Post-Game Quotes: Northwestern
10/23/2010 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 23, 2010
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Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio
On his overall thoughts about the game...
"Great team win, I can't say enough about our team. Last February, we talked about it being a special football team and we continue to prove that over and over again. We came in at halftime about if you want to win big, if you want to win championships, if you want to go 8-and-0, you've got to do it the hard way at some point. Nothing is going to be easy. I give credit to Northwestern. We played a very good football team. We knew they would be very good when we came here. Good concepts, they play extremely hard and they are a very well-coached football team. (Quarterback Dan) Persa is a great player; he takes bad plays and makes them good plays."
On his first game back on the field...
"I wouldn't go out if I didn't think my health was good. I knew I would be able to be out there Wednesday or Thursday. I actually made the decision to go out there five minutes before the game."
On quarterback Kirk Cousins...
"The way you go 8-and-0 is with players who can lead and when you build a program where there is a ripple effect from top down and where people believe in what is going on. Kirk Cousins is an unbelievable leader. Players follow him. Players make plays."
On the emotional momentum of the game...
"Mike Hankwitz, Northwestern's defensive coordinator, does an outstanding job recognizing things and his guys came to play. Emotion is a very, very strong thing and I think they had the emotion in the first half. I don't think we were feeling our way through it."
On Dan Persa...
"I think they had an opportunity again to come back and our defense had to rally. I thought Persa played tremendously and he has a great arm. He is an outstanding player. They come to him with good concepts and he makes things happen. I give Northwestern a lot of credit. They're going to win a lot more football games."
Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald
Opening Statement...
"I'm very appreciative of the great crowd again today. It was a festive homecoming atmosphere. We're disappointed for the great group that was here that played for Coach Parseghian and we couldn't give them a win today. But more importantly, we're disappointed for our young men. We had every opportunity to win that football game and we've got to find a way to make some plays down the stretch against good football teams. That's what it came down to. We had plenty of opportunities and we've got to give a lot of credit to Mark [Dantonio] and his staff and the young men over in the Spartan locker room. They're a tremendous football team and they made the plays there in the second half, especially down the stretch, that winners make. So, the credit goes to them."
On expecting the fake punt in the fourth quarter...
"You've got to give credit where credit is due. They put their starting receiver in, and we knew [Aaron] Bates could throw it, so we talked all week that there was going to be a fake punt where they're probably going to throw it but did we expect that fake punt? No. We'd never seen them do it before, so kudos to them."
On this loss compared to the one against Purdue...
"We don't really focus on what is said about our opponent, we just focus on the personnel and what they do, then we focus inward. So for us to continue to win, we've got to play better, we've got to coach better. We've got to stick together. We've played two tough games in a row, where we've had plenty of opportunity to win and we haven't. So what do you do then? You go back, you look at it and you try and shore up on the things we think we can improve on. Number one, we've got to be more disciplined. I don't know what the issue is right now, but I'm going to fix it. And if it's personnel based, I'm going to fix it. We're going to find a way to play with more discipline. We had some issues happen out there today. I'm not going to break it down from a standpoint of a couple of penalties and some self-inflicted wounds, but some guys are just really not executing well. To me, that might be as disappointing as anything. So I've got to take a look at the tape before I make any decisions or any comments further than that."
On having to overcome mistakes...
"I would say that about any team I have coached or been a part of. I don't think you're ever good enough to beat two teams, and I thought for a good handful of minutes we were playing pretty well. But, some turnovers and some costly fourth downs where we didn't get off the field-I mean we had plenty of opportunities to win the game and I've got to give credit where credit is due. It goes to Michigan State, they played very well."
On Big Ten Conference play thus far...
"We've got more games, [we've got to] just keep playing. What you have to understand is that anyone in this league can win on any given Saturday. You've got to buckle it up and get ready to play for 60 minutes. It's not a 30-minute game, it's not a 45-minute game, you've got to play for 60, and until we collectively decide to do that as a program, it's going to be tough to win. There's great teams moving forward in our [schedule], but we aspire to be a great team, too. We've played pretty well, but we've just got to put it all together. Keep the focus, and keep the discipline."
On Persa's running game and toughness...
"I've got to watch the film. There are times when we thought we had some things open, there are times where there were some enormous rush lanes for him to go (through), and I thought he made some great decisions ... I think Danny is extremely tough. He's mentally tough, he's physically tough. He's a great leader. I think our entire program will look at this game with an incredibly critical eye and our guys are going to have to swallow a pretty heavy pill. You look yourself in the mirror, me included. I try to do the right things to get the guys ready to go, I say the right things at half time. You've got to give [Michigan State] credit, they came out and responded. But we came back and responded too, so it's football. There's give and take."
Junior quarterback Kirk Cousins
On pulling out the victory...
"I think that great teams in special seasons find ways to win and today we found a way. I don't really know how. I'll have to go back and watch the game to figure that out, but I just know that we ended up with more points on the scoreboard when the clock said zero. We just have to keep pushing. We said it at Big Ten Media Days back in August that this team thought and found a way to learn how to win by going through some lumps last year and I think we displayed that once again today."
On the second half comeback...
"We said it at halftime that we are a second half team. I mean I don't want to be here down trailing at halftime but the fact of the matter is we play well in the second half and we tend to come back if we're down. We did just that today. We draw strength from each other. We draw strength from the preparation we've had. Not just this past week, but since last January to get ready for a game like this to battle all four quarters. We draw strength from all the work we've done to get to this point and just look into each other's eyes and say 'hey we have to lean on each other.' Football is a game of adversity and right now we've been doing a good job of bouncing back from that adversity and getting the job done. Once again, Aaron Bates bails me out on a fake and it's unbelievable, he's got some magic in him."
Sophomore cornerback Johnny Adams
On recovering the Schmidt's fumble at the goal line...
"It was a great strip by Tyler Hoover and I just tried to get around the ball as much as possible and try to make a play for my team."
On Dan Persa...
"Their quarterback is pretty tough. He's a good scrambler and he has confidence in his team. We kept him down a bit in the second half, but he's good."
