Northwestern University Athletics
#21 Northwestern 23, Penn State 21 • Postgame Quotes
Penn State at Northwestern
Ryan Field • Evanston, Ill.
November 7, 2015
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement...
"A great team win. That was a hard-fought battle. We knew it was going to be against an outstanding Penn State team. You know, they did a great job coming back. They re-seized momentum and I thought our guys just found a way to get it done in the second half. It wasn't always pretty in all three phases, but when you're playing a good football team they're going to make plays too and obviously they did. Really proud of our guys that stepped up. We had a ton of adversity, to see the way that Zack Oliver played, and Brad North goes in and has to snap the ball, [Shane Mertz] has to go in and play guard almost the whole second half, I could keep going with the list. Just really proud of those guys, especially Zack. He's been through so much and to see him just stay the course, prepare in the right way, and being prepared when the opportunity presented itself. And you say that as a coach, but to see it actually happen — I would love to give credit to Mick [McCall] or myself, but it has nothing to do with myself, it has everything to do with Zack [Oliver]. And just really, really proud of him. Really happy for him. He's a guy that's been a great teammate and a great program guy, and to see him go out and have some success was absolutely outstanding. And then to see the way that Jack [Mitchell] responded. You miss an extra point, you miss two field goals, and to hit a game winner like that — great hold by Christian Salem and great execution in the operation and the protection to find a way to win."
On the end of the game...
"Our plan was, once we got inside the 33[-yard line], we were going to kick the field goal to win. They were bringing a lot of zero- or man-free pressure and trying to outnumber us in the box. I thought Mick [McCall] called a terrific two-minute drive. Obviously, you'd like to not jump offsides and start five yards in reverse, but huge play by Zack [Oliver] and then once we crossed the 33, Jack [Mitchell] felt good. We had the wind at our back ... A little bit of Weather.com checking. We got what we wanted. We knew in the fourth quarter, the wind was going to shift to the north a little bit and it did. So, when they decided to basically give us the wind that we thought about in the fourth quarter, I was excited about that."
On junior kicker Jack Mitchell...
"I thought he was going to make the kick. I've got great confidence in Jack. I had full confidence he was going to make that kick. He's pretty good. When a guy misses a few, you don't lose confidence in him, you just keep talking to him about being fundamentally sound and he looked like he put a great strike on that last one."
On sophomore Justin Jackson's running game...
"You have to credit our O-Line, and obviously [offensive line coach] Adam Cushing and our offensive staff with our run plan — I thought we had a pretty good plan. There were some seams there and we kind of felt like we were a block away a bunch, and we stayed patient and stuck to the plan, made a couple of little tweaks as the game went along, but we get Justin [Jackson] back going against that type of defense. You have to give credit to the O-Line, the superbacks and the wideouts for the way that they blocked. But it was huge, especially after Clayton [Thorson] went down, having Justin step up like that, that was big."
On what the win means for the program...
"It's the next step. Quite frankly, we talk about going 1-0 here all the time and staying focused on that. I'd be lying to you if I told you that I didn't talk to the captains and the leadership council about coming into the College Football Playoff rankings at number 21. We're in the mix for a New Years Six bowl. And you have to take it one at a time, but what a great testament to what we've been through. I think, coming into the game we had the eighth toughest schedule in the country and the toughest in the Big Ten, we beat a seven-win team today, and that should do nothing but help our strength of schedule, and finding a way to win — win and advance. We're kind of in that playoff mentality and I know that we're going to play a very hungry team next week. Got a lot of goals left in front of us and I'm not going to shy away from it with the guys. It's reality and you work your tails off for 11 months to make November significant. And obviously it's significant for us right now."
Northwestern Student-Athletes Quotes
K Jack Mitchell
On the range of emotions…
“I felt good in practice all week, and whenever, however it happens, it just didn’t translate in the game. You’ve just got to not let yourself get down at all, even though you’re not doing well. Just stay up. Fitz was telling me the whole game “you’re going to be coming up big for us at the end of the game.” People were coming to me saying ‘keep your head in it,’ and just stay as focused and calm as possible.”
On late game process…
“The Notre Dame game, I’m sure that’s what you’re talking about, was a lot of good practice, and with that under my belt, I feel like this was not as big of a moment. And that really helped me stay focused, having that mental attitude, having done that before.”
QB Zack Oliver
On comparisons to game vs. Illinois last year…
“It was a different game, different scenario. Honestly, just when it was at halftime, we made our game plan changes, and for whatever reason, it just wasn’t clicking. A lot of that was probably on me. Could have made some better throws, could have thrown the ball away. Was hot a couple times I missed. But in the end, we found a way to make a big play.”
On the fourth quarter completion to Austin Carr…
“I read a cover zero, so the safeties were down. It was pretty much just one on one, and he made a great move, and was wide open, and I just gave him a chance to make a catch, and he got it.”
On playing the Penn State front seven…
“They were good. Nassib, that dude is the man. I think our offensive line really showed their character today. We had really good preparation all week, and then we came today, and there were times where I felt pressured, but there were times like that throw to Austin where I had all the time in the world. They definitely showed up when the game was big.”
RB Justin Jackson
On pressure after Clayton Thorson was injured…
“When the quarterback goes down, everybody else has to step up, and I think Zach came in and did a great job, especially for not having as many reps as he probably needed. He did a good job, and I think that as an offense we stepped up and got it done.”
On the excitement of a close game…
“We probably should have just finished the game off how we started, and we didn’t. We won a close game. It’s hard to win in the Big Ten and that’s what the most important thing was, but we do know that going forward, we have to be a lot better when we’re up and just stepping on their throat, protecting the lead. We didn’t do that today, but it’s a learning experience and it’s always good to learn from a win.”
DE Dean Lowery
On facing the wildcat formation…
“The first few times I think we struggled, they scored on it. We made a game time adjustment on that, and then Nate Hall came in and made a great tackle on that third and short, so that was a huge play for us.”
On penalties and momentum…
“Those two penalties were not who we are as a defense. After that touchdown, we came to the sideline, settled down, regrouped, and got back to playing physical, tough defense, playing smart and disciplined. And I think we responded well.”
On defensive approaches to contain Penn State QB Christian Hackenberg…
“We gave them different looks, one thing we’re doing is to give different linemen some different blitzes, just trying to keep them on their toes, and making that adjustment after they started more of the roll out stuff, just making the adjustments of how they’re trying to use him, and we adjusted well to it.”
Penn State Head Coach James Franklin
On missed opportunities...
“We started out slow, especially on the offensive side of the ball. They were able to run the ball on us consistently, really all day long… It’s hard to give up a kickoff return for a touchdown and be successful. Plus, our kickoffs all day long were inconsistent, and they were able to sway field position in the punt game. Basically at the end we had opportunity forming an offense, forming a defense; missed opportunities. Missed opportunities to break tackles and make people miss for first downs. Opportunities for interceptions, just opportunities across the board.”
On running the ball...
“We weren’t able to run the ball consistently in the first half, we got it going a little bit in the second half. We got a little bit more aggressive which I think helped us, but at the end we weren’t able to play winning football the way we needed to.”
“We’ve been really good against the run for a long time, but we were not today. I did think they were doing a bunch of look-look stuff to the sideline, finding out what we were lined up in defensively, and then checking the play and running into looks that I think they anticipated and could see. We’d have to watch the film and look at that and make some adjustments obviously.”
On preparing for QBs Thorson/Oliver....
“Our plan was to stop the number one. He went out of the game and the number two guy came in and made some big plays at critical times for them.”
On the effectiveness of the passing game…
“Overall these guys have done a good job of saying ‘We’re not going to give up the big play.’ They were also overloading and slanting to our tight end in the run game. But they took the philosophy we’re not going to give up the big play, we’re going to consistently throw the underneath stuff and see if you can do that consistently enough to beat us.”
On the Wildcat in the last offensive series…
“The Wildcat had really been the one formation that we had success running the ball with all day long.”
On the trick pass…
“It was just us being aggressive. We had probably eight plays like that in the game plan; shot plays, aggressive plays. It felt like we weren’t moving the ball the way we needed to move the ball so we needed to do some things to loosen them up and be aggressive and take some shots.”
On Carl Nassib...
“Obviously he’s the guy who’s leading the country in sacks, and is all-time sack leader in school history, so not having him out there is significant. We’ll see. We weren’t able to have him out there at the end of the game, but hopefully we’ll be able to get him back soon.“
On special teams…
“There’s no doubt that we have to play better on kickoff. I mean, the game plan was not to squib the kick. We didn’t call to squib the kick and we squibbed it every single time. He came to the sideline and we had him go kick in the net and try to make some adjustments and things like that, but that was not part of the game plan… Either way, we’ve got to cover the kick and we’ve got to make the tackle.”
On coming out of a loss...
“You’re always frustrated after a loss. You’d like to go into a bye on a positive note and get healthy. The bye is coming late in the season but we’re going to take it. There’s no doubt you’d like to go into a bye with a win feeling really good, getting ready for those last two games. Our guys bounce back and are resilient. We’ll come in on Sunday and have our normal practice, and go from there.”
On the offensive line…
“I thought early on we didn’t do well. Statistically, this defense had been playing well all year long. Offense had been struggling here as of recent. I think our O-line struggled early in the game. We were able to get them settled down at some point and take some shots and use some of the Wildcat and some other things to create a running game. But early on, we weren’t really successful.”
Penn State Student-Athlete Quotes
LB Jason Cabinda
On Northwestern’s ability to run the ball…
“I think they had a good gameplan. They were undermanned at some points on the sides of the field where they were running the ball. They had a lot of ‘check-with-me’ on the line, identifying what we were doing.”
On planning for dual threat quarterback Clayton Thorson, and facing traditional quarterback Oliver…
“We prepare the same every single week. Dual threat quarterback or not, our rules really stay the same, to be honest.”
On facing RB Justin Jackson….
“In terms of a true running back, we’ve faced backs that were just as good if not better. I think a lot of our fits in the run game came from how dynamic the back was. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a very good back. We faced a very good team today, we didn’t make enough plays and made too many mistakes.”
WR Chris Godwin
On Geno Lewis’s trick play that resulted in a touchdown pass…
“We kind of fool around with it after practice. Geno thinks he’s a better quarterback than he actually is, but he gave a great throw out there. I guess all the practice we’ve been doing afterwards is paying off.”
On having opportunities to win on the road in the Big Ten…
“Any time you play a Big Ten opponent, it’s a tough challenge. Every team in the Big Ten presents a different challenge, and we have to readjust our game and execute. We have to fight for everything we do and earn every opportunity.”
On Northwestern’s defensive game-plan in the first half…
“I think they were doing a better job of executing than us. They showed a little bit of a couple different coverages than what we were expecting, so that threw off the passing game a little bit. At the same time, we have to make our in-game adjustments and go on the fly.”
On improving offensively in the second half…
“It definitely came down to execution. We made some adjustments at halftime, came out, and played Penn State football. Unfortunately we weren’t able to finish it off, but that’s something we can learn from, from here.”
QB Christian Hackenberg
On losing the game after Penn State’s late rally…
“We were able to fight back, but at the end of the day, they were better than us today. You have to give them a lot of credit. They game-planned well. They did a great job with film study. A lot of the things that we thought we were going to be able to have, from last year and their previous games, they’ve done a great job of correcting those things. They made it tough for us sometimes, so a ton of credit to them. We have to regroup this bye week, get our bodies right, get our heads right and be able to finish strong.”
On Northwestern’s defense denying the long pass and underneath throw and VanHoose’s interception…
“They did a good job of both. Situationally, it was tough. It was hard for us sometimes to take our shots. Timing wise, they did a great job of calling stuff, and when things were underneath that we needed, they did a good job. 23 [CB Nick VanHoose] was sitting on that all day and a lot of credit to him being able to make that play, that late in the game, it was big.”
On scrutiny from NFL scouts attending the game…
“I worry about what my teammates expect of me, and what I need to do here at Penn State right now to be the best football player I can be for this football team. Whatever they ask me to do, that’s what I’m trying to do to the best of my ability.”
Ryan Field • Evanston, Ill.
November 7, 2015
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement...
"A great team win. That was a hard-fought battle. We knew it was going to be against an outstanding Penn State team. You know, they did a great job coming back. They re-seized momentum and I thought our guys just found a way to get it done in the second half. It wasn't always pretty in all three phases, but when you're playing a good football team they're going to make plays too and obviously they did. Really proud of our guys that stepped up. We had a ton of adversity, to see the way that Zack Oliver played, and Brad North goes in and has to snap the ball, [Shane Mertz] has to go in and play guard almost the whole second half, I could keep going with the list. Just really proud of those guys, especially Zack. He's been through so much and to see him just stay the course, prepare in the right way, and being prepared when the opportunity presented itself. And you say that as a coach, but to see it actually happen — I would love to give credit to Mick [McCall] or myself, but it has nothing to do with myself, it has everything to do with Zack [Oliver]. And just really, really proud of him. Really happy for him. He's a guy that's been a great teammate and a great program guy, and to see him go out and have some success was absolutely outstanding. And then to see the way that Jack [Mitchell] responded. You miss an extra point, you miss two field goals, and to hit a game winner like that — great hold by Christian Salem and great execution in the operation and the protection to find a way to win."
On the end of the game...
"Our plan was, once we got inside the 33[-yard line], we were going to kick the field goal to win. They were bringing a lot of zero- or man-free pressure and trying to outnumber us in the box. I thought Mick [McCall] called a terrific two-minute drive. Obviously, you'd like to not jump offsides and start five yards in reverse, but huge play by Zack [Oliver] and then once we crossed the 33, Jack [Mitchell] felt good. We had the wind at our back ... A little bit of Weather.com checking. We got what we wanted. We knew in the fourth quarter, the wind was going to shift to the north a little bit and it did. So, when they decided to basically give us the wind that we thought about in the fourth quarter, I was excited about that."
On junior kicker Jack Mitchell...
"I thought he was going to make the kick. I've got great confidence in Jack. I had full confidence he was going to make that kick. He's pretty good. When a guy misses a few, you don't lose confidence in him, you just keep talking to him about being fundamentally sound and he looked like he put a great strike on that last one."
On sophomore Justin Jackson's running game...
"You have to credit our O-Line, and obviously [offensive line coach] Adam Cushing and our offensive staff with our run plan — I thought we had a pretty good plan. There were some seams there and we kind of felt like we were a block away a bunch, and we stayed patient and stuck to the plan, made a couple of little tweaks as the game went along, but we get Justin [Jackson] back going against that type of defense. You have to give credit to the O-Line, the superbacks and the wideouts for the way that they blocked. But it was huge, especially after Clayton [Thorson] went down, having Justin step up like that, that was big."
On what the win means for the program...
"It's the next step. Quite frankly, we talk about going 1-0 here all the time and staying focused on that. I'd be lying to you if I told you that I didn't talk to the captains and the leadership council about coming into the College Football Playoff rankings at number 21. We're in the mix for a New Years Six bowl. And you have to take it one at a time, but what a great testament to what we've been through. I think, coming into the game we had the eighth toughest schedule in the country and the toughest in the Big Ten, we beat a seven-win team today, and that should do nothing but help our strength of schedule, and finding a way to win — win and advance. We're kind of in that playoff mentality and I know that we're going to play a very hungry team next week. Got a lot of goals left in front of us and I'm not going to shy away from it with the guys. It's reality and you work your tails off for 11 months to make November significant. And obviously it's significant for us right now."
Northwestern Student-Athletes Quotes
K Jack Mitchell
On the range of emotions…
“I felt good in practice all week, and whenever, however it happens, it just didn’t translate in the game. You’ve just got to not let yourself get down at all, even though you’re not doing well. Just stay up. Fitz was telling me the whole game “you’re going to be coming up big for us at the end of the game.” People were coming to me saying ‘keep your head in it,’ and just stay as focused and calm as possible.”
On late game process…
“The Notre Dame game, I’m sure that’s what you’re talking about, was a lot of good practice, and with that under my belt, I feel like this was not as big of a moment. And that really helped me stay focused, having that mental attitude, having done that before.”
QB Zack Oliver
On comparisons to game vs. Illinois last year…
“It was a different game, different scenario. Honestly, just when it was at halftime, we made our game plan changes, and for whatever reason, it just wasn’t clicking. A lot of that was probably on me. Could have made some better throws, could have thrown the ball away. Was hot a couple times I missed. But in the end, we found a way to make a big play.”
On the fourth quarter completion to Austin Carr…
“I read a cover zero, so the safeties were down. It was pretty much just one on one, and he made a great move, and was wide open, and I just gave him a chance to make a catch, and he got it.”
On playing the Penn State front seven…
“They were good. Nassib, that dude is the man. I think our offensive line really showed their character today. We had really good preparation all week, and then we came today, and there were times where I felt pressured, but there were times like that throw to Austin where I had all the time in the world. They definitely showed up when the game was big.”
RB Justin Jackson
On pressure after Clayton Thorson was injured…
“When the quarterback goes down, everybody else has to step up, and I think Zach came in and did a great job, especially for not having as many reps as he probably needed. He did a good job, and I think that as an offense we stepped up and got it done.”
On the excitement of a close game…
“We probably should have just finished the game off how we started, and we didn’t. We won a close game. It’s hard to win in the Big Ten and that’s what the most important thing was, but we do know that going forward, we have to be a lot better when we’re up and just stepping on their throat, protecting the lead. We didn’t do that today, but it’s a learning experience and it’s always good to learn from a win.”
DE Dean Lowery
On facing the wildcat formation…
“The first few times I think we struggled, they scored on it. We made a game time adjustment on that, and then Nate Hall came in and made a great tackle on that third and short, so that was a huge play for us.”
On penalties and momentum…
“Those two penalties were not who we are as a defense. After that touchdown, we came to the sideline, settled down, regrouped, and got back to playing physical, tough defense, playing smart and disciplined. And I think we responded well.”
On defensive approaches to contain Penn State QB Christian Hackenberg…
“We gave them different looks, one thing we’re doing is to give different linemen some different blitzes, just trying to keep them on their toes, and making that adjustment after they started more of the roll out stuff, just making the adjustments of how they’re trying to use him, and we adjusted well to it.”
Penn State Head Coach James Franklin
On missed opportunities...
“We started out slow, especially on the offensive side of the ball. They were able to run the ball on us consistently, really all day long… It’s hard to give up a kickoff return for a touchdown and be successful. Plus, our kickoffs all day long were inconsistent, and they were able to sway field position in the punt game. Basically at the end we had opportunity forming an offense, forming a defense; missed opportunities. Missed opportunities to break tackles and make people miss for first downs. Opportunities for interceptions, just opportunities across the board.”
On running the ball...
“We weren’t able to run the ball consistently in the first half, we got it going a little bit in the second half. We got a little bit more aggressive which I think helped us, but at the end we weren’t able to play winning football the way we needed to.”
“We’ve been really good against the run for a long time, but we were not today. I did think they were doing a bunch of look-look stuff to the sideline, finding out what we were lined up in defensively, and then checking the play and running into looks that I think they anticipated and could see. We’d have to watch the film and look at that and make some adjustments obviously.”
On preparing for QBs Thorson/Oliver....
“Our plan was to stop the number one. He went out of the game and the number two guy came in and made some big plays at critical times for them.”
On the effectiveness of the passing game…
“Overall these guys have done a good job of saying ‘We’re not going to give up the big play.’ They were also overloading and slanting to our tight end in the run game. But they took the philosophy we’re not going to give up the big play, we’re going to consistently throw the underneath stuff and see if you can do that consistently enough to beat us.”
On the Wildcat in the last offensive series…
“The Wildcat had really been the one formation that we had success running the ball with all day long.”
On the trick pass…
“It was just us being aggressive. We had probably eight plays like that in the game plan; shot plays, aggressive plays. It felt like we weren’t moving the ball the way we needed to move the ball so we needed to do some things to loosen them up and be aggressive and take some shots.”
On Carl Nassib...
“Obviously he’s the guy who’s leading the country in sacks, and is all-time sack leader in school history, so not having him out there is significant. We’ll see. We weren’t able to have him out there at the end of the game, but hopefully we’ll be able to get him back soon.“
On special teams…
“There’s no doubt that we have to play better on kickoff. I mean, the game plan was not to squib the kick. We didn’t call to squib the kick and we squibbed it every single time. He came to the sideline and we had him go kick in the net and try to make some adjustments and things like that, but that was not part of the game plan… Either way, we’ve got to cover the kick and we’ve got to make the tackle.”
On coming out of a loss...
“You’re always frustrated after a loss. You’d like to go into a bye on a positive note and get healthy. The bye is coming late in the season but we’re going to take it. There’s no doubt you’d like to go into a bye with a win feeling really good, getting ready for those last two games. Our guys bounce back and are resilient. We’ll come in on Sunday and have our normal practice, and go from there.”
On the offensive line…
“I thought early on we didn’t do well. Statistically, this defense had been playing well all year long. Offense had been struggling here as of recent. I think our O-line struggled early in the game. We were able to get them settled down at some point and take some shots and use some of the Wildcat and some other things to create a running game. But early on, we weren’t really successful.”
Penn State Student-Athlete Quotes
LB Jason Cabinda
On Northwestern’s ability to run the ball…
“I think they had a good gameplan. They were undermanned at some points on the sides of the field where they were running the ball. They had a lot of ‘check-with-me’ on the line, identifying what we were doing.”
On planning for dual threat quarterback Clayton Thorson, and facing traditional quarterback Oliver…
“We prepare the same every single week. Dual threat quarterback or not, our rules really stay the same, to be honest.”
On facing RB Justin Jackson….
“In terms of a true running back, we’ve faced backs that were just as good if not better. I think a lot of our fits in the run game came from how dynamic the back was. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a very good back. We faced a very good team today, we didn’t make enough plays and made too many mistakes.”
WR Chris Godwin
On Geno Lewis’s trick play that resulted in a touchdown pass…
“We kind of fool around with it after practice. Geno thinks he’s a better quarterback than he actually is, but he gave a great throw out there. I guess all the practice we’ve been doing afterwards is paying off.”
On having opportunities to win on the road in the Big Ten…
“Any time you play a Big Ten opponent, it’s a tough challenge. Every team in the Big Ten presents a different challenge, and we have to readjust our game and execute. We have to fight for everything we do and earn every opportunity.”
On Northwestern’s defensive game-plan in the first half…
“I think they were doing a better job of executing than us. They showed a little bit of a couple different coverages than what we were expecting, so that threw off the passing game a little bit. At the same time, we have to make our in-game adjustments and go on the fly.”
On improving offensively in the second half…
“It definitely came down to execution. We made some adjustments at halftime, came out, and played Penn State football. Unfortunately we weren’t able to finish it off, but that’s something we can learn from, from here.”
QB Christian Hackenberg
On losing the game after Penn State’s late rally…
“We were able to fight back, but at the end of the day, they were better than us today. You have to give them a lot of credit. They game-planned well. They did a great job with film study. A lot of the things that we thought we were going to be able to have, from last year and their previous games, they’ve done a great job of correcting those things. They made it tough for us sometimes, so a ton of credit to them. We have to regroup this bye week, get our bodies right, get our heads right and be able to finish strong.”
On Northwestern’s defense denying the long pass and underneath throw and VanHoose’s interception…
“They did a good job of both. Situationally, it was tough. It was hard for us sometimes to take our shots. Timing wise, they did a great job of calling stuff, and when things were underneath that we needed, they did a good job. 23 [CB Nick VanHoose] was sitting on that all day and a lot of credit to him being able to make that play, that late in the game, it was big.”
On scrutiny from NFL scouts attending the game…
“I worry about what my teammates expect of me, and what I need to do here at Penn State right now to be the best football player I can be for this football team. Whatever they ask me to do, that’s what I’m trying to do to the best of my ability.”
