Miami Head Coach Chuck Martin

Opening Statement

“We looked so much better than the last two weeks, but we still made some bad, bad mistakes, the sack fumble, and the end around. We are not good enough to give them 14 points.” 

On progress of the program

“We competed with a lot more intensity. We still have some guys who are playing not to lose, but there are a lot of good things we can take out of this game against a good Western Michigan team.”

Western Michigan Quarterback Zach Terrell

On Miami

“They came out ready to play and played us really tough. I think we started off fast and then we took our foot off the accelerator for a little bit. Obviously this is a great win. You can't minimize getting a win. A win is the end result, the result that we wanted. I'm happy for our guys and the team to get a win.”

On the offense's performance

“I think they did a really good job mixing it up. They did a lot of things we weren't expecting and trying to confuse me. They were ready to play. They have a really good defense and threw some challenges at us. I think we did a decent job responding. We didn't execute on some of the plays, me personally. I think we left a lot of meat on the bone, but like I said a win is a win.”

Western Michigan linebacker Robert Spillane

On Miami's motion

“There were a few times when we lost our assignments and were out of place. Once we got to the sidelines, we went over it with the coaches and everything made sense. We fixed our adjustments and made our adjustments and made the plays.”

On defense's performance

“All three postions, the defensive line, linebackers and secondary is what's really helping us get to the level we want to be at. We're not there yet. We're still getting better every week. When our secondary locks down and our defensive line gets pressure, good things will happen all year long.”

Western Michigan head coach P.J. Fleck

Opening statement

“Anyone who might be listening or reading this, if you're battling breast cancer, if you have anybody in your family that has breast cancer, if you've lost anybody to breast cancer, if you know anybody with breast cancer, just know this university and these football players are thinking of you. HOW we play the game is the only way we can say we got your back. Keep rowing the boat, keep up the fight. It's an awful disease. Our players can't wait to wear pink. It's swag. It's such a horrible disease.

The second thing is a member of our family passed away this week, John Mulhearn. He's done a lot for this program. I'm going to continue to talk about him. He'll always be a member of our family and I told our players at the end of the game, he's inspired us and touched our heart. When somebody touches your heart they leave that impression forever. It never goes away. There will be so many things that happen in our players' lives that it will click in their mind they'll think of Sean Mulhearn (John's father) and his sacrifice for his family, and John Mulhearn who taught us about dignity and not let special needs set you back or let you have a fulfilled life.

Happy homecoming to all the alums who came back.  It was an incredible turnout especially with the weather. Who would have known that Mexico hurricane would have come up right through Kalamazoo and hit us in the second quarter. Holy cow!

Congratulations to everyone who put their effort into Heritage Hall. I went to that ceremony, that was incredible. That is a first class, high class building. A perfect way to do it right before Homecoming with all of our alums coming back, that's what it's about. Wins and losses come and go, but people stay forever and I'm proud to be a Bronco.

On the game

“We didn't play our best football today. When you don't play your very best and you score 35 points and hold them to 13. That quarterback for Miami is going to be a great player. We knew that recruiting him. We took Jon Wassink instead and Jon's going to be a heck of a player as well. That kid's going to be a great player for them. It was a battle of youth but you have to give them credit. They have a great football team and are really well coached. They've done a tremendous job of recruiting. Coach Martin has that going in the right direction.

I thought it was an up and down game. We'd execute and take two steps backwards. On defense we gave up a few big plays but I thought we played better this week than we did last week. If you look at some of the deep passes that were caught last week or the guys missed, because there were some open guys last week, I thought Ronald Zamort did a great job of locating with his technique. That's something we really stressed, same with our safeties and Darius. We got a sack fumble and a turnover that way. It was really good. Offensively we have to play much better. We have to run harder. We've got to be able to execute in the passing game better. We had a lot of guys open and the balls were really nice balls but they get taken in the air and that's part of it but we have to be better.”