1999 FBL vs. Illinois -- quotes
10/23/1999 12:00:00 AM | Football
On the game ... "Give Illinois credit, they did what they had to do. They hung around, came back and won the football game. The missed extra point and the missed field goal were big opportunities we failed to take advantage of."
On the game ... "In the first half we played well, but you have to be able to protect the lead. There are a lot of ways to do that, and when you give up big plays, you don't protect the lead."
On Illinois ... "They played hard for four quarters, they didn't make mistakes and they made the plays they had to make."
Quarterback Tom Brady
On how game changed with Anthony Thomas out ... "The game did change. But the other running backs expect to play and feel they can continue the same level of running that Anthony had."
On snap over the head late in the fourth quarter ... "The linebackers started coming up in the 'A' gaps. And Steve (Frazier) paused to make some line calls and somehow the snap just missed."
On the mood in the locker room ... "Everyone is very disappointed. We usually don't lose games like these. We just beat ourselves today. And national championship teams don't do that."
Co-captain and Nose Tackle Rob Renes
On Illinois ... "Illinois played hard the entire game; we knew they were going to do that. (Quarterback Kurt) Kittner did a good job getting rid of the ball. Despite how well they played, we didn't play well enough to win."
On big plays ... "There is no excuse for the plays we have given up. We thought we learned from the mistakes we made at Michigan State. We worked hard and had a good two weeks of practice."
On the end of the game ... "We've got too much pride and experience to give up. At no point did we ever think we weren't capable of winning the game. That's not us, that's never been us."
Illinois Head Coach Ron Turner
"I told them 'You've got to believe.' We came on the road, fell behind and kept fighting. I'm happy for them. Nobody believed this could happen except the guys in the Illinois locker room."
"At halftime, I said 'Keep believing.' I was concerned about our team regaining their fight and playing with passion. Our coaches did a great job of getting our guys to believe."
On Rocky Harvey ... "I told Rocky 'I need you to make some plays for us in the second half.' I knew with his quickness, he could make holes. I just told him to keep coming."
On halfback Jameel Cook ... "We thought he could give us a little more speed and he responded."
On Michigan tailback Anthony Thomas missing most of the second half ... "We didn't make any special adjustments. We just covered and went to the ball."
Quarterback Kurt Kittner
On the win ... "It took us a while to get going, but once we got a flow, it began to work. We just executed better today."
On his second half performance ... "We played with emotion in the second half. Everyone contributed and we believed we could win. It was a total team effort."
Offensive Lineman Ray Redziniak
On the success of the offense ... "Coming into the game I felt that we could block them. When we got down early, we told each other just to keep pushing. It finally kicked in and we had some success."
On Illinois' inconsistency ... "Our play in the past has hurt us. Last week, we lost to Minnesota, this week we beat Michigan. We just need to continue playing well and we'll be successful."
Linebacker Robert Franklin
On playing at the Big House ... "We walked on the field Friday, it didn't seem that big. But at game time when we came out, with the crowd it was overwhelming. It actually helped us because we fed off the crowd. For most of us, it was our first trip to the Big House. We heard all the hype about playing here so we were pretty pumped up. ... We learned to play for 60 minutes, that's something we haven't done this season."
Fullback Steve Havard
"I'm really numb right now, to be honest. It's an unbelievable feeling. I believed deep in the my heart that we could win this game, and the entire team believed as the game went on. No matter what we were going to do in this game, we were going to go down fighting, and we never gave up."
