Football | November 1

Bowling Green Head Coach Mike Jinks

On stopping Joel Bouagnon defensively…
"He's tough to stop. I'll tell you, there was one time when they got a heck of a push too. But, he's a load and he's a good back."
 Finish
On the defensive mindset coming into the game against Kenny Golladay…
"The mindset was not to give up the explosive play because if you go back and look at the drives they put together over the last few weeks, I think the longest one was 2:13 or something crazy like that. We didn't want to give up the big play. Our defense did a good job of doing that. (The offense) had some costly turnovers that put the defense in some bad situations again. Early in that first half, that quarterback power-read gave us fits. I felt like we adjusted to it in the second half."
 
On the offenses balance…
"I'm sitting down here and I'm looking at the play stats. I think we ran it 35 times, it's saying, and we threw it 43 times so the balance was there. We're talking about the young quarterback. What we were talking about earlier in the week. Their ability to mix up their coverages and confuse him a little bit. They did a great job of it. Probably, from not only a statistical standpoint, (that was) one of his worst performances of the year. But, we'll grow from it, we'll learn from it and Ronnie sitting to the left of me would be the first one to tell you. Even as receivers, when we have some chances to make some of those plays we have to come down and we have to help him. We have to play as a team. This was definitely one of the ball games you'll go back and you'll throw on the tape and there will be a lot of teaching from it for that quarterback."


NIU Head Coach Rod Carey
 
Opening Statement…
We're obviously really happy with the outcome of the game. It was good to get out to a fast start after getting a three and out. I think we controlled the line of scrimmage tonight which was good. We made critical plays when we had to and that's a credit to these guys and their execution of the game plan and really how they fought. It's good to have all seniors up here too on Senior Night. That's a big time statement to the way our seniors played tonight so I was really happy for them.
 
On Joel's performance…
I thought he ran well. Actually, I talked to him earlier in the game. I thought he danced and left a couple cuts out there early on, but after that, I thought he really settled down. The emotion of Senior Night can sometimes do that but then he settled down and played like he has all year. He's played hard all year and that's a credit to all the guys. I thought it was good.
 
On going out with a win on Senior Night…
It was great. We got Ron Brown in too on defensive line at the end, dream of his. We were really happy all the seniors played which sometimes doesn't happen. This is a special group of seniors. Their leadership has been unquestioned this year without a doubt. We have gotten better and continued to fight because of these guys and their leadership and I am really, really proud of them.
 
On Joel/offense close to the end zone...
I'll have to look more at the film to say best. Obviously, when you are punching them in when the field gets shrunk like that, that's a good job of o-line, tight ends, fullbacks, quarterbacks, wide outs. I mean sending wide outs in there. I mean Kenny had nine catches but he blocked too and the other guys out there did as well.
 
On the team's momentum after two wins…
I always say this, it's always easier to learn and make corrections from wins than it is losses. Tomorrow is going to be a day where we look at and make the corrections, but those corrections are going to sink in because it's a lot easier to look at through that lens.
 
On those two blocked kicks…
Certainly a credit to the defensive guys there, like you do every week you do film study and we found something we felt we could attack. Finding something and executing it are two different things so you give all the credit to the guys. Corey got at least one of them, he might have both I have to see it on film and maybe I'm misspeaking there, but really happy with the inside push we got there.
 
On fast start in the first quarter…
I mean the execution was good and we were controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides because I don't think you can, I don't know what the numbers were, but I don't think you can have that [yard differential] if your defense isn't getting off the field too. You have to control both sides to get that type of performance out of your team. We had pretty good control on both sides of the line of scrimmage. We have a ton of respect for Bowling Green. Coach Jenks, I know he's a new coach, but we've got a ton of respect for him. Their program, we face them every year so I certainly don't want to demean them in any way shape or form but I thought we had control of the offensive and defensive line for the majority of the game.
 
 
NIU Players

Senior Running Back Joel Bouagnon

On potential frustration of having only one touchdown this season before today…
"I'm not too worried about my personal stats, I'm more worried about the bigger picture of getting wins. It's not something that I think about, not something on my mind, I'm just more worried about the game."

On there being more of a special meaning with it being Senior Night…
"Just running off the field, I looked back and thought 'This is the last time I'm going to play on this field' and this is a good memory to leave it on for sure."
Senior Quarterback Anthony Maddie

On Joel Bouagnon's performance…
"He was just running tough, not letting one guy bring him down. The whole team and the coaching staff have a lot of faith in Joel. He just played a great game, ran the ball really well and had great vision. He was running so well, I was just watching most of the game and it was fun to watch for sure."

Senior Defensive End Austin Smaha

On if he had the feeling that this was one of the defense's better performances…
"We had a longer week to prepare so I know a lot of guys came in and watched extra film. Coaches gave us tells and most of the time, I felt we knew what they were going to do. So as a whole, we prepared a lot better and used the time really well."

On the defense being able to hold BGSU to 3-for-14 on third downs…
"We had some different blitz packages in so they didn't know where we were coming from. We had a lot of people make some plays so that helped out a lot."
Senior Wide Receiver Kenny Golladay

On not being able to break off a big play…
"Of course I want to make big plays but at practice, Coach (Kelton) Copeland told me that I should be able to catch 15 hitches. They wanted to play off of me so I just took what the defense was giving me and we'll take hitches all day and get a first down every time.

On expecting BGSU to play off of him…
"We didn't expect it, they mostly crowded my side a lot so I figured that I'll do my part and let other people get involved but they just wanted to play off so we just took the hitch."