Oct. 4, 2014
Recap |
Final Stats |
Notes
NIU FOOTBALL
NIU vs. Kent State – October 4, 2014
Huskie Stadium – DeKalb, Illinois
Kent State Head Coach Paul Haynes
Opening statement…
”Tough football game, we just came up a little bit short but no one - no one - thought we would even be in this game at all. This football team will continue to fight, grind like crazy, and it’s shaping us for bigger and better things. I love this team’s fight, I love this team’s grind. We finally put 60 minutes together. That’s the one thing we challenge them to do and they did it, so we’ll get back to the drawing board tomorrow to get ready for UMass”
On not being able to get a touchdown before the half…
“It was big, you’re talking about a four-point swing there, but we got our opportunities in the second half and capitalized on them. When you get that close you always like to punch it in for a touchdown.”
On the Field Goal Attempt at the End of the Game and Handling it Differently…
“Probably not on fourth and 15, we felt more comfortable with our field goal kicker in that situation than our third and fourth-string quarterback.”
On Losing two quarterbacks late in the game…
“It wasn’t by choice, but that’s a first for me for two guys going down in two consecutive plays like that. Hopefully they’ll be okay because they’re important to this team.”
On being motivated by being such a big underdog…
“We really didn’t talk too much about Northern. We always focus on us and we have felt during this year that we kind of beat ourselves with penalties and turnovers being our Achilles. We focused on more this week than on what they did. I know we were an underdog, I don’t know by how much. Like I said, our guys will continue to fight. I love this football team.”
Dealing with multiple quarterbacks from NIU…
“Not really an issue. Their offense doesn’t change; I think you’re talking about a little bit more of a thrower compared to a runner. When one goes in the game it’s a little bit more quarterback run but they still run the same things. They have some pretty good backs that they can hand the ball off to and do some good things for them.”
On the defensive effort…
“I thought it was good but I think it’s a testament to these guys’ preparation; our preparation has been awesome. Up until Saturday, this morning, these guys stayed after our walkthrough and watched film as a group, no coaches involved. So those are the things that are starting when I talk about that this team is starting to take shape; those things wouldn’t happen before. We’re starting to get it together; we’re just not getting it in the win column but there’s a lot of good things that are happening for the future of this team, this year and the future.”
NIU Head Coach Rod Carey
Opening Statement…
“Yeah it was a good hard-fought victory. I mean, you know you get into conference play and everybody knows each other and things like that and I think you saw that out there today. There was a lot of familiarity. I mean it’s the 4th straight year we have played those guys; they know what we are going to do and we know what they are going to do and you saw a lot of that tonight; that was a well-fought battle. We made some plays, enough plays to win it, and our defense stood tall at the end which was great to see. They held them, then they tried that long field goal and then we got it, so it was good.
Conference victories, they count for one and a half. It’s awesome; 1-0 in conference. So we will enjoy this one tonight and move forward from there.”
On enjoying any win…
“You always enjoy it. I have lost games like that in my career. Winning is winning; we take it for exactly what it is: a win.”
On Kent State’s quarterback injuries in the fourth quarter…
“The two guys got dinged, injuries happen, so for Kent I hope the quarterback is all right so they can keep moving forward”
On his multiple-quarterback system…
“Yeah, it changes the flow, and it changes how we go about things. I don’t think that’s a bad thing; it changes for the good and worse. “
On Hare and Maddie’s differences...
“They are pretty similar. They both can throw the football. Anthony can run and he is pretty skilled with that, so he might have a little edge on Drew that way.”
On how Maddie played…
“The two touchdowns we had were thrown by him; that’s good evidence.”
On the quarterback situation moving forward…
“We just won a game, I have no idea. We are going to enjoy this. Right now Drew is our starter. That may change next week, we will figure that out as we go.”
NIU Quarterback Anthony Maddie
On playing after a bye week…
“We had high expectations for the Arkansas game, so that was a really tough loss. Our team did a really good job of coming off that loss and doing what we had to do to get a win.”
On entering the game off the bench…
“My job is to be ready to go in the game when the coaches tell me to. My focus is on making the right reads and doing what I have to do to help the offense.”
NIU Linebacker Rasheen Lemon
On the defense’s goal-line stand in the first half…
“The coaches just made great play calls. The defense had to put the fire out — as we say — and that’s what we did.”
On clinching the game with a defensive stop…
“When it got close at the end, the coaches rallied the troops. We wanted to finish the game. They caught momentum in the fourth quarter, so we had to put the fire out again.”
NIU Tailback Jordan Huff
On his rushing touchdown…
“I saw the hole close, read my blocks, bounced it outside and was able to get in the end zone.”
On his 66-yard kickoff return…
“We had a set return on to the right and I was able to get up the field. My teammates made great blocks and everything worked out perfectly. It was a memorable first return for me.”
