Western Michigan Head Coach Bill Cubit
Postgame Quotes

Illinois 24, Western Michigan 7

Memorial Stadium  //  Sept. 1, 2012  //  Attendance: 43,441

Head Coach Bill Cubit

Opening statement:

"I thought defensively, (we) flew around really well.  I thought they played with a lot more maturity than our offense did this game. I thought there were some really good things there. I don't know how good the Illinois offense is, I have no idea, but I do know our kids went out there and played hard. I was happy with that. Our special teams, with two young kickers, that needs a little bit of improvement. We understand that. We'll get that thing taken care of. Offensively was probably the biggest disappointment; that we just didn't execute at all. We just played really poorly. "

On where they go from here:

"The good news is that I don't think we could've played any worse, so it's gotta be up from there. You know, I thought we found a couple guys. Jaime Wilson, right now, is our best receiver out there. I thought Justin Collins went out there and I thought for the most part, he played well. We were just disappointed in some other areas, so we found out something about ourselves and we'll get ourselves better. We've just gotta get our other wideouts up to par. I think we've gotta run the ball better, a lot better. And we've gotta hold onto the ball. When you look at it, we drop one touchdown pass, we fumble another one when we're going down there. You just gotta go out there and fix the thing there."

On WMU's defense:

"We've got some areas of concern, we understand that. But if our defense can continually play at that level, I know our offense is gonna get a lot better, so then we've got a chance and you play the game a little bit differently. Before, last year, we had to score on every possession; that's how we felt on offense. But I didn't feel that today. Now you can start playing the game with a little field position. You understand 'okay, don't take too many risks' and I think that's gonna be a little bit of an adjustment on offense. And I think the other thing is, we've gotta make plays."

On WMU's offensive struggles:

"We just looked really out of sync. Alex has been out seven days with that strain. I think we probably just did a little bit too much in terms of we were really concerned with the pass rush, you know, keeping them off balance, and throwing them off a little. But still, there were a lot of plays in there where we didn't make 'em. Whether is was dropped passes, being in the wrong spot and I'm sure Alex will tell you, you know it wasn't one of his better games, but we'll be fine."

QB Alex Carder

On adjusting to having all new receivers this season:

"You can practice as much as you want but game speed is a whole different ball game. As much as I would like to say what happened today was because of the lack of experience of the receiver position, that's just not the truth. I have confidence in my guys. I played probably one of the worst games of my career. I had a lot of mental mistakes. A lot of stuff that was really uncharacteristic. I let my team down in a lot of ways. That is something that I have to fix."

On how the Western Michigan defense played:

"I think that's one of the things that makes the loss so difficult, to know that the other side played so well. They really kept us in the game and gave us a shot. To not take advantage of it is inexcusable. Especially for an offense (like us) that has been so highly touted in the past. All I can do for my team at this point is promise improvement. I trust them and they trust me right back. Like Coach (Cubit) said, we learned a lot about ourselves today. We learned where we have to improve."

On throwing three interceptions:

"I just made some bad decisions out there. They didn't throw too many different things at me, I just wasn't reading my keys correctly and that's how interceptions happen. I wasn't being careful with the ball. I got lucky on a couple of throws. I should have had more interceptions. All I can take from this is that I have to get better."

S Donald Celiscar

On the defense's effort today:

"Today we came out and we played hard. Extremely hard. We gave up a couple of big plays at the beginning but everybody still played hard. Everybody did their jobs. That big play at the beginning was on me. I missed that assignment. I was supposed to get back. It was on me."

On how fatigued the defense was:

"We were hyped up and ready to go. We were excited. We wanted to get our defense off the field and get our offense as many chances as we could."

On his interception in the third quarter:

"We were playing man coverage. I was playing tight man coverage and I saw the ball and I tried to keep my feet in bounds. It felt good."

ROV Johnnie Simon

On their defense's effort today:

"I wouldn't say we were satisfied. We forced a couple three-and-outs and one turnover. I feel like we should have gotten more turnovers to help the offense. Our goal is to get at least three turnovers per game. If we could have gotten a few more, it would have changed the game a lot. I thought we played a (heck) of a game though."

On the struggles of the offense:

"I told Alex (Carder) that we are a team. You know we win together and we lose together. We don't blame one side of the ball; it's a team effort. We just have to get ready and play better next game."