NIU vs. Utah – September 8, 2018
Huskie Stadium – DeKalb, Illinois

NIU Head Coach Rod Carey

Opening statement…
"Obviously, very frustrated, upset and disappointed with the outcome of the game. I thought we had opportunities early in the game and late in the game and didn't execute down the stretch, which ended up costing us. At the same time, I want to give Utah a ton of credit, they are a very good football team. First time facing them, they are aggressive, long, athletic and they are a good football team as well. That doesn't change the fact of what we have for our expectations and goals, and we didn't meet that goal tonight."

On message to Marcus Childers…
"He's frustrated.  And I think sometimes the quarterback gets too much blame and too much credit.  I certainly think that everyone is going to point to that last pick at the end but there were tons of other situations where maybe we aren't in that situation if we can execute a play earlier in the game."

On special teams play…
"I would have been sitting here saying special teams wise I'm extremely happy.  Except for the high snap on the field goal, that's three points.  If you do the simple math we are only one score down at the end of the game."

On if he would do anything differently…
"That was what we expected on film and (I) certainly thought that we ran the ball at times very effectively.  And they made a couple adjustments to play more zone and get an extra guy in there.  That's why we started throwing the ball."

 
Utah Head Coach Kyle Whittingham
Opening statement...
"Give a lot of credit to the Northern Illinois team. They're a tough, hard-nosed team that's well coached. My guess is they're going to win a lot of games this year."

On Utah through two games...
"We're a pretty average football team right now. We didn't get much going offensively tonight and it was disappointing. We usually dominate special teams but we were very average, had a field goal blocked and turned the ball over on a punt return. But thank goodness for the defense. The defense played exceptionally well."

On next week's game...
"We're going to have a hard time winning games if we don't get some stuff together. I don't feel very good. Obviously a win's a win, but that's not my mentality. We've got the Washington Huskies coming in, a top-ten team, and the degree of difficulty goes up so we need to perform much better."