased with how they've been able to step forward and lead and know that we'll all take responsibility for the things that didn't come out the way we'd like them to, get them fixed, and then head into conference play this coming Saturday against Richmond."
On the number of personal fouls committed by the team ...
"I will say that I believe that's part of the difficulty with scholarship reduction where you aren't going to hit that much. Therefore, the timing for the big collisions isn't as well practiced as it used to be. I remember when we only had 29 practices, two-a-days for two-straight weeks and you hit like crazy in every afternoon's practice. We hit twice all fall camp because we cannot take the risk of the injury factor that comes along. When we hit, we beat the heck out of one another. Of all that said, I would rather not be upset about aggressive penalties. We've got to do some coaching and some things to help us get a better feel for how some of those place themselves together. The one that was overthrown and we came up and smacked the receiver, we've got to have better judgment than that. But that may be one of the results of not having enough real live plays on the practice field. I'll take responsibility for that and we'll have to find ways to create that and get that improved."
On three long drives and the failed field goal attempts...
"Well, the pass toward the corner is something that some of the time we're going to get that one. I have great faith in our kicker and I think that Mat (Johnson) will succeed in those kinds of situations. You have to remember that where we practice, we're on artificial surface and kicking off the grass may have been a factor for us. We are going to have to figure something out to try to practice more on real grass with a little more depth than what we've had in our camp situation. So it's not quite the same for us. I think Mat will come out of that. It was frustrating. These guys will tell you it felt like we were definitely in the ball game, but we had nothing to show for it. That is not an easy thing to always overcome. I would say that we hung in there pretty well with our attitude about how hard we played and I would not even get close to saying that we threw the towel in. That was not the case. We still went out and hit and played hard."
Northeastern Player Quotes
QB Anthony Orio
On switching off at quarterback...
"I thought when I was in there, we had a few good drives but third down efficiency probably killed us. We need to make plays on third down. We just weren't able to. I think that just hurt us. I think it would have been a big boost if we had scored some points in that first drive and we weren't able to."
TB Maurice Murray
On the difficulty in being the focal point of the offense...
"I think they just came out there and played hard. I think the defense had a great scheme. Their defensive line had a great game. It was just a hard fought game."
OLB A. J. Little
On Tyrell Sutton...
"He's a shifty player, but we went out there and we played hard. We can't take anything away from him. They had nice blocking schemes. We tried to play as hard as we could."
