Sept. 2, 2008

Opening Statement:
"Thank God we get a chance to play again. I guess that's one of the good things about when things don't go right. I think when you go back to the game Saturday, we didn't coach very well; we didn't play very well. And I think as I told our team Saturday night, there's going to come a point in time when you get into a big game like that, we have to make something happen instead of sit around and wait for something to happen and I think the good thing is that everything we need to get corrected is correctable. The other great thing in my opinion is that it's happening right now and it happened in the first game. We're exactly where we were at this point last year there's no doubt in my mind that we're a better football team. But we have to go do it, we have to coach better, we have to play better and I have no doubt in my mind that we're going to get that done. And one thing that I've said since I've been here, the player's expectation level has to come to our expectation level. This is a big week, no question. I think number one is that we get our football team back where it's supposed to be and playing the way it's supposed to be. Number two, the great thing is that we get a lot of great former Illini and Illini fans in general that are going to get an opportunity to see what you guys have just seen - a great facility. You've heard me joke about this but I mean it very sincerely - it's very important that our football team plays the way this stadium looks and we're capable of doing that and we're going to do everything in our power to do that."

On improving last week's mistakes:
"I think the most glaring thing was tackling, and I'll take responsibility for that. First, we got into a point where we start getting nicked up a little bit and maybe we should have continued to hit in camp and that would have made a little bit of a difference. I took the theory or philosophy or attitude was that I wanted to make sure I took the guys to the game. And that's something we'll get corrected, I can assure you that. Number two, we may have defensively done a little bit too much. We may have tried some things to try to cataract our other formations and so forth that we didn't need to do. The third thing is that we have to listen to what people are saying and writing and we're going to get that corrected also."

On the improvements to Memorial Stadium:
"I go back to this - it's great to have great facilities. People see our weight room and it is the largest football-only weight room in the country until the next person builds and it's great to have nice facilities, but I think the thing that's important in recruiting, and I've said this since I've been here, it's people. It still comes down to people, and we're not going to change how we recruit. When a guy comes in here and he sees that he has the opportunity to have the most luxurious things out there plus be around great people, then there's no question that he should help us."

On the Missouri game:
"Let me tell you what the problem was with that game. It didn't have anything to do with the spread offense, it didn't have anything to do with throwing the football, what it had to do with was this - they ran for 220 yards, and I don't care if you're coaching high school, college, or if you're coaching the national football league, if you don't stop the run you're not going to win. All you have to do is go back and look at the stats from last season. It was almost an identical game, the kid had a kickoff for a return for a touchdown and last year they had a punt return for a touchdown, but if you go back and look at the stats, the difference in the game is that we didn't stop the run. If we'd have stopped the run I think we would've had a pretty good chance."

On the tackling against Missouri:
"The tackle's one part of it but I think the other thing is that Missouri is a good football team. Their offensive line did a great job and their defense is better than our front. Obviously we all know the quarterback is a great player, and I think they're going to forget about that other guy they had last year with that running back. With the different formations and things like that we would have been better off just lying out and doing what we do and trying to check some things that we weren't ready to do. I felt like with the couple extra days we could do that and I think we could've done that but I think in a big game, it was obviously a big atmosphere which is what you want to be in, which you want to play in, and that's on me 100 percent. Tackling is about 99 percent of motion and a lot of times the guys that you try to tackle have a tendency to make you look bad number one, but number two if you're just thinking a little bit, then you're not flying around and that's why players are better as juniors and seniors than they are as sophomores and freshman - because they're thinking. You got to get past that thinking stage. You're way better off having guys flying at the football than trying to make every adjustment possible."

On the team response to a loss:
"I think you'll see a little different group out there on Saturday and I hope so, and I think you'll see a little different group out there in practice today. I told them last night that I can't wait to get to the practice field today, and we're not going to do anything different because what we do is good, it's worked, it's proven and we believe in it and it's great. We're going to do it right. We're not going to be out there any longer, we're not going to hit anymore, we're going to do the things we do all the time but were going to do it perfect."

On Will Davis:
"I think the more guys who can play different positions the more depth it gives you, but we've got depth anyway and you lend guys in there and I've said for awhile that I want 81 to get some time in there. It wasn't that he's inside, Will Davis I'm referring to, it was that he was slowed for a week and a half with a high ankle sprain, but he's going to be out there on the edge rushing as well."

On Jeff Cumberland playing on Saturday:
"No he won't. I think that's probably because of the doctors. Because if you ask him, he walked into the training room last night and he was dancing and I said 'Well, you ready to go?' and he said, 'Yeah, I'm ready,' but obviously he's going to be ready. He feels great. He was out there catching balls and telling jokes last night but obviously it's just a matter of the medical people deciding when he's ready to go. Your body is only going to heal so fast, but there's no pain, he can dance and walk and he will play. I think if the doctors will let him play, let him play, I think he plays next week but that's not my call."

On Eastern Illinois:
"What they show, and like I told my football team, what you guys watch on tape from their game on Thursday is not going to be the same team that will walk in here. The team that walks in here, we got guys who transferred here and from here and we're going to bet their Super Bowl and all you have to do is go back and watch them against Purdue early last year. It was the second game of the year and once they got going, you can't handle them and if you don't put the fire out immediately they're going to stick around and play hard and they're doing a lot. They have a new offensive coordinator, but it's very similar in that they've got two pretty good tight ends so they play a lot of what we call twelve personnel - two tight ends and one back, eleven personnel, one tight end, three wide receivers and one back and the quarterback is very sound. I would expect that they will throw caution to the wind. They had a fake punt against Purdue last year, and our guys have to be ready for everything."

On Tony Romo coming out of Eastern Illinois:
"Not only one of the best quarterbacks, you think of the people that have come out of Eastern Illinois, the coaches, the people, the players, they have had an awful lot of great players. They've been in the playoffs I think six of the last eight years. Coach Spoo has done an unbelievable job."

On the running game:
"Well, don't get on the blocker or the running game yet. I mean go back and look at last year's stats. When you play a pretty good defensive front, which they're pretty good, the thing you have to do and the thing Mike Locksley did a great job of is, you have to be patient, you got to keep playing, you got to keep slamming it and you're going to get some things to happen for you. But we're going to be okay running the football, that's not a concern of mine yet and I don't think it will be."

On Matt Eller:
"Right now Matt's still the kicker, and I thought he kicked well. I thought the extra point we got blocked, we had a guy come through on the right side and I'm not going to let a guy come through. He knows better than that and that's not going to happen. Matt's kick was a little bit low too, and that was his first kick in that environment and there's a lot of things going through your mind at that point and time. He's a little bit slow, a little bit low but after that he kicked fine."

On the special teams coverage:
"The first kickoff, you can't put the ball against him down the middle of the field and expect to do a good job of covering, I don't care if you have the Green Bay Packers covering for you. Then after that we were pretty good except for the return, and some things happened in there we'll get corrected. We had one guy run by it and it was unblocked and could've made the play and we had some guys in the hole that could've made the play that didn't make it. There will be some changes on that. Once again, no one hates to lose more than me I can assure you, but you have to remember there was a lot more good than bad. This football team has proven since we've been here that they're going to fight to the end, they're not going to quit, and to me that's very important and we're going to continue to prove it. We have eleven games to go, so we can take all the things we learned from Saturday and get going right now, we are not going to wait until the third or fourth game."

On the young running backs:
"I thought they did a nice job and once again, there is no way to buy experience and if you could - I said this last year - I would spend every penny Denise would let me spend, but you have to play. Troy Pollard will be back here this week and once again you get more and more experience. Those guys are going to be good players, it just takes time. You talk to the offensive coaches about perfection and so forth, but Daniel Dufrene had 75 yards and last year I think he had 55."

On the new turf:
"I was probably the last one to find out about the new turf, but when Coach Guenther told me they were thinking about doing it, I shouldn't say no. I thought the old turf was in pretty good shape, but once again this is the new turf, so it is better and faster and I think everyone will love it.

On Will Judson:
"Well that is exactly why you probably saw a little less of CJ (Jackson), he is coming back from the ACL and has some tendonitis and so forth. As we get a way from two-a-days and everything else, he will get better. But, yes, Will has done a nice job. In fact I had to go and apologize to him at supper last night, he did have a big game and I talked to him a bit after that one touchdown and I don't think we have to worry about that anymore."

On Judson's touchdown celebration:
"Oh absolutely I can put myself in his shoes. Those guys watching Sunday, every Sunday, he is caught up in the moment, it was his first touchdown, but that doesn't make it right. Those are the rules and it doesn't matter if we agree with them or not. I don't necessarily agree with 55mph every time either, but that's the law, so what are you going to do."

On Josh Brent:
"Hopefully, he will be available this week. I just did what the doctors told me, if they tell me a guy needs not to play, then he won't play."

On other injuries:
"o, thank God, we are very fortunate, nothing serious other than the normal bumps and bruises you have, we have been fortunate. Knock on wood, you have Sirod (Williams) and he is going to have surgery Friday morning and of course Jeff (Cumberland). Dansay (Hardeman) had his knee scoped last week so he will be ready to go here pretty quick and we need to get him back. He will be out this week.:

On the safeties:
"I think the safeties played a little bit like guys who were playing their first game and that's a hard team to play your first game against. Not only from what they do schematic wise, but also talent-wise."

On former Illinois players on Eastern Illinois' defensive line:
"Well, as I told everyone here, the film that we watched from Thursday night is not going to be the team that we play Saturday, They will come out here ready to go and they will play at as high a level as they can possibly play, there is no question. I guess D'Angelo (McCray) was around here Sunday night and Jeff (Sobol) is starting at defensive end. Those guys will play their best game, there is no question and I think our guys understand and respect that and it will be important that we are ready to play and play our best game."