Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

NIU FOOTBALL
NIU vs. Central Michigan - October 11, 2013
Huskie Stadium - DeKalb, Illinois

CMU Head Coach Dan Enos

Opening Statement...
"I want to commend Northern Illinois, they are the class of this league, they've been the best team in this league since I've been in it when I got here in 2010. It's a difficult place to play, they are very well coached, they have outstanding players, Coach Carey's a man of great integrity, they do an outstanding job with their program and the way they do their business. We're very proud of our football team, very proud of our coaches and staff, it's a difficult  place to play. We knew we had to be physical, we were going to have to try to run the ball. We knew that slowing down their offense was going to be a task. I'm just really happy for our coaches and our players today."

On ending the NIU home winning streak...
"If we want to accomplish the goals that we have as a team, as a program, if we want to be on the map in the MAC West, you have to beat Northern Illinois. I've told our team that for the last few years. If we want to be taken serious in this league and get ourselves back in the top tier, we have to beat NIU, we have a lot of respect for them."

On answer the early TD drive for NIU with one of their own...
"I don't know if it dictated how the rest of the game went, I think it was very important for our momentum. You come out and you get punched in the mouth like that, how you respond is very important. I think it was also to give our defense a chance to sit out and not go three and out and put them right back out there."

On Thomas Rawls heavy work load...
"We try to not [give him 40 carries], I kept asking `when do you want to take him out' but the game was tight all the way to the end, the guy keeps making yards and it wasn't the plan today I can tell you that. The guy's a competitor, he's tough, he has very good vision, a lot of little things he does, turning three yard runs into six or seven yard runs. That's a huge difference in calling your game and running an offense."

On Cooper Rush's performance...
"He's such a competitor, he's such a student of the game, he prepares each and every week like an NFL quarterback. It's very important for him to play at a high level, he's only a sophomore and I have to keep reminding myself that he's only 19 or 20 sometimes but he's very bright, he's very tough and he played very well today against a very good defense.

 

CMU Running Back Thomas Rawls

On his big game against NIU...
"We had really good preparation and as a offense we still felt some type of way about how we played against Toledo and we just wanted to build off of that. We had a great week of preparation and when we were out there the offensive line was telling me `we're grinding, we're going to keep doing that and we're going to break one' and I trust this whole offense."

On frustrating the defense...
"I think I sensed it from the beginning of the game. They were chatting a lot, I kept quiet and just played. The offensive line was getting in their heads too because they were punishing them too."

On being aware of his 200 yard game...
"I really don't pay attention to it, if you really pay attention to me, I'm just quiet and trying to focus and have a big impact in the game. I did find out later on in the fourth quarter. One of my offensive lineman told me I had to take them out to eat because I told them if we rush for over 200 yards as a unit I would take them out so I think I need to get them a big meal."

NIU Head Coach Rod Carey

 

Opening statement...

"It was obviously a very, very disappointing game. The final result, you give Central Michigan a ton of credit. They came in here and really executed really well in all three phases and made the plays that were crucial to the game. They made a lot of them, and you have to give them a ton of credit with that. Our execution wasn't good enough tonight. We have to go back in. It starts with me, I have to get better and everyone has to take a step forward on this thing to look at what we did wrong, and move forward. We certainly will [move forward], I absolutely believe in these guys 110 percent. I believe in this team and couldn't be prouder of the way they played all the way to the end of the game, and I know this team's resolve is going to be steady and we're just going to continue to get better."

 

On the two streaks having been snapped (home and away)...

"I'm not disappointed about the streaks. That's the stuff you guys put on paper, I'm disappointed about the game and homecoming for all of the old guys who've come back here. The biggest thing I'm disappointed about is these guys. They've worked hard, we just need to work harder and we need to work better. We'll get that done, but certainly I'm disappointed for those reasons. Streaks are exactly what they are, and we can start a new one next week."

 

On NIU's trouble to rush a little over 100 yards...

"When it comes to running the ball, we didn't run it good enough. I'll tell you this, when you only have the ball for about 20 minutes and you're down, you have to do some things that try to get yourself back into the game. There weren't a lot of situations where we could stick with it a ton, and early when we were sticking with it I thought it was effective. It certainly wasn't good enough, but it was effective. We'll get better; we have to get thicker on blocks and we have to get lower. Those things are never more important than right now."

 

On the difference of the opening drive...            

"No, I think we executed it really well in that opening drive. We went right down the field in four or five plays and we got the looks we wanted. We had the fundamentals: our feet were in the ground, our hands were on the sides, our routes were the right depth, our timing was good and you saw the results of that."

 

On the decision to stick with Hare the entire game...

"We always have a plan, and this was our plan going into this game. I felt like Drew played a good game, not good enough; I'm not going to say that it was good enough and I'm sure he'll say the same thing. Obviously when you have a pick and lose a game it's not good. The issues on offense of only scoring 17 points don't fall to him, they fall to all of us. We're going to take it as a group and we're going to each correct our own."

 

On whether there was a time during the game that he thought Maddie should have stepped in...

"No, with the flow of the game I thought we did exactly what we should have been doing."

 

On whether or not the issues NIU faced against Arkansas were present this week against CMU...

"No, this was certainly different and spread out. I don't think it's that far, I don't want to tell you that we have this huge chasm out there. We're a football team that needs to improve. I think we improved this week, but we didn't improve enough. We have to get those things right."

 

NIU Players

Michael Santacaterina

On momentum after the interception...
"We were pretty fired up. The guy came underneath and I picked it off, so I think it was a big boost. We would of liked to have more big plays I think. We needed more turnovers on defense. Obviously they were running the ball too much. Credit goes to them they played good we didn't play good enough. "

 

Drew Hare

On the difference from when they started to the end of the game...
"Like Coach Carey said we came out and executed really well in the first drive, after that some things didn't go as planned. Getting hit I thought Central's defense played great but our line also did a great job we still gave up zero sacks so I think they blocked really well for the most part."

On what Central Michigan's defense did different than other teams that slowed NIU down...
"They played physical, got guys in the box and they made some plays. Credit goes to them.  They played well."

 

Paris Logan

On what type of coverage he tried to play on Titus Davis...
"I was trying to press and play man for most of the whole game, I just wanted to compete."