Postgame Quotes

Oct. 11, 2014

POSTGAME QUOTES

Oct. 11, 2014

TCF Bank Stadium

Northwestern at Minnesota

Jerry Kill, Minnesota Head Coach

On Jalen Myrick's game-winning kick return touchdownâ€¦

"Through the last week, it's Coach (Rob) Reeves' responsibility. That's his team, and he just did a great job of getting everybody on a body. With Jalen, we've got a shot. We felt that we had a good shot but they kicked it out of the end zone so we never got one for a while but Jalen caught that ball and that's when people found out how fast that kid is. He had great blocks and great execution and then he finished. That was the best thing that he did. Kicking game was the difference today. They controlled the football really well."

On the special teams' improvementâ€¦

"There's no doubt (they improved). Our kicker and punter are playing at a high level and even though we didn't kick the ball out of the end zone, Ryan (Santoso) hung it up there and stuck a field goal. Pete (Mortell) just punted outstanding. You have to win all three phases, and today it was an even battle. We didn't get very many chances on offense and they did a good job of doing what they needed to do to win. It came down to about eight or nine plays and they had a few and we just had one more."

On Northwestern's offenseâ€¦

"They did a good job on third down. They had a lot of snaps, and their passing game is like a run game. They ran the ball pretty well and until I go watch film and talk to Coach (Tracy) Claeys, I'll know why we made the mental errors and we haven't done that in a while but I think they had some things to do with it. They played pretty fast. There's always room for improvement but the bottom line is that we found a way to win and found out how to handle adversity and we're learning how to fight back.

On the winâ€¦

"You have to understand that we played a good football team. That football team beat Penn State, Wisconsin, and they were on a roll coming in here. It's a good football team and you're not going to play as clean as always and you have to find a way to win. I thought Mitch (Leidner) played well. He had that one interception but the guy made a heck of a play and I thought we had a chance to catch the ball. We have to keep moving forward and we have to understand that we have to get better but we're also getting better in finding a way to win and that's all that matters at the end of the day. We played hard to get that win.

David Cobb, Minnesota Running Back

On how team came in after a big win against Michiganâ€¦

"The biggest thing is to be level-headed, and to not get too high or too low. I think the team responded well. We celebrated the win, which we should have. And we prepared well this week, and we will celebrate this one and prepare for next week."

Damien Wilson, Minnesota Linebacker

On the long drive that tied the game upâ€¦

"We had a lot of adversity on that drive, but the 98-yard drive touchdown for anyone was inexcusable, [and] we have to work on that. But we definitely felt that we could stop them on the next drive. There were no heads down, and we were still confident in ourselves."

Mitch Leidner, Minnesota Quarterback

On the big play to Maxx Williamsâ€¦

"I felt that [the drive] was really big for us. It was something that we did last week against Michigan. And this week, the same kind of feeling was there, that yeah, we have to go out and answer again. [We have] got to keep answering every time they score, and keep moving football well down the field."

Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern Head Coach

"This division is really competitive. We knew that going inâ€¦ One of the most impressive games I've seen in a long time on tape was the way Minnesota played against Michigan."

"Our guys were ready to play, for the most part I thought we handled things - but we didn't dominate or make the big plays."

"They played man. We knew they were going to play man. We threw the ball obviously not well enough to win a football game."

"We were a different football team last year. We have plenty of young guys that have been able to stand up when others have gone down. We didn't have that a year ago."

Nick VanHoose, Northwestern Cornerback

On the 100-yard kick return touchdownâ€¦

"We just didn't do our jobs. That's what it came down to."

"This week of practice is going to be real big on how we respond to this loss."

Justin Jackson, Northwestern Running Back

"Some plays we played well to win, other times we shot ourselves in the foot. It's what had us losing in the beginning of the season. We have to correct that as we play a great team, Nebraska."

Chi Chi Ariguzo, Northwestern Linebacker

"We'll go back and watch film. After that it's over with. You gotta move on to the next team and prepare for the win. You can't keep looking back."

Trevor Siemian, Northwestern Quarterback

"We needed to get momentum back after the 100-yard kick return touchdown and we didn't do it well enough."

"I think we were forced to throw it down the stretch a little more. I think you probably want to be more balanced, but you're not going to be up 10 points in every game so you have to be able to do both."

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Players Mentioned

David Cobb

Mitch Leidner

Jalen Myrick

Maxx Williams

Damien Wilson