OPENING STATEMENT
We're just really thrilled with the outcome of the football game. It was a hard-fought football game, and we knew that coming in. That's something we really tried to emphasize to our players at the beginning of the week and even last night. When you're in conference play, you've got to expect it to be tough, and today certainly was that.
The other thing we've talked about, and this goes back to last week, as well, we had a good win last Saturday, and if you're going to have a good football team, you're going to have to have the ability to turn the page weekly and get down to business. I think the team really did a good job of that this week, although in the first half not all that showed up. I thought we had really good preparation.
It was great to be back in Kinnick. We had a great crowd out there; we're really happy about that. Bottom line, the guys just really gutted it out there because there was nothing easy about this football game.
Illinois is a good football team that's playing extremely hard. They did the same thing last week, and they may have even played harder today.
I'm really pleased with the way our team showed grit out there. They fought through the entire football game.
I think we all saw something really special there with Jordan Canzeri. That was just a tremendous performance and I had no idea he had 43 carries -- a new school record.
But those yards that he got, each and every one of them came hard and were really needed, and I also thought in the second half I thought our punter and our kicker, both Dillon and Marshall Koehn really came up big. Every play that they're involved with basically in that second half was critical, and they just did a great job.
Josey Jewell stays active out there and plays really well. I thought our entire defense for the most part played tough, and then the takeaways were a big part of the game, as well.
This is another positive step for this team and this 2015 season. We're thrilled to get the victory. We'll enjoy this one and go back to work here tomorrow.
We're just really thrilled with the outcome of the football game. It was a hard-fought football game, and we knew that coming in. That's something we really tried to emphasize to our players at the beginning of the week and even last night. When you're in conference play, you've got to expect it to be tough, and today certainly was that.
The other thing we've talked about, and this goes back to last week, as well, we had a good win last Saturday, and if you're going to have a good football team, you're going to have to have the ability to turn the page weekly and get down to business. I think the team really did a good job of that this week, although in the first half not all that showed up. I thought we had really good preparation.
It was great to be back in Kinnick. We had a great crowd out there; we're really happy about that. Bottom line, the guys just really gutted it out there because there was nothing easy about this football game.
Illinois is a good football team that's playing extremely hard. They did the same thing last week, and they may have even played harder today.
I'm really pleased with the way our team showed grit out there. They fought through the entire football game.
I think we all saw something really special there with Jordan Canzeri. That was just a tremendous performance and I had no idea he had 43 carries -- a new school record.
But those yards that he got, each and every one of them came hard and were really needed, and I also thought in the second half I thought our punter and our kicker, both Dillon and Marshall Koehn really came up big. Every play that they're involved with basically in that second half was critical, and they just did a great job.
Josey Jewell stays active out there and plays really well. I thought our entire defense for the most part played tough, and then the takeaways were a big part of the game, as well.
This is another positive step for this team and this 2015 season. We're thrilled to get the victory. We'll enjoy this one and go back to work here tomorrow.
