Northwestern 27, Minnesota 0 • Postgame Quotes
WATCH: Fitzgerald Press Conference | Justin Jackson, Dean Lowry, Clayton Thorson | Christian Jones, Godwin Igwebuike
Northwestern vs. Ball State
Ryan Field
October 3, 2015
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald Quotes
Opening Statement...
"I think it was a pretty darn good complete performance in all three phases today: explosive play in the punt return; took care of the ball, no turnovers offensively; and then you see the way that our defense was really able to make them one-dimensional and stop the run. I thought was a pretty solid performance across the board. From an energy standpoint, I think the guys are having a lot of fun. I think they're in a good place mentally. They've been working hard and it was nice to get into a normal routine week. Kinda for four weeks, something new came up. Coming out of camp, game week. Going on the road, we play a lesser opponent from a talent standpoint, had to come back last week and start school. It seemed like we settled in pretty well this week. I thought this was our best week of preparation of the season. And hopefully that continues on. Leadership's been in a solid place. And from that standpoint, that's why we're at where we're at right now. It started in January, and I think there's a solid focus within the group and they're trying to play hard with each other. It's fun to watch, entertaining football. And obviously now, there's a great challenge moving forward every step of the way, but it was a great team win. But want to tip my hat to Jerry [Kill] and his team, that's a physical football team we just played. They're going to win a lot of football games. We knew it was going to be tight, we knew it was going to be hard-fought. That third quarter drive offensively really set the tone for the second half. And to chew up that amount of time with them having the wind was critically important for the second half success."
On redshirt freshman Clayton Thorson's growth...
"Zero turnovers, baby. That's all that matters. And he found a way to win again. So that's a positive there."
On senior Matt Frazier's return to the offensive line...
"I think the group is just tired of hearing people talk negative about them. That would just be their mindset right now. They're trying to do something about it. As far as [Matt Frazier] goes, that was pretty emotional. It was emotional for me before the game in the hotel. I had him stand up. And everything he's been through in the last calendar year, to see him get an opportunity to play the game again, first of all, is something special. I couldn't be more happy for him. I couldn't be more happy for his family. And he's a leader. He's a big time leader. I don't know if I've ever seen a bigger smile on a player's face than I saw on [Matt Frazier]'s face. So that was fun."
On the defense's growth as a unit...
"I thought our defense had a chance to be pretty solid. Did I think that we'd be at this point from a points-allowed total? There's no way I could've speculated that. So obviously the credit first and foremost goes to our guys. I think they're playing together. They're playing for each other. And from that standpoint, they've got a great synergy about them and they're playing with a lot of passion."
On the kickers and punters' performance...
"With this weather, field position is going to be key and every point is going to matter. Even the field goal miss by Jack [Mitchell] — I thought he put a great swing on it and he hit it great. He started that ball at the right upright. I thought he responded well. And the same thing with Matt Miccuci. The first kickoff, he kind of overswung. He kind of threw a knuckleball down the field. And then I thought he came back pretty well. And the same thing with Hunter [Niswander]. He hit a very average to poor first punt and he comes back and finished the game pretty well."
On the strength of the running backs...
"If we can get five or six [yards] a pop running the ball, that's pretty good football. It might be a little circa 1990 but it's still good football. And we've got to have pretty good balance, which we did. We ran it for 180, threw it for 120, Clayton's 14-of-19. That's a pretty good day, all in all."
Northwestern Student-Athlete Quotes
DB Godwin Igwebuike
On defensive performance…
“It was a big game, opening up the Big Ten. Obviously preparation was huge for us this week, just getting out there, starting from Tuesday, going hard, getting in our play books, getting in film, and then going out there and just dominating.”
On having fun…
“We’re out here to have fun, obviously I think one of the things we do focus on if somebody makes a play, get on their hat, you know let them know that we’re here, let them know that they made a great play. Obviously, the game is very serious, but at the same time, that’s what were out here for, we make sure that maybe Traveon, he makes a great play and we get up with him, chest bump, whatever, you know, Nick made some great plays, the D-line. And just not doing that with them, your specific group, DB group, whoever. Getting down there, Xavier Washington or Deonte Gibson makes a play, running down there giving them some love. Honestly just going back to our roots, playing since we were young, and making sure it doesn’t get too serious for us.”
On what changed after the first series…
“They had some good plays, they ran some good plays. Obviously we don’t let it get to us. We get back to our basics. That’s just football. They’re going to make plays. We’re just going to have to bounce back. We know what we’re here for. We know what we’re doing. And after that it was just like clockwork.”
WR Christian Jones
On his role…
“I wouldn’t call it a mentor role, it’s just trying to do what ever I can to help the offense win. Coming in with a freshman quarterback, it’s not easy trying to create that bond when you’ve had some of the others with you for a bunch of years. You just kind of have to help him get along, let him know that sometimes there’s going to be bad performances and sometimes there’s going to be good ones.”
On how they’re approaching the next few games…
“The same as we’ve always approached it. It’s one more game next week. Nobody tries to look too far forward past who we’ve got the next week, and we just try to win that week really. There’s always going to be something that comes up. There’s always going to be a tough opponent. We’re in the Big Ten. Everybody is good. But we know we’ve got to go out there and fight every play, every down. Every game’s going to be a dogfight.
On Clayton Thorson’s performance…
“Clayton showed a lot of amazing growth. He’s been doing very well since he showed up, since he showed up day one, since he was named starter. He’s just been doing whatever he can to get better. And anytime he comes back in, he never really accepts his performance as really good. He’s always talking about what he could’ve done better. So I think that shows signs of someone who’s going to be really great. I think Clayton could be one of the greatest to play here, honestly.”
RB Justin Jackson
On his heavy workload…
“I feel really good. 20 carries today was nice. I feel really good right now, and I think the way our training staff and our coaches emphasize how much I need to be in there, I feel really good going into each game. That is a tribute to our program and how much we emphasize getting in the training room and getting your body right.”
DL Dean Lowry
On the team’s confidence…
“I think our confidence has grown each game, and facing teams like Stanford and Duke early in the season, they were both physical and had great speed on their perimeter, so we really were battle tested in playing two different styles schemes. We feel confident that we can play against anybody and against any offensive scheme going forward.”
On having fun…
“I think we’re all a very focused group, and just get caught up in doing our job and making sure that we’re doing the right thing, but I think Coach Fitz wants us to really have fun out there. When everyone has fun we’re usually winning games.”
QB Clayton Thorson
On having Christian Jones back…
“He’s been very helpful. You know mentally, he’s been helpful, but you know, throwing to a guy like that is awesome. He’s one of the best receivers to play here, and throwing to a guy like that is pretty exciting.”
Minnesota Head Coach Jerry Kill
"The biggest thing I would say is congratulations to Northwestern. They have a very good football team. A well-coached football team, great on defense. They’re going to have a great season, I can tell you that. My compliments go out to them. Job well done”
On what makes Northwestern’s defense good…
“I think Coach Hankwitz does a good job for one, and I think they’re more athletic than they were a year ago. They’re big up front, and he does a great job of coordinating the defense. We’ve always talked about that. He does a good job with his own blitzing and manning, and always does a good job of staying a step ahead of things, and a lot has to do with him. But, you’ve got to have players that can execute what he asks to do. They don’t make mistakes. They do their jobs, and they did their jobs today, and they played harder than we did.”
On Minnesota’s offense…
“I don’t make excuses, but we’re playing a lot of freshmen. Up front, Joe Bjorklund went out in the first quarter and we just didn’t have any continuity or anything like that, so I’m to blame for that. All I can do is keep working, but we’ve got a group that has lost some confidence and that’s our job to get going. But, I take full responsibility, and I wish I could just click my fingers and have that answer. I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights the last two or three weeks trying to figure all that out. So, we just keep working; that’s the only way I know how to solve problems.”
On the possibility of Demry Croft as a future starter…
“We talked to Mitch [Leidner] in the third quarter and he wasn’t getting any help, and we’ve got to have two quarterbacks in case somebody gets injured or anything like that. So, we felt like we didn’t get the minutes early in the year, and that hurt him, but that’s something that we felt we should’ve done last week just to get him some repetition and see what he can do to be prepared down the road a little bit… I’m not going to make any decisions right now until I watch the video… We’ve got a lot more problems than just the quarterback. You know, everyone wants to blame the quarterback. They need to blame me, and I’m fine with that. The quarterback understands that he’s going to get blamed, but the bottom line is we’ve got a lot of other issues that we need to solve on the offensive side of the ball.”
On the kicking game…
“We’ve been pretty good on the kicking game through all of my years of coaching, but we didn’t get a very good punt and coverage wise we didn’t keep leverage on the ball, and when you don’t keep leverage on the ball the guy gets outside and things happen. So, we didn’t do some of the fundamental things that you need to do, and they executed better than we did.”
On the Gophers’ performance…
“It’s a reflection of me. It hurts. I’m a competitor. We’ve worked hard, and our kids have worked hard. You want your kids to get rewarded, and we’ve got some good seniors, and we’ve got a long season ahead of us… I’ve come to think we’re going to win every game just like everybody else does. We want to compete… and we got our butt kicked today. That sums it up, so when you get your butt kicked I don’t know how you can feel very good about it. I don’t feel very good about it.”
Minnesota Student-Athlete Quotes
LB Jack Lynn
On Northwestern’s big third quarter…
“We just made some mistakes on those long drives. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot. Credit them because they made plays where they had to. That’s what it came down to the whole game.”
On feeling bad for QB Mitch Leidner…
“Mitch is a strong guy, he’ll step back up. Mitch is a strong leader. He’s a great leader.”
On having friends and family watching…
“It’s just passionate, and having friends and family and getting back to your roots. This is where I came from, all the way up from youth through high school. I just play this game with a lot of passion all the time, but this game is just a little extra because you’re back home.”
On what makes Jackson a tough rusher to defend…
“He’s a physical guy. He makes really good cuts. Really good at cutting the ball and kicking it upfield. And reading off his offensive line.”
DB Adekunle Ayinde
On the mood of the locker room…
“I mean, everybody’s down. It’s a team we knew we could beat. When that happens we just have to get back in the film room and try to do our best throughout the week. Coach was telling us we just have to go through every practice like it’s a game and treat every practice seriously. Play every rep seriously so you can get better.”
On tackling Justin Jackson…
“He was a solid runner. They gave him the ball a lot. His workload was a lot, he had a heavy workload, but it was well deserved.”
On missing key players in the secondary…
“We have a lot a depth. It’s all about the players who are on the field, so we all have to step up and play. We all had the mentality, whoever was on the field had to play like veterans.”
WR KJ Maye
On his frustration with the offense…
“I’ve been a little frustrated about the way we’ve been going on, but I’m a senior on the team, and I feel like people are going to follow my lead. I’m going to stay positive and have faith in our team. I know what we can do; I see what we do day in and day out, out at practice. We just have to execute in games, that’s the biggest thing.”
On the energy level they brought…
“I feel like we couldn’t get in a rhythm. We didn’t have a rhythm going so it’s hard to get energy when you’re going in and out. You gain yards and lose yards, it’s a big cluster. When you can’t get in a rhythm, there’s a lack of energy out there. Going off the field, three and outs, things like that.”
On how the backup freshman QB Demry Croft played at the end of the game…
“Demry has a good arm. He’s a freshman and made some freshman mistakes, taking sacks on third downs and stuff like that. He had to get game experience to know how things go in a game. Going into next week we’ll see what happens.”
Northwestern vs. Ball State
Ryan Field
October 3, 2015
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald Quotes
Opening Statement...
"I think it was a pretty darn good complete performance in all three phases today: explosive play in the punt return; took care of the ball, no turnovers offensively; and then you see the way that our defense was really able to make them one-dimensional and stop the run. I thought was a pretty solid performance across the board. From an energy standpoint, I think the guys are having a lot of fun. I think they're in a good place mentally. They've been working hard and it was nice to get into a normal routine week. Kinda for four weeks, something new came up. Coming out of camp, game week. Going on the road, we play a lesser opponent from a talent standpoint, had to come back last week and start school. It seemed like we settled in pretty well this week. I thought this was our best week of preparation of the season. And hopefully that continues on. Leadership's been in a solid place. And from that standpoint, that's why we're at where we're at right now. It started in January, and I think there's a solid focus within the group and they're trying to play hard with each other. It's fun to watch, entertaining football. And obviously now, there's a great challenge moving forward every step of the way, but it was a great team win. But want to tip my hat to Jerry [Kill] and his team, that's a physical football team we just played. They're going to win a lot of football games. We knew it was going to be tight, we knew it was going to be hard-fought. That third quarter drive offensively really set the tone for the second half. And to chew up that amount of time with them having the wind was critically important for the second half success."
On redshirt freshman Clayton Thorson's growth...
"Zero turnovers, baby. That's all that matters. And he found a way to win again. So that's a positive there."
On senior Matt Frazier's return to the offensive line...
"I think the group is just tired of hearing people talk negative about them. That would just be their mindset right now. They're trying to do something about it. As far as [Matt Frazier] goes, that was pretty emotional. It was emotional for me before the game in the hotel. I had him stand up. And everything he's been through in the last calendar year, to see him get an opportunity to play the game again, first of all, is something special. I couldn't be more happy for him. I couldn't be more happy for his family. And he's a leader. He's a big time leader. I don't know if I've ever seen a bigger smile on a player's face than I saw on [Matt Frazier]'s face. So that was fun."
On the defense's growth as a unit...
"I thought our defense had a chance to be pretty solid. Did I think that we'd be at this point from a points-allowed total? There's no way I could've speculated that. So obviously the credit first and foremost goes to our guys. I think they're playing together. They're playing for each other. And from that standpoint, they've got a great synergy about them and they're playing with a lot of passion."
On the kickers and punters' performance...
"With this weather, field position is going to be key and every point is going to matter. Even the field goal miss by Jack [Mitchell] — I thought he put a great swing on it and he hit it great. He started that ball at the right upright. I thought he responded well. And the same thing with Matt Miccuci. The first kickoff, he kind of overswung. He kind of threw a knuckleball down the field. And then I thought he came back pretty well. And the same thing with Hunter [Niswander]. He hit a very average to poor first punt and he comes back and finished the game pretty well."
On the strength of the running backs...
"If we can get five or six [yards] a pop running the ball, that's pretty good football. It might be a little circa 1990 but it's still good football. And we've got to have pretty good balance, which we did. We ran it for 180, threw it for 120, Clayton's 14-of-19. That's a pretty good day, all in all."
Northwestern Student-Athlete Quotes
DB Godwin Igwebuike
On defensive performance…
“It was a big game, opening up the Big Ten. Obviously preparation was huge for us this week, just getting out there, starting from Tuesday, going hard, getting in our play books, getting in film, and then going out there and just dominating.”
On having fun…
“We’re out here to have fun, obviously I think one of the things we do focus on if somebody makes a play, get on their hat, you know let them know that we’re here, let them know that they made a great play. Obviously, the game is very serious, but at the same time, that’s what were out here for, we make sure that maybe Traveon, he makes a great play and we get up with him, chest bump, whatever, you know, Nick made some great plays, the D-line. And just not doing that with them, your specific group, DB group, whoever. Getting down there, Xavier Washington or Deonte Gibson makes a play, running down there giving them some love. Honestly just going back to our roots, playing since we were young, and making sure it doesn’t get too serious for us.”
On what changed after the first series…
“They had some good plays, they ran some good plays. Obviously we don’t let it get to us. We get back to our basics. That’s just football. They’re going to make plays. We’re just going to have to bounce back. We know what we’re here for. We know what we’re doing. And after that it was just like clockwork.”
WR Christian Jones
On his role…
“I wouldn’t call it a mentor role, it’s just trying to do what ever I can to help the offense win. Coming in with a freshman quarterback, it’s not easy trying to create that bond when you’ve had some of the others with you for a bunch of years. You just kind of have to help him get along, let him know that sometimes there’s going to be bad performances and sometimes there’s going to be good ones.”
On how they’re approaching the next few games…
“The same as we’ve always approached it. It’s one more game next week. Nobody tries to look too far forward past who we’ve got the next week, and we just try to win that week really. There’s always going to be something that comes up. There’s always going to be a tough opponent. We’re in the Big Ten. Everybody is good. But we know we’ve got to go out there and fight every play, every down. Every game’s going to be a dogfight.
On Clayton Thorson’s performance…
“Clayton showed a lot of amazing growth. He’s been doing very well since he showed up, since he showed up day one, since he was named starter. He’s just been doing whatever he can to get better. And anytime he comes back in, he never really accepts his performance as really good. He’s always talking about what he could’ve done better. So I think that shows signs of someone who’s going to be really great. I think Clayton could be one of the greatest to play here, honestly.”
RB Justin Jackson
On his heavy workload…
“I feel really good. 20 carries today was nice. I feel really good right now, and I think the way our training staff and our coaches emphasize how much I need to be in there, I feel really good going into each game. That is a tribute to our program and how much we emphasize getting in the training room and getting your body right.”
DL Dean Lowry
On the team’s confidence…
“I think our confidence has grown each game, and facing teams like Stanford and Duke early in the season, they were both physical and had great speed on their perimeter, so we really were battle tested in playing two different styles schemes. We feel confident that we can play against anybody and against any offensive scheme going forward.”
On having fun…
“I think we’re all a very focused group, and just get caught up in doing our job and making sure that we’re doing the right thing, but I think Coach Fitz wants us to really have fun out there. When everyone has fun we’re usually winning games.”
QB Clayton Thorson
On having Christian Jones back…
“He’s been very helpful. You know mentally, he’s been helpful, but you know, throwing to a guy like that is awesome. He’s one of the best receivers to play here, and throwing to a guy like that is pretty exciting.”
Minnesota Head Coach Jerry Kill
"The biggest thing I would say is congratulations to Northwestern. They have a very good football team. A well-coached football team, great on defense. They’re going to have a great season, I can tell you that. My compliments go out to them. Job well done”
On what makes Northwestern’s defense good…
“I think Coach Hankwitz does a good job for one, and I think they’re more athletic than they were a year ago. They’re big up front, and he does a great job of coordinating the defense. We’ve always talked about that. He does a good job with his own blitzing and manning, and always does a good job of staying a step ahead of things, and a lot has to do with him. But, you’ve got to have players that can execute what he asks to do. They don’t make mistakes. They do their jobs, and they did their jobs today, and they played harder than we did.”
On Minnesota’s offense…
“I don’t make excuses, but we’re playing a lot of freshmen. Up front, Joe Bjorklund went out in the first quarter and we just didn’t have any continuity or anything like that, so I’m to blame for that. All I can do is keep working, but we’ve got a group that has lost some confidence and that’s our job to get going. But, I take full responsibility, and I wish I could just click my fingers and have that answer. I’ve had a lot of sleepless nights the last two or three weeks trying to figure all that out. So, we just keep working; that’s the only way I know how to solve problems.”
On the possibility of Demry Croft as a future starter…
“We talked to Mitch [Leidner] in the third quarter and he wasn’t getting any help, and we’ve got to have two quarterbacks in case somebody gets injured or anything like that. So, we felt like we didn’t get the minutes early in the year, and that hurt him, but that’s something that we felt we should’ve done last week just to get him some repetition and see what he can do to be prepared down the road a little bit… I’m not going to make any decisions right now until I watch the video… We’ve got a lot more problems than just the quarterback. You know, everyone wants to blame the quarterback. They need to blame me, and I’m fine with that. The quarterback understands that he’s going to get blamed, but the bottom line is we’ve got a lot of other issues that we need to solve on the offensive side of the ball.”
On the kicking game…
“We’ve been pretty good on the kicking game through all of my years of coaching, but we didn’t get a very good punt and coverage wise we didn’t keep leverage on the ball, and when you don’t keep leverage on the ball the guy gets outside and things happen. So, we didn’t do some of the fundamental things that you need to do, and they executed better than we did.”
On the Gophers’ performance…
“It’s a reflection of me. It hurts. I’m a competitor. We’ve worked hard, and our kids have worked hard. You want your kids to get rewarded, and we’ve got some good seniors, and we’ve got a long season ahead of us… I’ve come to think we’re going to win every game just like everybody else does. We want to compete… and we got our butt kicked today. That sums it up, so when you get your butt kicked I don’t know how you can feel very good about it. I don’t feel very good about it.”
Minnesota Student-Athlete Quotes
LB Jack Lynn
On Northwestern’s big third quarter…
“We just made some mistakes on those long drives. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot. Credit them because they made plays where they had to. That’s what it came down to the whole game.”
On feeling bad for QB Mitch Leidner…
“Mitch is a strong guy, he’ll step back up. Mitch is a strong leader. He’s a great leader.”
On having friends and family watching…
“It’s just passionate, and having friends and family and getting back to your roots. This is where I came from, all the way up from youth through high school. I just play this game with a lot of passion all the time, but this game is just a little extra because you’re back home.”
On what makes Jackson a tough rusher to defend…
“He’s a physical guy. He makes really good cuts. Really good at cutting the ball and kicking it upfield. And reading off his offensive line.”
DB Adekunle Ayinde
On the mood of the locker room…
“I mean, everybody’s down. It’s a team we knew we could beat. When that happens we just have to get back in the film room and try to do our best throughout the week. Coach was telling us we just have to go through every practice like it’s a game and treat every practice seriously. Play every rep seriously so you can get better.”
On tackling Justin Jackson…
“He was a solid runner. They gave him the ball a lot. His workload was a lot, he had a heavy workload, but it was well deserved.”
On missing key players in the secondary…
“We have a lot a depth. It’s all about the players who are on the field, so we all have to step up and play. We all had the mentality, whoever was on the field had to play like veterans.”
WR KJ Maye
On his frustration with the offense…
“I’ve been a little frustrated about the way we’ve been going on, but I’m a senior on the team, and I feel like people are going to follow my lead. I’m going to stay positive and have faith in our team. I know what we can do; I see what we do day in and day out, out at practice. We just have to execute in games, that’s the biggest thing.”
On the energy level they brought…
“I feel like we couldn’t get in a rhythm. We didn’t have a rhythm going so it’s hard to get energy when you’re going in and out. You gain yards and lose yards, it’s a big cluster. When you can’t get in a rhythm, there’s a lack of energy out there. Going off the field, three and outs, things like that.”
On how the backup freshman QB Demry Croft played at the end of the game…
“Demry has a good arm. He’s a freshman and made some freshman mistakes, taking sacks on third downs and stuff like that. He had to get game experience to know how things go in a game. Going into next week we’ll see what happens.”
