NIU Football
Postgame Quotes
NIU vs. Illinois State
August 31, 2019

NIU head coach Thomas Hammock

On the victory…
"Excited about the win. We expected a four-quarter game and we trained all training camp for these types of situations and elements. Our team did a great job of not flinching and they did a great job of handling the moment. We will improve as an offense. Teams make the biggest jump from week one to week two. I saw some great things out of the defense and our special teams were solid but as a team I like where we're at." 

On Ross Bowers being the starting quarterback…
"We decided about 10 days ago. Obviously, we wanted a competitive advantage and they had no film on us. Just not giving them the opportunity to game plan for the type of offense they may see played to our advantage. We wanted him to have confidence and what I saw is he gained confidence as the game went on. Once he got more comfortable, he got in rhythm and I was excited on how the offense was moving when he operated." 

On his first game as a head coach…
"I was a lot more into the game on both sides of the ball. Normally when you're an assistant you just worry about the offense and then relax for a while, but I flipped over and talked to the defense and (was) making sure we make all the right calls. Every day is game day to me because it's about the process of getting better, and coaching our team on every single detail and I think our players understand that." 

Junior wide receiver Tyrice Richie 

On his long touchdown…
"(Ross Bowers) and I worked on that since the first day he walked on campus. I saw that the defensive back was on outside leverage so I ran an out route to make him come down hard and ran inside." 

Senior quarterback Ross Bowers

On his first start at NIU…
"After I got that first half, not jitters, but the rust off that felt really good. To get some early completions and some bigger plays going, then the run game was really popping which made my job so much easier. Coach really helped me along and got looks that I really could capitalize on. Coach has helped me see the bigger picture and not have a narrow focus. It felt good to put together some good drives and big plays that put us in a good position to win. It's nice to come in tomorrow and learn from a win. But we know we a tough task for our next opponent so it'll be a fun week of practice."

Illinois State head coach Brock Spack

On the difficulty preparing for NIU…
"It was difficult, particularly on defense. We had faced the offensive coordinator (Eric Eidsness) before and a couple of our coaches coached with (NIU defensive coordinator) Derrick Jackson at Army and I know Derrick a little bit from when I was at Purdue for 22 years and I know some guys that know him. I was at Eastern (Illinois) and Derrick was at Eastern (Illinois) after I was, but I know he's a good coach, he's obviously a very good coach so we kind of had a feel for what he might do. It wasn't any unbelievable X's and O's, even though they are very well-coached, it was their execution on playing very fundamentally sound football and really good defense. They capitalized on a couple of our mistakes, when you're in a tight game like this the mistakes are magnified. It was pretty well played actually, if you like defense, it was pretty well played for most of the night. We cut loose a passer and missed a tackle but other than that I thought we played pretty good defensively."

On why wide receiver Andrew Edgar didn't play…
"He's been a little hobbled in training camp and he was not full speed tonight so we held him out, he dressed but we didn't play him, we didn't think he was ready to play. And that hurt us a little bit but it wasn't about that, it was more about how Northern Illinois played on defense, they were really good."

On playing close to home where his football career started…
"It was a lot of fun and I wish we could play this game more often, it would be a lot of fun. I think it's fun for our players, and players on both sides of the ball. A lot of our players know each other, either through recruiting or with competing with one another in high school football across the State of Illinois, but it made it fun. I'd love to do it again."