Opening statement:
“Very disappointed for our players, fans, and coaching staff. I give credit to Michigan State. They did enough to win this football game and did a better job of handling the elements than we did. They persevered at the end of the game with their defense and everything else. I thought this game couldn’t have started any better with an interception. We went for it and didn’t get any points there. We came back, and Isaiah (Williams) got us on the scoreboard first.
“It seemed like every time we tried to get ahead, something would hold us back; a lot of them were self-inflicted. I told the guys in the locker room, ‘This is the definition of how to lose a game.’ Statistically, they did a really good job in certain things, but statistics are exactly what they are on their own stat sheet; they don’t count. This is going to be a hard one to get over for these guys. A huge learning experience for my staff, myself, and our players. We will have to rebound and get ourselves on track for Purdue.
“From an injury standpoint, I don’t really know where some of these guys are. A couple of them were concussion related. We will see where those guys are at and hopefully have them back for Purdue.”
On how the team took the loss:
“You don’t want them to fold. I’m glad they were disappointed. As a coach, you coach the same after a win or loss, and you prepare them to handle the moment. Whether it’s a good one or a bad one, we’re definitely going to have to learn from this. This is one that there were enough things on offense, defense, and special teams that took away from where we needed to be. At this point, there is a physical element as well. We’re in a tough five-game stretch here on the back end, so getting ourselves healthy for Purdue can be a big challenge.”
On execution today:
“You give credit to Michigan State, but on the flip side of it: penalties, mental errors, and turnovers. When those things happen, it’s hard to win. I told these guys after the game, ‘At this point we are not a good enough football team to have those things happen and be able to overcome it.’ A lot of teams aren’t. I do think our guys will be aware of it, and I do think they’ll be very coachable, just like they’re coachable after the wins. It’ll be a quick turnaround to Purdue, and sometimes that’s exactly what you need.”
On his offense at the end:
“Well that was a two-minute offense. We went to play with tempo as much as we can. They also set a record for injuries and miraculously came back from all of those, so that was a little frustrating, but it’s the game. That’s the way it’s played, and that’s what it is. It was really hard for us to get tempo going because they had a lot of players get injured. When they get injured, it stops the clock, stops the momentum, and it’s hard to get back on track.”
On turning the page and moving on:
“We’re gonna watch the film, learn from today, just have short-term memory, and move forward because we still have games in front of us. We still have everything we want laying out in front of us, and we just need to, unlike today, make sure that we capitalize on those games.”
On the loss:
“We’re a better team than that. I know we can play better than that. It was on us today to give the game away, but, again, I gotta give it Michigan State. They had a great game plan, and they were the better team tonight.”
On the attitude in the locker room:
“I’ve got all the confidence in the world. I know the guys got all the confidence in the world. We really felt like we left this one on the table, and I know the guys think the same. We got to rally up, move on, and focus on Purdue. That’s all we can do.”
On the interception:
“It’s a momentum change, for sure. There’s nothing better than that and opening up like that, but the pick wasn’t enough to help the team win and propel them forward. I gotta do my part to help this team win games, and that’s creating more turnovers, creating more opportunities, leading the guys in the right direction.”
On the games ahead:
“We know that our goals are still ahead of us, but it’s just knowing that we can’t wait for the big play. We can’t wait for someone else. We have to go into every single down and take it. It’s just understanding, coming in tomorrow, watching this film, seeing what happened. We know that the only people that can stop us is us.”
On Illinois’ red zone offense:
“I feel like we’ve been practicing it a lot. But now, we just got to continue to practice it and get better. We can’t keep driving the ball down and not scoring, putting points on the board. That’s something we got to get better at. We just got to continue to get better at and just execute. We just gotta go do it at this point.”
On his 60-yard touchdown:
“It’s huge. Without (Chase Brown and Pat Bryant) blocking, I probably wouldn’t have scored on that play. When I saw them, I’m like, ‘I got them two – two of the best blockers on the team, Chase Brown and Pat Bryant – right in front of me.’ I’m like, ‘I’m gonna go score. They’re gonna do their job.’ I just did the rest. They made my job easy. All I had to do was just run straight. Both of them guys, they do a great job being a good team player and making plays with the ball in their hands and without the ball in their hands.”
On bouncing back:
“The same way we did after the Indiana loss. The leaders on the team, we talked to everybody. We make sure everybody knows the season’s not over. We got to understand everything we talked about early on this season, it’s still up in the air. It’s not over. We just got to continue to get better. Of course we want to have that win, but we can use this loss to get better. Just having everybody know that and just understanding everything that’s ahead of us is still ahead of us; it’s not out the window.”
