WMU vs. Ball State Post-Game Quotes

Head Coach Bill Cubit

Thoughts on the game:

"It's frustrating. You have 5 turnovers and thats the kind of thing that happen. When we don't get 2 or 3 key stops on third down. It's kind of what it was all season long. We don't make plays when we need to, and there were a few shots we had when we thought we'd get touchdowns, but we didn't do it. Turnovers and punt returns were a big key.  They had 226 yards and 26 points. It's frustrating. It's over and done with, we move on. We'll start getting ready for next year tomorrow. Unfortunatley, I feel bad for the seniors.  They have given great effort since they've been here. I hate going in there and having to look at those guys, because they've done a lot. We have to make sure we get back on track next year."

On Tim Hiller:

"He's getting hit a lot in the first half. We didnt give him much protection.  Guys were in his face. Unfortunately, the defensive lineman tipped a ball.  The other one I think was a mis-read, and the last one he was just trying to make a play, and he forced it.  We probably should have gotten the ball, but we also fumbled. It's a risk. He's made great decisions all year long, and this one just wasn't as good."

Senior Quarterback Tim Hiller

Thoughts on the game:

"It's frustrating. I really let the guys down tonight and embarassed myself. It's a tough pill to swallow. I appreciate everything everyones done for me and I'm greatful for the opportunities.  The fumble, first and second read were taken away and I just wasn't secure with the ball. They guy did a good job stripping it.  Tip ball, it's frustrating, it happens. It just wasn' a good throw. It was all my fault, and I let us down."

Senior Lineman Austin Pritchard

On beating themselves:

"All along, we talked about it. It wasn't what other teams were doing to us, it's what we were doing to ourselves. We knew if we didn't have those mistakes, if we could correct them, we would be fine. I think tonight was kind of proof of that."

Senior Running Back Brandon West:

Thoughts on the season:

"It's a hard loss. Like the guys next to me said, it's real hard. To fight so hard in the summer, and end on a note like this, it hurts. To give up all your time working on plays, and to go out and have a season like this. Like Austin said, we're going to make mistakes, but the mistakes killed us."

Ball State CB Charlie Todd:

On the game-winning punt return:

"I've been waiting all year. I had a chance earlier in the game, and I didn't take it. I went inside, instead of to my wall, where my help was. They told me when I went to the sideline to trust my wall and just go."

"The first time they did the same thing, they all got sucked in. The first time, I cut it inside instead of bouncing it outside. So when the next time, I set it up inside and went to all my blocking on the outside. I saw they had the blocking. After that, my job was easy, all I had to do was run."

Ball State Head Coach Stan Parrish:

On the overall effort:

"I knew we were all disappointed with the way we played Central. We really hadn't played that level in a long time. Tonight, we had all kinds of turnovers, played in the kicking game and we had plays that we didn't get."

"We get four turnovers and a punt return. Many many other days, that would have been a knockout win for us. To hang in, they just did a great job."

On the offense:

"We really got off to a good start on offense, but once we ran through everything they stopped us. We didn't really do anything until right at the end with [Cory] Sykes and MiQuale [Lewis] with some great effort runs. We took care of the football."

"They did a great job. We were tackling hard. They were catching it, and we were slamming them to the ground. Just a heck of an effort."

On the called-back INT return:

"We had a chance on the one they brought back on us to open it up a little bit to a ten point lead, but that was just exuberance. It was a clean block, it was behind the guy. That was a good call, it was right in front of us. It was called because it was way behind the ball."

On winning the last game of the season:

"First time in two years we've won our last game. We had so much go south on us, but if you just keep grinding, the football Gods will even it out. I had an old coach who used to tell us that every day. If you work hard, the Football Gods will even it out."

On the season:

"Our team never went south. I thought we always had a lot of character. We preach it every day. I told them (the seniors) that you guys left a legacy now that this team will have to take into our offseason program. We got a chance to be a pretty decent football team, if we learn from it. We've been in a lot of close games and we finally won one and got over the top against a team a lot of people had winning the conference with a quarterback I've heard is going into the NFL."

On forcing Tim Hiller into five turnovers:

"I think we got him a few times last year too. We were getting good pressure with the four man rush, and he got out of the pocket and made that one really long throw. But we didn't go oh, here we go again. We had a lot of exuberance on the bench."

"Last year he threw a couple of us, and we thought if we could get pressure with four. They had great receivers in the past and they're retooling their receivers a bit. We stopped the run, and they ran the counter at us a little bit. We didn't give up big plays for touchdowns and we got off to a good start on offense."