Sept. 16, 2006

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Quoting Illinois Head Coach Ron Zook...

...on the play of Juice Williams...
"I thought Isiah played extremely well. I thought he had poise. I'm not ready to say that he's the guy, but I am ready to say that he deserves the playing time that he's been getting."
"Juice has got to learn to come off a little bit. I mean he'll stick it in there. But you've got to have a little bit more touch sometimes. I was very, very happy and pleased with him. Each time he steps on the field, he gets better and better. It's exciting to watch him improve."

...on Illinois' big plays late...
"We know that Juice can get the ball off. He can throw it. The thing I see in Juice is his accuracy, as the mud begins to clear, I see his accuracy beginning to come back. It still goes awful fast for him, but we've got some big-play guys."

...on Yelton's punts...
"Kyle has really improved and we've got the protection where's he's protected now. He's going to be fine."

...on the penalties...
"I've never had a problem with penalties like this. The two plays that they got in the first half, once again it's almost like a black cloud. The out-up on Vontae, eventually he's going to learn. People are going to keep doing that until he stops doing that."
"Offensively we just couldn't get things going and we'd shoot ourselves in the foot. We've got to go back and really take a strong look at what we're doing."

...on the combination of penalties and dropped balls...
"We had too many dropped balls. It's unacceptable dropping footballs, and they're not always right where they need to be. We need to catch the football. That's what their job is, to catch the football."
"There's nothing I can say other than we're going to get it corrected. It's unacceptable for us to have those penalties. We don't coach it, we sure don't allow it, but it has happened and we've got to get it fixed."

Quoting Illinois Players

WR DaJuan Warren...

...on the versatility he showed (running, receiving, and throwing):
"I played quarterback in high school, so I can still throw the ball a little bit. And as a receiver, you've got to be able to catch the ball and as well run, so I've got to do a lot of different things. Whatever coach needs me to do, I'll do."

...on the prospect of him being utilized more in the future for a number of different skills:
"Whatever works. If it's working, I think we'll do it. But if it's not, maybe we'll come back to it later. It seemed to work for us today."

RB Rashard Mendenhall...

...on QB Isaiah Williams:
"I think he did a great job when he got in there. He was in a breeze and he looked real comfortable back there and made good throws."

...about the 76-yard TD reception from Williams:
"The ball was thrown right in the bread basket. A great ball by Juice."

...on the frustration of penalties:
"The whole day we were just shooting ourselves in the foot. It wasn't them stopping us, we were stopping ourselves."

...about the team moving forward and building on the success of the second half:
"Nobody's going to give it to you. You've got to go up there. You've got to execute. I think towards the end of the game, in the second half, we were doing that."

QB Isaiah Williams...

...on the dropped balls:
"It gets frustrating at times, but this whole team is still in the learning process. It's just a matter of time until we get better."

QB Tim Brasic...

...on the penalties:
"There's nothing really you can say about it, just a lack of focus. You can't have that if you want to be successful."

Quoting Syracuse Head Coach Greg Robinson...

...on the feeling of Syracuse's first win in 12 games...
"I'm really, really happy for our team. It's exciting. We needed it in the worst way and we found a way to pull it off. We made it hard for ourselves there in the 4th quarter, but we'll learn from that."
"I think that our kids have been preparing to win. No one thing is the key to it. All in all it was a mindset that we were going to go out execute and win. It's just amazing when you hustle around the football field, good things happen to you."
"The reason this game was so important was because it was the last road game that we had before the Big East. If we want to do what we want to do in the Big East, we're going to have to win on the road in the Big East."
"When we won it that was important for our team. That was important for our players to feel that sense of accomplishment. Now we can build off of it. We have to."

...on Taj Smith...
"Taj has had two weeks now where he's made huge plays. I'd like to think we have five go-to-guys, but time will tell."

...on the defensive touchdown...
"We talked all week about that we've been getting turnovers, but we haven't scored on defense since I've been here."
"Guys are hustling again to the football. When you fly to the football good things happen. I give the players credit for the playing the way they're supposed to play it."

...on QB Perry Patterson's performance...
"I thought he did a lot of really good things today. He made several passes that were great. All and all, I think Perry is developing into a really good quarterback."

...on two long touchdowns given up by defense...
"Both of them were missed assignments. My point to our team was that when you have a team down, to finish them off you have to do the right things. You have to do the right things right. We have to execute the defense and we didn't. But you know what, thank goodness we're going to live another day and we survived it."

...on Illinois...
"Offensively, they were more poised and more in tune to what they were trying to do. I was impressed watching their team on the field. From what I saw on the film and what I saw on the field, I think they're going to be a good defense. They have a chance to be good. I was impressed with their players."

Quoting Syracuse Players

QB Perry Patterson

...on getting the win:
"It was a total team effort. After playing with a top 15 team like Iowa we knew we could play at a high level. We held ourselves accountable and made sure we executed a little bit more. It was a whole team effort all the way around."

...on the 67-yard touchdown pass to Taj Smith:
"We just executed the play. The corner bit on the run action and Taj was wide open, so I just made sure I didn't overthrow him. He did a great job of getting under the ball and we put six on the board."

...on Taj Smith becoming his go-to receiver:
"My go-to-guy is the one making plays. It was his day today, but the whole receiving corps has embraced each other and it is starting to pay off. Today we schemed a bit more around Taj and he did a great job of executing."

LB Jerry Mackey...

...on Illinois' offense:
"It seemed like they had every play in the book, but we got a good idea of what they were going to do on offense early in the game and it ended up being a big part of this victory."

...on if there was an underdog:
"I knew coming into this game that there wasn't an underdog. Both teams have been struggling lately. It was a matter of who was going to play hardest and we proved that today."

...on scoring a defensive touchdown...
"That was important. We needed to prove that we are capable of scoring at anytime. It gives us momentum moving forward this season."

WR Taj Smith

...on scoring the first touchdown on a fumble recovery...
"I was just trying to block and then I saw him get hit. Luckily, I was close enough to pick up the ball and run it in.

...on the 67-yard touchdown pass...
"It was a keeper play and the corner bit on it. I was supposed to stutter, but by the time he bit I was already open, so I just put my hand up and Perry threw me a good ball."