Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
11/13/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Nov. 13, 2010
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No. 13/13 IOWA at NORTHWESTERN
Northwestern 21, Iowa 17
Ryan Field
Nov. 13, 2010
Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald Quotes
Opening Statement...
"I could not be more proud or pleased of our senior class. They will now be tied with last year's class as the winningest class in program history during the modern era. What a special day for them. They've earned it and they deserve it. We lift up this game to them and to all the seniors that have been here before us. It's been a long road for us to build a consistent winner, and to get to number seven gets us into postseason play, so we move forward from there. We had some great inspiration this week. Eric Wenzel was honored at the beginning of the game, he's battled through cancer three-straight times. Six months ago he was told that he wouldn't be able to walk and he wouldn't live, and he didn't take no for an answer. He was with us this weekend and was incredibly inspirational to our football program.
I want to say thank you to him and his family for being here, and also to (retiring equipment manager) Mr. (Bill) Jarvis for 35 years of dedication. Imagine washing football players' clothes for 35 straight years; just unbelievable. So, it was a great program win. I'd like to give Kirk [Ferentz] and his staff credit, it was a hard-fought battle, but we found a way to win. That's what good football teams do. Before we get to questions, I've got an update on Danny [Persa].
Unfortunately he ruptured his Achilles, so he'll have surgery tonight, and be out for the remainder of the season. I'll have updates on Monday. The year that Danny's had has been absolutely spectacular. He's a warrior and this will pass. Unfortunately, I went through a similar deal back in 1995. This guy named Donnie Holmes had his opportunity; 'Big D' stepped up and led us to Pasadena. I don't know if that is going to happen for us this year, but I know Evan [Watkins] is prepared. Someone's unfortunate situation becomes another man's opportunity. All you can do is be prepared for it, and he will be."
On the turning point of the game as well as the Wildcats' performance in close games...
"Well, I think the interception by Brian [Peters] was big. I thought we regained momentum. It's funny, because on the boundary-when it's a one-score game-we feel like we're going to win all those games. The guys are saying ''Cat-time.' It's just an attitude about our program in close games, we find a way to win. I prefer not to make it close, but it is what it is."
On Equipment Manager Bill Jarvis...
"You know, we've had so many distinguished young men come back to the program this year. This week, with Eric [Wenzel] and his group right before me. Eric played in '88, '89 and '90. We've had some special honorary captains, with Coach Parseghian and his group. There has been one common theme that went through every player that has been a part of this program and that has been 'Mr. J.' He has been the glue that has kept everything together and for this to be the last game for him at Ryan Field was really special. Our relationship began when I was very annoying as a freshman and I became more annoying as my career went along. I think I'm a pain in his hind parts right now, but he spoils us rotten. He takes care of our players; he looks at them like they are his children. He spoils us as coaches at a level that I cannot even put into words. It's been special. We have a couple more opportunities with him so we are going to enjoy it."
On the next game versus Illinois...
"This is a big game for us. We have an opportunity to play in a historic arena against our rival, you couldn't ask for a better opportunity. Now, all we can do is prepare for it consistently and that will be our focus this week. These games have been phenomenal the last few years and back when I was a player as well. You can throw the records out. When I was playing, my first two years, they were having success and the games were dogfights. Then the two years we won the back-to-back championships they were dogfights as well. It has been that way ever since. It should be a great game and a great atmosphere."
On Evan Watkins' opportunity...
"I know one guy that probably won't sleep tonight, and that's Evan. I've got a feeling the first guy I'll see tomorrow morning will be Evan. I've got a feeling the guy I'll see the most this week will be Evan. It's a Chicago kid getting his first start in Wrigley Field against our in-state rival and I don't know if you could script a better opportunity for a young player. Again, it's under difficult circumstances without a doubt. You never want to see that happen, but it'll be a good opportunity."
Northwestern Player Quotes
Superback Drake Dunsmore
On breaking out of and learning from a slump between scores...
"It was a lot more positive this week on the sidelines. When that happens, it's really important to learn from what happened but forget about it at the same time-don't dwell on three-and-outs. I think we did a much better job of that today."
On Dan Persa's injury after the last touchdown pass to Demetrius Fields...
"It was definitely bittersweet seeing him on the ground after the touchdown. I got to talk to him for a little bit. Dan is really positive, he's a leader at heart and he's not going to show any negative emotion in front of the guys. He's ready to go for next week whether his role is to be on the field or off the field."
On preparing for the Illinois game at Wrigley Field...
"We need to practice like we did last week. We're coming off of a nice win but we need to forget about it just like coming off of a loss. We have to come back ready to go."
Linebacker Nate Williams
On keeping the faith in light of recent losses...
"We definitely kept the faith; we kept the pedal down. The second half took the wind out of us but we recuperated and really responded well. We struggled with that the past few games and we were really focused on finishing this and it was good to see that pay off."
On the positive change in momentum this week...
"I thought the leadership on the team stood out from the defensive standpoint-myself, Corbin [Bryant], Q [Quentin Davie] and a lot of seniors on the defense really got the guys going on the sidelines and tried to get a lot of emotion and energy. When a couple of things didn't go our way we responded really well. We tried to get some guys up on the offense, too. Sometimes guys would come off and their heads were down and I even squirted water in some of the guys on the d-line's [defensive line] faces. I don't think they liked that too much."
On heightened emotions on Senior Day...
"I don't really think guys should play for seniors. I personally think you should play for the team and I thought we did a great job of that."
Safety Brian Peters
On recovering from last week's loss...
"We weren't happy about it. We worked on responding so that nothing would beat us twice. We focused on tackling and reading our keys and executing. We did it today for four quarters and we were successful. We had a great game plan and we did our job."
On the team's morale...
"It's just about having fun, playing the game and not making it a job, which it can be sometimes because the season becomes a grind. We have a great group of guys who like to have fun while playing the game. If we can execute well while doing that, we'll be a heard team to beat."
On Dan Persa's injury and implications for the Wrigley game...
"I have all the confidence in Evan Watkins, I've defended against him. He's a good quarterback. I don't think it's going to have too many implications. Dan is a warrior but someone has to pick up the flag. We're competing regardless and we'll try and duplicate this next week - execute, tackle, be physical, play together. Just because one guy goes down doesn't mean that the season goes down as well."
Wide Receiver Demetrius Fields
On Northwestern's game-winning touchdown...
"I don't know what happened, I just saw the ball and I caught it. I don't remember what I did on the play. I remember the ball up in the air and then going to get it. A game-winning catch is a game-winning catch. The way the season has been going just all came to a head with this game and I hope I can continue on with it."
On Evan Watkins...
"Evan is a talented physical specimen. He has a really strong arm and he might be able to see a few things that Dan wouldn't be able to see. I'm interested and excited to play with him. The offense is getting to a point where we can plug people in and we have a lot of players who can make plays and I'm confident in Evan as well."
Iowa Coach Quotes
Head Coach Kirk Ferentz
Opening Statement...
"Obviously that was a tough loss for our football team, and we congratulate Northwestern, who played a great game, and did a great job coming up with the plays they needed to make to take over in the fourth quarter. We'll give them credit; it's a tough loss for us and we'll go back to work and see what we can do about bouncing back next week."
On the wind's factor on the game's performance and pass play decisions...
"I didn't think it was huge. If we had had to kick a field goal in that fourth quarter that might have been a little tough; I think it would have affected that. But I don't think the throwing game was overly affected. It was a little easier to throw the ball deep, obviously in that third quarter. But overall, I don't think it was a huge factor. Not like Illinois a couple of years ago."
On the defense wearing down in the fourth quarter...
"The way [Northwestern] plays, it's tough. A lot of short passes and quarterback [Dan Persa] is a tremendous player. He's very dangerous and will hurt you in a lot of different ways. There were a lot of plays with sideline-to-sideline type action, and that's hard on everybody, it's hard to chase a quarterback around like that. He's extremely elusive and very, very tough."
On playing Northwestern in the last few years...
"If you look at the last two games going backwards, we turned it over and they didn't. Today, they just outplayed us. It was a good game, both teams played hard, and they're a good football team. I said that earlier in the week. If you look at [Northwestern's] seasons from the past two years, they've had two good football teams. They've played extremely well against us, they played well against Missouri in a bowl game, they played well last year against Auburn. They're well coached and they've got good players who make the plays you need to make. Two 7-3 teams today, and they were the better team today, that's for sure."
On the momentum change after an interception in the fourth quarter...
"You know, it's ironic, because that's the first time we'd ever had decent field position today. Not only did we not come out with points, but we ended up turning it over. You don't want to turn the football over, but if you're going to do it, you'd rather do it on a play like that. More importantly, they came back and did a great job offensively, and two things. We didn't come out with points-you like to convert turnovers into points, we've done a pretty good job of that this year, but not today. And, you'd like to contain [Northwestern] a little better. But, credit goes to them. They did a great job in both of those drives."
On his team's performance on third downs...
"It's [frustrating]. Usually, that gets you. Third-down production and red zone production, we struggled there last week. Those two things, they're tough to overcome sometimes."
On his team's second-half performance...
"Offensively, we looked pretty good in the second half. We developed a rhythm, something we didn't do off the bat in the first two possessions of the game. There were two penalties, a penalty in each drive, and a negative yardage play in the third drive. So, we were making it hard on ourselves, and credit to [Northwestern]. They were playing good defense. But we were making it hard on ourselves, and in the second half, we did a little bit of a better job with that. Again, disappointing, we got the turnover and we couldn't make something out of it."
On his defense not coming up with a big stop...
"That's something you hope to do, all the time. They came out, and took the ball and drove it and they've been doing that all year. They drove it right down for a touchdown. I thought we settled down and played good defense after that. It seemed like we had caught up to their tempo. But then they got it back in that fourth quarter. It's tough when you can't get off the field. You've got to credit their whole team. They're very well coached, they've got good players. [Dan Persa], he's playing as well as anybody in the conference I would imagine. From what I've seen, he's a tremendous football player. He was coming in, and our opinion of him is even stronger now. He's a tremendous player."
Iowa Player Quotes
QB Ricky Stanzi
On the cause of the loss...
"We lost because I threw a stupid interception, and they switched the momentum. I didn't see the right guy."
On the season overall...
"The Big Ten race, obviously we're out of that. I don't know. We've just got to go on to the next game."
On the sense in the locker room...
"We lost. It's the same feeling after losing any other game. You don't want to lose, you want to win."
On Northwestern's defense...
"They were playing a prevent, so it's tough to hit certain things. Had I waited a little longer on some of those routes they probably would've been open. But I kind of rushed it. There were some tough spots that we had to try and fit the ball into, and they did a good job of defending. Hats off to them."
On the wind during the game today (no team scored against the wind)...
"I don't think that played a factor, to be honest. It was a mild wind."
WR Marvin McNutt
On watching consecutive 85- and 91-yard drives given up by the defense...
"We just had every bit of confidence in our defense, as we normally would."
On what got away from the team today...
"We just didn't make plays like we needed to. Us as receivers, we're obviously going to put it on ourselves."
