WMU vs. Nicholls Post-Game Quotes
Western Michigan Head Coach Bill Cubit
I think after last week, I thought our kids really played, except for a few turnovers last week, a night game I thought we offensively we moved the ball pretty good the first couple times then we got into a low but I thought Alex was trying to do too much, thinking we scored fairly quickly so Im not going to play too much. Let me make some plays out there and he kind of deviated a little bit out there and he took. Took some shots which is exactly what we didn't want him to do. I thought defensively I think they had 5 first downs in the first half, and I think three of them were on the first one. But I think defensively they came and did a pretty nice job there. We gave up two long runs there. I thought the kicking game was outstanding again Ben Armor did a good job punting and Dervon, I hope he can be that kicker next time and Im sure he wont get any razzing from the guys, but in that respect John Potter did a heck of a job on the kickoffs, got a field goal which was good for us and Fields ran well for us. And I think Scriven came in there and ran hard. Tevin finished up the game fairly well. He missed a couple of protection checks and you know we just cant have that. Offensive line wise, we rushed for 213 and some of those were sacks off of there. It was a good win, got a lot of kids to play, I know there was 5 true freshmen we ended up throwing out there. We got to get ourselves healthy, and we got a big one next week.
Western Michigan Players Alex Carder and Jordan White
Question: Was this just a game to get through to prepare for next week?
Alex Carder: I mean, there's still good snaps out there. We spoke about this last year we only get 12-14 of these things. A lot of good snaps out there, I think we had the opportunity to put out some of our second and third string guys to get some reps out there. I think overall it wasn't the pretties t thing we have ever done but it's a win and something to be proud of.
Question: How would you assess this overall?
Alex Carder: I think I came off my reads a little too quickly tonight. I may have been a little skittish too. I haven't watched the film yet but there were definitely some things I could have done better individually but luckily I've got a great team around me.
Question: What happened on the interception?
Jordan White: It's kind of a funny interception, kind of like last week with that crazy tip ball in the air. Alex threw it out there and it was right at the end of my finger tips and he actually tipped it back up to me and bobbled it to himself. It was a different kind of interception.
How did you feel about the crowd turnout?
Jordan White: That's probably the most fans I have seen here since Indiana in 2007. I think we put on a good show for them for the most part, I think it will be packed like that for weeks to come, especially this coming week.
Question: What are your thoughts about CMU this week?
Jordan White: I guess it's hitting us right now that this week is Central Michigan. I've never played it this early in the season.
Alex Carder: We're not really going to enjoy this one too much probably. I am already thinking about Central. Happy to have a win but we need to focus on our rival now.
Western Michigan rover Johnnie Simon
Question: What was this break out game like for you?
Johnnie Simon: All I was really doing was reading my keys and doing what my coaches taught me to do and I tried my best to make plays and go to the ball every play.
Question: What's the secret to catching the ball that fast [on that interception]?
Johnnie Simon: There's not really a secret, just keep my eyes on the ball, and just make sure I come down with it.
Did you see it?
Johnnie Simon: Yeah, I saw it. I was supposed to blitz on that play but I knew I wasn't going to get to the quarterback, so I got in the passing lane and jumped up for the ball.
Question: Defensively, was this as good as it gets?
Johnnie Simon: We played pretty good on defense. But I felt like we could play a lot better still. Last week we didn't get any turnovers, we wanted to get six this game because our goal is to get three every game, so we still have a lot of turnovers to make up for.
Nicholls Head Coach Charlie Stubbs
On Penalties:
Coming into the game, I really thought we could play with this team. I'm highly disappointed because they're a very good team. I'm very disappointed in the team because I told them coming into the game we couldn't help them, and boy, did we help them.
On many occasions, the defense would step up and make a great play, but then we would commit a penalty or a personal foul, they're one and the same. These penalties would keep the drive going. The same thing on offense; we would make a play and then we would have unforced penalties. That was the name of the game, which is totally uncalled for and it will definitely get corrected.
On offense:
It was tough tonight for the quarterback to get protection and our wideouts to get open. When the routes were developing nice, the protection wasn't there and then when the protection was there, the routes were not. We never were able to get anything synchronized in the passing game.
On Western Michigan:
Against Western Michigan, they're very good on defense and they're better this year than last year by far. The bottom line is they put pressure on us and we have a lot of young guys on the line. We have to improve this phase of the game, which is the passing so we can make the defenses more honest.
Right now, we're feeling kind of bad about our offensive performance, but on the other hand, if things would have gone a bit differently, they could have beaten Michigan last weekend. I'm sitting here highly critical of our guys, but this is a better football team than we thought they were. We had some bad matchup problems tonight, and we were just getting beat on various occasions.
