Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes vs. Michigan State (Oct. 28, 2017)
Northwestern vs. Michigan State
Ryan Field
October 28, 2017
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern
Dan and Susan Jones Family Head Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement
“What a heck of a ball game between two, I think, really well-matched teams. If you look at the regulation aspect it was a really hard fought defensive game and I think that will get lost in the final stats. But I thought it was a really well hard-fought defensive game. It was tough to gain any inches on either side. It was kind of a game of big plays and then to see the way someone had to make a defensive stop and the way that we got it done there at the end, it was great, credit to our guys, great resiliency. Obviously, we’ve got a lot of things we need to shore up. I’m sure you’ll grill me on those thought-provoking questions so I’ll shut up and answer anything you guys have for me.”
On how the team started moving the ball so well…
“Well you know I thought we moved it fairly decent most of the game. We just had some breakdowns it looked like there, some drops, some missed targeted throws. It looked like we were a block away from a couple of big runs most of the day. And then it became a 25-yard game again. And now that’s two weeks in a row we’ve gotten into overtime and I think our offense has executed pretty well. And we needed to make a defensive stop and we got it done. But I thought Clayton [Thorson] had a career day throwing the football, he was pretty much spot-on most of the day.”
On if he thinks Clayton has gotten a lot better throughout the season…
“All that matters is we win. Every play is going to be over-analyzed when you’re the quarterback, that’s the way life is. You know it’s the same thing when you’re the coach, you do this and it’s like, ‘Why?’ Same thing as the quarterback. You know today, I just think he took what the defense gave him, I thought we had a really good plan. I thought Mick [McCall] and the offensive staff did a terrific job putting together a plan to take what the defense gave us. I mean they had everybody in the box now, they had everybody to stop the run, and we didn’t stop trying. We tried to get creative and tried to get some angles and numbers. Again, I think we’re going to watch the tape and see we were a block away from really popping and getting the run game going. So, we’ve got to shore that up. A ton of big plays by a bunch of guys, I mean Flynn [Nagel], Cam Green, you know we may not have been able to get Jackson going in the run game but he made a bunch of plays out of the backfield. So, all-in-all, I thought offensively, against that defense, to get 39 points was pretty good. Even though it’s skewed because of the overtime stuff.”
On what his main game plan was for a dual-threat quarterback like Lewerke…
“Well the dual threat didn’t hurt us, scrambles hurt us. And there were calls that we made that we didn’t execute, to be able to have someone there. You know the big fourth down scramble we had two spies on and when you run beyond the quarterback you give them what we call the side-door exit you can’t do that. So, we’ve got to look at some things we did schematically. They lived in empty at the end of the game, nobody in the backfield. And we talked about different adjustments that we wanted to go to, I got to take a hard look at that with Hank [Mike Hankwitz] and the defensive staff to see how we can shore some things up there.”
On how Paddy Fisher has come along, how he still need to improve…
“From the standpoint of Paddy, I just think his confidence is going up and up every play, every rep. He’s got a great work ethic in practice, the way that he prepares. I just think the sky’s the limit for that young man. He’s just a terrific football player. His instincts, his range, his physicality, his understanding of what people are trying to do. It’s not a surprise to me at all, that’s what he did in high school. You know he’s from Katy, Texas and Katy High School is one of the most dominant, powerhouse football programs in the country. And he was so well-prepared when he got here, so well-prepared. And hopefully we can just continue to develop him and he can be the best player he can be.”
On making decision to call a pass for Justin…
“Training camp, it’s probably when we put it in. I don’t know when we started talking about it. Probably a month ago, two months ago we’ve had it in the game plan. It just hasn’t fit with what we were maybe playing against. It looked like a really bad throw, but productive. So I’m not going to coach him on it. All that matters is that we caught it.”
On how his defense played in the overtime period…
“Well we needed to make a play. And both offenses just got rolling. Both quarterbacks I thought were playing really well. And we needed to make a play and then obviously we were able to get that there on the last play. So, like I said, there’s a lot of things defensively we’ve got to shore up.”
On where this game ranks in terms of ‘pure football games he’s played in the last few years…
“Well the modern fan will probably be more excited about this game, because everybody just wants to see 98-97, I’m assuming. I just want to win, I don’t care what it takes. And games have different ebb and flow, different schematics and adjustments you have to make. The way you’re playing and executing makes you have to play into that also. I thought it was a heck of a college football game. I thought both teams battled their rear ends off. There was emotional swings on both sides. And we just found a way to make one more play. I’ve got so much respect for Mark [Dantonio] and his staff. We’ve battled against each other a bunch. But a lot like last week with Kirk [Ferentz], you know we’re probably the three longest tenured guys in the Big Ten, or pretty close to it. There’s so much admiration and respect, that’s what we were talking about after the game, ‘We’ve got to stop doing this to each other.” But I think it’s the same thing with our young men too, they just respect the heck out of the last two opponents that we’ve played. We knew they were going to be just wars. You watched the tape, you see the physicality, you see the execution, you see the talent, you see how well-coached they are. You knew it was going to be a battle and, again, two weeks in a row we had to make a play. Last week it was Justin, this week it was Joe Gaziano, he got the strip and then on the sack and then Nate [Hall] with the pick.”
On Jackson tying record for all-time touchdowns…
“Spectacular and unbelievable. I think it's more about who he is as a person and the passion that he demonstrates. No one was more excited about that win in the locker room than Justin Jackson. He’s just a special Wildcat, and I’m not sure if Big Ten football fans understand what exactly he has accomplished. This is one of the most spectacular careers in Big Ten history. His amount of joy and humility have been a pleasure to coach.”
On having a three-game win streak...
“I think we have positive momentum right now. There was ample opportunity to make things happen in the three games that we didn’t win. I would never want to discredit our opponents, but I kind of feel like we gave those games to them. We didn’t execute and we can’t win that way. The guys have stayed on course and have worked incredibly hard in practice. They are seeing the return on their investment and that gives you confidence that the work I’m putting in I’m getting the reward for. Let’s not kid ourselves, these last two games have been absolute Big Ten wars and we’ve found a way to make one more play against two really good teams.”
On effectiveness of underneath routes…
“It depended on the coverage, and it looked like Clayton took what they gave him. A lot of similarities in structure from what we saw in the Pinstripe Bowl, with Pat Narduzzi taking what he ran at Michigan State to Pitt, and obviously those tenants go back to coach Dantonio’s defense. We were able to run some of the things that worked in the Pinstripe Bowl, and the credit goes to our guys, they executed.”
On the big plays of the game, especially Nate Hall’s interception…
“The first long one, we got pretty good pressure. Again, it’s kind of like playing backyard football with your brothers. Scramble drill, short guys go deep, deep guys go short, and that was the receiver from all the way across the field that made that play. So credit them, for making that play. And then a great rush by Joe, and a great strip… and just a great play by Nate.”
On Clayton’s success in the game…
“As a quarterback, you’re the hero or you’re the zero. That’s just the way that it works out. That’s what you sign up for. When you win, and we complete more balls than we don’t, and we don’t throw picks, it’s a special day. And he had I thought a great game. I thought he took what the defense gave him. There might have been one or two throws, maybe, that he’d like to have back, but I thought he had pretty good football awareness in the pocket when there was pressure. For the most part, the sacks that they had were probably more cover sacks than anything. I thought he had a great game.”
On needing a two-point conversion when that’s typically not needed…
“Every game plan, you have to have not only your two-point play ready… but you have to have a bank of two point plays, in case you get into the situation that we got into where you get into the third overtime, and now everybody’s got to go for two. We’ve got quite a large bank of two point plays, and when I say ‘bank’ it means we put a bunch of plays in throughout training camp every week. And then Mick and the offensive staff pull out of that bank of which plays we think are going to be successful. We had about probably ten more, if we had to go that long. I’m happy that we didn’t.”
Senior Running Back Justin Jackson
On his passing touchdown…
“Well we actually didn’t work on that this week, but we’ve been working on that since training camp. Bennett [Skowronek] always says just throw it up, so I tried to do that. It didn’t look great, but obviously it accomplished the goal.”
On the interception to end the game…
“With the strip, we all thought it was over there, but then the guy got on the ball and rolled out, and everyone was just holding their breath. He threw it up, and that’s been working all day for them, but we were able to come down with it. No one really knew what happened until Godwin [Igwebuike] put his hands up, and then I think the whole stadium erupted, so it was a pretty cool experience for sure.”
On the significance of the win…
“They all mean a lot. I only got four left now, and you kind of see the end coming. It was just really fun to have not only the guys my age, but the younger guys stepping up and trying to make this a special last go-round for all us old guys. So yeah, every single game I’m just trying to enjoy the moment.”
Junior Wide Receiver Flynn Nagel
On winning three straight games…
“I think we just need to continue to fight, I think that’s been the mentality the last few weeks, especially offensively. We need to do a better job fighting and finishing drives. I think when we get across the 50, we really preach that we need to finish drives, and I think we did a better job of that this week, so we just need to keep improving.”
On whether this win was validating for the team…
I don’t think we really needed validation, I think we’ve always had the same mentality and we’ve known that we can be a good team, so I think we’re just now starting to prove that. I wouldn’t say its validation, because I think we’ve always known that we’ve been a good team.”
On the success of the passing game…
“I think that was part of the game plan, because they stack the box and were trying to take away Justin, like teams do, so we had to beat them through the air. I think on the perimeter we did a better job separating, and I think we just fought hard, and that really helped us obviously.”
Sophomore Superback Cameron Green
On playing in a triple-overtime game…
“I’d never played in a double- or triple-overtime game like that, so it was a cool experience. It really displayed how hard we worked in the offseason, and we just really came together as a team and as a brotherhood today. It was really fun to play with every guy to my left and my right.”
On having a breakout game…
“This was pretty cool. [Michigan State safety] Matt Morrissey is one of my best friends, I’ve known him since I was a little kid, so it was really fun going up against him, seeing him play and everything. It was kind of a personal game too, since my sister goes to Michigan State, and that’s a little family battle, so I definitely got bragging rights with her. So I’m excited about that, and it was fun to play friends and family.”
On the improvement of the offensive line…
“I think they’re just really coming together. Sometimes it takes a while for a group of people to come together and play like they are. They’re just really fighting right now, fighting for every yard, fighting for Justin and for Clayton, and everyone else in our backfield. They’re just really doing a great job right now, and it’s great to see them come along and really become a brotherhood.”
Junior Quarterback Clayton Thorson
On having success against Michigan State’s Defense…
“They’re a pretty a good defense. Coming into this game they were top-ten nationally in passing yards against. I’m real proud of our guys, and it starts up front. I think we had one sack and that was because I tried to take off and run and got stopped behind the line. I think that’s our second week in a row where that’s our only sack. I’m really proud of those guys.”
On facing a stacked box…
“We tried to spread them out–they were in the box—as much as possible. They stated in there the whole game and that’s fine. There have been times when we had to win games running the ball a lot and there have been times when we had to win games passing the ball a lot, and that’s what we had to do today.”
On if he was surprised he had receivers open on intermediate routes…
“I don’t know if I was surprised, there were little things they adjusted during the game, in their zone. But, our guys just kept getting open, and I’m not going to complain. They just kept getting open, so credit to them. We had a few offensive pass interference calls called against us. Even one today that was – I won’t comment on that. But in the past few weeks we’ve had a few and I thought they did a much better job getting open on their own.”
On if it was a satisfying win…
“This is definitely one of the most satisfying victories. To see Michigan State and how much success they’ve had this year, I know that they have a few tough games remaining. But the way that we were down 10-0, came back to make it 10-7 and got a field goal at the ed of the first half to make it 10-10 on a great two-minute drill by our offense. To go up 17-10 and for them to tie it late in the game, we could have very easily got a little frustrated, but credit to our offense and defense, we kept playing. I’m so proud of our guys. These are the games that we live for. Just thinking back to playing NCAA Football and going into triple-overtime with my brothers, this is something I’ve always wanted to do, so this is awesome.”
On the offense as a unit through eight games…
“I feel really good. I think these past two weeks prior to this, against Iowa we got a win in overtime, but our offense would like to play better. And the week before, we played well against Maryland, but the two weeks prior to that we needed to get into a better rhythm. I think this is a big game for us, these past two weeks, three weeks, three Big Ten wins is really tough to do against three really good teams. This is a win that we needed and is going to catapult us for the rest of the season.”
Junior Linebacker Nate Hall
On making the last play of the game…
“I actually didn’t even know the ball had come out. I heard the crowd roar so I thought initially there was a snack. I heard no whistles and saw that he was picking the ball up and I knew he was going to try and make a play, because that’s what he had been doing all game, making plays with his feet and completing balls on broken plays. We’re taught to stay in coverage when that happens, the back seven, so that’s exactly what I did. I just was able to find the open guy behind me and stuck around him, saw the ball in the air and played the ball from there.”
On the fans storming the field…
“It’s amazing to have the support we do from our fans, just cheering on our victory. It’s an amazing feeling for everybody involved in our program. We’re very thankful for that.”
On refocusing before the overtimes…
“We just battled. That has to be the mindset. We have confidence in our offense obviously, they got the job done. It was picture perfect, scoring in two plays, scoring in three plays. We saw them battling and that inspired us to keep battling as well.”
On the defense as a unit through eight games…
“We’re going to ride this momentum. Like you saw today, we’re going to keep battling, battle through everything that faces us, whether that’s injuries, or adjustments we have to make in games. This is a team that shows that we can battle and play with the best.”
Redshirt First Year Linebacker Paddy Fisher
On Paddy’s development, goals set in camp
“The goals I set: just have to get better every day of the week. I set a goal to lead the team in tackle. I’ve been pursuing that as we go along this journey. But the growth aspect comes from the coaches pushing me, and driving me to be the best person and the best player I can be, and the guys around me as well. I just want to play for the guys to my left and my right and my front and behind.”
On what Paddy saw at the end of the game:
“Like Joe was saying, he came off the edge, made a great play. The quarterback picked it up, scrambled. Tried to put a little pressure on him, and then I turned around and saw the ball in the air, and I saw Nate come down with it. After that, it was surreal. Awesome.”
On the student section storming the field:
“That was awesome. You don’t see that every day, every week. To be a part of that, it was awesome. It shows how much the school cares, the fans care, and how much energy and passion [they have]. And they’re right behind us, throughout four quarters, plus some. It’s awesome to see that.”
On Paddy’s excellent day tackling…
“I couldn’t do it without Joe, and all the other D-linemen. I have to give the credit to them. I wouldn’t be making those plays without them and they were playing their tails off. It feels good flying around making plays. Tonight was just a great night to play football, and a great atmosphere. Again, my D-line, I have to give it up to them. Those 17 tackles go to them.”
Sophomore Defensive End Joe Gaziano
On his strip on the last play of the game…
“I was coming off the edge, and he went to throw the ball. I saw his arm come down, so I was right in position to be able to break the ball out. Reached my arm out, felt the ball come out, and then scrambled, tried to get up and get to the ball. I didn’t know who was around the ball, who was there. And then I saw the quarterback pick it up, and he made a great throw across the field. But Nate Hall made an even better play. I was watching it from the perspective of the quarterback, and it was great to see Nate come down with the ball at the goal line.”
On whether or not he likes playing Michigan State…
“They’re a great team, and I think that [with] every great team you have to step up your game. We’ve played a lot of great teams this year. I would say they’re one of the best teams we’ve played. They had a great offensive line that posed challenges for us all day. Did I enjoy this game a little bit more than others? Perhaps. But it was good to get a win today.”
On the three-win streak…
“We’ve been playing well, and we need to keep our defensive poise up. We still haven’t played our best game yet, so there’s a lot of mistakes to correct. I think this week at practice will be great for us. We have a tough opponent next week in Nebraska, and we have to make sure that we’re preparing the right way, that we have been the last few weeks, and make sure that we’re on top of our game, because we can’t let any part of it slip in the next week.”
On the fans storming the field…
“Honestly, I was too tired to go celebrate with them. So I took a knee, and watched from afar. But it was great to see, and we love the energy from the ‘Cats fans.”
Michigan State
Head Coach Mark Dantonio
Opening Statement…
“Great football game obviously. Went down to the wire. Proud of our football team. Proud of how our guys responded and played through it all, when you really look at the football game, in terms of what went down. I look at us, how we need to run the ball more effectively. We threw the ball very well, scored points, big drive at the end of the game to come back and tie it. Lost opportunity on the turnover early in the first half when we could have wound up at least 10-0 or with 14. A couple field goals hit the bar, so we’re not playing to win at the end of the game, we’re playing to tie. Defensively, stopped the run. But felt like, the run after catch. Wasn’t so much deep balls. Deep balls didn’t hurt us. But the catch and run after catch, leveraging the football. The run after catch hurt us. Two plays, their last touchdown in regulation, the half back pass. We had it almost covered. And then the jailbreak-go, in man coverage. Very proud of our football team. 6-2. Opportunity next week. 4-1 in the conference right now, so we live to play another game. I thought Lewerke played outstanding. Probably needs to throw the ball away, certainly at the end of the game.”
On Northwestern’s success with crossing routes…
“We played man coverage on them. They were running some RPOs with their replace route right behind the back. We had to get man coverage on them, which we took that away. When we pressured them on third down, which we did pressure, we didn’t get home. They protected the quarterback. He stood in the pocket or he stepped up. Then we don’t have an extra player in there to take the crossing routes, so you have to chase the crossing route in those situations, which we did, which we made some plays on them. But at the end of the game there you saw in the third overtime, the guy gets loose down the sideline and gets a touchdown. We’ve got to come back and look at what we did schematically there or the execution of it. Nobody should be turned loose. It is difficult to run from this side of the field to the other side of the field and be in great coverage, even though we were in press, if the guy is going to have time to throw the football. And when you send six guys, you’ve got to get home and affect the quarterback. You’ve got to really give their quarterback, Clayton Thorson, a lot of credit. He stood in the pocket. He played very effectively. And 21 [Justin Jackson] is a football player. We’ve been saying that all week. When they had a good play, they found ways to get the ball in his hands. He didn’t run the ball for that much. I think he probably had 50 yards rushing maybe total, but they found a way to get him the ball in space, just dumping it to him out there where we had leverage tackling wise and couldn’t quite get him down. They would move the chains. It wasn’t like they were ripping off forty-yarders, but they were moving the chains on us.”
On the mismatches created by Northwestern’s linebackers…
“Like I said, they’re going to put everybody out in the patterns. That’s five guys. Sometimes you have five defensive backs, but very rarely are you mixing it up. So, a backer’s going to be on some of those guys, and they got us into some bad matchups I think. But you try to pressure too.”
On early missed opportunities to extend the lead…
“I think we left points off the board. We missed two field goals hitting the bar, so those are inches. We didn’t find the inches. We had three shots down the field where we’re inches away from making a play. So, we didn’t find the inches today. At times we did. But to win the football game, we didn’t find the inches. If we make the field goal then we’re playing to win at the end of the game. I think at that point there’s 25 seconds to go in the game. But you never know how things are going to play out. It is what it is. We’ve got to deal with it. We’ve dealt with other things before, and we’ve got to deal with it. Again, I’ll go back to say that our football team played with conviction. They played with energy. They played with emotion. They played with intensity. They never stopped playing throughout the entire time. That’s all I can ever ask for from a football team. If there’s some execution or some plays left out on the field, from a structure standpoint, coaching wise I’m talking about, that’s always going to happen. As long as we do our very, very best and come to play and prepare, I can handle it.”
On trying to find balance against Northwestern’s defense…
“Usually when you look at us, there’s a magical number that we say h’ey we’ve got to run the ball this amount of times, because they’ve got to stop the run too.’ If you don’t ever run it, then they just start playing pass defense. So, you have to force the issue and make them stop the run to open up the passing lanes too. That’s my feeling. You can’t just say we’re going to throw it all the time, because then it becomes just a very vanilla secondary at times. Same thing on their end. We’ve got to respect No. 21 running the football. So, we’ve got to stop him. Otherwise, you saw what he did last year. It’s sort of a cat and mouse type thing I think, and you’ve got to play through it. Pay through the pain a little bit.”
Quarterback Brian Lewerke
On if the deep ball is the last aspect of his game he needs to develop…
“Yeah, learning to put touch on it. I think I did a good job on the first drive when I hit Cody [White] for that long play. And then for some reasons, it’s harder for me to hit the wide-open ones than it is to hit the covered ones. I just have to work on that a little more.”
On what he saw on the last play of the game…
“Before the fumble, I didn’t really have anywhere to go, that’s probably why I fumbled. And then I picked it up. I think it was second down so I probably should’ve thrown it away.
But, I saw [Matt] Sokol running on the right side. It looked like he had a couple of steps on the guy. It just takes a little bit bigger of an arm to make that throw and obviously you probably shouldn’t throw it in that situation anyways.”
On what went right for the team in the fourth quarter…
“They were giving us the outside flat routes, so you could get 10 yards easy every time. I knew that, I kept hitting that until they stopped it. And then, once they actually put someone out there, it opened up the middle so I started hitting the middle routes. And you know that’s just kind of something you pick up on.”
On what he can take away from this game and use as momentum moving forward…
“I think I did a decent job passing the ball. I was able to make plays when we needed to. Obviously, the stuff at the end, you can’t do that, but I feel like I really progressed [at] passing this game, which is awesome.”
Wide Receiver Felton Davis
On catching the game tying touchdown…
“I had a feeling Brian was going to look at me because I was toward the sideline by myself and he threw the ball into one-on-one coverage high and right where I wanted it. With me being 6’4” I just went up and made a play.”
On the fourth quarter game-tying drive…
“(Lewerke’s) confidence was soaring and we started to open up the playbook and just throw it. As a wide receiver unit, we have to make plays for him and keep the confidence growing week by week. We are going to carry those plays that we made and the confidence level that he had to the next week.”
On slow periods in the middle of the game…
“We missed those deep balls in the second and third quarters and we wish we could have those back. If we complete those we can keep our confidence high and keep the offense on the field and defense off the field. Obviously, we wish we could have those back.”
