Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes vs. Iowa (Oct. 21, 2017)
Northwestern vs. Iowa
Ryan Field
October 21, 2017
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern
Dan and Susan Jones Family Head Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement
“I want to start off with, you know we honored–you could argue–the best football team ever to play here at Northwestern with the 1962 team and to have about 30 of those guys last night at our reception. And to see the camaraderie and the chemistry and the brotherhood 55 years removed from them being No. 1 in the country, I thought was one of the more special opportunities that I’ve had to experience our Wildcat family as a head coach last night. And then to honor the late great Ara Parseghian with a patch on our helmet, – I said when I went to South Bend for his services and I talked to Katie, his wonderful bride, about a month ago and I asked again on Monday if it was okay if we honored coach. A great friend, a great mentor and an unbelievable coach that we honored today, so my hope is that he’s looking down on these guys with a big smile on his face, hanging out with Walk and some of our other Wildcats that are up there, probably playing the back half of their 18 holes right now in heaven. Just special for that.
To the game, just really proud of our guys. I thought we were really resilient, we knew this was going to be a battle. And playing a team that we have so much respect for and watching the way they played on tape preparing for today, we knew it was going to be a struggle, we were going to have to fight for every inch and that’s exactly what happened. Down the stretch, great players show up in big time moments and to see some of those plays, big time players make big time plays in those moments and we had guys step up. Great team win, I’m very thankful for our students that came out today and we’re going to need you again next week as we get ready to take on a great Spartan team at 2:30. So I’m very thankful for our student support and our fan support coming out to be a part of it.”
On Justin Jackson’s 23-yard catch in overtime…
“What a great play. He got the ball in space, and was just being Justin. It looked like a pure attitude play. He made some great players miss. To see the way that he did that was really very Justin Jackson.”
On choosing to play for overtime…
“It was the same thing I did at the end of the first half. We’re going into the wind. As you saw, you probably had a better vantage point from the top seeing Charlie’s field goal, that thing almost backed up. I felt like our defense was playing really well. I wanted to run the ball on first down to see if we could force Kirk [Ferentz] to take his timeouts, and then we could be aggressive after that. I did not want to punt into that wind. It was because our defense was playing so well - and so was theirs - and so I wanted to play a 25-yard game. So that was the decision that we made, and to our guys’ credit they went out and executed there in overtime. Great job on them.”
On reason for Big Ten defensive battles…
“It’s probably the familiarity with each other. You look at the consistency in our league from a coach’s standpoint and from a playing standpoint. As I was saying in my post-game interview with WGN, I see Kirk and his staff before the game and it’s like seeing your cousin. We’ve been playing against each other forever. And after the game I was like ‘We’ve got to stop doing this to each other.’ And I’m going to do the same thing next week with Coach Dantonio and his crew. We’ve been playing with each other for a while and we all know and respect each other. That’s what makes this league so special.”
On big plays down the stretch…
“Big interception, right? In a tight game, any time we can take a possession away that’s huge. And they had the wind so they were probably going to flip the field on us. It was a field position battle game. You could tell early on that was how this was going to go. And then obviously the fourth down play, we were pretty fortunate there. It was a check route that we told the guys they were going to run - they scored on it and completed it three other times. So that was what we anticipated. So credit to [the defense] for executing at the end of the game. We had a drop on a critical fourth down and they had a drop on a critical fourth down, so it’s a wash.”
On the defense picking up the offense’s struggles the past few weeks…
“I’m going to go back to what I said on Monday. We played two top-ten teams with two top-ten defenses, so that’s going to happen. We’ve played outstanding defenses. But I think Iowa played a pretty damn good defense in us. It’s a defensive league. So, when that happens, you’re playing for every millimeter out there. Our offensive line the last few weeks has been much improved. I thought [Iowa’s] sacks today were created because they covered us and because we held the ball.”
On how the wind factored into his fourth down decision to go for it…
“I think most of those decisions were in the ‘alumni zone,’ which if I get it right, everybody says great job and if I don’t, everybody says I’m an idiot. But at any rate, we’re going to make decisions based on every factor that we have that we can look at. We talk through those things pregame, talked through it again at halftime, talked to Charlie about, ‘Where do you feel good?’ He felt great on the one we ended up kicking the field goal, he felt good from the distance prior to it when we went for it on fourth down. But I just felt like trying to get a touchdown there could really give us an opportunity to see some momentum. And to Iowa’s credit they stiffened and we had to take the points when it was fourth and forever.”
On what made the front seven so effective today…
“I think they’ve been really solid for the last month. I know we gave up some points against Penn State, we gave up a couple tough ones against Wisconsin, but I think we’ve been pretty solid up front all year. Having Paddy out there for the whole game, I thought Brett had another really solid game. But it starts up front. It starts up front. And I thought our defensive line, again, from the way that they’re preparing–it’s showing up on Saturday. I mean for them to play as consistent as they’re playing right now it goes back to the way that they’re preparing. And they’re doing just a terrific job. Marty Long and Deonte Gibson are doing a great job with those guys.”
On how calm the atmosphere in the locker room was at halftime…
“Depends on which side of the ball you’re talking about. Offensively we were pretty demonstrative because we thought we weren’t fighting. Especially on the perimeter, I’ve never been a part of a game where we had three offensive pass interference calls so I’m going to have to look at that to see what we have to do to coach better. But I’m tired of watching people grab the crap out of us. You know we play two teams that are just grabbing us–our jerseys are getting pulled–and everybody says we don’t get separation. Now we go out and play physical and we get OPI’s. I’ll take the penalties of aggression but we’re not going to let people hold us. So I have to take a look and see how we can coach better. It starts with us, but we’re not going to allow that nonsense to happen again so we’ll take a look at it and see how we can coach better.
On Ara Parseghian and thinking about him today...
“I really thought about him over the weekend when I knew we were honoring the 1962 team. I feel very fortunate to have the relationship that I have. I told the guys last night when I was visiting with the ’62 team, I got ten small slices of him, ten great days when I went to lunch with him on spring break when I was down in Naples and he was in Marco. And his wisdom, his support, his friendship, that’ll be something that I will cherish. You know up in my office are obviously pictures of my family, our seniors, our team, Gary and myself, and then a picture of myself and Ara. He had that type of impact on me. And for us to win today when we were honoring him, it’s a big deal for us collectively. But selfishly, it’s a big deal for me, it’s a big deal personally.”
On Hunter Niswander’s 80-yard punt…
“He was punting with the wind. I don’t know if you guys play golf. Not well? Me neither. But into the wind, you drop it low and drive it, and with the wind you tee it high and let it fly. I think he’s had a really good senior campaign, and I’m really happy for him. I thought there was a couple plays out there where I thought we were really close to popping one of the punt returns. But that wind was playing tricks on both side’s returners. It was not an easy wind to try to field the ball in. Did you see the guy come out and try [to catch punts in an on-field game] in between? I just talked to Riley [Lees], and he’s just like ‘Coach, it’s moving all over the place,’ and I think we’ll get it going next week. I’ve got great confidence in both of those guys. You saw Riley’s ability to make guys miss on that one return.”
On Charlie Kuhbander’s confidence and going for 4th down conversions…
“Charlie knows I’ve got great confidence in him. I have 100 percent confidence that Charlie can make any kick that I put him out there for. And I have 100 percent confidence that he won’t miss when I don’t put him out there. Especially in those areas where you’re that ‘alumni zone,’ you try to be aggressive. We’re trying to be aggressive, we’re playing to win. As we talk through things, we talk through it during the week, we talk through it in game, sometimes it adjusts and changes in game with what we’re going to do and how we’ll do it. My decisions to go for it on fourth down have zero to do with Charlie. I have 100 percent confidence in his ability. I’m not going to put him in a situation where I don’t feel 100 percent confident that he’s going to make the kick.
On having the first possession in overtime…
“I’d rather go defense. Just by knowing what we have to do. Obviously, they had the advantage by knowing they had to go for it on fourth down. You always want to try to choose defense there. We had the choice [of] do we want to go into the wind or play with the wind, and that’s why I chose to go overtime, I wanted to go play with the wind, at least in the first overtime. In case we did have to go offense first, that even if we didn’t gain a yard, I felt confident that Charlie would make that field goal.”
Defensive End Joe Gaziano
On limiting Iowa’s running game…
“Yeah, Iowa likes to run the ball, it’s no secret, everyone knows it. At the beginning of the week we were focusing on stopping the run, setting the edge and making him cut it up into the heart of our defense. We have linebackers like Nate [Hall] and Paddy [Fisher] and Brett [Walsh] who can make plays when we make him cut it back, so we focus a lot on trying to make the ball carrier cut inside of the defensive ends and bottle it up there.”
On the progression of the defense throughout the season…
“I think we’re a more cohesive unit. We have waves of guys who can come out and play, it’s not just the starters who are making plays. We have a lot of guys who can make those plays and a lot of guys who know the defense, so we’re using everyone we got and we were able to play well together, too. We’re able to play off each other and know where our teammates are at any given time.”
On whether stopping Akrum Wadley was similar to stopping Saquon Barkley…
“It’s similar, but a little different, because they’re different runners and they block up front differently schematically. So the way we played today was setting our edges, and the way we played against Saquon was more staying in our gaps and controlling our blocks. We knew that today if we made him cut it up then we had guys flowing, we had our linebackers coming over the top and our defensive linemen coming down the line. So a little bit different, but similar in the way that we had to make the ball carrier go in a different direction than they wanted to block it.”
Linebacker Nate Hall
On the progression of the defense throughout the season…
“The young guys in the front seven are playing well. Paddy Fisher, Blake Gallagher when he gets his number called, those guys are stepping up and playing well. When the front four is playing like they’ve been playing, it makes it easy for linebackers to make plays, and that’s what we’ve been doing.”
On the improvement of the defense after the first quarter…
“They came out and ran a little bit of a different offense than they usually do. We did a good job of adjusting and it seemed like every quarter they were kind of switching up their game plan a little bit. Sometimes we adjusted poorly, and that’s when they had a few bigger plays and things like that. But I think overall we adjusted pretty well to what they wanted to do throughout the game.”
On whether the decision to opt for overtime was a vote of confidence in the defense…
“Yeah, we let Coach Fitz manage the football game and we go out there and play and do our job to the best of our ability, so that’s that. You know, whenever we step on the field our job is to stop the opponent from scoring.”
Quarterback Clayton Thorson
On Justin’s 3rd and 9 catch in overtime…
“Well, he made a good catch, first of all. I saw two guys in the open field and I’m like, ‘Oh, they got no chance.’ And so I knew at that point that we got the first down. And then, when he kept pushing forward, I was like, ‘Holy cow, we’re going to score on the third play of overtime.’ Awesome effort, great play by him.”
On the decision to play for overtime…
“They’re our coaches, and we do what they say, but I respect their decision, and my focus then was just on overtime. You can’t think about the past.”
On his 21-yard scramble in the third quarter and hurdling a defender…
“That was a big play just because we didn’t have a whole lot of momentum at the time. They were taking away all our receivers all game. But saw a lane and just took it. That’s the bottom line.
I wasn’t sure where the first down was… so I guess I kind of did [hurdle someone].”
On Iowa’s physical defense…
“Fitz probably had some good tidbits to say about that. We can’t worry about the refs, they’re a physical team. That’s what they do.”
On Hunter Niswander’s 80-yard punt…
“That was a great punt by Hunter. Man, the thing kept bouncing, kept rolling. That was huge. It’s another piece to the momentum shift in our way. Huge punt by him.”
On the locker room discussion at halftime…
“We were taking about just things. We felt like we had things that we could do, and that we were doing to move the football. But we ended on the other side of the 50 five times, and penalties killed us. Just shooting ourselves in the foot. Thank goodness our defense was playing well, because it could have really flipped things. We just came together, and it was like, ‘Look, we got to keep going, keep playing,’ because we felt like we could move the ball, and in the second half we did.”
On if there is actual yelling in the locker room…
“Depending on how the game’s going the could be different types of yelling, but a lot of it was just sticking together, keep going. No one is calling anyone out. Our defense was playing well, and the offense had to pick it up and so it was more on the offensive side of the ball.”
On beating Iowa…
“It means a lot. It means a lot to get this win. Going into the back half on the season, we needed this one. Guys stepped up. It’s a big win, they’re a great team, and they played tough. Two big teams, and were about to play another one next week, but huge team win.”
On being aggressive on fourth downs…
“I think Fitz trusts us to get a first down, and we love that. We love going for it on fourth down. We love the trust he has in us.”
Running Back Justin Jackson
On his big play in overtime…
“I saw the end-zone was right there, just so close. I just tried to get through clean. Last week on the same play I didn’t get through clean. Tried to fix that from last week, and then tried to get that first down, keep our drive going. Trying to make a play.
I knew the guy had me manned, and that he got lost in the wash. So as soon as I caught it I didn’t know exactly where he was in relation to me. And I didn’t really know how far I was away from the first down, so I figured, just get the ball and turn up, try to get as close as I can, and if I make that guy miss, we get the first. I ended up making him miss. Don’t really know where the second guy came from, just saw him at the last second.”
On wearing down Iowa as the game went on…
“I think they were moving them all day long, credit goes to our offensive linemen, they’ve been working, responding to the challenges that we put on to them. I think we wore them down with our tempo. They don’t play too many guys, so that’s kind of what our game plan was going in”
On beating Iowa…
“It means a lot, because I think in some ways we’re very similar teams. We don’t do anything too extravagant, we kind of just go out there and do what we do. We always know there’s going to be a fight with Iowa, all the way to the end. They’re a great team, like Clayton said. They fought all the way to the end. It’s just about us getting the last punch, and that’s what it usually comes down to with these guys.”
On being aggressive on fourth down…
“Last year, we didn’t have great success in the kicking game, so he wanted us to just be aggressive offensively. This year we do have a very good kicker, but that’s who Fitz is: he’s very aggressive as a person. We love it. I always feel like we’re going to get it, I always have confidence in us. And he does too.”
Iowa
Head Coach Kirk Ferentz
Opening Statement
“We were certainly disappointed to come up short today. We played hard, did a lot of good things out there. Northwestern competed real hard too, so credit goes to them, they were good enough to get it done there in overtime. A lot of swings during the game, a lot of things that add up to make a difference. Talk about conference football, that's going to be important. Talk about a series like this, which typically is pretty hard fought and pretty close, it’s going to make a difference. It's kind of illustrative of our team right now. We've had three where we've come up short. Two [by] one touchdown, another one less than that. Those are the things that we're going to have to improve on. We're going to have to find a way to do a little bit better, be a little more detailed, find a way to make a few more plays during the course of the game so we can swing the outcome.”
On the Iowa run game and a slow second half...
“First half we moved the ball pretty well. We had good drives, sustained drives, moved it. We didn't come up with points those first two possessions but moved it into the wind, did a good job that way. Second half was clearly something different. We got off to a really slow start those first four or five possessions, then got a little traction to get back into the game. There's ebb and flow in a game certainly. It comes down to details, and both teams played hard.”
On play calling today...
"We're a better football team when we run the ball efficiently. It's always been that way. That is our plan, and will continue to be our plan. We've got to do a better job of making plays that are makeable. If we have an opportunity to catch the football, we've got to do it. We had the one turnover today, and it looked like a miscommunication between the quarterback and the receiver, and he still went ahead and threw it. Those are the things that you're going to have to erase if you're going to win football games.”
On if the defense deserved a win...
“That's how football goes. If we had held them to one less point during regulation, then we'd have won the game. Some days it's going to be like that, and some days it's going to go the other way. Bottom line, you either play good enough to win or you don't, and we've got to be better.”
On the offensive line...
“I'd think there would be lots of frustration. Today we didn't get enough points to win the football game. That's just part of football, if you're not moving it consistently enough. We had some really good drives today, and give them credit, they've got a tough defense. They played good defensive football. We didn't execute consistently enough, and we're going to have to eliminate some mental errors up front, missed assignments, a couple drops. Those things are the things that kill drives, and if we're going to build drives, sustain drives, we're going to have to be cleaner.”
On the last play and Noah Fant...
“He's doing a lot of good things for us. It’s probably illustrative of our team right now. We're not quite there yet, and when you're not quite there you come up short, be it by a touchdown, or this one was a touchdown in overtime. That's part of this process. He's done a lot of good things, and that's illustrative of our team too. We're seeing a lot of positive things too. You got to play through that. We didn't lose the game on that. You can go back, and there's a lot of plays to look at. I think as big as any was the quarterback scramble, when it was third-and-forever and the guy made a good run on that one. We didn't blow that, he just made a really good play.”
Kicker Miguel Recinos
On his 48-yard field goal…
“I didn’t know if we were going to go for it or kick the field goal, but once we got the delay of game [penalty] I realized we were going to have to try and send it to OT. I was vaguely thinking that we had a couple of timeouts… but I remember when the ball was snapped I didn’t hear any whistles so in that split second I was like, “well…I better make this!” and I was able to do it.”
On the wind affecting the kicking range…
“It was somewhat variable; the wind was a little strange out there. I would go tell Coach Woods that I think we’re in range or not. He said ‘I think we can hit from 55 pretty easily with this wind’, so once we crossed the 37 we were in range.”
On punter Ryan Gersonde’s play…
“We’ve all watched Ryan [Gersonde] and we know he’s a good punter, and we let him know ‘We need these punts from you,’ but we know he can get them. He’s done a very good job. He gave us a chance to win today.”
