OPENING STATEMENT
First of all, just extremely proud of our football team. Really happy for them. The entire team, top to bottom, but especially the seniors, to finish up in Kinnick in this kind of fashion tonight, they just played one heck of a game.
Looking back a little bit, we always talk to our football team about how important November football is, and you learn a lot about yourselves in November. I don't know if we could have gone any lower than we did three weeks ago. We had a tough loss to open the month, but what these guys have done, day in and day out, the past three weeks, it's been really amazing to watch.
I think what showed up tonight, we played great complementary team football. The defense played strong three straight weeks in a row. Offensively, had the big play early in the game, came up with several big plays, and then as the game went on, they really took control of the game offensively and did a great job there.
And special teams were huge. They're big in any game, especially a big game like this, and tonight I can't say enough about our special teams effort, whether it was Ron Coluzzi, Keith Duncan, going right through the list, our core guys did a great job, and maybe as representative as anything was the block that Desmond King threw on Riley McCarron's last punt return. I think it was a great effort and I think it represents the unselfishness this team has, the care that they have for each other, and here's a guy that won an award a year ago, and he's out there laying it out there for his teammates when the game was already out of hand.
To me that was a Kodak moment for tonight, just that play in itself. It speaks to the kind of guys we get to work with.
And then a couple things I want to touch base on real quick. I normally don't single out the honorary captains, but Abdul Hodge, what a talk -- we haven't had a bad talk. They've all been excellent, but Abdul Hodge yesterday was unreal, just unreal. You know, again, just makes you feel good as a coach to see a guy who's 10, 12 years out of here raising a family, married, just every front, just doing such a great job, and the message he delivered to our team yesterday was so unbelievable and very little of it was about football. Just really proud of him.
And then I'd be remiss if I didn't just mention our fans, too. The last two times out in Kinnick are about as good as it gets. It was just unbelievable out there, the atmosphere tonight, just like it was last time we were here, and I'll speak for everybody involved in our program just how appreciative we are of our fan support. We don't take that for granted. They are the best, and we really appreciate that.
Just finish up by saying it's been a really good month of November for our football team. Extremely proud of them, extremely happy for them. They earned it, and the other thing I would just say is I told them, it's been a good three weeks, but it really began in January. This team, win, lose or draw tonight, this team has just done things right for the most part, whether it's academics, their citizenship, with the way they approach their football, their workouts, their training. They've been trying extremely hard from January on.
You know, to me it's really fitting that they would turn in a dominant performance like this because it's just to me a culmination of a lot of good efforts and a lot of good attitudes, so I'm just extremely pleased for our football team tonight.
Q. LeShun had a lot of injuries but he stuck in there. Talk about the year he's had.
KIRK FERENTZ: I can probably talk about every one of our seniors individually, and certainly his story, he has. He's had to fight injuries on and off, that type of thing. Nobody has a better attitude than him. I mean, he's been so easy to coach for four years, and this year clearly he's played his best football. First of all, he has stayed healthy, and he's just played his best football. He's improved as a player. That's something we ask all of our guys to do, whether it's week by week, day by day, year to year, and again, he really represents that.
You can talk about McCarron the same way. Great special teams player last year, really improved as a receiver in the spring in camp, and he's just been doing great things for us all season long.
You go right down the list, just really happy for all of the seniors.
Q. Was there anything on film that made you think some big plays would happen today?
KIRK FERENTZ: No, you can't count on that. They're a good football team, a really good football team, and we had tremendous respect and still do for them. Those things just happen. They happen. They don't happen if we're not working hard and clicking and doing little detail things right, but no, we had no idea -- I figured one of those two-point games, one of those deals.
Q. Is this as good a game as you guys have played this season?
KIRK FERENTZ: Hard to rank wins. That one two weeks ago was pretty good, too, and that thing to me was a different style ballgame. But that was a complete team effort, too. Bottom line is we played complementary team football the last three weeks, and I think that's given us a chance to be successful in all three.
Q. The third quarter you were up 17, just like you were two years ago. Did that cross your mind?
KIRK FERENTZ: You know, we mentioned it during the week, during the course of the week. You know, obviously when you play -- it's nice to play teams year in and year out, so that since they've joined, that hasn't been an issue.
I'm referring to Illinois, that gap we have with Illinois, not playing them for five years or six years or whatever it was. We always go back and look at games and talk about them, and that was one of our low points certainly two years ago, that game.
Our players are aware of what happened in that game and really who was at fault, and that was us. It wasn't them. They did what they were supposed to do, we didn't. So I didn't have to bring it up at all because the players were talking about it at halftime. When I walked in there that was prominent on their thoughts.
The only thing I told them, that was a long time ago.
First of all, just extremely proud of our football team. Really happy for them. The entire team, top to bottom, but especially the seniors, to finish up in Kinnick in this kind of fashion tonight, they just played one heck of a game.
Looking back a little bit, we always talk to our football team about how important November football is, and you learn a lot about yourselves in November. I don't know if we could have gone any lower than we did three weeks ago. We had a tough loss to open the month, but what these guys have done, day in and day out, the past three weeks, it's been really amazing to watch.
I think what showed up tonight, we played great complementary team football. The defense played strong three straight weeks in a row. Offensively, had the big play early in the game, came up with several big plays, and then as the game went on, they really took control of the game offensively and did a great job there.
And special teams were huge. They're big in any game, especially a big game like this, and tonight I can't say enough about our special teams effort, whether it was Ron Coluzzi, Keith Duncan, going right through the list, our core guys did a great job, and maybe as representative as anything was the block that Desmond King threw on Riley McCarron's last punt return. I think it was a great effort and I think it represents the unselfishness this team has, the care that they have for each other, and here's a guy that won an award a year ago, and he's out there laying it out there for his teammates when the game was already out of hand.
To me that was a Kodak moment for tonight, just that play in itself. It speaks to the kind of guys we get to work with.
And then a couple things I want to touch base on real quick. I normally don't single out the honorary captains, but Abdul Hodge, what a talk -- we haven't had a bad talk. They've all been excellent, but Abdul Hodge yesterday was unreal, just unreal. You know, again, just makes you feel good as a coach to see a guy who's 10, 12 years out of here raising a family, married, just every front, just doing such a great job, and the message he delivered to our team yesterday was so unbelievable and very little of it was about football. Just really proud of him.
And then I'd be remiss if I didn't just mention our fans, too. The last two times out in Kinnick are about as good as it gets. It was just unbelievable out there, the atmosphere tonight, just like it was last time we were here, and I'll speak for everybody involved in our program just how appreciative we are of our fan support. We don't take that for granted. They are the best, and we really appreciate that.
Just finish up by saying it's been a really good month of November for our football team. Extremely proud of them, extremely happy for them. They earned it, and the other thing I would just say is I told them, it's been a good three weeks, but it really began in January. This team, win, lose or draw tonight, this team has just done things right for the most part, whether it's academics, their citizenship, with the way they approach their football, their workouts, their training. They've been trying extremely hard from January on.
You know, to me it's really fitting that they would turn in a dominant performance like this because it's just to me a culmination of a lot of good efforts and a lot of good attitudes, so I'm just extremely pleased for our football team tonight.
Q. LeShun had a lot of injuries but he stuck in there. Talk about the year he's had.
KIRK FERENTZ: I can probably talk about every one of our seniors individually, and certainly his story, he has. He's had to fight injuries on and off, that type of thing. Nobody has a better attitude than him. I mean, he's been so easy to coach for four years, and this year clearly he's played his best football. First of all, he has stayed healthy, and he's just played his best football. He's improved as a player. That's something we ask all of our guys to do, whether it's week by week, day by day, year to year, and again, he really represents that.
You can talk about McCarron the same way. Great special teams player last year, really improved as a receiver in the spring in camp, and he's just been doing great things for us all season long.
You go right down the list, just really happy for all of the seniors.
Q. Was there anything on film that made you think some big plays would happen today?
KIRK FERENTZ: No, you can't count on that. They're a good football team, a really good football team, and we had tremendous respect and still do for them. Those things just happen. They happen. They don't happen if we're not working hard and clicking and doing little detail things right, but no, we had no idea -- I figured one of those two-point games, one of those deals.
Q. Is this as good a game as you guys have played this season?
KIRK FERENTZ: Hard to rank wins. That one two weeks ago was pretty good, too, and that thing to me was a different style ballgame. But that was a complete team effort, too. Bottom line is we played complementary team football the last three weeks, and I think that's given us a chance to be successful in all three.
Q. The third quarter you were up 17, just like you were two years ago. Did that cross your mind?
KIRK FERENTZ: You know, we mentioned it during the week, during the course of the week. You know, obviously when you play -- it's nice to play teams year in and year out, so that since they've joined, that hasn't been an issue.
I'm referring to Illinois, that gap we have with Illinois, not playing them for five years or six years or whatever it was. We always go back and look at games and talk about them, and that was one of our low points certainly two years ago, that game.
Our players are aware of what happened in that game and really who was at fault, and that was us. It wasn't them. They did what they were supposed to do, we didn't. So I didn't have to bring it up at all because the players were talking about it at halftime. When I walked in there that was prominent on their thoughts.
The only thing I told them, that was a long time ago.
