Postgame Quotes - Northern Illinois

Sept. 10, 2011

Recap | Final Stats | Notes |

Kansas 45, Northern Illinois 42
September 10, 2011
Post Game Quotes

Kansas Head Coach Turner Gill

On what this win means for the team:
“I think it shows we’ve got a lot of great resolve. I’m proud of these guys. They didn’t lose their composure at all. They kept believing; That’s what we talked about as our mission statement and I think they demonstrated that today. Our football team did a great job. They just kept playing on offense and defense and special teams, and it was great to see that. It was great for our fans. Our fans did a great job and I appreciate everybody for coming. They were definitely a part of the football game and kept us going and giving us energy.”

On the game-winning play:
“We had two guys crossing in the middle, then we had a couple guys going to the flat and one guy going to the corner. We call it a mesh route where we have two guys going together. They went to a zone, and then you’re trying to find the one of the two guys that are crossing to sit in an open area. (Kansas quarterback) Jordan (Webb) has to find one of those two guys and he found D.J. (Beshears). It was a good job by him with great protection. You do have to have a little bit more time on that play and our offensive line did a good job of giving him some time.”

On junior wide receiver D.J. Beshears:
“I don’t know if it’s the best game of his career, but I would say he did a great job overall, not just on the offensive side but, kickoff return, he did a great job of getting us good field position. He’s one of our guys that we believe will be a playmaker for us, and he did that for us tonight.”

On sophomore quarterback Jordan Webb:
“He was exceptional. Every phase of the game that you want your quarterback to be and do, he did that. I’m proud of him and how he kept on playing. He played within the system and made plays when he had to make them. He made some great throws and scrambled around a bit. He had some good touches on the ball and threw some good passes, so I appreciate what he is all about. It’s going to give him some confidence even more, including our whole football team.”

On the confidence level of the team now:
“I think we’re confident. We still have some work to do, but I’m proud of the way we keep moving forward in a great way. We’ll keep doing that while getting ready for the next one. We’ll enjoy this one here, then get ready for Georgia Tech.”

Kansas freshman running back Brandon Bourbon

On the final drive:
“The whole time I was thinking we’re going to score a touchdown and win this thing. I was saying that as they (Northern Illinois) were driving down the field on their last possession. All we have to do is score a touchdown and we’re going to win this game.”

On the performance of all the running backs:
“We all did well. All the running backs did a good job. I think sharing the carries like that helps keep us fresh and helps slow the defense down.”

On if he was proud to be in the game for the final play:
“Yes, I was proud to get some playing time this game to show what I can do and hopefully I can keep it up and get some more.”

Kansas freshman running back Darrian Miller

On his thoughts on the final offensive play:
“I was on the sideline and we lined up with two receivers wide and D.J. (Beshears) gave the defender an outside move and came up through the middle. (Jordan) Webb stepped up in the pocket, had great vision and threw a strike to him. Everyone went crazy after that.”

On what made the running backs so successful:
“We have a great offensive line and they were getting a good push and Coach (Reggie) Mitchell puts us in a great position to get yards. Whenever we got in we tried hard and came out with some good runs.”

On what he likes from the group of backs:
“The best part about it is I feel like everyone brings a big role to the team and that’s what coach (Reggie) Mitchell always says to us, ‘know your role.’ We have guys that we use for speed and we have guys that we use for short yardage. I feel like that’s what is driving us to keep going.”

Kansas sophomore quarterback Jordan Webb

On getting to throw the ball more this week:
“It was definitely fun out there. My receivers made some great plays and my offensive line gave me some great protection.”

On whoever had the ball last was going to win the game:
“When we got the ball back we knew we were going to score. We knew in our minds and hearts we were going to score. We weren’t going to come out of there without scoring a touchdown.”

On how big the win is for the team:
“It was definitely big. Northern Illinois is a great team and they won a lot of games last year. They returned a lot of starters and we knew it was going to be a big test for us and in the end we came out on top. It really means a lot to us.”

Kansas junior cornerback Greg Brown

On getting the win:
“It was a great feeling. The offense carried the game and we came out with a win. We (the defense) can’t be too happy with win because we didn’t have a good defensive game. We’re looking to go back into practice and work on what we messed up.”

On how the defense is improving:
“Last week we had correctable mistakes. This week we were closer to the ball; we just didn’t make plays. We have to fight through arms, play the ball better and play the ball at its highest point. There was one play where I didn’t play the ball at the highest point and they scored a touchdown on me. We can go in and work on our ball skills and man coverage. We can work on our press, bump, off man and win those one-on-one battles.”

On getting beat for a touchdown on a jump ball:
“I saw the ball but I didn’t go get it at its highest point. I wasn’t aggressive with the ball, which made it bad for me. I felt like I could have made the play if I had been more aggressive. I have to go get the ball at the highest point next time.”

Kansas junior wide receiver Kale Pick

On his emotions during the game:
“It was a little bit of everything. It was definitely exciting. Our offense is happy that we answered the bell every time that we could. It also stressful a little bit. We all played well. The defense stepped up a little bit too. Special teams did well. We all had a good game.”

On how the offense was able to maintain a high level of success:
“The best thing we had was our focused. We stayed focused on the sideline throughout the whole game. That was great and we answered well.”

On if the team felt disrespected by being the underdogs in the game:
“That was a factor coming into this game and hearing that we were the underdogs. We took that as a chip on our shoulder and we went with it and had a good game today.”

On the play of Kansas quarterback Jordan Webb:
“Jordan (Webb) had a great game. He was impressive and made all the throws to all the receivers and really lead our offense.”

Kansas senior linebacker Steven Johnson

On how importance of the win:
“It’s real big. I want to give a shout out to the offense because they had our back the whole game. That Sports Illustrated thing about us only winning one game is out the window. Next week I’m looking forward to getting another one.”

On how the team continues to improve:
“We made a lot of progress. In practice we are always upping the tempo. The coaches find things we aren’t doing right and really harp on it. They really get after us and keep us humble. It allows us to keep pressing on towards the goal and get a win the following week.”

On if the defense is frustrated they couldn’t stop Northern Illinois’ offense:
“There is a little bit of frustration. I am very happy we got the win, but at the same time we have to get better on defense. We will get better but there are some things we need to fix. Their offense was a really good offense. It will get us ready for the Big 12.”

Northern Illinois Head Coach Dave Doeren

On Kansas’ final play of the game:
“Well, we had a blitz called and (Kansas) did a nice job of picking it up. We were in man coverage and (Kansas receiver D.J. Beshears) made a nice play. It was a good throw and catch. Kansas executed well, and we didn’t defend it well enough.”

On how it felt to come out on the losing end of a high scoring game:
“It doesn’t feel good, I can tell you that. I think our guys played extremely hard, and so did theirs. Hats off to KU and their players, they executed well and they made one more play than we did tonight. We have to do a better job of getting off the field on third down, tackling and getting off blocks. Our offense did what they needed to do to win tonight, so we’ll go back and fix some things, obviously.”

On the biggest thing that hurt them on defense:
“Missed tackles was the biggest thing, because there were a lot of them. Kansas out-flanked our guys, and we have to do a better job on defense.”

On the momentum after they weren’t able to score at the beginning of the second half:
“When we weren’t able to score, that was tough, because it meant points off the board. There was a challenge. I wasn’t able to see the replay, so I’m not quite sure what happened there.”

Northern Illinois senior quarterback Chandler Harnish

On getting a late lead in the fourth quarter:
“I didn’t know what the feeling was to be honest. I thought we’d probably get the ball back with a chance to win the game. That’s just the way the game was going—shootout style kind of game. The defense played their butts off, but when you look at the time possession, they had the ball for 36 minutes. We were rolling and we were expecting to get the ball back.”

On how well Kansas executed on their final drive:
“It had to have been nerve-racking for them too. Credit to them, because they made one more play than we did today and at the end of the day; they had better clock control because of winning the game.”

On the feeling of not being able to drive to get final touchdown:
“It kills you because you know you’ve been playing all night, we were going to go right down the field, and we were going to get a chance to kick a field goal or score a touchdown for the win. We were very confident. It just hurts to not have that opportunity.”

On whether it was a statement game for Northern Illinois:
“Absolutely (it was a statement for Northern Illinois). We were favored to prove to people that we are here for a reason. We weren’t able to do that and Kansas took advantage of some of our miscues tonight and credit goes to them.”

On expecting an offensive shootout:
“No, (Northern Illinois) absolutely did not. I knew that the offense was rolling and the momentum was carried from last year. I had all the confidence in the world that we were going to put up points. You never expect your defense to give up 45 points in a game. I thought if we scored four or five touchdowns we’d win the game—we scored six and it just didn’t work out.”

Northern Illinois junior safety Demetrius Stone

On whether he believed this was a statement game for Northern Illinois:
“Every game is important to us. This is just one game. It’s not going to stop us from what we’re going to be doing. So we just have to move on from this loss and move on to working toward next week and the game plan for the next game.”

On Northern Illinois’ next game versus Wisconsin:
“We’ve just got to go to work, start game planning and get ready for the next game. We’ve just got to put this behind us and move forward.”