Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

NIU Football 2015
Ohio 26, NIU 20
November 24, 2015
DeKalb, Ill. – Huskie Stadium

 

Ohio Quotes:

Greg Windham, QB

On his confidence…

“It’s always been instilled in me from an early age. I just love playing this football game, I’m passionate about it, and I’m always confident whenever my name is called. I’m just ready to play and help my team the best way possible.”

A.J. Ouellette, RB

On his performance tonight…

“Whoever’s in there getting those yards, big credit to the line. I mean, if you look at the holes, they were huge. I was getting tackled by safeties and corners the whole night. It feels good to get to the hundred-yard mark, but big credit to the whole team no matter who’s in there getting those yards.”

Chad Moore, LB

On the defense’s preparation and execution…

“Well, we had a big game ahead of us, and I think our team responded well during practice. We came out with a lot of energy and especially when its cold out, it’s really hard to do that. Our defense got back to our old ways, which is just attack and react. We did a great job just doing our assignments and that’s what we are coached.”

On limiting NIU’s run game…

“Defensive goal number one is stop the run and make them one dimensional. And that’s exactly what we did. I know in the first half they had like 33 or 38 rushing yards and that’s remarkable for a first half especially versus NIU. That’s what we’re all about defensive-wise, and we executed very well.”

Head Coach Frank Solich

On the significance of the victory…

“They’ve been a dominant program in our conference for some time. It doesn’t seem to matter that they replace coaches, they replace players, but they keep on moving. So I have a lot of respect for what this program is all about. So anytime you get a chance to play a team such as this you know it’s going to be a challenge; they’ll bring out the best in you. You just get ready to go, and I felt really good coming in about how hard our guys would play and I thought they would really play well. If we’re healthy and we’re playing hard, we can also be tough to beat. Just feel very good about what these guys were able to accomplish today.”

On QB J.D. Sprague’s injury…

“Well, I didn’t see what actually happened to him so I was hoping that he would be able to get back up. Obviously it became clear that he was hurt substantially to the point where he wouldn’t be able to go on. Greg [Windham] we knew would be able to come in and do a great job of operating our offense. You know he probably didn’t get - in fact I know he didn’t get as many reps during the course of the week as what your starter is going to get. So you’re always a little concerned about, ‘Boy, I wished we would’ve been able to get him more reps to put him in this kind of situation,’ but he respondent extremely well. Did everything that we asked him to do.”

 

Rod Carey

Opening Statement…

Obviously, we’re disappointed with the loss. Our guys played extremely hard, I was super proud of our effort. Every single one of them that was out there was playing hard. Unfortunately we didn’t execute well enough at times and we weren’t in the right positions at times to get a win in that situation and dug ourselves a hole in the first half. Offensively, we were not good enough. Defense did a great job in the first half of really holding that to a 20-7 lead for Ohio. Came out, had some momentum, got it to within one score and then had that drive where sack fumble and then we had to punt and unfortunately Ryan (Graham) got hurt on that too. Probably took us a little bit to get our bearings there with Tommy (Fiedler) in the game, but Tommy responded and got it down to a one-score game and had the chance for the onside kick at the end. So we battled hard but you got to give Ohio a ton of credit here. That’s a really, really good football team that I know they got a little banged up tonight but they came into the game probably as healthy as they’ve been. You give them credit, got a lot of respect for Coach Solich and tonight we just didn’t make enough plays so hats off to them.

On what the defense slowing them down…

They’re a good defense so I say this without taking credit away from them but I think we get a good play and then we’d shoot ourselves in the foot with a missed assignment or penalty. That just stalled us and we weren’t executing when we didn’t have those two things going. With all due respect to them, they’re a good defense but I think that was a part of it too.

On Fiedler coming into the game…

I don’t think that means anything to our seniors right now or anything. it’s next man up and Tommy came in and did a great job and really getting us to a one-score game there. I feel awful as a coach for our seniors sending them out of Huskie Stadium like this. That’s not what we wanted, but there again you give hats off to Ohio, they do a good job.

On reacting to a blocked and then returned kick…

I’ll take that one. As I would say the ball is oblong and we get a great block there and we’re in desperation mode and when you go into desperation mode, you don’t have anybody back and you’re trying to get the block and we did and then it doesn’t cross the line and then all of our guys are mostly on the ground and one of their guys is up and he sees it and made a good play on it. I don’t know about any of that fake stuff. I think it’s just the way it turned out.

On the groups approach to the next 24 hours…

Right now with NCAA rules we don’t know if we’re in the championship game so we’re off because school is out of session so that’s what NCAA rules says we have to do. If we do happen to get into the championship game, then we will go back to work with the State High School Championships being here Friday and Saturday. The coaches will go back to work right away Saturday and Saturday night we’ll meet as a team. If not then, Sunday is when NCAA lets us get back together.

 

Sean Folliard

On the performance of Ohio running back A.J. Ouellette…

“They out-executed us. We weren’t executing at times. I’ll admit we weren’t hitting our gaps as well as we should have been. You just have to give them the credit there. They out-physicaled us tonight, and that’s what it is.”

On holding Ohio in the red zone…

“That’s just credit to the way our seniors lead us, to the way our coaches coach us, and the family we are. When they get in the red zone it’s a never-die attitude. We lock it in, we tighten it up, and that’s Huskie football.”  

On the uncertainty of qualifying for the MAC Championship…

“You just have to wait and see. Obviously you would wish the game had gone a different way but those are just the cards we’re dealt right now. We just have to wait and see what happens.”

Juwan Brescacin

On the strength of the Ohio defense…

“We had our chances to make plays and we just didn’t make them. They’re a great defense and a great team, but at the end of the day it came down to us and we didn’t make the plays we needed to. Granted, we did at times, but we just didn’t make enough to come up with the win.”

On the uncertainty of qualifying for the MAC Championship…

“It’s a feeling I’m not used to. All my years I’ve been here we’ve gone to the MAC Championship and we’ve decided our own fate, but it’s nice knowing we still have a chance. If we get that chance, that’s big for us.”