Northwestern University Athletics
Post Game Quotes
9/25/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Sept. 25, 2010
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Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement...
"First and foremost, to our student body, thank you very much. It was great to see the student section so loud in our first opportunity at home, I thought they were absolutely outstanding, and I can't thank them enough. Our guys were on campus on Thursday giving out t-shirts. We had two boxes full of them and thought we might give a few away and they were gone in about four seconds. Cannot say thank you enough to our students, it was great, and we're looking forward to them coming back in a couple weeks. To win another game the rest of the year we're going to have to execute a lot better, play with more focus and discipline, and when we do that I think we're a tough team to beat. But, if we play the way we did today we give a team-that I think is outstanding, Danny Enos is doing a great job; and that's a team that I think is going to compete and potentially win the MAC-we gave them an opportunity to hang around because of our inability to focus, play with discipline and make plays when they were presented. The good news is we found a way to win, and now me move forward-back to 0-0-and we start Big Ten play. We've got a huge challenge with, in my opinion, one of the best coached teams in the country with Tim Brewster and the Gophers."
On the substitution issues resulting in multiple penalties...
"Well, we're just trying to get personnel in, and if you call it by the letter of the law, if there's 12 guys on the field, it's a penalty. It's the right call, that's the rule."
On Dan Persa's interception...
"I'm glad it happened, so now you guys can stop asking me about him being perfect; pressure's off now. I wouldn't have liked it in the red zone, but he wasn't going to go the whole year without throwing one, it happens. He is the first one to know, he said, "the guy didn't bite on the fake, I shouldn't have thrown it." I like that he knew why it happened, and was able to do something about it. The more he gets experience, the more comfortable you see Danny, and the better he just continues to play and lead our offense. I'm proud of the way he's playing right now."
On Dan Persa's mobility and ability to create yardage with his legs...
"It looks like they had pretty good coverage, did some good things in the back half. That's fine, if they're going to do that and drop seven guys, then Danny is going to make you pay with his legs. Thought he made some pretty good decisions and choices. It's one thing for a quarterback to get caught up in the stuff we talked about earlier, and it's another for a quarterback to be a winner, and Danny is a winner. He's going to make good choices with the ball, he's going to be smart and he's not going to force things. A couple times he came over to the sideline and said, "I just didn't like the look." I like that answer-that shows some maturity and shows a guy not trying to win the game on his own. It's a young man just playing within the framework of the offense, and he is clearly more mature and wise with just four starts under his belt."
Northwestern Player Quotes
Defensive End Quentin Williams
On dropping back into zone coverage...
"We do a lot of dropping because we do a lot of blitzing, zone blitzing, things like that."
On his interception...
"I wasn't hiding, but it is part of the scheme where they don't expect a defensive lineman to be covering the flat."
On the mood in the locker room after the game...
"We're always satisfied with a win, like we always say, but we didn't play our best football-and we know that. Today was a good go, but we could have done a lot better."
On halftime adjustments...
"Our attitude definitely changed in the locker room before we came out in the second half. We were having trouble against the run. I really think we decided we were going to come out at halftime and pick it up. We've got to start a lot faster next week."
On responding to adversity during the game...
"Response is something we talk about every day. That's my value on the pyramid [NU's pyramid of team values]. When the bell rings, you got to answer it and I think we did a pretty good job today."
Dan Persa
On how tough it was to get into a rhythm with all the reviews and penalties...
"I think at first it was a little troubling just because we were hurting ourselves a little bit, but once we got going I think we put together a couple of pretty good drives."
On throwing his first interception...
"It wasn't good. I don't want to throw interceptions but I guess it was going to come sooner or later. It was a bad throw; a bad decision. As soon as I let it go, I knew it was going to be a pick."
On why most of the first-half offense came from the passing game...
"We were just throwing it around and having fun. That's when our offense was doing good things. I think we did a good job pitching and catching the ball, that's all it was."
On the victory...
"I think it's encouraging that we can beat a team as good as Central Michigan and still not play even close to our best football. So, I think that's encouraging but at the same time, it's troubling because we've got to get that going."
On beginning conference play next week...
"We're excited about it, but it doesn't really change much for us. We prepare the same way for every game regardless of who we're playing."
Central Michigan Head Coach Dan Enos
Opening Statement...
"I'd like to congratulate Coach Fitzgerald. I thought he did a good job. They out-executed us for the majority of the game and we're just kind of disappointed. We kind of had a lull there in the third quarter, when we didn't play very well and lost our composure a little bit, and they did a very good job, and the game got away. I'm very proud of the way we battled back, though. We felt we had a lot of chances to stay in the game and to take leads in the game but we weren't able to do it, partly because of what they did today. They've got a good football team, and their quarterback [Dan Persa] is a very good player. He made plays on third down the entire afternoon, he's tough, he's very accurate, and he's a good football player. He's very good. We definitely compliment them and what they did. I told the guys, there's nothing to be embarrassed about, coming in and losing 30-25 to a good team. They're undefeated, they're a good football team."
On his team's third-quarter performance...
"I think it was more that we didn't execute. [Northwestern] was really doing the same stuff that they did in the first half. They would probably tell you that they did it a little better, and we're going to tell you that we didn't execute. We came out, and we had a second-and-six in the first drive, and we had a cornerback open and we threw behind the guy a little bit. Then its third down and we don't get it, and then we felt that a couple of plays later, we had guys open and we got sacked. We felt like we had opened the box, we had people wide open down the field, and we just didn't have the chance. Again, you have to look at it from either side, we didn't execute. They're going to look at it, and say they did some things better."
On his team tiring late in the third quarter and giving NU momentum...
"Yeah, absolutely. And we didn't put them in a good position by allowing the quarter to get so long for them. We've got to do better than that, but again, in the fourth quarter, we thought we had really come back. It's like anything else, it's such a game of momentum, and they had it for the third quarter, but we felt like we got it back. And the first half, it just seemed like it was back-and-forth the entire afternoon but at the end of the day, that one quarter cost us."
On his team's kicking performance...
"I don't know; that's a good question. We're going to really have to evaluate that kicking game to see where we're going to be. We have to look at the tapes, but it looks like the kicks were real low regardless of the protection. And, you know, Richie Hogan's injured, and Paul Mudgett is injured, so we're just going to have to find a way. We'll get somebody to go next week."
On what he expected from playing a big team like Northwestern...
"We thought it was going to be a matter of not turning the ball over. We had to win the turnover margin, which we wanted to do, and we wanted to rush for 100 yards. We didn't do either one of them. And we're 0-2 when we don't rush for 100 yards. So, that's the first thing. We've got to get better at running the ball, and when they got a little bit of a lead, they kind of took us out. We try to be balanced in those types of things, but one thing we told the team is that we played with great effort the entire day. We kept fighting. And the big thing is, too, we had too many penalties. Defensive penalties, again, you just put yourself at such a disadvantage. Again, we had a facemask, and they're second-and-18, and they're going to be third-and-15, and there's still time on the clock for us to legitimately get two possessions, and we get a facemask penalty and that take two minutes off of the clock. So, we can't have those things and we've got to learn from them and get better."
Central Michigan Player Quotes
Quarterback Ryan Radcliff
On his third-quarter interception...
"I had my eyes somewhere else and they brought a zone blitz, and dropped the defensive end. By the time I was throwing it, it was almost released and there he was. I'll learn from it. I definitely put the defense in a rough situation by doing that, but like I said, I'll learn from it and hopefully move on."
On defense's adjustments in the second half...
"They'll probably tell you that they executed better, but we definitely had a lack of execution in the third quarter and I guess you can say the second half. We just have to come out and make sure we're all on the same page and go with what we see. We tried to force some things. I personally tried to force some things, but I think we'll be alright and we'll learn from it."
On personal evaluation...
"I don't know that I made too much progress today. I might have taken a step or two back at times, but it's a different situation and different atmosphere and it was good to get exposed to it. Once again I'm a little disappointed in how I performed, but we're a team and we're going to learn from it, we're going to go watch the film. We're going to rally around each other. We're going to come back and be ready next week."
