Opening statement:
“Going back to last Sunday after our game at Indiana. We got back to the stadium at about 3 o’clock. My office overlooks the walkway where the players walk. I sat there at my desk and watched those guys walk to their cars. It was three in the morning and I knew they were emotionally hurting, but Sunday when I had the team meeting with them it wasn’t like there was disappointment; it was anger. They knew they had one that got away from us and I said to them, ‘Listen, for us to win football games, we can’t lose them. We have to do what we have to do. We have to play with an edge, we have to overcome things,’ and today defensively the way they responded, our offense hit some stumbling blocks with turnovers and penalties, defense just kept sawing wood. I told our staff I made this game all about us on Sunday. Wednesday I sprung it on them that this was the first of seven rematch games. It’s unusual to get an out-of-conference opponent as a rematch game. We have six more in front of us that come from divisional play. This was a big statement to me about where we were a year ago and where we are now. Virginia has new coaches and a majority of their players were there and ours were back, I wanted to see where we were as a program. For us to have the correctable moments we had today, to persevere and play that way. This bye week couldn’t have come at a better time. I really like the way our schedule lays out to have this week to recoup and get ourselves back to fundamental football, especially offensively and get ourselves into the Chattanooga week. I think we are giving away free student tickets so hopefully we are going to have a loud crowd on that Thursday night. I know everyone loves those Thursday night games, so we are going to try to do everything we can to get this place as excited as we can and get back into Big Ten play after that.”
On his secondary:
“We have talented players, I showed those guys some clips this week and last night in our team meeting. I showed 10 plays of guys having really good fundamental plays. Good football plays are usually the result of good fundamentals. The way Ryan (Walters) and Aaron (Henry) coach them and teach them sound fundamentals, the pass breakups and pass rush. I thought our pass rush took a big jump this week getting off the edges. You saw Gabe (Jacas) and these young players get in at corner, I saw Kenenna (Odeluga) and Dylan Rosiek. We get some young players in there and that’s how you build things. You get young players to emulate players that came before them and that’s how you build something. For us to be where we are now coming out of this Virginia game compared to last year, especially defensively tells me a lot about where we are as a program.” On corrections moving forward: “It is a correctable moment to play the way we did and win the game.The game really wasn’t in distress, I was anxious. I specifically talked about ball security coming out of last week’s game because I can see it. I watched the film and there were a lot of issues with plays from behind guys coming up and swinging. I coached them up on it and I give Virginia a lot of credit. I am glad they came alive in our win, usually those moments are correctable moments after a loss we can’t have those. I know we will have their ears, eyes and attention this week with a bye week. It is a great way to get back to some fundamental ball security stuff.”
On his tight ends:
“I was excited Marchese is a guy that has done everything for us since he got here. I just love the kid. He got in there and that play was a designed play. I showed it Thursday. It could have been all three tight ends and one of them could have run it, but we wanted to have a fresh guy in there and make a nice over-the-shoulder catch. Tip made a nice play at the back of the end zone. Luke (Ford) getting involved in the kicking game that’s a big step. We are doing good things. This is the first Power-Five win against a non-conference opponent since 2011. I wasn’t aware of that until now. We are not there yet, but I am excited where we are and where I think we could potentially go.”
On owning the moment:
“Whitney Mercilus did a captain talk; it was unbelievably awesome. He waited a couple years here in this program and when his moment came he took advantage of it. One of the most impressive seasons you’ve ever seen a guy have: 16 sacks and nine fumbles. He told our guys he didn’t miraculously get better. He took advantage of the moment how he approached that game. We talked about letting that dog out, Isaiah mentioned it this morning in our breakfast prayer. I talked to our guys about owning the moment, good or bad, there were bad moments in the first half that turned good. I really like our approach.
On his evaluation of the offense:
“Good enough to win today. We gotta get better in the future for sure. We left so many points on the board. There’s no reason why we should not have 50 points on the board. Certain situations, we get down the red zone, we need to get touchdowns and few goals. A lot of turnovers, I think on the second play the game, but I think overall, a lot of what happened in the first half. I think we did a good job flushing that. Obviously, it’s going to be a point of emphasis moving forward to take care of the ball. When you’re in tight games like that, we don’t have a defense to bail us out all the time. It’s going to cost us.”
On putting the interception behind him:
“That’s kind of the thing with quarterbacks, especially, but with any position, when you make a bad play, you just got flush it and move on to the next one. It’s a good thing. Coach Lunney, we had a conversation about that. He’s played the position, so he’s been in that situation before. He put me in a situation to throw the ball again right after that, so just get my confidence back up, not that it was down, but really just keep things on track.”
On what the offense is capable of:
“Honestly, I don’t think there’s anybody that can hang with us when we’re firing on all cylinders, how we do at times. I think we just have to be more consistent with that. It always comes down to just one little thing here, one little thing there. It’s really just everybody doing their 1/11. Everybody doing their job, worrying about their job, and doing it to the highest expectancy that we know that we can be at.”
On getting tight ends involved:
“It’s awesome. You guys have seen it in the past couple games. We spread the ball out to whoever is on the field. We have a lot of trust in everybody that’s out there. To see them flourish and really be able to move the chains and get some touchdowns and keep that going was awesome to see.”
On Chase Brown:
“He’s an animal. Sometimes I hand off the ball, I’m supposed to keep my little boot going out, fake going upfield, sometimes I give a little peek just to watch him because he’s a special dude, for sure. He can turn something out of nothing. Anything can be a play where he’ll break one. He’s awesome. He’s very versatile: pass game, run game, everything. Being able to pick up all the protections and all the blocks, to me, that’s one of the most impressive things. Obviously, he’s a tremendous runner, but for him to be as knowledgeable as he is in the pass game, to be able to pick up protections and do all that, it’s only going to help his stock.”
On if he thinks the defense made a statement:
“I really don’t think it’s a statement. It’s just the football that we play, honestly. When everybody’s doing their job to the best of their ability, that’s just how we play.”
On what was clicking on defense:
People just had Virginia on their mind throughout this whole week. Coach B did a good job reminding us about what happened last year. Coach Walt did a great job putting us in the best positions for us to be successful.
On Gabe Jacas, who finished with two sacks:
“When he first got here, me and him went to work out. We go in there and do our workout, and I’m like, ‘Man, this kid’s got something.’ We worked on some moves. I can’t say his sacks were because of me, but we worked on some moves, and I’m like, ‘This kid’s good.’ When we went into fall camp, I’m like, ‘He’s a good ball player. He’s really, really good.’ I’m so excited for his future.”
On the pride he has in the Illini defense’s stops on third and fourth downs:
“As a D-lineman, a lot of pride. Coach Jamo (Terrance Jamison) does a great job enforcing that in us. Actually at the end of the game, two minutes left, I told Coach, ‘Hey, they’re at the goal line. Put us in. We don’t want them to score.’ We take pride in that. We take that serious. That’s our culture. That’s our creed.”
On the performance:
“Coach Bielema kind of talked about it this week, this was one of seven rematch games so it just shows the growth of the program. We really have to do well in these games. The mindset going into this game – we were very locked in. I think you saw how locked in we were on the field.”
On his touchdown:
“It was a great call by Coach Lunney, I couldn’t have done it without the team. The offensive line, Tommy, the backs and the receivers. It was really a team effort out there, I was just the guy who got the ball, I’m really happy about it.”
On his past near-touchdowns:
“It was good, it’s like a third times the charm. Sophomore year on defense, I got stopped at the one yard line, last year on offense, I got stopped at the two yard line. The monkey’s off my back, it’s been like a running joke.”
On his touchdown:
“Being in the position to make a play Coach Bielema has always talked about and Coach Snyder talks about in special team meetings and following through with those things is what put me in the position to make those plays.”
On being in the national spotlight:
“It feels good and kind of surreal, honestly, because a year ago I was playing high school football and now I’m here.”
Bailey on the other freshmen on defense:
“I am so proud of those boys today. Gabe (Jacas) did so well and had two sacks, I believe. He really played hard, and Tyson (Rooks) got a PBU in there.”
On recovering the fumble for a touchdown:
“At the beginning of the punt, as I was running I started to fall and nearly ate turf to be honest. As I got up I saw the ball and thought, ‘oh shoot, he’s returning it.’ The ball comes out, I see Tailon (Leitzsey) grab it and I see the ball come and out and I thought, ‘I got to get this ball’ and the touchdown happened and I got goosebumps all over. I was running, looking at all the fans, it was crazy.”
On moving on after the Indiana game:
“I think it was just the feeling that we felt, we were obviously disappointed on how we lost. Considering defense was on the field last, we took that personally. We wanted to come out and we were going to answer the challenge, and I’m glad we were able to do that. “
On the team’s improvement between the Virginia last year and the Virginia game this year:
“It just goes to show the people that are in this building, the support staff, Coach Tank, all our coaches that got us in the position to make great plays, it was just up to us to go out there and execute.”
