Central Michigan University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
9/16/2006 12:00:00 AM | Football
Akron Coach J.D. Brookhart
On the play of CMU’s defensive line: “They threw Luke’s timing off by moving him around in the pocket. (Dan) Bazuin is a great football player who’ll be playing on Sundays next year, and Steven Friend is also a great football player, one of the better players in our conference. They caused us problems.”
On CMU quarterback Dan LeFevour: “He was impressive. It’s not easy for a young kid to operate their system, and I thought the way he made some plays as a redshirt freshman - especially the play late in the game where he scrambled toward the sidelines and had the smarts to get down inbounds and keep the clock moving – not many redshirt freshman have that kind of maturity.”
On the Mid-American Conference: “This league is way different than I’ve ever known it. You’ve got a lot of teams that have a chance to win it every year, and you better come to play every week. I don’t see as much separation between the top teams and the bottom teams.”
Central Michigan Coach Brian Kelly
On the game: “That’s the Mid-American Conference for you right there – two teams that battled each other right to the end. Each and every week, it’s about hanging in there until the fourth quarter, and doing enough so that at the end, you’ve got more points than the other team. I told our football team that they beat a very good opponent today in Akron, and any win in this league is something to feel good about.
“We did the things necessary to win the game today. Scoring early and getting the big interception return were obviously key for us, and then being able to run the football in the last few minutes when they were expecting us to run it was important as well. We were able to chew up a lot of clock and shrink the football game. Those are the components we still need to get better at, but we started to see more of a complete football team today.”
On the last scoring drive for the FG: “We felt like we could wear them out a little bit, and they were maybe a little tired, but I thought more than that our will was really strong. We ran it even though they loaded the box on us, and if we were going to throw it, it was going to be high percentage plays. Dan (Lefevour) was able to make some plays with his feet, and that’s what he brings – that multidimensional playmaking ability – and that helped us close out this game today.”
On the defense: “I thought we got worn down with the amount of plays we played on that side of the ball, but we did some good things – no holding penalties, our defensive tackles Dan Bazuin and Steven Friend was very active – I feel pretty good about what we did defensively.”
On CMU’s success against Akron’s offense in the last two matchups: “I think the biggest thing is we’ve been able to make them one-dimensional. We’ve limited their ability to run the ball, and when you know that they’re going to have to throw it, it gives you a great opportunity to get your hands on the ball. Kennedy was not a factor running the ball – he got his touches – but we knew we had to tailor our defensive game plan to slow him down.”
On the play of Dan LeFevour: “I was a little concerned about the Akron defense with their 3-5-3 scheme, which is not exactly easy for a young quarterback to play against, but I thought he handled himself pretty good. He did make a couple of bad decisions, but here’s the great thing about him – he won’t make the same mistake twice. I can approach him on the sideline and he’ll say to me - ‘Coach, you don’t have to say it – it’s 1st & 10 and I need to manage it better.’ When you’ve got a kid like that who understands those things, it’s enjoyable to coach him. He continues to learn by playing, and you can’t teach what he’s learning in practice. His learning curve is pretty high right now. He’s going to be a really good football player when it all comes together for him.”
On WR Bryan Anderson: “He’s dangerous because he’ll go up and get the football. He’ll get banged around, but if he gets his hands on the ball, he’ll make the catch.”
On instant replay (Akron was 3-for-3 on reviews today): “I’m fine with them as long as they get the calls right. That’s really all I’m concerned with. But I will tell you this – all three of them today were very big plays in the football game. That’s fine – let’s just make sure that we get the calls right.”
On the play of CMU’s defensive line: “They threw Luke’s timing off by moving him around in the pocket. (Dan) Bazuin is a great football player who’ll be playing on Sundays next year, and Steven Friend is also a great football player, one of the better players in our conference. They caused us problems.”
On CMU quarterback Dan LeFevour: “He was impressive. It’s not easy for a young kid to operate their system, and I thought the way he made some plays as a redshirt freshman - especially the play late in the game where he scrambled toward the sidelines and had the smarts to get down inbounds and keep the clock moving – not many redshirt freshman have that kind of maturity.”
On the Mid-American Conference: “This league is way different than I’ve ever known it. You’ve got a lot of teams that have a chance to win it every year, and you better come to play every week. I don’t see as much separation between the top teams and the bottom teams.”
Central Michigan Coach Brian Kelly
On the game: “That’s the Mid-American Conference for you right there – two teams that battled each other right to the end. Each and every week, it’s about hanging in there until the fourth quarter, and doing enough so that at the end, you’ve got more points than the other team. I told our football team that they beat a very good opponent today in Akron, and any win in this league is something to feel good about.
“We did the things necessary to win the game today. Scoring early and getting the big interception return were obviously key for us, and then being able to run the football in the last few minutes when they were expecting us to run it was important as well. We were able to chew up a lot of clock and shrink the football game. Those are the components we still need to get better at, but we started to see more of a complete football team today.”
On the last scoring drive for the FG: “We felt like we could wear them out a little bit, and they were maybe a little tired, but I thought more than that our will was really strong. We ran it even though they loaded the box on us, and if we were going to throw it, it was going to be high percentage plays. Dan (Lefevour) was able to make some plays with his feet, and that’s what he brings – that multidimensional playmaking ability – and that helped us close out this game today.”
On the defense: “I thought we got worn down with the amount of plays we played on that side of the ball, but we did some good things – no holding penalties, our defensive tackles Dan Bazuin and Steven Friend was very active – I feel pretty good about what we did defensively.”
On CMU’s success against Akron’s offense in the last two matchups: “I think the biggest thing is we’ve been able to make them one-dimensional. We’ve limited their ability to run the ball, and when you know that they’re going to have to throw it, it gives you a great opportunity to get your hands on the ball. Kennedy was not a factor running the ball – he got his touches – but we knew we had to tailor our defensive game plan to slow him down.”
On the play of Dan LeFevour: “I was a little concerned about the Akron defense with their 3-5-3 scheme, which is not exactly easy for a young quarterback to play against, but I thought he handled himself pretty good. He did make a couple of bad decisions, but here’s the great thing about him – he won’t make the same mistake twice. I can approach him on the sideline and he’ll say to me - ‘Coach, you don’t have to say it – it’s 1st & 10 and I need to manage it better.’ When you’ve got a kid like that who understands those things, it’s enjoyable to coach him. He continues to learn by playing, and you can’t teach what he’s learning in practice. His learning curve is pretty high right now. He’s going to be a really good football player when it all comes together for him.”
On WR Bryan Anderson: “He’s dangerous because he’ll go up and get the football. He’ll get banged around, but if he gets his hands on the ball, he’ll make the catch.”
On instant replay (Akron was 3-for-3 on reviews today): “I’m fine with them as long as they get the calls right. That’s really all I’m concerned with. But I will tell you this – all three of them today were very big plays in the football game. That’s fine – let’s just make sure that we get the calls right.”
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