Western Michigan Coach Bill Cubit Postgame Quotes

Opening Statement

"The tough part about the fourth straight year where you go into an environment like this is it's a little bit hard. The kids get all geeked up, being ready to go. We didn't handle it as well. I think offensive-line wise, they're pretty good. I was really impressed with those guys. I think (Marlon) Lucky is a heck of a back. (Joe) Ganz, he's just a gamer. He's the kind of guy that just runs around and make plays. We had a couple shots early and we didn't take advantage of it. After halftime, the first series we didn't do real well, the second one we go down there and we score. I think the turning point was we got two turnovers near the end, but we go down there and didn't get any points. But our kids played hard. I think there was a lot of good things that happened out there."

On the fans cheering the Broncos off the field
"That's kind of what we told our kids. They're great fans. It's a great place to play. I wish we played a little bit better. I think they appreciate the effort. I know on the other side, I think they're going to say our kids fought. And that's the one thing you're always looking for as a coach."

On the failed first-quarter trick play
"On the eighth play of the game, we knew exactly what we were going to do. The ball was on the left hash mark, this is what we're going to do. And then the kids get all fired up about. It just slipped out of his hands. We've probably run that play 10 times in the past two weeks and it never happened like that, and it happened (this time). It's just one of those things. You've got to battle back and just battle adversity and I thought (quarterback) Tim (Hiller) did."

On his team's resiliency in the second half
"You've got to keep on plugging along and I thought our kids did that. On the sidelines, the coaches were doing a nice job with the kids. They were going back and forth and encouraging each other. That's going to go a long way."

On the offensive line's performance
"Their defensive line, I remember one time I looked out there and they all looked about 6-5, 6-6, 280 and 300 pounds. They're big guys. It was tough for our guys to keep on moving. Our run game, I wasn't real happy there. But I thought our kids did a nice job pass protecting. They saw a lot. There was blitzes coming at them left and right. Fortunately, we picked up most of them. We missed a couple. Their linebackers, I was a little surprised at the speed. You don't see them on tape, but there's a couple of guys that can run pretty good."

Quarterback Tim Hiller

On his team's slow start
"I guess it was a little bit of jitters, a little bit of lack of execution. We did not start fast, and we needed to get started from the get-go, and weather that storm of emotion that they had, and we failed to do that, so that was frustrating. But once we got going, there were a lot of positive things."

On what he took from the game
"We go back, we review the film and we look at the positives, and we build on those, and we keep doing those things, and we get corrected what we need to get corrected. We've just got to capitalize on a couple of opportunities. The defense set us up nicely twice, and we failed to get any points out of both those drives."

On the ball slipping out of his hand in the first quarter on the trick play
"I just didn't get the laces. That's my fault, there are no excuses. We had one open, and I didn't get it done, so it's my fault."

Safety Louis Delmas

On what the Nebraska offense was able to do
"The scheme they were doing, we went over it every day in practice throughout the whole week. We just didn't execute it the way we should have."

On if he thought Nebraska quarterback Joe Ganz was better than they expected
"He's a great quarterback. We just lost contain as a defense and we just didn't lock on as a secondary."

On how difficult it is to cover for so long when Ganz has a lot of time in the pocket
"Our secondary is a great secondary, and we're taught to be able to cover eight to 10 seconds. So we take it upon ourselves to be able to cover for eight to 10 seconds, no matter whether the defensive line gets there or not. So that's our fault and we take full responsibility for that."

Tight End Branden Ledbetter

On the offense's production later in the game
"It seemed like we came out with jitters, and for some reason when that stuff's not clicking, it seems like a lot of stuff doesn't go your way. But you've got to come out there ready to go from the beginning. The second half a lot of stuff started to come together and we got in a little groove, but there's really no excuse for what happened." On if the crowd affected the team "Not really, we've been in this type of environment before. It was a great experience, and really great fans, but I don't really think that affects us much."