WMU at NIU Post-Game Quotes

Western Michigan Head Coach Bill Cubit

Opening Statement...

"Congratulations to Northern Illinois, We were absolutely out-matched up front. They ran two different running schemes and we could not stop anyone of them. Up front, we could not stop them. It was a poor performance."

On what changed in the third quarter...

"We just could not stop them. We could not get stops on third down. [Chandler Harnish] runs for 216 yards; that's inexcusable, To run for that many yards as a quarterback, no excuse for it."

On the NIU offense not being so tricky...

"They ran two plays, I haven't seen the film yet. To me, it looked like they just ran sweeps, They ran with the quarterback and every once in a while handed it to the running back. It was a bad performance."

On the WMU Offense being stopped...

"We had so many break downs; we could not run routes and could not block up front. We could not even get in a rhythm. We tried the two minute offense and that got things going, but we cannot do that the whole game."

On whether or not he's seen a quarterback performance like Harnish's...

"No, never in my life.  Not like that."

Opening statement on the game...

"These guys played really well as a team. [In the first half,] our special teams failed a bit, but our defense kept us in the game. I felt that our offense had a bunch of really good drives early in the game and settled for field goals. At halftime, we got it together. We were a touchdown team. We had a couple takeaways on defense. (Jordan White) is a really good receiver. He had a lot of catches, but he didn't have over 100 yards receiving, so that's a big deal. I'm proud of our offensive line. Any time you run for 494 yards, that's a statement about your toughness. That's what I want to be all about. As a football team, we want to wear people down, play great defense, (and) be fresh in the fourth quarter. Mechanically, they ran the system well today. They took the backs away on some plays and our backs ran well. To have two QBs go over 100 yards rushing in a game was fun for me to see. Now we have to get ready for a three game road trip and we have a lot of momentum going into that."

On the quarterbacks running so well...

"We had a play toward the end of the half that we had a good run on and I told our offense 'I want you to run it until they can stop it. I don't want to see another play call. Just change the formations.' We did and they couldn't stop them. I thought the offense did a nice job. I know the O-line loves running that play and the quarterback read it right. That's what we did."

On the third quarter performance...

"I've been a part of a few of those. It was fun. I've been telling these guys all year 'When you click on all three cylinders together at once, you are going to see something you haven't seen yet' and they did it. We're an experienced team on offense. We're a young team on defense. We're young on special teams. It is going to take time to be who they want to be, but they understand the temperament, the demeanor, the expectations. To watch them lead each other today, it was fun."

On the success running the ball...

"Our run game is based off of looks. There are plays that are called based on their support and whether they are taking away certain guys in the pass game. A lot of run-pass things will go together. I would like to compliment our receivers. When you get in a game, especially in the second half, when you call a run play every snap, it is easy to get disappointed. Those guys didn't and they played hard. You don't get all those rushing yards without downfield blocks."