Northwestern University Athletics
Post-Game Quotes
10/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 10, 2009
Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement...
"Well thanks everybody for being here. Great to find a way to get a win, and I thought our defense really stepped up and carried over the momentum from a week ago in West Lafayette in the second half and played very well throughout the entire course of the game outside the last minute. Offensively, we need to improve in a lot of areas. Number one, we have to run the football better, and that's by playing as one heartbeat up front. When we do that, we give ourselves a chance to execute, and truly have a dual threat offense. Right now that's not happening, so we have a lot of work to do in that area, and we'll get to work right away as we take a look at the video and give our guys a plan moving forward into this week. In the kicking game, outside of the high snap, I think we've started to hit our stride, and we just need to keep that momentum moving forward. I'm very pleased right now to be where we're at. I'm not pleased with the way we're playing, but we can fix that. To get our fourth win, and to put ourselves in a position to make this season significant is what you'd hope to have, but we can definitely play better. The challenge is going to be dramatic this week."
On getting a win on President Schapiro's inauguration weekend...
"It was a very special weekend for President Schapiro and I was able to take part in a lot of the festivities on Thursday, which was a tremendous honor for me. It was extremely humbling, and we are excited to have him as part of our family. It is great to get him a win. It was amazing last week, we were on the field at practice, and President Schapiro was right down there with us. That just shows you his support and his belief in athletics and his support of the football program, and we are very, very thankful for that."
On the performance of the running game...
"I just want to run the ball. Obviously, we did not have the success that we were hoping to have today. It is simple, it is the plays we are calling that aren't working in the situations, it's the execution of the fundamentals and technique, and/or we've got the wrong guy in there trying to do it. It is a combination of those three things and it is a 12-person operation. It's the coaches, the young men in the locker room, and all of us getting together to make sure we solve the problem the right way. When we do that, and we trust each other, we'll be fine. That's what it comes down to, trusting the call, trusting the plan, trusting yourself, and then trusting your technique. When we do that, we are good, we've proven that we can be."
On pleasant surprises for the first half of the season...
"I've really liked the way we've stuck together as a football team. It has not been perfect in any way, shape, or form in any of our games yet; they've all been kind of a unique entity. We've stuck to what we value, and we work hard each week to get better and improve. Guys have had a great attitude, getting to watch film with their coaches on Monday mornings, trying to do something about it from Tuesday through Thursday, and then traveling the right way to do a business trip and playing hard. Collectively, I think, we are improving as a program. We are nowhere near where we need to be, and hopefully we just continue to get better.
Player Quotes
Defensive End Vince Browne
On differences from this game to last...
"I don't know if there's anything different. We're just focusing to improve each week. The defensive staff came up with a good plan and we came out and we executed it."
Coaching staff intensity...
"We just need to keep improving. They had good reasons to be intense. We haven't played to our potential yet and we still aren't. We're just looking to go out and get better and maximize our potential as much as we can. It was a pretty intense week I would say."
On the defense's potential...
"The sky is the limit. We lost very few players from last year. There's no reason why we shouldn't be even better than last year. How much better? I don't know. I think the sky is the limit."
Safety Brian Peters
On third-down defense...
"I believe we covered pretty well. Our pass rush was able to get to them seven times. When the rush doesn't get to (the quarterback) and we can cover pretty well it's a deadly thing."
On his interception...
"Every time I get the ball I'm thinking touchdown. But I'm also thinking hold on to it so our offense can take over. I had one receiver to beat then got tackled from behind, you win some, and you lose some."
On the overall play of the secondary...
"We played well. We had three picks and two came from the secondary. We can always improve on tackling. I believe we played pretty well. There's always room for improvement, especially with eye control and communicating within the defense. We played pretty physical today. We still have a lot of room for improvement."
Running Back Jacob Schmidt
On why the running game was limited...
"It's an 11-man operation, every play. Sometimes there's a hole there sometimes there's not. I think we ran hard when the ball was in our hands. We ran to the best of our ability and sometimes it doesn't go your way."
On his diving catch...
"I was glad I caught it and at the same time I was a little ticked off I didn't get in the end zone. It was a good play, it set up our offense to get a touchdown a couple plays later. It was a big momentum play later."
Quarterback Mike Kafka
On his completion stats...
"I think a lot of those incompletions were throwaways. Sometimes you've just got to get out of the pocket and do some things and throw the ball away. We've got to take care of the football. We threw one pick and that kind of hurt us. We just wanted to execute our offense, obviously we didn't do that to the best of our ability, but we did get the win. We still have a lot to improve on."
On plays in the red zone...
"We just executed a little better and got the scores we needed. I don't think we did anything different."
On where the team is right now...
"I think we're in the right place, coming off a win. We're not going to really focus on other distractions. We're going to go in and watch the films and get better this week. We look forward to playing Michigan State."
On the intensity of the coaching staff...
"It's the middle of the season. We've got to pick it up a notch. Going through six games we need to raise our level of play to be even better. I think the coaches are doing a great job. As players we need to take it up another notch. Whatever kind of intensity they bring we need to bring it up and that's on us as a team and as the leaders of that team."
Miami University Head Coach Mike Haywood
On the play of his defense...
"I think the defense played a pretty good game overall. I think that the defense is consistently getting better at other things that we wanted to do, which was stop the run. I think they did a pretty good job at stopping the run. I think that the other things we did on defense caused a real big problem for those guys. One of the things that we have to do when it is second and long and third and long is to apply pressure. We have to do a better job of cutting defenders as they cross the field, and if we are in man coverage and a guy goes underneath we have to do a better job of jumping the underneath route."
On Northwestern's defense...
"I definitely feel like it is one that we let get away. But I have to compliment Pat as a coach because he did a tremendous job getting his guys ready. He did the things which he had to do. Defensively, I think that they played a "bend but don't break" defense and created some turnovers. I think the way that they played provided them with an opportunity to win and they executed the plan in which they had to do to win."
On quarterback pressure...
"I think that (Zac Dysert) was harassed for a number of reasons. Sometimes we will always say that it is the offensive line, but I think that it is a combination of a number of things. If we call a quick passing game and the wide receiver doesn't get off the line, that is not on the offensive line, that is not on the quarterback, but he ends up getting a sack because of the three-step drop. He has to come back to the other side of the field and that is not what it is designed for and you cannot really do that on a three step drop. The only thing you can do is throw it way. At the same time we called some max things early and were not able to protect, the tight end got beat one time, and wide receivers got free; however, we did not protect long enough to deliver the football. The thing that we have to learn is that we have to read the coverage, and after we read the coverage we have to deliver the ball to the area of the concept that it is supposed to go to and if it is not there we are going to scramble and throw the ball away."
Miami Player Quotes
QB Zac Dysert
On the last drive of the game...
"I don't really know if there was something that drive that was working more than all the other drives. We just took care of the ball there. We knew the coverage that they were in and that they were going to jump that out route. They were doing it the whole game and we only called it a couple of times. So I figured we'd take a shot and see what happens."
On Northwestern's defensive line...
"They had some good guys up on the D-line. I give credit to them. They were a good defensive line, probably the best that we've seen so far. One of the best."
SS Jordan Gafford
On the play of the defense...
"I do think that every week, the defense is making strides to be a better unit. With as many young guys on the defensive side of the ball as we have, you're going to get better every week. We know that some weeks, the offense is going to be scoring points and it's going to be one of those offensive battles. Some weeks, it's a defensive battle. That's kind of what it was today and so the defense had to answer that call. I'm proud of how the guys played."
On the defensive game plan against Northwestern...
"I think we had a really good game plan for them. We have some great coaches on defense. I think they put together a great game plan and got us in some really good situations to be successful."
On stopping Northwestern's run game...
"We were going to make them throw the ball to beat us. Our objective was to not let them run. I think, for the most part, we did that pretty well. And I think a lot of that, like I said, was due to the game plan we had this week."
