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Opening Statement
First of all, just really proud of our football team. The way they competed today, it was really a big win for us, certainly, and something we’ve emphasized to our team is winning in November. Our best teams have done that and if you’re going to compete at a championship level that’s really imperative. Guys did a great job competing out there today. I thought they really prepared well this week and certainly gutted it out and got the job done there in the 4th quarter. And, I think, if you look at the 4th quarter it’s a bit representative of our football team. The defense came up with some big plays, the offense drove the ball when we really needed it, special teams factored in, and the team really responded throughout the course of the game. They did a good job to respond to whatever took place out there. Those are all positive.
Great to have our fans out there and great for our team to have a chance to recognize them following the team. We really appreciate that. Head back to Kinnick, it’s going to be lively next Saturday so we’re looking forward to that as well. Then another home game after that.
Just to wrap it up, really proud of our guys. The players are doing a great job, the staff is doing a great job getting them ready. And, most importantly, they are competing at game time. It was a tough ball game, we knew it was going to be tough coming in here. No reason to think it wasn’t. Indiana played extremely well, extremely hard. Just really pleased to get the victory.
On significance of being 9-0…
It’s significant because we haven’t lost, you know, for obvious reason. There are a lot of opportunities to lose during the course of the year, just like the last time we were 9-0. But again, it’s just like everything else. Credit goes to our players. They find a way to get it done week in and week out. We’ve been in some tough,sticky situations this year. A couple of games that went down to the last possession, and one other one that was the next to last one. So, that really speaks volumes to the kinds of players we’re working with and the way they believe in each other, the way they stick together. It’s been a lot of fun to be with these guys, I can assure you of that.
On Desmond King’s 8th interception of the season…
He’s in pretty steep company there with Nile Kinnick, certainly, and Lou King, and I was there when Lou King did that back in 1981. Interesting guy who really wasn’t a phenomenal athlete but a phenomenal football player. I think Desmond is probably a little faster than Lou, but same thing I would say about Desmond – he’s just a tremendous football player. Great instincts, which, that’s just something he’s developed through film study and experience and working really hard. When that ball went up there we thought he had a chance and he did a good job of coming down and getting his foot down before he hit the ground.
On increasing lead to 15 after Indiana cut it to 8…
Just, nothing special. We knew it was going to be a tough, hard-fought ball game. We expected them to – I think somebody told me they scored 28 in every game but one so far and a couple of their bigger players were out that week. So, to think that we were going to come in here and shut them out wouldn’t be realistic. They did a great job moving the football. They hurt us with the run game. We’ll go back to the drawing board on that one. But, we knew we were going to have to come up with points. That was something, uh, if we could possess the ball that’s great, but scoring points was probably more important. Go back to the second play, I think, when Akrum hit that one, (defensive coordinator) Phil Parker was the only one mad then because we weren’t running the clock. But we’ll take the points.