Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

NIU FOOTBALL 2015
NIU vs UNLV, Sept. 5, 2015
Huskie Stadium – DeKalb, Ill.

UNLV Head Coach Tony Sanchez

Opening Remarks…

“Proud of the guys. We felt like we had a great opportunity to win a football game tonight. We had some momentum in the first half. We have to do a better job scoring in the red zone, and the defense did a great job of not giving up a bunch of big plays. I think us not getting it in at the end and them coming down and scoring was kind of a momentum switch and then obviously they did some good things, made some good adjustments in the second half and were able to pick up some chunks of yards. We moved the ball effectively we just didn’t score in the red zone. Had to kick too many field goals. Good thing is our kids didn’t quit, they kept fighting their tails off and gave us a chance to tie it up in the end. I’m proud of them for that, but we definitely have some work to do. It’s a good football team, but we’re going to keep getting better.”

Even without the win, was there a lot to build off of?

“There’s a lot. The biggest thing when you walk in the locker room and you had no opportunity to win the game it’s hard to build off that. When we walk in and we look at the number of mistakes and things that we did that could have changed the course of the game, the negatives are also positives. They are things that we can fix and build on and we can move forward. One thing I want to make very clear is that nobody in that locker room is into moral victories.”

Was it the plan to use both QBs tonight?

“It was and even in spring ball we do that. Both quarterbacks knew coming in that Kurt was going to get in in the third series or depending on the tempo most of the second half.”

On using two quarterbacks...

“Development. It’s hard to go through an entire season with one guy and we want to keep this boy [Blake Decker] healthy for as long as we can, but in the case we don’t we want to make sure another guy is ready and Kurt does some really good things with his legs. He changes it up a little bit and obviously it was really effective the first time he was in, he had that touchdown. “


If the defense felt tired...

“Yeah. I think in the first half it was the opposite. I felt we were wearing them down a little bit. You saw them grabbing their pads. The second half they got to us a little bit. They came out and ran some unbalance and caught us off guard a little bit and we had to adjust to that. They definitely wore us down. The biggest thing going into the game was not allowing 300 some odd yards we did the year before. We wanted to make sure we did a good job. I’m looking at the stat sheet here. We gave up 185 and rushed for 164 so we closed that margin to 20 yards and that really is the difference that gave us a chance to win. We just didn’t do it two halves. I believe the first half we gave up 60 yards and that was fantastic. The second half we gave up way too many.”

On playing nine true freshman and having a chance to win the game...

“There are pros and cons. You look at that and say it shouldn’t be that way. In the future we don’t want that. We are going to recruit against that. Right now it is what it is. We have a lot of young guys who have to get out there that have to play and contribute and mix in with the older guys. You saw the effort and you look at the team that’s won 5 or 6 conference titles in a row and we had a chance to win the game at the end. No moral victories but there is some positives to have those young guys competing in that atmosphere at the end.”

On the transition from high school to college...

“The managing part if no different at all. It is highly competitive and it’s football. There is a jump, there is no doubt about it, but I’ve been fortunate enough in my career to be in highly competitive situations and around some really talented guys and I have a bunch of great coaches and players around me so the biggest difference was not calling the offense. [The OC name] did a phenomenal job and you saw that tonight. That was different. The process of not having complete control of that. Other than that it was business as usual.”


UNLV Quarterback 5 Blake Decker

Thing that stuck out to you?

“We feel like we had a shot. We played very well in the first half offensively. Our defense dominated the first half. We felt like in the second half our offense stalled a little bit in the third quarter. There are some positives to take away from this game, but again we are not big believers in moral victories. There are only winner and losers in college football and you want to be on that winning side. It’s obviously tough but we got stuff to build on and we got a tough team in UCLA next week that we got to get ready for so we shift the focus to them tomorrow.”


Head Coach Rod Carey

Opening Statement…

Any win is a good win, we’ll take the win. Give a lot of credit to Coach (Tony) Sanchez. His guys played extremely hard and well. They had us on the ropes in the first half. They came out with some stuff we’d seen and some stuff we hadn’t. We were adjusting and they were executing and we weren’t. It’s one of those things where I’m really proud of the guys for making adjustments and then get that score.

On how the end of the first half affected the team…

Some of the adjustments had taken affect on both sides. We stopped for a field goal and then we go down and get a score. It showed us that what we were trying to do was right and it showed the guys all the credit really goes to the players because the adjustments aren’t any good if they cant execute them. So we adjusted and then made them and they responded and they executed on the field.

On the UNLV coming out so quickly…

Listen that’s a good football team, record or whatever, from last year. I think that’s very overrated. Coach Sanchez has them playing hard, he has them playing fast and has them playing physical.

On Kenny Golladay’s debut…

Listen he can talk about it too, but we thought we kind of had a mismatch there in the second half. We decided to go to it a little bit more and Drew made the throws and Kenny made the catches. I think that was a huge part of being explosive and getting some things going I was really proud of him and Drew putting the ball out there and the protection as well.


NIU Quarterback Drew Hare

On the attitude of the team when NIU trailed in the first half…

“It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. This program has been in tough situations before. Going into this game, we knew we were going to have some ups and downs, so we didn’t flinch. We were alright.”

His thoughts on the offense’s improvement in the second half…

“I liked it for sure. I thought we just got into a groove, we got the offense moving, got a few first downs and stopped killing ourselves on drives. Several players made plays for us tonight. Any time you do that, you’re going to be alright.”


NIU Running Back Joel Bouagnon

On why the running game did well as the game went on…

“The offensive line blocked their butts off. I thought they did a great job. I was just trying to run downhill straight up the middle, honestly.”

On getting into a groove…

“It was the flow of the game as it goes by. You have to test it out, see what’s going on and then just keep doing what works.”


NIU Wide Receiver Kenny Golladay

On his successful debut as a Huskie…

“It felt really good. I was on edge the first drive and the coaches told me to settle down and lock in. It took the first hit on the first catch, and then I was alright. I was good to go then, and it was a lot of fun.”


NIU Defensive Back Paris Logan

On winning a close game...

“We’ve been in a lot of close games here, so we know what we need to do to pull off the win.”