Sept. 22, 2001

Recap?|? Final Stats?|? Notes

Illinois Head Coach Ron Turner
Turner on the game
"Our defensive coaching staff had a great plan for the last two weeks. They did a great job of not over-coaching or tinkering with it. Our players came out and had a lot of confidence. We emphasized focus on every play and we knew the difference was going to be character and whoever won the fourth quarter."

"Games like this are why I love to coach. This was one of the most fun games I can remember coaching."

Turner on the Illini's defensive pressure
"Our guys kept coming and it seemed in the second half we got to their quarterback."

Turner on next week...
"We got to 3-0 this week and we want to do everything in our power to get to 4-0."

Turner on Kurt Kittner and the wide receiver corps...
"Kurt played well, kept his composure, and made correct throws. Our wide receivers wanted to show we were more than a one-man show and they proved that today."

Turner on the running game...
"We threw early in the game by design and I thought we did a great job running the ball in the second half. I thought we took control of the game when we started running well."

Louisville Head Coach John L. Smith
Smith's opinion of the game
"That was a major-league butt-kicking. They deserved to win, we made so many mistakes. We have so much to improve on if we are expected to be in these kinds of games."

Smith on the Cardinal's defense
"We were asking freshman to cover some good players. The young guys gave up some big plays. But, the good thing is that they are going to get better."

Smith on the team's preparation
"We have to practice harder on the practice field and we need to re-evaluate ourselves as coaches."

Smith on his team's mindset coming into the second half
"We felt like we were still in it."

Smith on the Illinois fake punt in the third quarter
"That was my mistake. We had just had that punt return touchdown called back, and we went for the block and they called for the fake. It was a great call on their part and a stupid one on mine."

Louisville Player Quotes
#31 Redshirt-freshman Cornerback J.T. Haskins
On Illinois attacking his side of the field
"They were coming at me from the get go. They were picking on me because I was the young guy. It was difficult and I need to step my game up."

On the pass interference calls
"Their receivers were pushing on me as much as I was pushing on them. I think the refs could have been more lenient."

On containing Brandon Lloyd
"I think we did a pretty good job, and we knew it was something we had to do. That number 18 (Walter Young) was long. He made me look like a midget.

On Illinois' turf
"It's different. We all were slipping. I've got some turf burns.

#9 Senior Wide Receiver Deion Branch
On Illinois' defense after the first quarter
"It stayed the same. They did slide more on defense. They have a great defense and we made mistakes on offense and defense."

On the number of dropped passes
"It's part of the game, you can't expect to be perfect. What we have to do is maintain focus on what we need to do."

#15 Junior Quarterback Dave Ragone
On his interceptions
"Illinois made good plays. A couple of them were tips, it's just the way the ball falls. They had a couple tipped around that didn't fall for us. In the second half, they made the adjustments on defense and got at us."

On the ground game
"The ground game is the quarterback's best friend. I've got to give Illinois credit. I'm not going to say they didn't have a good defense. We've just got to take this game and learn from it."

On the mistakes
"We made many more mistakes. You can't blame one individual. This is a team sport. If I knew how to stop all of our penalties, I would be a coach.