Postgame Quotes

Nov. 15, 2014

TCF Bank Stadium

Ohio State at Minnesota

Jerry Kill, Minnesota Head Coach

On Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett and Minnesota's playâ€¦

"He's certainly very good, but they've got athleticism everywhere on the football field. He's a very, very good player-I've said that before. Braxton Miller is a great player-I've said he's one of the better ones in the country if he wasn't the best-and this kid is every bit of that and more because of his ability to throw the football. He's a heck of a player and they've got a good football team, but at the same time, we made some mistakes today. If we don't make those mistakes, it's a different ball game. I think that's why we're a little bit upset. â€¦ There were some frustrating things that we normally don't do, but we can control our own destiny. We were going to have to win our last two (games) no matter what the outcome was. We can't have a hangover-we've got to be ready to play. We played hard, we just didn't play smart all the time."

On the Gophers' third quarterâ€¦

"It was a pretty emotional game and my head is spinning right now, but there were a lot of things that spun in the game. I thought we did a good job. We tried to shorten the game. We knew they were good on offense and (tried to) keep them on the boundary as much as we could. We did everything in the first half, except we made some mental errors. â€¦ Our kids played hard and Mitch (Leidner) gave us a chance to win, but we made three or four critical errors that really hurt us."

On the Buckeyes' defenseâ€¦

"You can look out there on the field and anyone that's got good eye sight (can see) that they don't have one or two guys that are going to play in the NFL, three quarters of their team is. They've got great athletes and the big thing is they've got a secondary that can man you up, their safeties can play soft, so they'll make it hard for you to throw the football, and then they can play the run with seven guys in the box-sometimes six. When you can do that and you can play pass coverage and you hold up, you did a pretty good job. We ran the ball some and did some pretty good things, but we made some critical errors that didn't allow us to sustain drives. I said last week that last week, we didn't have any third and longs. They got us in third and long and you don't want to be third and long against them. The kids played hard-there's no doubt about that-but we didn't do the little things you need to do to beat Ohio State. You've got to play mistake-free football and you can't have mental errorsâ€¦"

On his message to the team after today's resultâ€¦

"We've got to win out anyway. Who knows what's going to happen? Everybody's got to play each other. I wish I had a crystal ball, but I know we control our own destiny. We've got to go win on the road, but we beat Michigan on the road. We have a tough task. We knew that at the beginning. We can't have a hangover and we've got to go back to work and I know these kids will. They fought their tail end off today against a very good football team, a team that's in the top eight in the country, and I'm sure that if they win out, they're going to be in great shape. However, if we do our job, we'll play them again."

De'Vondre Campbell, Minnesota LB

On trying to contain JT Barrettâ€¦

"He's a good quarterback. We knew coming in that he was going to be hard to contain, but if everybody did their assignments and read the keys, it wouldn't be too bad. I mean, he's a great player. He kind of took advantage of our mistakes."

On the defense in the second halfâ€¦

"I think we really just went into halftime and made a few slight adjustments, not anything too big, just kind of put in a couple new calls that we thought would kind of disrupt them. â€¦The only thing we felt was really hurting us was the quarterback's powerâ€¦because any time a quarterback can run the ball by you is kind of demoralizing."

David Cobb, Minnesota RB

On if this was a tough way to go out at home as a seniorâ€¦

"Yeah, definitely, and not just for senior night but any time you lose a game. At the end of the day they made a couple more plays than us. Being my last game, of course it's tough, but again it's not so much about senior night, it's just about the next game."

On the tying touchdown before the halfâ€¦

"I think it just gave us juice. You could see on the sideline that guys were up a little more, you know, smiles or frowns that turned into smiles. It gave us a little juice and it gave us a little confidence. If guys didn't believe, then they definitely believed when it was 14-14."

On what was said in the locker room about the upcoming Nebraska and Wisconsin gamesâ€¦

"Every guy on our team believes that we are a good enough team to win those games."

Briean Boddy-Calhoun, Minnesota DB

On his interceptionâ€¦

"We know when things aren't going to right way, sometimes defense just needs to step up and make a play. In the back of my mind, I told myself that if I had the opportunity to make that play, that I was going to make that play."

On the takeaway from the close gameâ€¦

"At the end of the day it's still an 'L', but you can take away a lot of things, just like every game. Today we proved to ourselves that we can hang with the top teams. That's the No. 8 team in the country. We proved that we can not only hang but we can have a really strong chance of beating them if we don't make some of the mistakes we do on defense."

Mitch Leidner, Minnesota QB

On how injuries hurt the passing gameâ€¦

"It can be tough but I thought that guys did a pretty good job stepping up here and there and we gotta just keep building it up at those positions and getting better there."

On the third-and-inches illegal formation play's effect on momentumâ€¦

"Yeah, it's tough. But that's my fault, I didn't communicate out to the receivers to get on the ball when I made a lineup call because the clock was low."

Urban Meyer, Ohio State Head Coach

"Great team win. Not great execution, but great team win. It was a tough environment against a very good team that we have a lot of respect for."

"This is a tough environment - it's the first time I've ever been hereâ€¦ I don't want to see this on the schedule for a while, certainly not again in November."

"Early in the season we had no idea who J.T. Barrett was, we have a very clear picture now."

On the mood in the locker roomâ€¦

"Outstanding. Like we are one game away from winning the Big Ten East Championship."

"I'd like to see any team in the country come up here and do this. Play here in November, against a very good teamâ€¦ Have at it."

J.T. Barrett, Ohio State QB

"My mindset all the time is to win games, individual accolades have come with that - but I focus on winning the game."

On today's weatherâ€¦

"Being in North Texas, it can get a little cold, but that's in February, not November."

On his 86-yard rushâ€¦

"I feel I have the ability to run, but I definitely don't have crazy, breakaway speed like Braxton."

"I think they did underrate my speed."

Evan Spencer, Ohio State WR

"We had three costly turnovers, but [Minnesota] is a great team. They held TCU to 30 points, and they've played really well throughout the entire seasonâ€¦ you watch film on them and you know that's a good team. The fact that we put the yards up that we did, I think we did really well."

Doran Grant, Ohio State CB

"The way we practice every week is why we are playing well. â€¦They were prepared, they were tough, we just came out victorious."

On Golden Gopher Maxx Williamsâ€¦

"He's a really good player. I see him on film, all the catches he was making in previous weeks, it really opened my eyes and I knew I would need to prepare for him."

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Players Mentioned

Briean Boddy-Calhoun

De'Vondre Campbell

David Cobb

Mitch Leidner

Maxx Williams