Northwestern University Athletics
Post-game Quotes
9/5/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 5, 2009
Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement... "We came out ready to play, our guys had good focus and we started the way that we wanted to. The turnover, not responding properly, the penalties, those are things we can definitely correct, those things that are in our control. I thought Towson took advantage of some areas in which we didn't play very well when they came out in the sudden change and scored the touchdown. The start of the second half was extremely disappointing as well. We talked about putting a drive together, then we get a three-and-out and they come right back down and score the next series. Credit goes to Towson, Rob is going to do a tremendous job there. He's got a tremendous coaching staff and you can see that that team has definitely improved from what we saw on video last year. For us, we'll put our focus on internally and really go to work. We'll look at the film critically tonight and tomorrow, we'll meet the guys on Monday morning, and I fully expect for us to have our best week of practice here in the next couple of days."
On some of his young players getting on the field... "You're going to see us play a lot of guys. We're as competitively deep as we've ever been, and when you've got that kind of competition the best way to motivate guys is to give them an opportunity to play. Through what we'll learn over the weekend, we'll set our line up accordingly going into next week. And that's a great position to be in as a coach, where you've got competition every day on the practice field to earn a role. Our guy's attitude was great in the locker room, we're excited with the win. It was great to see our fans come out, we had a great group of students there today."
On Andrew Brewer... "He's had a great camp. We moved Brew from the inside to the outside in the off-season, and he's really gravitated to the position well. He runs well, he's a big target and we're not surprised at all on our end. We talk about that no-name receiving corp, now we have Brewer. So that's one."
On quarterback Mike Kafka's ability to throw the ball... "Maybe it's the best kept secret in the Big Ten Conference. I said at the Big Ten kick-off luncheon that Mike throws the ball better than anybody gives him credit for. When he plays within the system and stays within himself, he's as dynamic of a dual threat quarterback as there is in the country. He took what the defense gave him today and he played well."
On defensive end Corey Wootton... "It's great to have him out there in a full game setting. We had him in a controlled environment basically all through camp, so this was his first opportunity to be out there and get some live work. It takes a good couple weeks to get your injury resolved in your own head. I thought Corey played fast today, I thought he did well. I thought all through camp he looked ahead of schedule. He's going to continue to improve, and I expect him to have a big year this year."
On what he learned about his running backs today... "That we're deep. That we have a good stable of guys that we can roll in there in order to stay fresh. They all have different strengths, and I thought Matt MacPherson and Mick McCall are doing a good job trying to utilize what they do well and play to their strengths."
On sportsmanship in football and the incident at Boise State... "I believe, based on the initiative that Grant Taft and the American Football Coaches Association set out for this weekend, to have a ceremonial sportsmanship handshake before the game, shows the initiative we're trying to have as a coaching body. Obviously that young man (at Oregon) made a poor choice, and he's going to pay dearly. I look at it from what I've seen; I think there's a crowd control problem in college football. I'd like to see that fixed in college football, so that our players can get off the field in a safe manner and the coaches can as well after ball games. There is no need for [the punch] in our game, there was no need for the initiation of the contact either that enacted the swing. We talked as a staff before the game and used that as a teaching moment. I also heard there were some coaches that decided not to do the ceremonial handshake today, and to me that's extremely disappointing for our profession. We're entrusted to be the stewards of the game as coaches. I applaud Chip Kelly for the statement that he's making, because it's unacceptable and it does not belong in our game."
On whether running back Arby Fields reminded him of former running back Tyrell Sutton... "No, no. Those guys are two totally different guys that are just wearing the same jersey number. Feel free to make Arby feel upset and call him Tyrell Sutton. I'd appreciate it if all of you did that repeatedly."
On what the team can improve upon... "In the kicking game, avoiding penalties and executing better. On offense, from going out and not setting ourselves up behind the chains, and executing some of our concepts a little better. On defense, our sudden change, our ability to go out and put the fire out. We had one opportunity to do that today and we didn't get that done. We need to pull the ball out more, get more turnovers and get more sacks. Towson did a great job and didn't let us rush the passer today. Last, and probably most importantly, we need to have more energy and more passion on the sideline. I'll take care of that come Monday morning."
Northwestern Players
Senior wide receiver Andrew Brewer
On his 72-yard touchdown reception... "It's been a while for me. I've been waiting for this for a couple of years now since I moved to receiver (from quarterback) to get my first receiving touchdown. I had a couple rushing the ball as a quarterback, but praise God I'm excited to get out and actually play and get in the end zone for the first time."
On being able to able to spread the ball around to a number of offensive weapons... "They did well. It's always exciting to spread the ball around on offense. I heard eight different guys caught the ball. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's great for our offense to be able to distribute the ball to a lot of different guys. Young guys like Demetrius Fields got in and got some catches and some guys who are a little bit older but their first time out like Sid Stewart and Zeke Markshausen made some great plays today."
Senior safety Brendan Smith
On facing an FCS opponent... "Every opponent is going to challenge us. We have to come prepared, whether it's a Championship Subdivision team or the Rose Bowl. It really doesn't matter. We have to come out and play our game. The offense did a great job and the defense has to pick it up."
On the importance of getting the game off to a good start... "It was very important. Just playing our offense in (training) camp, I was expecting to see this and I was really happy with the things they did. Anytime we pressured them, they did that to us. When you prepare for that in camp and you stick to the fundamentals and basics, it shows what the offense can do. It shows what the defense can do when we were consistent and we were all on the same page."
On keeping focus with a large lead... "Whether we're up or down, we have to pretend it's 0-0 so that we can always keep that focus. You never know what's going to happen. I was on the field when Michigan State came back. We have to be able to keep it going no matter what and not focus on the scoreboard. When it comes to next week, we can't focus on the fact that we won this week. We have to take it one game at a time and one play at a time and try to go 1-0 each time."
Senior quarterback Mike Kafka
On the team's performance... "We need to get better. There are some things that we left out there that offensively, protection-wise, that we need to get fixed up, and we will. It was a good learning day and we're all excited to get back after it next week and learn and just keep on gaining momentum."
On the play of the running backs... "I think it's great. It puts the defense in a bind. We've got fresh guys coming in that can run the ball real hard and real well. That rotation that we've got is pretty good. I think we'll continue to use that as much as we can to our advantage. If we can have fresh legs out there every play, it's going to be tough for a defense, especially with our tempo, to keep up."
On how much of the playbook the offense used today... "Not very much. We were pretty base, but that was good to go out there and run our base plays and go against some coverages and some stuff that we've been practicing against and just show our frontline stuff to go out and build on for next week."
Freshman running back Arby Fields
On playing in his first collegiate game... "In the beginning, I was a little nervous. I was ready to go out there and just play football. I think that helped me to go out there and just do what I do best and just have fun. Mike (Kafka) sat me down before the game and said, 'Arby, you don't need to do anything spectacular. Just do what you do and you'll be fine.' I took his advice and that's what I did."
On the play of the running backs... "Coach Mac (running backs coach Matt MacPherson) says that we have great depth in the running back room and we all bring something different to the table. We can all help this team in different ways. With the rotation we have now, for Scott and myself, it was the first time for both of us being in the arena running the ball, it was exciting. Steph (Simmons), Jacob (Schmidt), myself and Scott were all cheering each other on. We all want each other to do well."
Towson Head Coach Rob Ambrose
Opening Statement "Northwestern is a hell of a football team. That's my opening statement. While our players know that they are a heck of a team, they also got their true test of what a top-20 team is in one of the best conferences in the country. While the numbers on the board don't exactly look great, I just left a locker room where the eyes and the hearts really do. I know what I was told when I took the job of who, supposedly, I inherited. And you cannot evaluate that group until they play a game for 60 minutes. But I was told that the group that I inherited had not played a game for 60 minutes for quite some time. I'm not going to say that they played their hearts out for 60 minutes. They played hard, but they played hard for a lot longer and they are more proud of themselves than they were a year ago. So I have to take solace in that. As far as some of the mistakes we made, I don't make any evaluations until after I see the film. But I asked one of the coaches, just for fun before we got here, how many of these first year players, guys that have not played on the team, we planned on playing today. And the number was 11. We played 11 guys. As a matter of fact, the last kickoff return had three freshmen in the deep end. Now I know I'm going to get busted for this because I said I didn't like to play freshmen and I wanted to redshirt as many as humanly possible. But when I analyzed the class and the staff analyzed the class versus the guys, some of the guys we have, they are extremely talented, so much so that while I would like to redshirt them, it's just not possible for our future success. On a personal note, I would like to wish the best to Northwestern and the city of Chicago and to Pat Fitzgerald, all the best. It's a class act. It's a class school. I got a chance to meet the athletics director and the president. There's a reason why this place is so fond in my heart. Baltimore's still my town, but the place where you were born means a lot. The ghost of my grandfather was here today. He's proud of me and he's proud of my kids."
On the difficulty of playing for a full 60 minutes... "To come and play for 60 minutes is a very hard thing to do. Playing hard for 60 minutes with 11 players on the field is a difficult thing to accomplish. It sounds easy for people that sit in the stands, but when you're out there in the war it's really difficult. They played 30 minutes and they had to measure themselves against guys that were, or what they might have believed in their minds, were better. I said that we had guys that run 4.4 and you saw some of them today. We have guys that can bench 400 pounds and weigh 300. The difference is: they got every one of those guys across the line. After a while, it takes its toll. What's impressive about my guys is that in the second half, even though they were getting beat upon, they rose up. They responded on both offense and defense. I'm not pleased by any stretch of the imagination. This is not flowery commentary. After we watch the film, I will rip these guys up one side and down the other. We have a lot of work to do. But for the first time, these guys found some heart and I'm proud of them. We'll work from there."
On whether Peter Athens is the set starting quarterback... "No. If you're sitting in the stands, you saw Peter Athens do some really great things today. You saw him do some really bonehead things today. And that's what happens when you play a freshman. Tommy [Chroniger] got some reps and [Brian] Potts got some reps. If I had had another seven or eight minutes, both Tommy and Potts would have gotten some more time, but we were really working on getting Peter into a rhythm, which we found early in the second half so we stayed with that. He is not going to be the solidified starter unless I evaluate something off the film and we come up with an answer that just says he's done so well. My instincts say 'No, we're still a work in progress.'"
Towson Players
Towson DE Brady Smith
On the opportunity to play Northwestern... "For us at Towson, it was very exciting to play against a school like Northwestern because that's the type of school that we strive to be one day. The way they come and play every snap, they work hard. That's what the coaches challenged us to do this year. We need to play for 60 minutes."
On Northwestern's prospects for the season... "I think Northwestern is a great team. They play in a very competitive league. They're very tough up front. I can't make any predictions because I don't know anything about the other teams, but I think they're a great team. They returned a lot of starters and have a great coaching staff. They've got some players that can make some big time plays and I think they'll have a great season."
On the team's mentality during halftime and the rest of the game... "Myself personally, I looked at it just as a test. You start off the semester and you do badly, you have to make up the rest of the way. So in the second exam, you have to come out and study that much harder. We had to come out and fight hard and show that we weren't going to put our heads down. That's what we have to learn. We have to learn to play like that for the full game. I think there are signs of it. I didn't see anyone with their heads down. I didn't see anyone fighting with each other. We were picking each other up. We were excited to be out there and no one wanted to come off the field. We all wanted to be out there, playing the whole time."
