Northern Illinois HC Thomas Hammock Postgame Quotes

PDF

Opening Statement
“Obviously not our best performance, like I told my team I take full responsibility. We wanted to give ourselves a chance and we didn’t do that. Credit to Nebraska, they made some big explosive plays and we knew that was a possibility given their speed and we can do some things to minimize those plays. We’ve got two weeks to improve, get better, and build the depth of our roster and make sure we’re clicking on all cylinders heading to Vanderbilt.”

On the post-game message 
“I just think we had a tough game last week. We knew we had some injuries to deal with, and we wanted to give ourselves the best possible chance. On the fake punt the look was there, and we strayed a little bit and that’s my fault, the on-side kick we had a look that was conducive, we executed it all week and felt good about it, but we didn’t execute it. Those are some of the calls that I take responsibility for, putting Nebraska on the short field and they have guys that can get in space and make plays.”

On what Nebraska did to slow them down
“They have big linemen, big linebackers, the Oklahoma State transfer [Darrion Daniels} is tough to move, and the linebackers played downfield. We knew that going into it, so we tried to create some angles to give ourselves a chance to win the football game.”

On areas to focus on for Vanderbilt
“Special teams and the running game. That has to be a staple, we want to have balance. Nebraska got us in third-and-long situations, which makes it really hard.”

On Trayshon Foster’s targeting call
“It’s not a momentary lapse at all. The receiver was in the air coming down and got hit. He didn’t do anything dirty or cheap, he was going in to hit the guy and hit him up high. It was a bang-bang play.”
NU Athletic Communications