Oct. 25, 2003

Recap?|? Final Stats?|? Notes

Illinois Head Coach Ron Turner

On the Illini's performance today:
"We played very good football today and we have to give them credit because they are a very good football team. I thought our team came out and competed very hard. At the end of the half we had a chance to get a spark and get some momentum going, but we just couldn't do it. Our guys came out with heart and just seemed to wear down at the end."

On Minnesota running back Laurence Maroney:
"He visited here and we recruited him very hard, because he is a very good player. We would have liked for him to commit early, but we didn't stop recruiting him because he didn't commit early. Ever since he has entered the lineup for Minnesota he has done a great job."

On Dustin Ward's performance:
"I think Dustin saw the field really well today, he had to scramble around a lot, and he seemed to find a receiver to throw to almost every time, especially the touchdown to Carey (Davis). He threw some good deep plays, and a couple of times threw the ball to receivers down the field but just led them a little to far. He came in and got some confidence and played a very good football game."

On the amount of injuries the Illini have sustained:
"We are very thin. We had a couple of guys playing that were banged up and Minnesota had an excellent offense line. We came out fighting and hung in there for a while, and just like all year we have had chances to make plays, but didn't seem to make them in key situations."

On what the team will do if the injured players are unable to play next week:
"We have to keep positive and keep going. If they aren't in there, we'll have to figure out something, and we will come and fight like we always do."

On keeping the team motivated:
"We have to keep going and keep fighting through this. It may not seem like it from the outside, but I know how important it is to these kids. We will have to find a way to fight out of this, and we have played some great teams that may be better than us right now, but we are going to keep trying and continue to improve. It's the players' attitude that keeps me going."

Illinois QB Dustin Ward

On playing today:
"I went in there, players were open, and we executed well. Things went well for us when I first went in."

On today's injuries:
"A few of them went down today, but I hope they're ready to go next week. I'm sorry to see that because they did some good things for us today."

Illinois WR Mark Kornfeld

On mistakes at the end of first half:
"It was just tough. The interception really hurt us. The opportunities have been there and, unfortunately, things haven't gone our way."

Illinois DB Marc Jackson On team attitude before the game:
"We always try to come into the game with the attitude that we have to win. The score may not always end up the way we want it, and it hasn't the past couple of weeks, but we always come into the game with the right attitude and want to win."

On the remaining season:
"We're not hanging our hats up, and we're not looking to point any fingers or anything like that. Right now, we're not getting the wins. That's what practice is for. We go there and work our butts off, go over game plans and schemes. Our philosophy hasn't changed all year. We have the same scheme that we started with. It's just not happening right now. We just have to look at it like we're lucky enough to still have three games to turn it around."

Illinois C Duke Preston

On offensive line performance:
"We feel like we were playing well the past couple of weeks, giving the quarterback time to throw, protection, and stuff like that. Today I think our guys did a real good job up front. We really worked hard and were in the scheme we wanted to be."

Minnesota head coach Glen Mason

On Laurence Maroney's emergence:
"We think Laurence Maroney's a good football player, a good back. We knew we had some good running backs coming back this year in Thomas Jackson and Marion Barber and Thomas Tapeh, and we fully intended on redshirting any freshmen running backs unless we had injuries. But in the process of getting ready for the season, during our scrimmages we didn't want to overwork our backs who were Big Ten-tested, and really our young backs came of age and caught everybody's attention. Laurence Maroney was one of them, and he doesn't look like a freshman."

On Minnesota's running game:
"Every game's a new story. There's nothing easy about the running game. I got told after the game that we had a couple good running backs, and I said yeah, we must have a couple good offensive linemen. We think we have a pretty fair running game, but you still have to establish it. You never know what people are going to do to take it away. We felt like we found some things we could've exploited them on, but we just wanted to keep doing what we were doing."

On the interception of Ward in the end zone
"I thought it was critical because momentum plays such a big factor. Early in the game, credit Illinois. They stopped us a couple times on third and short, and we turned the ball over. We left them in the game, and they were marching right before the half. If they can put seven points on there, it's a whole different ball game. So we get the interception and went in (the locker room) feeling a lot better about ourselves."

On his 100th victory:
"I'm probably surprised it doesn't mean more to me. It meant more to me that the players thought enough to recognize it. I had really forgotten about it until I went to break them down, and (senior defensive tackle) Dan Kwapinski said 'Wait, we want to give you the ball.' A lot of guys have won 100 games, but I'm not sure a lot of guys have won 100 games coaching some of the places we've coached."

On the decision to fake punt:
"In coaching you've got to make decisions quick. I've taken more than my share of gambles, and sometimes you make it and sometimes you don't. It was calculated. I had a bird's-eye view of how much we needed for a first down. I asked for a measurement because I thought we might've had it. That's when I started thinking about it if we didn't have the first down. I knew it was a matter of inches."

Minnesota RB Laurence Maroney

On coming back to Illinois:
"I had a lot of family members coming up, probably 30 or 40 people. I really wanted to show them that I could do this against a big team, a Big Ten team."

On his choice to go to Minnesota over Illinois:
"Illinois is a good school. Ron Turner is a good coach. Coach Mason showed me love that was like a family. I got treated good at both places, but I felt Minnesota was the place for me. I liked both. It came down to just a pick. I tried to go out extra hard and show them what they missed."

On the 90+ yard run called back for holding:
"That 100 yards was longer than I thought. I was real tired, but I tried my best. It got called back, but I felt like with the great offensive line that I would get it back again."

Minnesota QB Asad Abdul-Khaliq

the offensive production:
"It was very good. And we got tough games coming up and we want to go into those games on the up and up note. We clicked on all cylinders and we made some plays. We went pretty big on those guys. Sometimes our tailbacks are running so good you just can't stop giving them the ball. I think we definitely showed we can be balanced."

Maroney's performance:
"He's been looking good all season, but just the fact that he was coming home made him play better. He's been talking about (coming back) all week. 'My family is going to be there, going back to Illinois, I've got to show Illinois up.' We got kind of tired of him talking about it. We all know how important this game was for him."