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2011 TicketCity Bowl
Head Coaches Press Conference
December 31, 2010
Cotton Bowl Stadium
Northwestern Head Coach Pat Fitzgerald -
(Opening statement)
"To Tom Starr and everybody here with the Ticket City Bowl, we'd like to say a big thank you to our entire football family. We've had a great week here in Dallas. It's an honor and a privilege to be a part of the inaugural Ticket City Bowl. Hopefully we get a chance to come back, the hospitality was absolutely incredible. The last game for our seniors, although it was on the losing end, will be one that they remember with great experience. We thank them and the volunteers here at Cotton Bowl Stadium. To look around this room and see the tradition, it's an honor to be a part of it. Obviously, we're bitterly disappointed that we didn't fin a way to win. It always starts with me and I thought our staff came up with some pretty good plans but unfortunately we melted down a little bit in the second quarter and gave up some plays and then we were playing catch-up from there. I'm proud of our young men's fight but there's no moral victories in our program. To our 13 great seniors, as they leave our program and locker room for the last time, they will go down as one of the most winningest teams in our program's history. They've been through a ton of adversity. They'll all depart with their degrees, mostly master's degrees, and a legacy of success.
As I look at our junior class, it's one of the most successful in our program. Starters across the board that have played multiple years and it's time they step up. If we want to win championships and if we want to win these kinds of football games, that class has got to step up. They've got to start making more plays , they've got to start leading and they have to be the catalyst for us to go where we want to go. I challenged them at the start of bowl prep. A lot of them made plays like Jordan (Maybin) did today in that class. If we want to go where we want to go, it's time for that class. It's now their senior year and it's time now. I'm looking forward to having a safe night here and traveling back home to Chicago.
(Who does the leadership start with when assessing the junior class)
"Dan is pretty good. We saw him play this year and I'm looking forward to getting him back. I really challenged that group at the beginning of bowl prep and I thought we responded pretty well today. Obviously we have to play and coach much better but I thought we came to play and came to battle, we just didn't find a way to win."
(On the adjustments made at halftime)
"I think that fumble recovery was a big catalyst of momentum. I know a lot of guys don't cover us very often but we're typically pretty entertaining. I think our guys just kept battling and and fighting. We didn't call a whole lot of different plays, mainly guys just went out and made plays on offense. We just needed to find a way to get one more stop and we didn't do that. You have to give credit to Texas Tech, their coaches, players and staff."
(Attitude in the locker room after the game)
"Well, it wasn't very positive. I challenged the guys to walk out with their heads held high and to feel great about the success they have had. These last few games haven't ended up the way we've wanted on the scoreboard but I think it's created a solid foundation for the future of our program and to be in three straight bowl games, be bowl eligible in four straight years and to be in a place that we've never been in before as a program. Again, I can't say enough about our seniors. We'll get over this. We have plenty of motivation to fuel us for the offseason."
(Was the key to try and get more pressure on Tech QB Taylor Potts)
"Yeah, I don't think we touched his flag once. We wanted to try and get him out of rhythm a little bit and change up some coverage concepts. We just didn't get the pressure we needed to and that tailed off at the end of the year. We need to get that fixed if we want to be a championship-caliber team. We have to be able to get to him (the quarterback) with four times and we weren't able to do that today. We needed to bring pressure and every time you bring pressure you put pressure on your defensive backs. So, we've got to do better than that.
(On using two different quarterbacks and how that worked out today)
"I thought we had a great plan going in. They had seen us either run one or the other and to come in early and show them two quarterbacks at one time, we hoped to confuse things a little bit. I think we'd like to go back to the first quarter and the first half and throw the ball a little better but I thought we settled down and talked about some things at halftime and I thought we came out and took advantage of them in the second half."
CB Jordan Mabin -
(What were you trying to do to slow the passing attack of Tech and how did you feel you accomplished that today)
"We knew coming in that they go four-wide and five-wide a lot and they sling the ball around. We knew we were going to be tested right out of the gate. We started the game and they weren't testing us deep that much, they were just doing a lot of dink-dunk passes and that's one thing we had to start changing to at halftime. We tried to play a little more aggressive and not allow those short passes to go for six yards and then turn into nine-yard plays. We just tried to be a little more aggressive throughout the game and it helped a little bit but like coach Fitz said, we just didn't make enough plays to come out on top."
(On the success tech had on third down against NU)
"In the first half we just felt like we couldn't get off the field. Towards the end of the game we were just coming up a yard short a couple of times. Our guys were fighting every single play and scrapping, we just have to learn how to play just a little extra harder and find that will to stop them a yard less. This is going to be a lot of motivation for us. We are motivated more than ever. This is a bad taste on our mouth losing this last game but tomorrow is a new day."
QB Kain Colter
(About your involvement today)
"Throughout the week our coaches had a great game plan to show Texas Tech some different looks and I thought we did a great job at that. We kept them a little off guard. They gave me the opportunity to play some quarterback, running back and wide receiver so I enjoyed that and making some plays."