Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: Northwestern 20, No. 17/16 Wisconsin 14
10/4/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Northwestern 20, No. 17/16 Wisconsin 14
Ryan Field
October 4, 2014
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern Quotes
Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement...
"Thanks everyone for being here tonight. Great team win. I thought from a standpoint of what we had planned and the way our guys went out and executed, a couple of drives I thought our young men went out and a did a spectacular job. We beat a very good football team today. They are physical. They have an identity. We found a way to get the job done, and the credit goes to our young men. I thought it was a great job by our staff. We had some things that we took advantage of because of our offense and defense. When we thought we had some things going well, then Melvin (Gordon) ends up being Melvin. He is a heck of a football player. They got us on three long runs that we fit wrong and did not tackle. Those are things we have to work on, but a really great job by our team and we found a way to win."
On the play of the special teams...
"It was really important, and we knew it was going to be with the weather. Today was going to kind of be a choose-your-own-adventure book with the weather. It was nasty early. It was wet and windy. I think both teams deserve a lot of credit there. Everybody executed all their snaps and all their holds. You didn't see any kicks out of bounds with the 25-mile an hour cross wind. So both teams deserve a lot of credit there."
On the team's identity...
"I think our identity is a work in progress. I really do. I think the reason why we have been successful now for a couple weeks is because the guys are really invested greatly during the week. They put in the time individually and collectively. They work diligently on the field to come together offensively, defensively and in the kicking game to fundamentally execute what we are asking them to do. I think we are definitely playing with a lot more passion and a lot more physicality than we did earlier in the year. I don't have any issues with what we did earlier in the year, except what we were doing on Saturdays. I'm most proud of our guys for when we lost momentum in the fourth quarter but we had to go out there and get a first down. Then the defense has to go out there and get us off the field. We got a big interception."
On the play of the secondary...
"Credit goes to the guys. They have been working hard in practice. We are a Cover 4 team, so we know we are going to get post routes. We know we are going to get double moves and all those types of things, but you have to win on them. Early in the year, we lost on three of them. Two went for touchdowns and we lost two games by one score. I think those guys were very upset about that. They are starting to take the (Sherrick) McManis attitude. Sherrick had the attitude in practice that no one would catch the ball on him at anytime. Our guys have really started to take on that mentality."
On the play of Justin Jackson...
"He will probably be up here giving the credit to the offensive line. We have got a plan there at running back. I think we executed it pretty well. Great job by Justin. Everybody fulfilled their roll. His number was called. He has a really good feel for what we are trying to do."
On beating a division opponent...
"We get it. We understand. Every game counts. That's the bottom line. It's East and West, but they all count. Head to head is obviously critically important. They all count, but we are just focused on us right now. The cornerstone of our program is investment, and they are investing in practice every week and seeing the fruits of their labor. They are buying into what we value."
Northwestern Player Quotes
SAF Godwin Igwebuike
On his three interceptions...
"Nobody saw it coming. I mean, I didn't even see it coming. It really goes back to this preparation. I knew it was going to be time to step up this game with the injury to Ibraheim (Campbell). So I had to go back to the drawing board and just prepare myself. Prepare like I never prepared before, and it paid off."
On the first interception...
"The first one came out in a 3 by to my side. It was like preparation again, I knew I was going to see a wide move, so I hovered over the top for a little bit, waited for him to make his move, and I pretty much saw it coming. So once the ball was in the air it was just football from there.
On his second goal line interception...
"I was fortunate to have a linebacker over on top of [the receiver] as well, so I pretty much knew we didn't need two-on-one. So, I kind of broke off a little bit, the quarterback saw me come towards him, thought he had an open release, so I made a break on the ball and got that one as well."
On the third interception...
"I stepped back a little bit, saw the quarterback reading his man, and I just kind of stared him down, so I was able to break on that one as well. I thought I was just going to bat it down, but [the receiver] just bumped me and it went right into my hands."
DL Ifeadi Odenigbo
On helping to force the interception...
"I ran right off my guy and I saw that he was losing ground. At the last second, he was about to release the ball and Coach (Marty) Long told me, `Whenever you're about to see the ball release, put your hand out.' So I fortunately got his hand and ended up coming out funny and Jimmy (Hall) got the interception.
Matt Harris
On his injury a week ago...
"I'm able to play (today) by the grace of God. I'm just lucky to be here, and when that happened they called it a stinger and I was told to stay down. I knew something wasn't right. The training staff did an unbelievable job in just preparing me and getting me confident that I'd be able to go out there and play today."
QB Trevor Siemian
On his block on Miles Shuler's reverse touchdown run...
"I think I just got in his way just enough, I wouldn't even call it a block."
On his third-down pass to Dan Vitale to seal the win...
"I just didn't want to leave it short for the safety to undercut it, so I tried to get it out there. (Dan) made a good catch. I mean, you could throw it within 20 feet of that guy and he's going to make a catch and make me look pretty good. So it's an easy job for me."
On being a leader with an 0-2 start...
"I think when we were 0-2, obviously it wasn't good. But at the same time, everyone knew that we hadn't played our best ball, and that we hadn't played anywhere near our best ball. But, I wouldn't call that reassuring, and looking back it's unfortunate that it took two weeks to get things figured out and turned around, but better late than never I guess."
RB Justin Jackson
On how he feels after carrying the ball 33 times...
"I feel pretty crappy, but we won so that's all that matters. I can't say I was expecting (so many carries), I was expecting to come in here and do what the coaches wanted me to do. Whether it's getting 10, 15, or 30 carries, I just go in there and do what I can to get in and try to help our team win."
On if he's willing to continue carrying the ball so often...
"If they need me to, I'm just going to prepare each week like I have been, and hopefully keep getting better."
Wisconsin Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Gary Andersen
Opening statement...
"It was a good football game. Credit to Northwestern. They're a good football team; we knew that walking in and they showed it. Looking back at it, it was a hard-fought game and they made more plays than we did and our opportunities were there and we didn't take advantage of them, but I'm proud of these kids. I'm proud to be their coach and I believe in them. We'll come back and we'll bounce back and we're going to find a way to make it a good football team and hopefully continue our way to be a great football team as the year goes on."
On changing quarterbacks...
"I just felt like we needed to find a spark on offense. Again, in quick review, this was the first week where I really felt that when I looked at Joel and I asked Joel is he ready to go, like I've told you guys all week long, this was the week that he felt like he was ready to go and I believed it. And so I felt like we needed to find a spark and looking for a spark that's why we made the change. So it wasn't necessarily just the quarterback production it was the offense as a whole. We needed to move in that direction. Moving forward, I'll say right now we've talked about it and so we talked the talk and now we've got to walk the walk as we move forward."
On starting Joel Stave at quarterback ...
"It could very well move in that direction if it's best for us because we have not proven to be effective enough to be what I would call a stable offense, if you will. I don't care about yards. I don't care about all the other stuff. Just a functioning offense that allows us to win Big Ten games, and the game changes when you walk into the Big Ten. We all know that and we understand that. So if that means we have to adapt the offensive system and the scheme this year to help ourselves, as a football team, to have both of those schemes I'm talking about, because we are different than a year ago. We've got to get better at it and we're excited to help them get there."
On poor field position's role in slowing the offense...
"It was important today. You know, their guy did a great job of punting the ball and dialing it down that position and there were numerous times where we ended up getting backed up. It's a long field to go. The key there is they moved the ball successfully on us and it was a good offensive performance for Northwestern and a poor defensive performance by the University of Wisconsin. So I take responsibility for that one but their punter punted the ball nicely."
Wisconsin Player Quotes
RB Melvin Gordon
On his success running the ball but only scoring 14 points...
"It's tough. You come out here and try to do your best. You keep trying, you break some long runs, and get right by the goal line and come up short, and get no points. It's tough. They kept catching me. I felt like the big runs are really momentum, that's really what they are. We've got to build off that and make those plays."
On if belief in this team still exists in the locker room...
"It does. Obviously, with the playoffs it's rough right now with the two losses and with our schedule. But the Big Ten Championship is still there. We've got to hope some things fall in line for us now, and it's going to be tough in the long run but I feel like we can still be a good team and can do what we want to do."
On Joel Stave coming in at quarterback for Tanner McEvoy...
"It doesn't matter to me, whoever's going to get the job done, whoever's going to make the plays. Like I said from the beginning, I have confidence in both of those guys. Stave was the starter last year and I'm comfortable with him back there making the plays. We just came up short."
QB Joel Stave
On getting to play in his first game of the season...
"I was excited, excited to get the chance to play again. I haven't played in a game since South Carolina, so it was exciting to get back in and play. I feel good, I thought I made some good throws today. You're going to miss some throws and I did that too, but I felt good playing again, I felt good throwing the ball. I thought we did some good things offensively."
On the interception in the end zone in the fourth quarter...
"That turnover in the red zone, that can't happen. That's on me. That was me trying to do too much, trying to force it. First-and-(goal) from the 3-yard line, I've just got to throw that ball away. I was trying to sneak it around that guy [Northwestern safety Godwin Iqwebuike] and I was just trying to do too much with that, I've just got to throw that ball away."
On potentially splitting time with fellow quarterback Tanner McEvoy...
"I think me and Tanner both do things very well. Obviously as you've seen through the last couple weeks, we're different quarterbacks. I think there are things we can both do to help this offense. It's a team game. Obviously being competitors, we both want to start, we both want to be in every snap. Right now I think with where the team's at we can really benefit from both of us playing. We're roommates at the hotel, I think we get along really well. As long as we're working together and this offense is working together, we can really be effective."
