Northwestern University Athletics
Postgame Quotes vs. Wisconsin (10/27/18)
Northwestern vs. Wisconsin
Ryan Field
October 27, 2018
Postgame Quotes
Northwestern
Dan and Susan Jones Family Head Football Coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement
“I’m proud of our guys, it was a great team win. All three phases made an impact on the game. Obviously Wisconsin is an outstanding football team, and Paul [Chryst] and I are very good friends. This was a game that was true to us because of the amount of respect we have for each other. That was a really good football team we just beat, and the credit goes to our guys. I’m proud of them. We had a great week of preparation. I thought our offense especially came back from a really poor performance against Rutgers. We came with the right mindset Monday morning and went to work on Tuesday and I think it showed in their performance today.”
On the secondary…
“I thought we tackled very well in the secondary. We had a lead, and I think that actually helped and they had to go throw the ball.”
On Alex Hornibrook’s absence…
“He’s a great player and a great kid. You hate to see anybody not be able to play. He’s a vet, and it’s like how we had to be with early with Clayton being in and out...it’s tough. I just appreciate the media letting us know on Thursday. The more you guys do that for our opponents - two thumbs up. We really didn’t change a whole lot to be honest. They still ran the formations we expected them to run. But anytime you lose a veteran quarterback like that, that’s a tough blow.”
On the Wisconsin O-line…
“They are massive humans, first of all, that are really athletic and strong. Fundamentally, they do a really good job. It’s the same with Iowa. They’re physical guys and think they play great team offensive line football and you don’t see a lot of communication errors. Great job to our D-line today. I think most of their run explosion were our [fault]. To hold JT [Jonathan Taylor] to 46 yards is a big accomplishment for our defense.”
On the running game…
“I think the young backs are getting better. I think Chad [Hanaoka] stepped up and really provided leadership. He’s a guy who came back for his fifth year and now he’s got a vital role in what we’re doing. I got word late in the week that Solo[mon Vault] was going to be cleared, and he hadn’t had a lot of reps. We knew it was going to be a physical game, and Isaiah [Bowser] had the hot hand, so that’s why we went with him.”
On the status of the team…
“I think our team is starting to improve, I think we’re growing up, there were some growing pains that were really a pain to watch, but I think these guys have faith. We just stay the course and we can’t stop now. There’s a return, typically, on investment. Our guys have been really working hard in practice.”
On the team improving after starting 1-3…
“My job is to develop the team. Last year I had a pretty good idea why we started slowly. This year we did not have the consistency that we needed and the depth was too young to make an impact right away. Now, the depth is starting to improve. If a guy makes a mistake now, we are able to take him out and use the best motivator in the world - the bench. You have to earn the privilege and the right to be on the field, and when you don’t perform to the best of your ability, whether it’s schematics, fundamentals, or you’re not executing, they’ll be put on the bench. And when you have that type of ability, I think guys learn a little bit quicker. The most important thing is that we’re getting better, and that’s the hallmark of a good football team.”
On Montre Hartage…
“Yeah, I think those 13 scouts were here to watch him today, too. No doubt about that. He understands he’s going to be on an island. He understands some of the circumstances he’s going to be in. He’s typically going to be in a very difficult matchup. He doesn’t go anywhere typically besides what is, as far as we see, the highest targeted receiver. He’s been doing that for a handful of years. He’s just playing outstanding football right now.”
On the kicking game…
“Drew [Luckenbaugh] had a lower body issue that popped up about 25 minutes before the game. So that’s always fun. His pads weren’t even here so our equipment staff had to run all the way over to Walter [Athletics Center]. Then I looked up and Jake Collins was kicking off and Kuhbander was kicking extra points, so we’ve got that going, which is nice”
On Clayton Thorson and the play with nine minutes left…
“That’s our fault as coaches. We got the memo to everybody but one guy. All week going into that formation, the concept we had called, we were adjusting different things. He went to the check that we were talking about going to all week. So that’s on us. We have to make sure our communication on what we want to do and how we want to do things is clear. It’s one of those where I probably should have taken a time out to help. It’s supposed to be a running play. But he checked into something and he did exactly what the game plan was to do.”
On Isaiah Bowser getting more carries…
“We’ll see how the weeks progress. I’m never going to say never - I didn’t think Kuhbander was going to kick today. He’s earning that and as he continues to earn that, his role will be appropriate. Based on the yardage and the outcome, without a doubt, he played very well. He played very well last week too so we’ll see how things progress. And he had his whole high school coaching staff here today. Pretty good deal.”
On next-week’s non-conference game against Notre Dame…
“From the standpoint of the schedule right now, it’s a really difficult schedule of games. We obviously played in South Bend a few years back. I think from a standpoint of our football team right now, I think we’re an improving squad. I think we’re getting better. I think we’re a team that’s embracing what it takes to do that. This week, we’ll step out of conference play and the focus will be on the other team. We’ll just get ready to play and see if we can play a good football game.”
On the defense’s ability to improve…
“I think we can get a lot better. I think we missed way too many tackles today. We had some chances for zero or negative yard gains. The good news is that we’re being aggressive in attacking. The bad news is we looked like we were dropping our head. But we kept it inside and in front, which we hadn’t done earlier in the year, so we’re doing a better job at that. We’re getting pretty good at pass rush with our front four and we’re playing a lot of guys. There’s a lot of guys filling different roles. That kind of goes back to what I said earlier. We’re getting more production out of younger players that haven’t played a lot and because of that, we’re able to put them in some roles. Travis Whillock, Cam Ruiz getting out there a little bit. It’s great to have Nate [Hall] back. Earnest Brown coming into his own a little bit. [Blake] Gallagher has been there all year as a sophomore. Trae Williams is a first-time starter. JR Pace, everybody takes him for granted but he’s only a sophomore. We’ve got a lot of young guys on that side of the ball that have been working really hard.”
On the three fumbles providing momentum…
“The turnovers are key. I was looking at the games Thursday and yesterday. It’s one of the things I talk to the staff about on Friday after the Thursday games. It was evident that it was going to be turnover weekend. There was a bunch of turnovers in Thursday night’s game and there was a ton of turnover in last night’s games. It just seems like those kind of things happen in bunches. Talk about going after the football, that play with Paddy Fisher was awesome. That was textbook.”
On the broken field run by Clayton Thorson…
“Yeah, two of those plays. Obviously an explosive run and then the one touchdown run in a similar type situation. A year ago when we got to third-and-seven-plus, the Badgers had a party in their backfield up in Madison. We were a very different team last year when we played each other. I thought our O-line protected for the most part today, especially in third down situations.”
Linebacker Paddy Fisher
On keeping Jonathan Taylor’s under 100 yards…
“We come in with the same mindset every week, stop the run, and that’s not going to change. That’s the goal, whoever it is running back wise, quarterback wise, that’s the goal: stop the run. And we did that today.”
On having Nate [Hall] back…
It makes a lot of difference having him back just with confidence and chemistry. Chris [Bergin] came in and held a zone and did what he had to do and now we have him whenever we need him. It’s great having Nate back out there, he adds a new dynamic to the team. It’s just great to have him with chemistry and all that.
On what their team’s mindset was after 1-3…
“Our mindset was to just keep grinding, keep working. We weren’t going to let the foot off the gas. We weren’t going to stop doing what we’re doing and we kept working hard and knew we were going hit our stride down the road. We couldn’t really fix where it was, and just kept on working. We did all the things right and practiced hard and kept doing what we had to do.”
On his thoughts on Notre Dame…
It will be a great opportunity to showcase our program at our place and it's going to be awesome. They’re an elite football team and it’s going to be a fun game and I’m looking forward to it. I have been looking forward to it since the schedule came out in the spring time. But it’s going to be a great opportunity for us and to go out there and have fun and play a great football team.
On his defense’s identity…
We’re working through a lot of knots, we’re building a lot of chemistry. We got some inexperienced guys playing, some guys that are stepping up in roles that they weren’t expected to or weren’t in last year, so we are working through a lot of stuff, building chemistry, working hard and just fixing the one man breakdowns that lead to explosive plays and building trust with everyone on the defense.
On the game plan…
We came in with the mindset to outplay them and out-physical them and it started with the front seven, a very big emphasis on the front seven at the start of the game. That emphasis showed up today.
On his thoughts going from 1-3 to leading the division…
We weren’t really too worried and fixed up about that, that’s always been what we've been preaching since the winter, since those workouts, we just tucked our chin and went to work every day, no one complained, no one did anything that could hurt our team we just went to work every day and did what we had to do to get into this position.
Cornerback Montre Hartage
On driving up his draft stock…
“Just coming to work every day and having great teammates who are able to help me feel confident whenever things don’t go the way they should. Paddy talked about it earlier. I think over the last few weeks we’ve been touching on just doing your job. Just come in every day and go to work and trying to win every rep.”
On improving individually and as a team…
“These guys are persistent guys and always hungry to prove to the critics that we’re able to compete with any team that steps on the field with us. What Fitz preaches, I think guys are able to hone in on specific concepts.”
On having a young team and player stepping up…
“Guys like Chris Bergin. You guys have seen, he’s come in and made an impact. Young guys like Cam Ruiz, he brings a different kind of energy to the field throughout the game. I think the younger guys stepping in are able to feed off us to get the job done.”
On looking more for the run with a new quarterback…
“Specifically in this game, Wisconsin has a heavy run game so I knew they were going to pound it and eventually take shots down the field. They needed to get the crowd in the game and get that momentum. Just know that the secondary always has to stay on our toes and not get too comfortable. We did that today.”
On avoiding penalties…
“We focus on technique, different mechanics and things that put us in the right position. I have to credit the coaching staff for preparing us well. Even in the weight room, different things like working on footwork. I think with the coaches that we have right now, they’ve been able to put us in the right position to play.”
On similarities to Sherrick McManis…
“I talked him a couple times – very hard-working guy. He dedicates his time playing special teams with the Bears. I’ve watched a couple films of him as a Northwestern Wildcat. He works hard and is never inconsistent. Having role models like Sherrick tells me that I can be in his shoes one day and I can look up to him.”
On facing Notre Dame next week
“I think guys know what’s at stake because it’s a pretty big game. We’re just going to take it one day at a time, going through our studies and practices. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, that will be it.”
Running Back Isaiah Bowser
On if this is the most carries he's ever had...
“In high school I think I had 45 one game. I've done it before, it's just a little different.
On if he knew he'd be used this much...
“I did not. Coach told me to be ready for anything. I knew I was going to get the ball. I never knew I was going to get that many.”
On having his family and high school coaches here to watch the game...
“It meant a lot to me. My family usually are here, but it's pretty cool for my high school coaches to make it. I think it was like nine of them here, so that's pretty cool.”
On if he's excited to play Notre Dame next week...
“Somebody has to beat them so it might as well be us.”
On how the season turned around after a slow start...
“The older guys and the coaches are always getting on us. We know we're a good team. If you watch the games that we lost, we beat ourselves. We know we're a good team, and we just have to keep our heads in and not beat ourselves.”
On what he brings to the offense...
“Coach is always getting on me about running hard. That's what I go in there and try to do. Go in there and try to move piles, pick up the extra yards.”
On running through contact...
“I'd much rather run free and score. But I'm going to put my shoulder down.”
Quarterback Clayton Thorson
On difference between team at 1-3 and team now…
“It’s the same team. We’ve stayed together. When everyone jumped off the ship, we knew what we had to do to get it right. So I’m really proud of these guys. We had a great week of practice, and it showed today.”
On issues at goal line…
“They [Wisconsin] did a great job. They have some big guys on the goal line. They did a great job of plugging the holes there. It was a great stop by them, but we have to find a way to get one yard on two tries.”
On his runs…
“On the touchdown run, they had great coverage. I saw a lane and took it, made a guy miss, and got into the end zone. The O-line did a great job giving me time.”
On Isaiah Bowser…
“He’s playing great. He’s running really hard, that’s his strength, and he’s also got speed. He’s playing really well, and we’ve got to continue to get him the ball in order to win.”
On Kyric McGowan’s TD…
“It was a great catch by him. It was a great route by Kyric, he’s a fast guy, we got to get him the ball more.”
On the offense…
“I think our offense is doing a great job of coming into work every day and working really well. We’ve got a lot of passion. When guys want to do well, they do it with passion. Credit to the guys up front, and everyone else stepped up this week.”
On his long run...
“Yeah it felt good. You know, I have negative rushing yards on the year so I’m trying to make a dent in that. Butt it felt good, the knees feeling great”
On his leadership...
"I’m doing what the coaches ask me to do and I think I’m leading these guys well. We’re playing well and we won four straight and that’s the biggest thing"
Wisconsin
Head Coach Paul Chryst
Opening Statement
“First of all, congratulations to Northwestern. I've got a lot of respect for Pat and what he's doing here. This comes down to, it's probably the effort, and certainly a lot of our guys, flat out we need to play better football. When they talk about taking care of the football, turning it over is hard, and when you turn it over and you’re backed up and give the opponents the red zone, that's hard. You've got two stops and special teams penalties. Plus another special teams penalty on the kick return. We just have got to play better football, and that starts with me and the coaches. We've got guys putting it out there, but we have to play smarter and better football. We knew going in that this is a good team and it was going to be a fight, and we did other things to make it that much tougher. It ends up being a hard recipe.”
On how this impacts the Big Ten West race...
“I think that every time we play there's something on the line. Whatever happens at the end, believe this last year, every year I've coached, the conversation might be what's on the line right now, but it's not until you're done playing the season that that's when you earn the right for whatever you get. When you prepare all week to play this game, and put yourself all out there, that's going to hurt any player, it doesn't matter what's on the line. You play your season. We got to make sure we do a good job of playing one game at a time.”
On Jack Coan's first start...
“Did some good things, and yet, when we go back and look at the film there will be some plays where he can learn from it. It's the same for any player on this team. You want them to play be flawless. And yet that seldom happens with any player. I was proud of the way he played, and handled it, and approached the week with the uncertainty of whether or not he would play, and as the week progressed he had a good idea of if he was going or not, I thought he did a great job of preparing that way. He's competitive, and certainly there's going to be some plays that he'd like back.”
On if the playbook changed for Coan...
“I think that there's probably a balance there. It felt like we've got to make sure we had a good plan against this defense. Early, weren't sure what the status would be. Jack worked with the one's all week. Didn't have anything in there that didn't feel appropriate for the game plan. I think early you wanted to be smart and just in calling it get a little bit of a rhythm. But not significantly, where you have to change it or dumb it down. It helped that he's done a ton of work throughout the year. This is certainly his first game action. You adjust it a little bit for each player, but it's scaled. I think what hurt us more than that was just not being efficient on third down. You get a rhythm going offensively, and I think that affected our running game, it's a credit [to them]. We thought coming in this was a heck of a defense, and didn't think it would be easy by any means. I think those probably impacted as much as the quarterback.”
On the fumbled exchange...
“I don't know right now what to say to that. I wouldn't know.”
On fourth and two penalty on Hicks, and overall penalties...
“We had the roughing, you got to stop. We've been putting our defense in a lot of hard situations. There's some momentum to a stop. And then giving it back, and we had a holding on one punt, and that's at the catch, so it's a huge. I think we had another block in the back on a kickoff return. Which really both of those things. We had a good return on the punt return and then we had a good return on by air. We didn't play good enough football. We didn't complement each other, or one side or the other take each other off the hook. When we did in the second half we had really good field position and didn't get any points out of that. You get limited opportunities, you've got to maximize them, and we didn't.”
On the offense's lack of rhythm...
“There's another component that you add to it and that's the defense that you're playing. There has been some games where we haven't been as consistent as we'd like to be. And that's an area that we have to improve upon.”
On Hornibrook's symptoms...
“At the start of the week, on Monday, he went in and spoke with our trainers. That puts you in to the protocol. As the week progressed, we saw how he was progressing through it, so that's how we knew.”
On the defensive veterans...
“They've got experience and they've got substance to them. They don't wish they were going through this maybe, but you see it. This isn't the first bump that we've had. Quite obviously I'm proud of the way some of our leaders are leading. We're going to continue to lean on them. Even in the locker room after this one. And they didn't even wait for the locker room. You saw by the way they play and put it out there. We've got a choice, and that's how we respond.”
On how the team responds to injuries...
“That's certainly an issue that guys have to deal with. Just like throughout a season you have to deal with a lot of things, and that's one of them. Nobody likes injuries. You don't like seeing those kids lose opportunities of games. When you play the game you want to be playing with as good of a team as you can. I think the reason you can't use it as an excuse is because everyone is going through it. The team we played today, they've gone through a lot of them. That's all part of it, and it's an opportunity for others.”
On NU's running game...
“Any offense if you try can have some balance to it. I think also the situations where they're going for it. Early in the game we got a sense of where they were going for it four downs instead of three. That's again the turnovers. Give them that short field you give them one more kick of the can. And turnovers. And you've got to score. I've always felt it's easier when you've got a lead, running the ball. There's so many things that go in to the end result. To answer the question, I do think it helps when you're running the ball. And certainly, you think of Thorson as a passer, and he's a really good quarterback, ton of respect for him. But his biggest play might have been with his legs.”
Quarterback Jack Coan
On what this week was like for him…
“I mean, it was just an awesome experience altogether, had to prepare as a starter for one of the first times in my career and it was just a lot of fun.”
On what went right and wrong for him today…
“I’m not sure, I feel like I did some good and some bad. I will definitely look at some film and see what happened but I just battled and played as hard as I could.”
On the fumbled handoffs…
“I’m not really sure, I think our mesh just wasn’t very good and we have to get that fixed and we will.”
On what he learned from this whole experience…
“I feel like I learned truly how to prepare as starter and be a starter. Like I said, it was the first time ever and that experience alone was pretty valuable.”
On the penalties throughout the game…
“You know, it happens, it’s part of the game of football and you just have deal with it. Just take what happens and keep moving forward.”
On struggling to find a rhythm in the game…
“I’m not really sure, I feel like all our guys tried to play as hard as they could and whatever happened, happened.”
On what the most important thing he learned today was…
“Just the experience of being a starter for the first time in my career, it’s a valuable experience.”
On his touchdown throw…
“It was good, it was good to get my first career touchdown pass out of the way so it was pretty cool.”
On his emotions throughout the whole week…
“It was definitely altogether an emotional week for me. I’ve worked really hard to get to this moment and be a starter so it was definitely emotional and I went out there and battled and whatever happened, happened.”
On what he can take away from this start…
“Just the game experience, playing a full game is huge, especially for a young player like me so I’d say that’s the biggest thing.”
On the effectiveness of Northwestern’s defense…
“I’m not really sure, they had a great defense and they put us well on both the run and pass and they’re a good team and we have to get better.”
Safety Evan Bondoc
On if this team can get back on the winning track...
“Absolutely.”
On today's start and when the game turned...
“There's not a specific moment I can think of. We needed to make some more plays, and we didn't. We've got to do a better job of making some plays and getting off the field.”
On the team's mental and physical errors...
“It's a combination of stuff. I think we know what we need to do. We just need to come back tomorrow and get back to work, and focus on what we can do better so we can make those plays and not have it happen again.”
Linebacker Zack Baun
On if Wisconsin could have played better...
“Well, we didn't win, so obviously.”
On if today's game was winnable...
“It was definitely there. The opportunity was there and we just didn't capitalize on it.”
On expectations...
“Expectations don't really mean anything. We can't compare ourselves to what we thought we were going to be. We just have to come out every day and work and work and work.”
On how they stay motivated...
“Everyone's motivated. No one's lost motivation. We just have to capitalize.”
On the effect of the two fourth down penalties...
“Really deflating actually. But as a defense you can't dwell on the missed opportunities you have to keep moving forward.”
WR Kendric Pryor
On how the team feels...
“It hurts. Every loss is going to hurt. Kind of had a couple mistakes on our end that we could have fixed ourselves. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot. If you want to be a great team you just can't have those mistakes. As you can see, good teams will capitalize.”
RB Alec Ingold
On the game...
"We have a good team and it's just tough not playing good ball. You have all the talent there and you have all the guys working hard and you’re doing all the right things, but there's really no answer right now. You click on one cylinder one game and not the next and you don’t really know why"
On looking forward...
“We can’t change anything. We gotta say alright we have a certain amount of plays per game and we gotta make everyone one of them count the best we can this week”
On Jack Coan...
“We had complete faith in Jack. All season people are going to get injured, do whatever. People are going to have to step up and we were ready for Jack to step up and make it happen. He was poised in there and I feel like everyone on the offense was happy to see him out there and be able to make some plays with his feet and throw the ball."
On goals for the rest of the season...
"I think that we are going to be our biggest critics. We wanted everything and more that anyone could have ever predicted for us, it’s tough to see a loss like this really hamper all those chances. But at the same time, for our own sake we really need to focus on being the best team we can be. Coming into next week against Rutgers, knowing we have a chance to get everything clicking again. We’ve been waiting for it all year so one loss can’t change that motor."
