Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes at Illinois (Nov. 25, 2017)
Northwestern at Illinois
Memorial Stadium
November 25, 2017
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening statement…
“I am really proud of our young men. I thought we would have to weather a storm there early and we did, so I give credit to Illinois, especially some of the wrinkles Coach McGee put in early. We had to adjust just a little bit defensively. I thought we did a terrific job of that in between series in the first quarter and after I thought our defense was absolutely dominant. This is two weeks in a row and that group up front, again today, was absolutely outstanding. From a standpoint offensively, we knew they were going to load the box a little bit. We always seemed to be a block away. I thought Adam Cushing did a great job that play that popped and the third quarter was an adjustment that Cushing made at halftime. There is not group that has improved more over this season than our offensive line. To see the way that group imposed their will over the past two weeks, for us to run for over 300 yards against a team that had every gap full, it means that won a bunch of one-on-one battles. So that credit goes to the offensive line and the way that group has improved and the job that Cushing has done with that group to say the least.
The narrative of this football team has all been based on one game and that was our difficult loss down at Duke when we were a little bit short-handed. We played a team that was really hot. I prefer if that narrative gets changed. This is one of the hottest teams in the country. A team that has dominated back-to-back weeks and a team that has improved more than anyone else in the country and anyone else in the Big Ten. I am incredibly proud of our young men for that. They went to work the minute we got off the plane. We didn’t have the results right away and we were disappointed about that, but they went to work right away and the response we have had over the past few months is a direct reflection of the way that they have prepared. So I am very proud of our seniors. I am very thankful for them and their families. It is great to send them out with a Big Ten win on the road against our rival. This is a big game for our program. When I took over the program, Mr. Ryan made it very clear to me how important this game is and I try to impress that upon our guys in training camp and put it away and then pick it back up this week. I thought we had a great week of preparation and the Land of Lincoln trophy means a lot to our program and it is the biggest game of the year for us. For us to come down here to Champaign and have a dominant performance was an exclamation point to a terrific senior class. I am proud of the way they finished but I am even more excited for one more opportunity with them.”
On the building of momentum throughout the season…
“I am not a good math guy but 39 and 42 points and only giving up seven the past two weeks means we are a pretty hot team right now. Last week was one of our best performances based on the elements that I have ever seen from a team that I have been a part of. We knew we were playing a team that was shorthanded with a lot of young guys. We knew we would get a flurry from them early and I think we weathered that. Then when we settled down and started to play our style of ball, 42 unanswered is a statement. I am very proud of the guys. This doesn’t happen by accident. This happens by the way that they have prepared. There was a lot of people taking shots at them and taking shots at our program and coaching staff. I think they answered that by shutting the noise off and doing the only thing you can and that is to go to work: roll your sleeves up and go to work. That’s why we are Chicago’s Big Ten team. If we can do that more consistently, if I can coach them better to do that, we can take the next step as a program. So it is great to be state champs. It is great to own the Land of Lincoln for another 364 days, but the destination we want to be at is Indianapolis. I am really disappointed we are not there, especially for our seniors and for our fans. But I tip my hat to the Badgers.”
On in-game adjustments against Cam Thomas’ run game…
“I didn’t talk a lot. I was doing a lot of listening. The credit goes to Hank and the defensive staff. From a standpoint of today, they put a few new wrinkles in and credit goes to Coach McGee, I thought he did a lot of good things. The one long run we miss fit it. The next run they had a hat for a hat because they hadn’t seen that yet. So Hank came up with some adjustments and the guys went out and made them. I thought we tackled really well today. We may be the best tackling team in the country. As hard as we work at it, we take great angles. We don't miss very many and when we do, we don’t chart it. I don’t really care about missed tackles, I care about bad angles, bad footwork and a lack of aggression. If we have those three in order, I don’t mind a guy takes a shot at a guy, but then the cavalry has to be there. We have played really good team defense all year.”
DT Tyler Lancaster
On playing on offense…
“It was pretty awesome, I didn’t even know about it until yesterday afternoon. The coaches said, “Tyler stay behind, work with the offense a little. We are going to try to get you to run this play.” It was supposed to be a touchdown, and you know Jesse scored it, it wasn’t supposed to go out, but then it did. It was awesome, though.”
DE Joe Gaziano
On his strip…
“It was good, I mean it was a cool play coming around the edge. I made the sack and I went for the arm and I didn’t even know that the ball had come out. But Coach Long and Coach Hankwitz are always telling us to go for the ball.”
On Cam Thomas…
“He’s a great athlete, he poses a big threat for our defense and I think it’s important that we held our edges and held our gaps when he tried to run up the middle, we had a lot of guys keyed in on him so it was easier to fill out gaps and play technically sound.”
On their success on the field…
“What has changed from the beginning of the season has been our intensity and work ethic in practice. It has really taken off. These last seven games, our practices have been so much harder…really how we prepare for the game has been what’s helped us.”
LB Paddy Fisher
On Cam Thomas…
“He’s a great player, he’s got wheels and he can pass, and we knew that coming into the game. We tried to contain him as much as possible.”
On the rivalry…
“It’s a dream come true. Being able to play with these guys on a rivalry week. It’s awesome.”
Illinois head coach Lovie Smith
Opening statement…
“This hasn’t gone exactly how we wanted it to. Whenever you lose as many games as we have and finish the way we did, you look back on the entire season. We had our moments, we’ve seen improvement in a lot of young football players, but it’s about the wins and the losses and we don’t have enough wins in that column. Just talking about today’s game, we played a good team in Northwestern, a rivalry game. We wanted to get off to a fast start and I felt that we did that. We had momentum early, but eventually if you’re a good football team you have to be able to maintain it. Offensively, we could really get much after that. Defensively, we made a couple plays that kept us in there. Guys like Bennett Williams and some of the young players have had really outstanding seasons for us. I can’t wait to get guys like that in the offseason program and be ready to do it again. In the end it was not enough. Special teams, Blake Hayes, we’ve talked a lot about him. He had an outstanding year. Our punter punted too much during the season but he did what he was supposed to do.”
On offense after the first drive…
“A lot of what happened early on was our quarterback running the football. Eventually if that gets taken away, you have to be able to block up front. We couldn’t really get much going with the passing game. You can’t just pinpoint one thing. It was all of the above really.”
On Dre Brown…
“He gave us a spark. Of course with returns, but just taking advantage of opportunities whether it was at the running back position or returning kicks. We’ve seen glimpses of him. You know Dre has been injured quite a bit, so to finish up this way going into the offseason is encouraging.”
On how this offseason is different…
“Some of the same things we are doing. We are building steel. Last year at this time we were disappointed with how we finished up and we talked about how we needed to get a good recruiting class in here and we did. Now it is about backing it up with another one and just keep building that way. It is critical that we do that and we will attack it right away.”
QB Cam Thomas
On after Illinois touchdown…
“I think our team lost focus. We just needed to regain ourselves but couldn’t find a way to do it.”
On reflecting his freshman season…
“Starting from training camp to now I feel like I learned invaluable information and ways to compete at this level… It showed me we have a lot to work on but it’s not impossible to get this together for next year and be very competitive.”
On moving forward…
“We just take it day by day. Work on getting bigger, stronger, faster and hitting the playbooks really hard… We need to make sure the incoming class knows that the incoming class comes in to play.”
WR Malik Turner
On playing last game for the Fighting Illini…
“To get one last try. it didn’t feel as good coming off the field. I’m glad I could play one last game as an Illini.”
On future of the program…
“A lot of the guys out there are young. They are freshman. They have the experience already. They’re already a tight group and I feel this offseason is only going to get tighter. I think the things they need to get better are being disciplined. I feel we have the right coaches and staff to get everyone on the right track.”
Reflecting on college career…
“It just happened really fast. I came in here under Coach Beckmann’s staff and Coach Bellemy my receivers coach. I had a lot of great memories with them and now I’m here with Coach Smith as my head coach where everything’s different. I wish I could change it but I don’t regret anything. I’m proud I played in the orange and blue as many greats before me did. It’ll be something that can’t be taken away from me.”
RB Dre Brown
On playing kick returner…
“It was a lot of fun. I hadn’t played kick returner in a while. I just listened to coach and hit it as hard as I could and got some good field position from it… I feel I’ve gotten faster over the season running and practice.”
On coming back from injuries…
“Biggest thing for me was remembering where I came from. I haven’t played a lot of football in the past two years. These are just baby steps. I’m just laying the foundation of who I am as a player. It’s going to be a lot of work this offseason.”
