...on coaching against his old friend Randy Walker:
"Randy and I played together. We were in the same class. He's from Troy, Ohio. In fact, his track coach was my older brother's football coach, Coach Hartmann, who I saw at the Ohio State game. My brother actually brought him in the locker room. He was Randy's track coach at Troy, Ohio. I guess when my brother was playing, I was a sixth or seventh grader and I was the manager. I was running around and I was on the field, and I thanked Coach Hartmann after the Ohio State game. You wouldn't think I would be in a thankful mood, but that was kind of the beginning of getting into sports and athletics. He kind of let me be his guy who ran around.

"But anyway, he was Randy's track coach at Troy, there, which is not far from Miami of Ohio. Then, of course, Randy and I were in the same class, on the same team, played for Coach Mallory freshman and sophomore year, and Coach (Dick) Crum (in my) junior and senior year. Of course, Randy was on offense and I was on defense. So we probably did have a lot of collisions, particularly in the spring, because we used to go a lot of one-on-one. So I'm sure there were a lot of collisions involved.

...on staying in touch with Coach Walker:
"I won't say we don't keep touch, because we do. Obviously at conventions and things like that we see each other. But not where we pick up the phone and talk every week or anything like that."

...on whether he had a rivalry with Coach Walker back in college:
"I think one of the reasons, and I'm sure he's done the same thing in his coaching career that I've done, we were fortunate enough to have the success that we had was because we were a team. Obviously, when we competed, we competed against each other. But by the same token, we were a team. We pulled for each other, we stuck with each other. Whatever we could do help this team win, that's the attitude we had."

...on seeing Walker as a coach when they played at Miami of Ohio:
"At that point in time, no. I didn't see a coach in myself, either. I just wanted to play football. I love to compete and that kind of thing. It's funny how your paths go in different ways."

...on coaching against someone he has a history with:
"I think in this profession, if you stay in it long enough, you're going to coach against guys whom you know very well. I've coached against guys whom I know very well before. Sherman Smith, who was also in that same class. Smitty coaches for the Tennessee Titans, I believe, now. But I've coached against Smitty. Guys you've coached with, that's part of the profession."

...on how he plans to play the seniors on Saturday:
"I've talked to the seniors a lot, and apologized to them after the game on Saturday. These guys have come in and done a heck of a job. They had to play the hand that they were dealt. I think a lot of times, there may have been certain ones that thought, 'gosh, why does there have to be a change here going into our senior year?' For the most part, though, these guys have done everything we've asked them to do. I am just so happy for them. Ryan Matha, for example, how hard he's worked. Kyle Kleckner. J.D. [Jason Davis] Guys who have not only been good football players and have led the football team for us. You hate like heck to see them go. I told them after the game last week that I wish there was something I could do. But there is something we can do: we can go out of this place a winner and feeling good about ourselves. We need to go and do that."

...on how tough the losing has been for the seniors:
"I know how hard it is right now for me. For whatever reason, if I didn't feel the way I feel, I couldn't bear it. I know we're on the right track and I know we're doing the right thing. I know we're going to get players in here. I get more and more excited every time my phone rings and it's recruiting. That's what we have to do. Obviously to be in here, at a place like this, where we have everything we need. An administration that's going to give us whatever we need to do it the right way. Is it going to be work? Yes, it's going to be work. But that's the exciting part."

...on the seniors playing at the next level:
"You never know what they look for. There are guys in the National Football League that you would have never thought would have a chance, and there are guys you couldn't imagine not playing who aren't playing. The thing I've told them is that it's not something you can count on, obviously. Just talking before the season with Steve Weatherford, I said 'Steve, there are 32 punters in the world, in the world, that kick in the National Football League. Now what are you going to do to make yourself one of those 32?' All I was trying to do was impress upon him the point that there are a whole bunch of good kickers out there, and it's not necessarily the guy who kicks it the highest or the guy who kicks it the farthest. There are only 32 in the world. That's a very small percentage. You look at, there are only 32 teams, running backs for example. Most teams are going to keep three running backs. That's 96 people in the world. What are you going to do to make yourself one of those 96? They all have those dreams of being able to go on and play at the next level, but you also have to do everything in your power to give yourself that opportunity."

...on the importance of Illinois players playing at the next level:
"I think it's great for Illinois. It's great for our program. One of the things I know from just being in the National Football League is that those guys are proud of their schools. They come to the locker room wearing their colors. A lot of times there are rivalries with games going on. I remember when I was with Pittsburgh, it was always a big deal when the Florida-Georgia game went on. Those guys are proud. I've talked to a lot of them (our seniors) and I told them, 'We're going to make you proud of your program. We're going to do what we have to do. You're going to be able to walk into that locker room and be proud of where you went to school and played.'"

...on Charles Myles:
"Well, Charles is a big athletic guy. We talked about it in the spring moving him over there (from DL to OL), but he was overweight and his knees were bothering him. He had a bone bruise and wasn't able to go through spring. I wanted to get him over there in the middle of camp. He was doing some things on defense. Here's a big, strong guy who can run and move. Then, just out of necessity, we felt like we needed to get him over there. I wish we would have done it earlier. Charles has taken on a new personality, and he's excited about the opportunity. He's very athletic, he's a big guy obviously, but he's in the learning stage as well.

...on Northwestern's offense:
"Number one, it's a very talented offense. That quarterback has been doing that for four years. I think anytime you have a guy who's been doing the same thing for four years there's a couple things that happen. Number one, he's in the reaction mode. He just reacts, he doesn't think. Number two, the coaching staff knows exactly what he does best and what they do best. Receivers...they spread you out. The running back, I'm sure, has been a surprise to them; he has come on and done a phenomenal job of running strong, getting his pads in front of himself. Their quarterback is very accurate; he runs the offense, takes care of the football. They cause you problems. It's not that they do an awful lot of (different) things. They do enough to cause you problems. I can see where if you do the same thing over and over you're going to get better and better."

...on the pressure on the Illinois offense to score more points:
"I think it's important right now at the stage we're in that we do what we can do. Obviously, we'd like to throw as many points on the board as we can, but I don't know that we're to the point where we can get outside our realm of what we do. We're going to have to come up with some way to put points on the board, to stay in the game. Our defense is going to have to have a stellar effort. I feel good about our defense from the standpoint that they have continued to improve and they're gaining a little confidence. I told them last week, when you're playing an offense like this, you have to understand that they're going to get points; they're going to get some yards; and they're going to move the football. You can't get discouraged, you can't get down, you can't get frustrated. You just have to keep playing. It's a 60-minute game and it's a 100-yard field. And understand, you don't get caught up in that stuff. You have to keep playing at the highest level you could possibly play at, and try to make some breaks for yourself."

...on changes he's making offensively:
"I don't know that we're in a position where we can make a lot of changes. It's funny, particularly when you have young guys, you put things on the board and they all look really good. But still, they have to be able to execute the plays and execute what you're trying to get accomplished. I think it would probably not be the smartest thing for us to go out there and try to change a lot of things. Let's try to do some of the things we've done well and continue to get better. Obviously, every game plan you always go in with a few wrinkles here and there, but make sure that we don't go in there to beat ourselves. And obviously that's one of the problems we've been having."

...on what other teams have done defensively against the Illinois offense:
"They'll figure it out, I don't want to (give it away). They have though (played us differently), particularly after the Wisconsin game."

...on QB Tim Brasic:
"One thing you have to say about Tim Brasic is that he's a gutty guy, he's a tough guy. He hangs in there and has confidence in himself. Like I told him last night, 'Tim you have to go do it. Just go out there and play.' One guy I forgot to mention, Chris Pazan, got dinged in the head and is probably questionable as well (for Saturday's game).

...on who the backup quarterback will be if Pazan does not play:
"Billy Garza. Billy's been working, and he's been the third guy."

...on the importance of the seniors winning:
"It's important to them. It's important to me. It's important to this University because they become ambassadors now, they become alumni. I told them when we had Homecoming, Homecoming is for the people who come back. You want them to go out with a good taste in their mouth. There have been some tough times, but I think as time goes on, they'll look back and remember more of the good times than the bad times. I think in life there's always going to be bad times, tough times, but you always seem to go back and remember the good times. These guys have been through a lot. All I'm asking them to do is 'let's go out there as a football team and let's make sure when we walk off that field there's nothing left...that our tanks are completely empty and there's nothing left, and then we'll look at the scoreboard and see what happens."

...on extra appreciation for the seniors for being the first to buy into his system:
"I told them a couple weeks ago, they'll be forever welcome around here. As long as I'm here, anyway. It is tough for the senior class to come in here with a new staff and everything new, a new way of doing things. Human beings resist change, no matter what. You can want to and want to, and still it's different. Particularly when things start going bad. The attitude of 'gosh, we didn't used to do it that way.' The good thing of it is, all these guys wanted to do is win. They didn't really worry about how things used to be done. I told them from the beginning, we're going to do things our way. It doesn't make us right and them wrong, or them right and us wrong. It's just our way. If there were (only) one way of doing things, everyone would do it the same way, because everyone wants to win. I think it's important that they did buy into what we are trying to accomplish, and I think those guys will be around and they'll help with recruiting and the whole thing."

Senior DT Ryan Matha

Quoting DT Ryan Matha...

...on the emotion associated with Senior Day:
"When you're younger, you think you've got all the games left in the world to play. You don't think about it, and before you know it, it's here. It's kind of a funny feeling. Some guys were pretty emotional and some weren't. I wasn't quite sure where I was going to be and I think it's probably going to end up being a little harder for me than I expected."

...on what Saturday's game means:
"It's going to be the last time playing in Memorial Stadium, last time running out on the field. It's going to be a nice experience and hopefully we can go out the right way getting a 'W'. I think that would be a huge step for this program with all the younger kids we have in the program going into the off-season and just building into next year."

...on Illinois' youth:
"That's probably been one of the toughest things we've had to deal with all year, and even the last couple of years, the lack of experienced older players. A lot of teams don't have to deal with that. Some of the mistakes, missed plays, missed opportunities we've had throughout this year you can maybe attribute to a lack of upperclassmen being on the field. But that's also a good thing, because you've got guys who are only freshmen and sophomores competing with the seniors of other Big Ten teams and who are going to be really good ballplayers here in the next two years. You're going to have a whole bunch of experienced seniors and juniors in the next couple years."

...on how tough the season has been:
"We're all competitors out there, and I think sometimes fans think we're just going out there because we don't have anything better to do. But we've got an awful lot invested in this program, and it's tough. We don't want to go out there and lose, or get blown out and embarrass ourselves. We're going out there to win, and the coaches are the same way. The last couple of years, it's been a tough time around here. But with the new coaching staff and the guys they're going to be bringing in, things are going to be turned around and there aren't going to be as many sad times around Memorial Stadium on Saturdays.

"Obviously it's tough with the coaching change. It's funny because you wouldn't think Coach Zook would be as emotional as he has been with us not really being 'his' players. The last couple of weeks when we've been in the opportunity to make a game of it and make it close and it turns out to be a lopsided loss, you can tell the pain on his face and how much he hurts for us. That's been a real big thing for me and for the rest of the guys, to just see how much a guy who hasn't even known us for a year still cares about us."

...on if Northwestern is a rivalry game:
"A lot of people talk about Illinois not really having a true rival, but if we had one, this is probably it, being in-state. It's always a hard-fought game, and this is the type of game where you just throw the records out. It's going to be a tough game. They probably don't like us very much and we don't like them very much; it's going to be a good football game."

...on the challenge Northwestern's offense presents:
"Their quarterback is a good football player. He has thrown for a lot of yards. They've got that quick freshman running back that presents a lot of problems. When he gets outside, he can hurt you, but we think we can contain him. They're a good offense, they put up a lot of yards. They're dangerous."

...on what getting a win Saturday would mean:
"It would be great. It wouldn't erase everything that's happened, but it would be the last time walking out of Memorial Stadium and going out of there as a winner and singing the song as a team one more time. For these younger guys who are going to be back next year, getting a win against a Big Ten team would be great momentum going into next season. There are probably people laughing saying 'you finished 3-8, how is that momentum?' But just one win and getting that taste, that could just set this program in the right direction and be a huge momentum factor and just set the tone for seasons to come."

...on the defensive line play recently:
"It's kind of where we expected to be. We're playing pretty well right now. The last couple of weeks we've graded out higher and higher, and last week was the highest we've graded out. We're playing pretty well right now. Chris (Norwell)has two more seasons left, so he's going to be a great football player down the road. He's a real good football player now. We try to control the inside and we've done a pretty good job of that, for the most part, throughout the season."

...on the future of the defensive line after he graduates:
"There are a lot of guys waiting to step in. Tremayne Walker is a true freshman who goes down on the scout team a couple of times during the week and causes those guys havoc down there. He's going to be a good player. Dave Lindquist is a walk-on who is going to be a real good player. He's going to have a chance to have a lot of playing time next year. He's a real good athlete where he can make a difference in the pass rush. Josh Norris has played a lot of football for us and he's the type of guy who's never going to quit on you. There are some other freshmen, and you never know, the way Coach Zook recruits, they might bring in the best defensive tackle in the country. But with Coach Sims and Coach Cullen, they're going to find somebody who's going to do more than just get the job done. They're great coaches and they're going to put a good defensive line out on the field next year."

DB Kyle Kleckner