Nov. 10, 2009
Opening Statement:
"First of all let me just say that I'm really happy. It's kind of fun to be able to see our players enjoy the last couple weeks and kind of have a little looseness about them. Although they understand this is a big challenge, it's good to be able to see them celebrate. I think the locker room celebrations have been special and they're something that we'll obviously remember for a long time. They obviously understand that it's only two games. This is a big week coming up. It's kind of funny that we're playing Northwestern before our last regular season game. Usually we play them as our last game, but it's not the last game for them either so it's a little bit different. It's kind of different from that aspect, but still a very big game for a lot of reasons. They're coming off a very big win over Iowa. This is a typical Northwestern football team, a very well-coached team offensively. They will obviously present another big challenge for us. Health-wise, everybody but Juice [Williams] practiced last night. Uh-Oh [Michael Hoomanawanui] was out there last night and I feel very good about him. I'll tell you, I am cautiously optimistic about Juice. From what the doctors felt like on Sunday, it's maybe not quite as bad as they originally said. Yesterday was better. Today, he's getting treatment just about 24/7 and I was in there when the doctors examined him last night. It was moving and pressing and twisting and didn't hurt (him). I'm cautiously optimistic about that. That will be a day-to-day thing and we'll have to wait and see. Jacob [Charest] did well. He did fine yesterday. Obviously we're excited about the way Jacob played on Saturday as well. Hubie [Graham] was not out there, he was at a funeral, but he'll be back tomorrow. Other than Juice, everyone else practiced and we should be ready to go."
On Juice Williams starting on Saturday:
"I'm just cautiously optimistic. I think if you look at Juice and you look at his history and you look at his background, he's a tough guy. Obviously we're not going to do anything that would put him in any situation that would be a detriment to him. On the same token, he's tough. I've seen him play with a lot of the things some guys may not play with over the last four years. I'm not saying he's going to play, but I'm just cautiously optimistic as to where we are right now. I'd say that you'll probably see him in uniform. I said it was doubtful yesterday or Sunday, but now I'd say it's questionable."
On how much Michael Hoomanawanui will play:
"I don't think it's about future, not with Michael. Michael's already put a lot of money in the bank and he's earning interest as well I think. Michael wants to play. He wants to be out there doing everything he can do to help the Illini. You want it for him because of all he's been through and all he's put into this program. He wants to play bad. I talked to him a little this morning and he felt good. He was workout sore I think, which is normal. He went after it pretty good yesterday and I feel very good about him. As I said, not only do you want to see him out there, we need him as well."
On what Eddie McGee will do in practice this week:
"Lots of things. He's going to be all over the place. He has to be able to play quarterback. He has to be able to play receiver."
On this game being different since so many players know each other from Chicago:
"No question, I mean it's a rivalry game. One thing you have to remember is that rivalry games were started long before I was around. They've been going for a long time. Our players are getting up to speed on what this game means. I can remember going into the high school at St. Rita and trying to talk to (Mike Kafka) and his mind was made up. Obviously he's had a great career and did the right thing for him. He's made unbelievable progress. Last year we knew he was a good runner, now he's a great runner and a great thrower. He's done a great job and they've done a great job with him as well. It's a trophy game. It's a new trophy we're playing for and it's still something that holds a lot of pride in our fans and in the rivalry as well."
On wanting to win the first game with the new trophy:
"You want it every year, but you're right. This is the first time that I have not seen it. I've seen pictures, but I have not seen it. I've seen pictures and heard talk about it. It's shaped like Abraham Lincoln's hat. No question, we'd like to bring it home."
On worrying about the players getting over-emotional in the rivalry game:
"I don't think so, we talk about that. We talked about it last week and other than that one little incident, I thought our guys handled themselves well. I think for the most part our guys have done the things they've been asked to do."
On the challenges Northwestern presents defensively against the run:
"Defensively, they are a four-three under team, more of an under-team than an over-team. They have the defensive end. Hugh [Thornton] will have his hands full at that defensive end. It seems like every time you line up against somebody in the Big Ten, somebody has a defensive end who's a great player. There's no question the [Corey] Wootton is a big-time player. They play with unbelievable emotion. They're great tacklers. Not a real big pressure team, but they will pressure you. I think when you play a game like this, a lot of times you can take the records and you can take the circumstances and you can take the injuries and all those things and throw them by the side. It's the team that goes out there on that particular day and has the fewest mistakes and plays the hardest."
On the pressure put on Minnesota's Adam Weber being what he expected the defense to be capable of this year:
"It's something we wanted to be able to do and felt like we had a chance to do. Once again, sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn't. We were able to get to him a little bit. I said many times, there's a very thin line between playing at the level you want to play at and playing where you end up playing. Our guys played with excitement. They played with energy. Clay [Nurse] had four and a half sacks, which is a big day. In the beginning of that game, 92, Josh [Brent] was coming off the rock. I told him all week now, that's the Josh that I envisioned all year long. When you get a big force like that and Corey [Liuget] came right on, those guys just kind of feed off that. Then they start going and you have some things happen and you take off from there."
On Terry Hawthorne earning respect from the locker room for his last two games:
"If you get to know Terry, he's not that kind of kid. He likes to ball. He likes to play. When we talked about him going to defense, he said, 'Coach, I just want to play, I'll play tackle if you want me to play.' He said that. He just wants to play. He loves to play. He's a quiet young man. I'm proud of him, I really am, because he goes out there and just plays. He makes plays. Some guys just have a knack and he's been fortunate enough the last two games to make a play for us."
On if Hawthorne will still eventually return to the offense:
"I'm just worried about Northwestern right now. Obviously Terry will be involved in that decision. That's something that he will be involved with, but I don't think it's anything we need to talk about here for the next couple months."
On balancing what players do in games to what they do in practice in deciding who starts:
"Reggie [Mitchell] and I talked about it on Friday night and he really felt like Jason [Ford]. Mikel [LeShoure] had a good week also, but sometimes, and I never used to understand this either and I still don't understand it completely - How can a guy not play at their very highest level 12 times? It doesn't make sense. You have to be able to do that. It's hard to do. Mikel had two great weeks. He didn't do anything wrong Saturday, but Jason kind of got in there and made some things happen. he best thing that we can have in that running back position is competition. It keeps everybody on edge and they understand that when they come to practice, they have to practice. You're either getting better or you're getting worse."
On Northwestern's Sherrick McManis:
"Once again, very sound. They're all defense. A lot of times I judge a defense by the kind of mistakes they make, the way they tackle, those kinds of things. All of those guys are very sound and play extremely well. They play hard. They tackle well. Tackling is emotion. Tackling is playing with an attitude. They've done that. He's a senior player. He's been around for awhile. He's played a lot of football and he's played against us a bunch. He's a very good football player."
On Northwestern's offense:
"They're second in the Big Ten in passing, they're ninth in the country in third downs, 29th in the nation in red zone. Their quarterback is their leading rusher. Now what do you do, because you get in there and try to put a pass rush on him and all of a sudden - Boom - he's gone, he's running, he's scrambling. It puts a tremendous amount of pressure and strain on receivers. They just get open. Last year I can remember talking about [Mike] Kafka, that you figure he's going to run the football, which is what they did last year. When they bring in the other guy now it's kind of what they do. It's more of a running offense, not that he doesn't throw, because he does throw. They bring him in in the same types of situations. Kafka can run the football, as I said, he's the leading rusher I believe. Also, he's throwing the ball extremely well. They play together. They know where each other will be."
On Coach Keith Gilmore introducing new things to the defensive line:
"Once again, Keith has done a great job. Keith is as good of a technician when it comes to the defensive line as I've been around at any level, he really is. Maybe it's taken this long for things to start working, but back to the very beginning of the game, you could see 92 come off the rock. Then, all of a sudden, 93 picked it up. Then, all of a sudden, both ends got involved. Doug Pilcher, in my opinion, has had an unbelievable season. Doug is probably as consistent of a football player as there is on this football team. That was probably Doug's least effective game. He's still a captain this week. He's a good player. I don't know if it's anything in particular that Keith has done over the last couple weeks or anything."
On the players playing better because they're recognizing weaknesses or because they're just playing at a higher level:
"I really think playing at a higher level. As I said, it's been fun for these guys and to see them in the locker room and to see them walk around here with a smile on their face and feeling a little bit better about themselves."
On how different it would be for Jacob Charest to start on Saturday rather than coming off the bench:
"I'm not trying to allude the question. We'll have to find out. Jacob is a hard guy to read, which I guess is probably good. I know his father talked about it in recruiting, and I never knew quite what he meant. I understand that now. Don't read him wrong because he's not a rah-rah guy, he's not a guy that's all over the place. When Jacob throws a great pass it's going to be the same as if he throws a pass that's not so good. I guess that's good for him. I think you have to play into your personality. We'll find out if it works out that way. I know he has a smile on his face and he had a smile on his face after the game. We made him the offensive player of the game for coming into that situation. Once again, with the position we've backed ourselves in, every game is critical and he's come in and handled it well."
On Juice Williams wearing a boot:
"That is precautionary. In fact, he walked into the doctor's office last night and I said, 'Where's your boot?' I'm usually the one asking why we have to put a boot on, but he walked in and said he was just coming in here, no limp or anything. It's a precautionary thing. I think he's going to wear it today and that's it. That's what the doctor said"
On expectations for Jacob Charest coming into the season:
"I don't sit and try to analyze how they're going to handle it. When you recruit guys you try to get to know them and you look at what they've done in the past. Until you put a guy in that situation you really don't know how they're going to handle it. He handled it well."
On the plan for quarterback if Juice Williams is available:
"I think it depends on how he is. Obviously if he's not where we feel like he can win, then he would be in more of a back-up type role. I'm cautiously optimistic, but I just know this, he walked in there last night and I was very impressed. He's a tough guy and I think there's a good chance he'll be ready to go. I may be way ahead of myself. I know Rejus (Benn) got an ankle sprain in the first game and played in the second, but he wasn't 100 percent. We'll just have to wait and see."
On how much Northwestern changes if Mike Kafka doesn't play:
"They had some issues with their backup having a hand injury, but I guess the X-rays were negative, so there are no issues with that. They don't change a lot other than what they've done when everybody's healthy. When the backup has been in there, he's been more in a running situation, like Kafka was last year. Not that he can't throw, but that's what they've done with him is run the football more."
On Charest being steady in the pocket and under pressure:
"That was the one thing that I said after the game and on Sunday after watching it that probably impressed me the most. If a new guy gets in there and things begin to break down, a lot of times it's if they're blitzing. He got into a blitz situation, and you're going to turn somebody loose and usually the quarterback is going to see that and get rid of the football. He hung in there. He didn't try to scramble, he didn't try to pull the ball down and run. He stood in there and took a couple shots and threw the ball extremely well. To me, that's a sign of maturity. Not everyone can do that in the beginning. It's going to be important that he continues to do that. He can get rid of the ball fast. He got rid of the ball a couple times with people on him. To me, that's something that usually comes with a little bit more of experience than he has."
On Jacob Charest having the ability to get away from people without scrambling like Kurt Kittner:
"I said it in the meetings last night that Jacob runs much better than you might think. Everybody thinks Juice is fast, but Juice is not necessarily a burner. Juice is very quick. He can break their ankles. Jacob has a step to him. I've never watched Kurt play other than in the NFL, but let me just say this, Jacob has no problem getting out of trouble. I think that's the one thing we talked about in recruiting him - he's a guy who can get out of trouble, he can get out of the way and move to find an opening to get rid of the ball."
On Chris Duvalt:
"There are certain things that those good players just have. You can't coach everything. You can't buy experience, you have to play it. He threw for close to 8,000 yards in high school and had a pretty good league where he played and the schools he played against. I think he's having fun and he just has to keep doing what he's doing."
