Western Michigan Head Coach Bill Cubit

Opening statement
I feel like we are in pretty good shape, other than a few turnovers. But we had a few chances to get down the field, especially since [Alex] Carder is a young kid and this is his first game. We had a chance to cut the score to fourteen and kid made a pretty nice play, but I should have called something different. I like the way they ran around and for Alex Carder to be playing his first game in this arena, the kid played pretty well. He is going to look at the film and say "no, I should have done this", because there were six or seven plays that I think he would have done differently. He is a competitive guy and he looks at things like a coach when he is on the sidelines. Defensively in the back end, I thought we played pretty well. But some of us were on the edges, so we need to rally around more. Also, the one-on-ones were more in the C and D gap and we need to do a better job than that. What I look at the most is how the kids are on the sidelines and how they are in the locker room. When they come off of a tough play, what was their body language? And in those aspects our players looked pretty good. Am I disappointed? Yes, but we were moving well and we had a nice pick today. So I told the kids that it is a long season and if we have a good attitude, good things will happen for this team.

On Alex Carder's performance
Alex is not afraid and he isn't too smart sometimes. [Laughs] But he is a competitive, strong guy and he isn't going to back down from anyone. And I think that a lot of the other guys feed off of that, they see him heading down there and they want to head down there too. Since I have been with Western's organization, this is the first time we have had a player like him. He is going to bail us out sometimes, and sometimes we are going to have to live with the mistakes he makes. But in the end he is going to make more plays than he is going to miss.

On Western being competitive until the end
The end of this year's game is a totally different feel than last year. Michigan State can make plays, and Kirk can throw a mean ball, so we have to be smarting in that regard. But, I think the coaching out there is different, it is more positive, and there is more leadership in the older players. I made a mistake by asking the players to stand up if they have never played before, and half of the room stood up. So in pre-game the older guys were taking care of the younger guys, telling them what they needed to do. Last year we had one player taking a leadership role, but this year everyone is taking it upon themselves to do great things.

On the performance of Blake Hammond
He missed a lot of camp due to an injury, but he came out there today and played well. His blocking was okay, but he made a couple great plays so his hands were very good. He gave us an extra guy. It was nice to see Dallas Walker get the ball too, because it has been a long road for him also. I like what I see, we just have to make sure and stay healthy.

On the play of the defense
I can't tell you what the coverages were, because I trust [Defensive Coordinator] Dave [Cohen] and his crew to take care of that. What I look at is what the facial expressions are when they score, what the players look like when they don't score, and if they are busting after the ball. What I saw today was encouraging and a tremendous difference. We made it difficult for Kirk to hold the ball for a long period of time and we got respect when we were on the field.

Western Michigan Players

Sophomore Quarterback Alex Carder

Overall thoughts on your first go around
I made some pretty good plays, but a lot of bad ones at the same time. I'm glad to get the jitters out of the system and the first one out of the way and move on with the rest of the season.

On his dislike of sliding
You're right - I don't like to slide. Coach Cubit tries to get on me about that, but I'm probably not gonna slide, not for a while at least. Until I really get hit I'm probably still going to try to get a couple of extra yards.

On the fumbled snap
We just kind of had some bad communication, me and the center. I was trying to get them to show me what they were doing, as far as their defensive checks. I guess I just did a little too much and it caused them to snap the ball and we kind of had some confusion on the snap count prior to that.

Senior Wide Receiver Jordan White

On the problems that the team had today
I think it was converting and noticing where they were blitzing from. We made a point to know where 53 [Greg Jones] was going , and one of our goals was to not let him beat us. I think we accomplished that goal.

On the lack of big plays
We definitely have a good mix in our offense of short plays and deep routes, also mixing in play action. I think we had a good mix of run and pass today and we were able to chop them up a bit.

On his impressions of junior quarterback Alex Carder
What I saw from Alex, with it being his first college game against Michigan State, a tough opponent, I think he did really well. Obviously there are things he can work on, but there are things that we all can work on. As far as it being his first college game, he did really well.

On this year's season opener compared to last year's
I feel the same at first, before I see the film, because obviously we lost and that's tough. I feel like we came out in the first quarter and started out fast and last year we got off to a slow start and the game got out of hand. This year though, we played well in the first quarter and the defense played the best that I have ever seen them. After that it kind of got out of hand with the offense and we gave them a short field with a fumble or two. Just coming out with a fast start and going full throttle, you can really tell the difference from this year from last year.

On the confidence of your team
We showed confidence on the field today, and even in the summer and fall camps. Our coaches put a big emphasis on starting fast this year, and we didn't do that last year. The defense was playing great and our coach said it was maybe a bad series or two and we let them score. On the offensive side of the ball it was our fumbles or just not converting and we put our defense in a bad spot. We have confidence in how we played today, especially in the first half and in the first quarter.