PJ Mustipher | DT | Sr.+
Q: What are your initial thoughts on how the defense played today?
A: Overall some nice complementary football. We made some stops when they really needed to be made. A grimy game and we played some sound football.
Q: Where do you feel physically compared to a year ago today?
A: I'm close. I'm not there yet. I want to improve on some things but I'm getting there. I don't know if I'm going to play my best football until the end of the season. If I continue to focus on the game week by week everything should take care of itself.
Q: What is the mindset when Northwestern decides to go for it?
A: Let's just do our job. Nothing flashy we just need to go out there and execute. That was a big emphasis during the offseason, just doing our job at a high level. When we need a stop, we get one. I'm just proud of everybody.
Q: How is Hakeem (Beamon) playing?
A: He's doing a great job. He's so disruptive and makes a lot of plays in the backfield. Just to have him next to me helps because they can't double team me. He's doing phenomenal and he's only getting better.
Nick Tarburton | DE | R-Sr.
Q: How would you describe the defensive play?
A: Well, I thought we had the offense's back, and they had ours. Some good complementary football. Physical. Tough. Played with great effort.
Q: Were you in for the fourth and goal? What can you remember from the huddle?
A: It was quick, but I remember PJ yelling 'Sneak! Sneak! Sneak!' He was pretty much throwing me in the gap because he knew it was a sneak play. It's all about effort and getting in the backfield to make a play.
Q: A couple of times the offense turned the ball over, how was the defense able to rally and get a turnover back?
A: It goes back to having your brother's back and going out there, strapping the helmet up and going to war for your brothers. That's something that we preach.
Sean Clifford |QB | 6th Year
Q: With KeAndre gong out early, what was your impression of how Harrison Wallance stepped in and how did he play?
A: It was a bummer about Trey [Harrison]. I know he will bounce back, he's a trooper. But you know, Trey's also a great player. I was talking to him in the locker room, he said "you definitely wanted the one in the endzone back," because he knows he can make that play. Then the hitch too, obviously it was a little high, but he still wanted that one back to. I thought Trey came in and made some plays and played well.
Q: You talked about the rain. I remember last year at Michigan State it was snowing a lot, what's the difference in throwing the football in the snow and then in the rain?
A I'd much rather have snow because the rain just gets your hands so slick, where the snow if you just keep your towel on you it doesn't stick. Today how it was raining, I thought we're going to be fine in the morning.
Q: What do you tell your young running backs, they had a rough day with with ball handling, a couple of fumbles. What do you tell the guys as they come off?
A: It was a turnover battle for sure. It is so important to not turn the ball over. Northwestern also put helmets on the ball a couple of times, and when you have a guy running 90 miles per hour at you and he puts a helmet on the ball and it's that rainy, it's going to be tough. It just goes back to the fundamentals, capping it. I know I was capping it, you know, I'm no Nick Singleton or Keytron [Allen] or Keyvone [Lee]. I was making sure I was definitely keeping that ball safe.
Parker Washington | WR | So.
Q: Can you talk about the defense, when you know it's this kind of game and they're controlling it, you know they're going to be running the ball a lot. Talk about the juice the defense had today and what they were doing as you guys were watching on the sidelines.
A: They come on to work every day and do a really good job practice and preparing. We're excited to see them make plays. No play is amazing as far as us as the offensive line play each week.
Q: You guys are taking care of business, five and 0 What do you think you're going to see on film and how are you guys going to self-scout? What are some of the things that you think you've done well and maybe some of the areas you're going to look at say we have got to get better?"
A: I feel like small mistakes, we can minimize those, and that just comes with more practice. More communicating with everybody and having everybody on the same page. But at the same time, I would say we have played with great effort these last few weeks, and I feel like that's been key for us. Great focus on the run game has been helping us a lot. I'm excited for the next two weeks coming up.
Ji' Ayir Brown| S | Sr. +
Q: How does a grind it out win feel going into a bye week compared to blowing the doors off of people. And how does that feel differently than, you know, maybe the last two weeks. How does that feel internally?
A: I mean, it's good. It's good that you got to grind out a win on a bye week because you get to find some new things that you need to work on. And today, I think we've got some things we need to work on, and we need to get better at, and you'd rather have that happen now going into the bye week. But I think we saw some flaws today and we get to get them corrected. Taking another step towards perfection.
Q: What do you think the balance is? You have 13 days between now and your next game? How much time does it take for corrections to get fixed? Are some of them the sorts of things where you guys just need to remember to do that or some of them that you go, just kind of who we are and maybe we're not good at this and we're good at that. I mean, can things change into things?
A: Yes. Really, you want to get one day of corrections. With the bye week, you get two days of corrections however the coach wants to handle that. But a lot of the stuff we have to remember what it is and think about remembering stuff.
Q: What makes Nick Harvard such a ferocious guy on defense? He got the fumble and then he also recovered one so, what does he do on defense to really be able to be in the right place at the right time?
A: I call him Nick the bounty hunter. He's relentless. You know, he executes his job every time so you can count on him. A guy you can trust. And like I said, relentless finisher. You know, he's going to go hard. He's going to get to the ball. He's going to do everything necessary for the team because he's a team player. He loves the team so much, and I'm proud of some of the injuries in the past he's just overcame them 10 times.
Chop Robinson | DE | So.
Q: What do you attribute to the defense's performance in only giving up 18 yards on the five turnovers that the offense had?
A: I think our main thing was not getting overstressed about it. Just do what we do, play defense, and just get the ball back for our offense. We did pretty good, and we weren't stressing about it.
Q: Where do you feel like you're at now through five weeks? Obviously, you changed positions and schools this offseason. Where do you feel like you're at right now?
A: I feel Iike I really got better at some of the things I had to work on when I got here. I'm still learning every day and getting better every day. I think I reached a point where I got better from where I was on the first day. Day by day, game by game. I'm taking my time.
Q: When you're playing a game like this, it's so funny and it's more running minutes. Do you enjoy that at all? Or is there a different view on the game?
A: I actually enjoy it because it reminds me of playing in the neighborhood with my friends. It's hard to really go ball because it's always raining. So, preparing your mind for that. It was fun to me. It was fun to everyone on the front.
Brenton Strange | TE | R-Jr.
Q: You caught a touchdown early in the game. When something like that happens on a day like today, do you expect the ball more after that?
A: I'm just happy to get the ball and make plays like that when my number is called upon. But, I don't really focus on that. I just do my job the best I can.
Q: In five games, you have more yards and touchdowns on fewer catches than you did last year. How do you evaluate these first five games and where you are now as a player?
A: I think it comes down to what I've done in the offseason. How I prepared myself to a different stance on what I did last season. Just trying to be a leader for my teammates and finding any way that I can better myself. So, I think it speaks to the preparation and all the hard work that I put in. I'm thankful for the tight ends because they pushed me to be better.
Q: How are you going to approach this bye week? What do you want to accomplish?
A: Just find ways to get better. Go back those five weeks that we've been playing and see what I've done well, see what I haven't done well, and improve upon those things.