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Iowa 30, Illinois 14
Memorial Stadium // Nov. 15, 2014 // Attendance: 50,373

Illinois Head Coach Tim Beckman

Opening statement:

"A tough football game, no question about it. We battled there for about three quarters and then it just slipped way out of our hands. I think credit goes to Iowa first. I think Kirk [Ferentz] did a great job with the preparation of their football team. They bounced back from a defeat last week and they played, as I guess you would say, Iowa football. They ran the football extremely well. They played defense. We as a football team never got really in tune. You look at it offensively. You look at it defensively. I think the only thing we probably won in was punt. As I told this football team, we still have an opportunity to reach our goal and we have to step up. As soon as they leave this locker room, the focus has to be on Penn State and the focus has to be on how we can become a better football team when Penn State comes here."

On the defense:

"I was proud of the way that we made some stops, goal-line stops, fourth-down stops. The kids were fighting and kept on trying to get better and better each and every snap. We did wear down a little bit more than any football coach wants to see his team wear down. We've been very, very successful in the fourth quarter this year, scoring 100 points and giving up 65. That wasn't the case today."

On the play of the receivers:

"There were some drops, concentration, definitely some things we hadn't seen in any of the games we've had so far. They did not play up to the potential that they have, other than Mikey [Dudek]. Mikey had an exceptional game again. The challenge is for those guys and the challenge is for this football team. We were beat in every position. We have to play better."

On the health of the offensive line:

"You go with the guys you have. This is just who we have. Teddy [Karras] is not going to be available for us. We will see about Simon [Cvijanovic]. We will see how we do there. We've got Austin [Schmidt], Christian [DiLauro], Joe [Spencer], Alex [Hill], and Michael [Heitz]. Those are the guys that we have and those are the guys that are going to have to step up and play."

WR Mike Dudek

On his two touchdown catches:

"Like coach Beckman said, `football is a team sport.' Although many may think I did well, at the end of the day, we still lost and that's not good enough."

On his first touchdown catch:

"Wes [Lunt] checked it there and threw a good ball. I thought I was getting held a little so I didn't look until the very end. When I looked, I thought I timed the ball up well and went up and caught the ball. That's what we're supposed to do."

On how the team will respond heading into the Penn State game:

"We have to win out if we want to get to a bowl game. Obviously, the locker room is down right now, but a lot of that is going to be on the seniors to pick the guys up because it could be their final two games. This is really going to start with the seniors, and we'll all just chime in and get each other motivated."

On Iowa's defense:

"Iowa has a good defense, but we really hurt ourselves with penalties and drops. That really starts with concentration. We need to start concentrating on playing our game and stop worrying about them. Go out there and execute."

On having different personnel in the lineup this week:

"We felt confident going into the game. We just got our quarterback back and two new linemen, so there are going to be some little mistakes early on, but it kept happening and we've got to get those fixed or it'll be a tough game next week too."

LB Mason Monheim

On Iowa's offensive line:

"I think they're the typical Iowa Hawkeye offensive line you think of; they're tough, big and hard-nosed guys. Win at the line of scrimmage and you have a great opportunity to win the game. We battled for a long time there, and then they executed down the stretch a little bit better than we did."

On the positives taken from the first three quarters:

"We made plays. We had some great stops down at the goal-line, fourth-down stops, so definitely we'll take some positives, but at the end of the day, we lost."

On having a sense of urgency going into next week:

"You don't try to do anything special. You keep being the same person you set out to be. You come into practice. You go into a lift every day to win that opportunity. You study film, you prepare, and you prepare well to give yourself an opportunity on Saturday."

Iowa Head Coach Kirk Ferentz

"Certainly just thrilled to get the victory today. Our guys worked hard during the week. A road trip in the Big Ten, it was good to come down here and get a victory. I thought the guys really played hard and worked hard and Illinois did the same. We got some good things going here in the second half to come out with a victory"

On the running game:

"It was good to see. It seemed like we were blocking pretty well and the guys ran hard. On the radio they just said Mark got his first 100-yard game in quite a while, which is good to see. Good to get Jordan (Canzeri) back involved a little bit too. He's got a veteran presence and he's just had a really tough year this year so for him to be able to play again that's good for us; it's good for him as well."

On the play of TE Ray Hamilton:

"Ray, I was just told on the radio, it was his first touchdown reception, which I didn't know that. He got two to top it off, but Ray is just a really high-energy guy, he's got a great personality. Tight end is not a real flashy position typically and he just does a good job for us out there. Good for him to get a couple key receptions."

On the improvement of the defense:

"Last week we didn't look like a good football team and we were playing a very good football team that's just a bad combination, so, hopefully we're back. At least we took a step forward. I thought we played pretty good team defense today. Gave up two plays. I shouldn't say gave up, but they made good plays especially the on the one, the first one. But at least we were moving a little bit better and a looked a little bit more cohesive."

On finishing drives in the second half:

"At some point you just have to dig in and do something and you have to finish drives and you have to protect the ball. I really think the biggest play in the second half, in my opinion, was that third-down conversion to Tevaun Smith. He made a really tough catch against good coverage. Sometimes you just have to make some plays. The other teams aren't just going to hand it to you, you have to really work for it and I thought he did on that play. After that things started coming into flow a little bit."

On preparing for Illinois QB Wes Lunt:

"I made the mistake at the end of the week of watching the Purdue game in its entirety. Usually I watch more cut ups and stuff. I think he threw for about 455; kind of ruined my night's sleep for the last few nights. He can throw the ball down the field; he really throws it well and those receivers go get the ball. We have a lot of respect for him and not only his ability to throw the football, but rally the football team too when you get a starting quarterback back. That's a big thing."

Iowa QB Jake Rudock

On Iowa getting their tight ends involved today:

"We ran some play action and some other plays for them today. Ray Hamilton did a great job, [Jake] Duzey, all of those guys. They did a great job of understanding what we were trying to do and getting open. They can run routes, but today they were getting open and doing a good job with their hands."

On bouncing back after last week's 51-14 loss at Minnesota:

"Anytime you can come back after a loss and get a win, it's a huge confidence booster. With that said, we can't take it too far and we have to just take it as another win. We're happy about it, don't get me wrong, but we need to understand we have a lot of work to do and we have a lot we can improve upon."

Iowa RB Mark Weisman

On Iowa gaining momentum in the second half:

"We take it one play at a time, that's how we do it. Never looking forward, never looking back; all we care about is the next play. We had offensive lineman, tight ends, fullbacks, receivers blocking downfield - it was awesome out there. Everyone really understood the big picture today."

On Iowa's rushing performance today:

"I think today probably was our best rushing game for this year. That's a credit to all the guys up front doing all of the dirty work - guys picking out safeties and all of that. We're definitely improving our running game, but there are still things we can do better."

Iowa TE Ray Hamilton

On Iowa's first-half performance:

"I thought we were moving the ball fine, we just needed to finish and that's important for us. As a team, we just need to finish those drives. There's no way we can be stopped on the one-yard line, especially with the physical guys we have up front - the good tight ends and the good fullbacks. And that's on us. That's a mindset we need of, `Hey, let's get whoever's about to touch the ball in the end zone.' That's on us."

On Iowa moving forward into next week's Wisconsin game:

"It's going to be a dog fight these last two weeks, that's for sure. And that's just the way we like it. We're a group of fighters; we don't need anyone patting us on the back. All we're worried about is the guys we've got in our locker room, the coaches we've got on our sideline, and the staff we've got."