Northwestern 24, Ball State 19 • Postgame Quotes
Northwestern vs. Ball State
Ryan Field
September 26, 2015
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement...
"I thought we responded well. Had a lot of guys go down and opportunities for a tremendous step-up and I thought that was most important. So we'll look at where our personnel is at as we try to move forward. But I was really proud of the guys that did step up and go out there and maybe not expect to play as much as they did, but they got the job done. A lot of room for improvement as you all saw, but they found a way to win, that's what's important. A lot of respect for Coach Lembo and his program. I knew this game would be harder than maybe people outside of our building thought, especially after what we've had to go through in the first three weeks of the season, playing the competition that we did, but I thought our guys responded in the second half and found a way to win."
On the second half turnaround...
"When I brought the group up at halftime, we didn't have to make a heck of a lot of adjustments, we just had to go out and play. And that's really what we talked about in our position groups. We talked about what we had to do and how we were going to go out and do it. I thought we came out with a mindset that we were going to find a way to win and that's what we did."
On redshirt sophomore Clayton Thorson's performance in the second half...
"I think he just trusted himself and he took what the defense gave him. It's a process at quarterback. It's never the same, every rep isn't the same and I think he's handled the ebb and flow very well. I don't think he's been too high with success and I don't think he's been too low when we've had adversity. That's a young man that's growing and understanding the significance of his role. Obviously, we have to take care of the football better. But when we need to make some plays we did, and we found a way to win this. We needed to go 1-0 today, and that's what we did."
On this week's wide receiving play...
"I thought there was some pretty darn good plays by them. I really thought they responded in practice. I thought they took what their play looked like on video to heart and they tried to go out there and do something about it. I definitely feel like from the communication over the headphones and from what I saw, it was a much better performance."
On non-conference play...
"We've found a way to win. I think we've played very stiff competition. We knew exactly what we were getting into today. But you also have that ability as a Ball State to come into Big Ten arenas as they have, as our guys were sky-high to play Stanford and Duke, and I obviously didn't do a good enough job getting them prepared to play. I thought we had good emotion all week and I thought we came out of the tunnel ready to go. But we obviously didn't execute that way. But I'm proud of the guys, they've persevered, guys stepped up, we found a way to win, and we move on."
Northwestern Player Quotes
DL Dean Lowry
On main difficulties for the defense…
“I don’t think we did a good enough job as defensive linemen to put pressure on the quarterback today. I think that’ll be something to look forward to—affecting the quarterback more, as we did in the first three games.”
DB Traveon Henry
On seeing teammates get injured…
“I wouldn’t say it’s tough as a player because we really instill the idea that the next man up had to be ready to go whenever it was their time to shine. It is kind of tough personally because you never want to see a guy go out. I know I’ve been in that position. There’s a lot of uncertainty especially with injuries, but in the heat of the game you just have to move on and hope the next guy is ready to play.”
QB Clayton Thorson
On the biggest change in the offense…
“I just started going through my progressions. I think in the first half I was just guessing a little bit and I just wasn’t doing what I’m coached to do. When I started to do that it started to work—its funny how that works out. Things started working out for us.”
On feedback from coaches at halftime…
“We all were just encouraging each other. Nothing really needed to be said. We knew what we could do and we just needed to do it like coach was saying. I think that happened in the second half.”
On his first half interception…
“I think Miles did the right thing and that was my fault. I need to go through my progressions. I didn’t do it on that play and that’s going to cost us, and I can’t do that moving forward. Great protection up front. Miles ran a great route. I can’t do that. I need to learn from that and move on.”
RB Justin Jackson
On team’s mind set going into the last drive…
“We knew that we were going to have to give up a few downs to win the game. We had a few great third down conversions. We knew that we hadn’t played exactly how we wanted to in the entire game, but we knew that we had to finish. What happened before didn’t really matter we just have to finish. I think … we left them with ten seconds and I think that was a good job with our offense.”
SB Dan Vitale
On the offense’s struggles…
“Some of the struggles were just because we didn’t execute on offense. We did some great things in the third quarter. From here on out we have to trust our coaches’ game plan and just execute every single play consistently.”
On where team is going into next week…
“Our maturity is definitely showing. Last year and the year before that we might not have won a game like this. I think we’re doing a good job of finding ways to win. Obviously we need to execute more consistently on offense and really buy into our game plan because we’ve seen how good we can be when we do that, and we’ve seen the struggles when we don’t.”
Ball State Head Coach Pete Lembo
“I’m sure we’ll be kicking ourselves when we watch the film tomorrow, and we’ll be thinking that this is the one that got away, but there will be some good things to build on as well.”
On Northwestern’s second half performance...
“They threw it more, for sure. There’s no question about that. They spread things out and threw it more. They went a little bit faster and we had a couple big busts that were obvious and then a few that were a little bit slighter, where we might have not matched up with some of the receivers on some of those over the middle throws as well as we could. Gutsy effort by the defense, the third quarter was probably the worst of the four. But, we gave ourselves a few chances in the fourth, and really had another shot, and they converted a third and seven on that lead draw at the end. We had one more shot to get it back with pretty good field position there. Not a bad effort by any means, but one where we needed to make a few more plays.”
On the running game...
“Solid running game for sure. I think we were pretty balanced. I think we needed to stay on the field more. It’s been an interesting four games so far, because the opponents have been so different. I’m not getting hung up on statistics right now. We’re going to try to get a little bit better every day in practice, try to grow up a little bit, and just keep playing. We’ve got a good bunch of kids, and we’re going to continue to try to take what the defense has given us, and I thought this was a very good defense that we went up against tonight. They were fast and I thought they played hard for sixty minutes too.”
Ball State Player Quotes
WR Jordan Williams
On his two touchdown catches…
“I was just able to go out there and make plays. A lot of them were plays that were 50-50 balls and just being able to do that was good. They did a lot of one-on-one, cover four, so there were just opportunities for me to make plays.”
On his first half catch with one foot in-bounds…
“I was taught to catch the ball and then worry about the feet. I was in the air, so I tried to get the quickest foot I could down and in bounds, so it happened to work out good.”
“Obviously, being an outside receiver, you’ve got to be aware of the sideline because that is the defender’s help. If you can create room for the quarterback to throw a ball, you can make a play on it. Obviously it helps you out and it helps the quarterback out.”
On playing a Power 5 school…
“Obviously, you play with a chip on your shoulder because you are seen as the underdog. We would like to play like that every game. It’s not really a big deal who you play. Just because they’re a big school, it’s just like every game. We’re supposed to go in and assume we can beat them. It wouldn’t matter if they were SEC, Big Ten, ACC, it doesn’t matter.”
On Northwestern’s top-ranked defense…
“They were telling us that they are the top defense in the nation, but if we did our job and did what we were supposed to do, it wouldn’t matter who we were playing.”
QB Riley Neal
On his first start…
“It was alright. I know there are a lot of things that I need to work on, starting with that fumble on the 5-yard line.”
On if there are differences between playing a MAC team versus a Big Ten team…
“Not really. If you look at our league, Northern Illinois competed with Ohio State. Toledo’s had two impressive wins, with one over Arkansas. There’s some good teams in the MAC so we’ve got to come out and play every week.”
On scoring two touchdowns against Northwestern…
“Its hard to feel good about a game coming off a loss. Those plays specifically felt good but as a whole, its not very good.”
On what they need to work on before next week…
“Plenty of things. Play gritty defense better, small things like that.”
Ryan Field
September 26, 2015
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement...
"I thought we responded well. Had a lot of guys go down and opportunities for a tremendous step-up and I thought that was most important. So we'll look at where our personnel is at as we try to move forward. But I was really proud of the guys that did step up and go out there and maybe not expect to play as much as they did, but they got the job done. A lot of room for improvement as you all saw, but they found a way to win, that's what's important. A lot of respect for Coach Lembo and his program. I knew this game would be harder than maybe people outside of our building thought, especially after what we've had to go through in the first three weeks of the season, playing the competition that we did, but I thought our guys responded in the second half and found a way to win."
On the second half turnaround...
"When I brought the group up at halftime, we didn't have to make a heck of a lot of adjustments, we just had to go out and play. And that's really what we talked about in our position groups. We talked about what we had to do and how we were going to go out and do it. I thought we came out with a mindset that we were going to find a way to win and that's what we did."
On redshirt sophomore Clayton Thorson's performance in the second half...
"I think he just trusted himself and he took what the defense gave him. It's a process at quarterback. It's never the same, every rep isn't the same and I think he's handled the ebb and flow very well. I don't think he's been too high with success and I don't think he's been too low when we've had adversity. That's a young man that's growing and understanding the significance of his role. Obviously, we have to take care of the football better. But when we need to make some plays we did, and we found a way to win this. We needed to go 1-0 today, and that's what we did."
On this week's wide receiving play...
"I thought there was some pretty darn good plays by them. I really thought they responded in practice. I thought they took what their play looked like on video to heart and they tried to go out there and do something about it. I definitely feel like from the communication over the headphones and from what I saw, it was a much better performance."
On non-conference play...
"We've found a way to win. I think we've played very stiff competition. We knew exactly what we were getting into today. But you also have that ability as a Ball State to come into Big Ten arenas as they have, as our guys were sky-high to play Stanford and Duke, and I obviously didn't do a good enough job getting them prepared to play. I thought we had good emotion all week and I thought we came out of the tunnel ready to go. But we obviously didn't execute that way. But I'm proud of the guys, they've persevered, guys stepped up, we found a way to win, and we move on."
Northwestern Player Quotes
DL Dean Lowry
On main difficulties for the defense…
“I don’t think we did a good enough job as defensive linemen to put pressure on the quarterback today. I think that’ll be something to look forward to—affecting the quarterback more, as we did in the first three games.”
DB Traveon Henry
On seeing teammates get injured…
“I wouldn’t say it’s tough as a player because we really instill the idea that the next man up had to be ready to go whenever it was their time to shine. It is kind of tough personally because you never want to see a guy go out. I know I’ve been in that position. There’s a lot of uncertainty especially with injuries, but in the heat of the game you just have to move on and hope the next guy is ready to play.”
QB Clayton Thorson
On the biggest change in the offense…
“I just started going through my progressions. I think in the first half I was just guessing a little bit and I just wasn’t doing what I’m coached to do. When I started to do that it started to work—its funny how that works out. Things started working out for us.”
On feedback from coaches at halftime…
“We all were just encouraging each other. Nothing really needed to be said. We knew what we could do and we just needed to do it like coach was saying. I think that happened in the second half.”
On his first half interception…
“I think Miles did the right thing and that was my fault. I need to go through my progressions. I didn’t do it on that play and that’s going to cost us, and I can’t do that moving forward. Great protection up front. Miles ran a great route. I can’t do that. I need to learn from that and move on.”
RB Justin Jackson
On team’s mind set going into the last drive…
“We knew that we were going to have to give up a few downs to win the game. We had a few great third down conversions. We knew that we hadn’t played exactly how we wanted to in the entire game, but we knew that we had to finish. What happened before didn’t really matter we just have to finish. I think … we left them with ten seconds and I think that was a good job with our offense.”
SB Dan Vitale
On the offense’s struggles…
“Some of the struggles were just because we didn’t execute on offense. We did some great things in the third quarter. From here on out we have to trust our coaches’ game plan and just execute every single play consistently.”
On where team is going into next week…
“Our maturity is definitely showing. Last year and the year before that we might not have won a game like this. I think we’re doing a good job of finding ways to win. Obviously we need to execute more consistently on offense and really buy into our game plan because we’ve seen how good we can be when we do that, and we’ve seen the struggles when we don’t.”
Ball State Head Coach Pete Lembo
“I’m sure we’ll be kicking ourselves when we watch the film tomorrow, and we’ll be thinking that this is the one that got away, but there will be some good things to build on as well.”
On Northwestern’s second half performance...
“They threw it more, for sure. There’s no question about that. They spread things out and threw it more. They went a little bit faster and we had a couple big busts that were obvious and then a few that were a little bit slighter, where we might have not matched up with some of the receivers on some of those over the middle throws as well as we could. Gutsy effort by the defense, the third quarter was probably the worst of the four. But, we gave ourselves a few chances in the fourth, and really had another shot, and they converted a third and seven on that lead draw at the end. We had one more shot to get it back with pretty good field position there. Not a bad effort by any means, but one where we needed to make a few more plays.”
On the running game...
“Solid running game for sure. I think we were pretty balanced. I think we needed to stay on the field more. It’s been an interesting four games so far, because the opponents have been so different. I’m not getting hung up on statistics right now. We’re going to try to get a little bit better every day in practice, try to grow up a little bit, and just keep playing. We’ve got a good bunch of kids, and we’re going to continue to try to take what the defense has given us, and I thought this was a very good defense that we went up against tonight. They were fast and I thought they played hard for sixty minutes too.”
Ball State Player Quotes
WR Jordan Williams
On his two touchdown catches…
“I was just able to go out there and make plays. A lot of them were plays that were 50-50 balls and just being able to do that was good. They did a lot of one-on-one, cover four, so there were just opportunities for me to make plays.”
On his first half catch with one foot in-bounds…
“I was taught to catch the ball and then worry about the feet. I was in the air, so I tried to get the quickest foot I could down and in bounds, so it happened to work out good.”
“Obviously, being an outside receiver, you’ve got to be aware of the sideline because that is the defender’s help. If you can create room for the quarterback to throw a ball, you can make a play on it. Obviously it helps you out and it helps the quarterback out.”
On playing a Power 5 school…
“Obviously, you play with a chip on your shoulder because you are seen as the underdog. We would like to play like that every game. It’s not really a big deal who you play. Just because they’re a big school, it’s just like every game. We’re supposed to go in and assume we can beat them. It wouldn’t matter if they were SEC, Big Ten, ACC, it doesn’t matter.”
On Northwestern’s top-ranked defense…
“They were telling us that they are the top defense in the nation, but if we did our job and did what we were supposed to do, it wouldn’t matter who we were playing.”
QB Riley Neal
On his first start…
“It was alright. I know there are a lot of things that I need to work on, starting with that fumble on the 5-yard line.”
On if there are differences between playing a MAC team versus a Big Ten team…
“Not really. If you look at our league, Northern Illinois competed with Ohio State. Toledo’s had two impressive wins, with one over Arkansas. There’s some good teams in the MAC so we’ve got to come out and play every week.”
On scoring two touchdowns against Northwestern…
“Its hard to feel good about a game coming off a loss. Those plays specifically felt good but as a whole, its not very good.”
On what they need to work on before next week…
“Plenty of things. Play gritty defense better, small things like that.”
