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University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes
10/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 18, 2014
On finding a way to win after going into the second half trailing 31-20...
"It was a wild game. Tons of adversity and tons of different kind of situations. We came in at halftime and I visited with the kids and I said, 'Hey listen. Good teams find a way to win. We are going to find out about your character and we are going to find out if you are a good team. We are going to find out if you can have discipline because we didn't play with some in the first half. I've been here a million times but Minnesota has not always been here. We need to find out who we are and what we are.' And we came out and did good things in the second half and we overcame adversity. We had some mental breakdowns on the defensive side of the ball and a couple of kicking game errors which we are not used to and [Purdue] had a lot of speed. We will go back and learn from it but in the end you just have to find a way to win. We found a way to win and now have to look to the next Big Ten game at Illinois. As I told our guys, every game is a championship game. Pete Carroll said that and I believe that. We have to play like that and we have to play better, however, Purdue is a good football team."
"We needed some explosive plays, and it all starts with protection, and that's the best protection we've had so that is encouraging. We had great protection, [Mitch Leidner] had time to throw the ball and I've always said that if he gets some time, he can throw that thing. We hit some deep balls and big deep balls that were critical in the game. It was important for us to do that and we need to continue to do that. We made plays that we hadn't made in a long time. The throw he made to KJ Maye was a tremendous throw."
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Postgame Quotes
Oct. 18, 2014
Oct. 18, 2014
TCF Bank Stadium
Purdue at Minnesota
Jerry Kill, Minnesota Head Coach
On finding a way to win after going into the second half trailing 31-20...
"It was a wild game. Tons of adversity and tons of different kind of situations. We came in at halftime and I visited with the kids and I said, 'Hey listen. Good teams find a way to win. We are going to find out about your character and we are going to find out if you are a good team. We are going to find out if you can have discipline because we didn't play with some in the first half. I've been here a million times but Minnesota has not always been here. We need to find out who we are and what we are.' And we came out and did good things in the second half and we overcame adversity. We had some mental breakdowns on the defensive side of the ball and a couple of kicking game errors which we are not used to and [Purdue] had a lot of speed. We will go back and learn from it but in the end you just have to find a way to win. We found a way to win and now have to look to the next Big Ten game at Illinois. As I told our guys, every game is a championship game. Pete Carroll said that and I believe that. We have to play like that and we have to play better, however, Purdue is a good football team."
"There wasn't any hesitation because we know what he can do, and I trust Pete Mortell. I think, more importantly, I was worried about getting the snap and the hold. A lot of people don't understand that there are some things that go along with that. We do it in practice and so forth. We figured if we could get him around the 35-yard line or somewhere in that area, he had a chance to get it. It was a good hold, a good snap and good protection. Shoot, he might have been able to kick it who knows how far because I think it was 8 or 10 yards deeper than that. [Ryan Santoso] has a tremendous leg and he has a good, strong head. We've said all along that it comes down to needing a guy to be able kick a field goal, someone is going to have to punt the ball and hold field position. A lot of room for improvement but a win is a win. You just have to find a way sometimes."
On today's offensive game...
"We needed some explosive plays, and it all starts with protection, and that's the best protection we've had so that is encouraging. We had great protection, [Mitch Leidner] had time to throw the ball and I've always said that if he gets some time, he can throw that thing. We hit some deep balls and big deep balls that were critical in the game. It was important for us to do that and we need to continue to do that. We made plays that we hadn't made in a long time. The throw he made to KJ Maye was a tremendous throw."
On the sixth win and becoming bowl eligible...
"I haven't really thought too much about it. I've thought about Purdue and now it is the same thing. We have to go on the road. We've taken care of home and now we have to go out and get a road win and those are never easy. Then we have to get to the off week. We have some guys banged up today and now we need to be able to get to the off week again. The off weeks have come at a pretty good time but right now we have to go to Champaign and I can tell you right now, I will start thinking about it now. I'm not going to wait another day to start thinking about it. That game is important for a lot of reasons. I coached in that state for a while so I have a lot of people around there and I don't want to be embarrassed. We have to go back to work and get better but this was a good win. A good character win. Good teams find a way to win."
On how team came in after a big win against Michigan…
"It was a total team win. I couldn't be more proud of the defense. I need to hold the ball-I fumbled-but they come hold them to three and that's a big play in the game. Receivers not being selfish, getting their blocks in-when their number is called to make a play, they did that all day for us. That was big for us."
KJ Maye, Wide Receiver
On the importance of the deep passes in the third quarter…
"In the third quarter, we needed to pass because the running game, they kind of picked up on that, and we had to switch it up a bit. We were down, so we had to make some big plays in the passing game. It became a key factor in the game."
On making a big play…
"It was an amazing feeling. I'd been waiting on that for three years. It felt good."
Ryan Santoso, Kicker
On his 52-yard field goal…
"It was a great opportunity just to get down and prolong the field. The offense did great. I just go through my checklist, every kick try to do the same thing. Great blocking up front, great snap by Dave (Ramlet), great hold by Pete (Mortell)."
Cedric Thompson, Defensive Back
On the mood in the locker room at halftime…
"We were calm. Coach (Jay) Sawvel came in, he just talked to us calm. We knew what we had to do. We weren't worried about anything. We knew we were beating ourselves. We knew if we could go out there in the second half and do our job, play the way we knew we were capable of playing, we'd go out there and win the game."
"Honestly, I would say yeah. That was one of the first times we've been down more than seven points where we knew we had to fight back. I think that shows a lot about our team and all the work we did over the summer and during the spring. No matter what happens, if we fight back, we can execute, no matter who we play. I think that was a big win for our team as a family."
Mitch Leidner, Quarterback
On deep passing plays…
"I think that it was a big spark for everyone. Receivers did a great job getting open downfield, and offensive line did a great job protecting. At that point after the first one, we knew we were going to be able to do some things downfield with these guys. Luckily we were just able to keep taking some shots at them, and were successful."
On chemistry with the receivers…
"It's a process. We're just getting more comfortable every day, keep continuing to have good practices. Today there were times when I just did a poor job of making easy, and I've just got to keep getting better at that."
Minnesota Player Quotes
David Cobb, Running Back
On how team came in after a big win against Michigan…
"It was a total team win. I couldn't be more proud of the defense. I need to hold the ball-I fumbled-but they come hold them to three and that's a big play in the game. Receivers not being selfish, getting their blocks in-when their number is called to make a play, they did that all day for us. That was big for us."
KJ Maye, Wide Receiver
On the importance of the deep passes in the third quarter…
"In the third quarter, we needed to pass because the running game, they kind of picked up on that, and we had to switch it up a bit. We were down, so we had to make some big plays in the passing game. It became a key factor in the game."
On making a big play…
"It was an amazing feeling. I'd been waiting on that for three years. It felt good."
Ryan Santoso, Kicker
On his 52-yard field goal…
"It was a great opportunity just to get down and prolong the field. The offense did great. I just go through my checklist, every kick try to do the same thing. Great blocking up front, great snap by Dave (Ramlet), great hold by Pete (Mortell)."
Cedric Thompson, Defensive Back
On the mood in the locker room at halftime…
"We were calm. Coach (Jay) Sawvel came in, he just talked to us calm. We knew what we had to do. We weren't worried about anything. We knew we were beating ourselves. We knew if we could go out there in the second half and do our job, play the way we knew we were capable of playing, we'd go out there and win the game."
On if this win rates among the best wins of his Gophers career…
"Honestly, I would say yeah. That was one of the first times we've been down more than seven points where we knew we had to fight back. I think that shows a lot about our team and all the work we did over the summer and during the spring. No matter what happens, if we fight back, we can execute, no matter who we play. I think that was a big win for our team as a family."
Mitch Leidner, Quarterback
On deep passing plays…
"I think that it was a big spark for everyone. Receivers did a great job getting open downfield, and offensive line did a great job protecting. At that point after the first one, we knew we were going to be able to do some things downfield with these guys. Luckily we were just able to keep taking some shots at them, and were successful."
On chemistry with the receivers…
"It's a process. We're just getting more comfortable every day, keep continuing to have good practices. Today there were times when I just did a poor job of making easy, and I've just got to keep getting better at that."
Darrell Hazell, Purdue Head Coach
On the second half and the end of the game…
"You've got to be able to finish games. It's unfortunate because I thought the guys played extremely hard. That penalty at the end-that personal foul on a third-down situation away from the play-you just can't do those things and hurt yourself."
On the whether the team's defense needs to play better…
"We've got to be better everywhere. There's no question we can't let up 39 points, but we've got to be better at every position."
On the Boilermakers' offense in the second half…
"I thought we moved the ball well in the second half-we just have to score. I thought we moved the ball well and did what we needed to do, for the most part. Obviously we came up short on a couple possessions, but I thought we were still moving pretty good."
On how he addressed his team after it fell behind 7-0 in the first 20 seconds of the game…
"I said there's a lot of football left. We're not going to panic because there's way too much football to be played. I thought our guys responded well."
On the mood of the team…
"It goes by wins and losses. When you play the way we played, these are hard ones. When you're so close and you have a chance to win several times and you don't succeed, it's a hard loss. And (the players) are hurting-and they should be. We all should be."
Austin Appleby, Purdue Quarterback
On his interception with 2:28 left in the game…
"It was a play-action pass. We had a guy coming on a crossing route, I tried to get him a pass, and the defense made a great play."
On the offensive output…
"It's all irrelevant if we don't win. We've got to do a better job coming out of the locker room at halftime and keeping the foot on the gas pedal and continuing to run points up. We're good enough to hang 60 (points)-we really are. There's no reason why we can't, there's no reason why we shouldn't, and that starts with the quarterback. I'm going to get these guys going and we're going to have the best practices of this year going into the bye week and going into our next game, we're going to be ready."
On the team's running backs and its running game as a whole…
"They're the most explosive backs in the country. Our offensive line does a great job getting it all sorted out out front and all they need is a speck of daylight and they're gone. As a quarterback, that gives me a lot of confidence to know that I've got that sort of relief and that I can just let them do their thing. They're unbelievable players and we need them to even take a step forward and get better. There's still more out there for this whole team-we left a lot of points out there…We've got to push to reach our full potential and we will."
Raheem Mostert, Purdue Running Back
On his performance…
"Personally, I didn't think I did a good job because I didn't help our team get a win out of this game. I've just got to go into next week and hone in on my craft and help this team out in order to get a win. I don't really want to put myself to blame-we all didn't come out with a win and that's what's hurting us. We all didn't finish like we're supposed to."
On the team's confidence level…
"We're confident in our abilities and that's never going to shatter us at all. We've just got to finish-that's it. It's all about the finish…We came out in the first half and we were putting up numbers and making plays and doing everything correctly and in the second half we were shooting ourselves. We've got to continue to get better at (finishing)."
Players Mentioned
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