Postgame Quotes

Head Coach Butch Jones
Opening remarks...  
It's a big win for our football team and our football program because it's victory number one. It's a long season and so to get the first W is always special. I can't say enough about the perseverance of our kids. We talked about it day one at training camp because our motto is to persevere. Every man to a man believed we were going to win the football game. The kids and myself made the decision to go for two, and we came up a little bit short, but they still believed. We made the plays at the end to win the game. I can't say enough about Andrew Aguila. He made two extremely pressure-filled kicks, on the onside kick and on the last second field goal. It seemed like an eternity, I think it took twenty minutes to make a five-second kick. We're going to enjoy it but we're going to move on to Alcorn State, it's going to pose us a great challenge next week.

On the reaction of his players to the win...  
I think any time you play in a great venue like this with 76,000 people, national television, interstate game, it may be a little special. But I think what you saw there was the emotion of persevering and believing and playing to the last whistle. Obviously it was a very physical football game. You go for two and you come up short , and you've got twenty some-odd seconds left and you come back and find a way to win. I just can't say enough about our kids.

On the decision to try for the two-point conversion in the fourth quarter...  
Those are always scenarios I play over in my mind. In my mind going into this game I was going to kick the extra-point. But the way the second half was going, they were able to move the ball a little on us and it gets down to a one-play deal and we had a two point play that we felt extremely confident in. Dan [LeFevour] just overthrew Antonio [Brown] but he was there. I believe in our kids and all of our kids to a man wanted to go for two and I'm right there with them. They all said `Coach, we want to go for two.' And I looked every person in the eye and I looked at Dan and he said `I want to go for two.' We put a lot of ownership in our captains, and I got my captain looking me in the eye saying `I want to go for two' so I'm going to believe in him and I'm going to do that.

On the challenges of refocusing his team after this big win and going on to do well in the Mid-American Conference...  
That's already crossed my mind, it crossed my mind when the zeroes went on the scoreboard. That's something that we will get back to work on when we come back to work Sunday night. But also I hope that our kids take great pride and great confidence from this game. This game is not our season, its just one game. And it's a long season, there's ten more games left, and I think we've seen what the Mid-American Conference is capable of doing in the first two weeks.

On Senior Kicker Andrew Aguila's onside kick preparations...  
We've spent a lot of time with that. We do a period in practice called the essentials of winning and the details of winning and all those little things that go into the game and that's one of those elements that we've worked extremely hard on. We got the bounce and Brian Anderson did a great job of securing the kick.

On the offensive performance this week compared to the offensive struggles last week...
 I thought that we still didn't play as fast as I'd like to but I thought we really increased our tempo. We stressed all week long about just running our base offense and being able to execute and we pride ourselves on being an execution-based offense. Our kids did a great job, I thought we took care of the ball pretty good the second half, but I thought they executed our offensive schemes. There are some things we've got to go back and work on, but I thought we made huge strides from week one to week two.

On why smaller programs beating bigger programs is more prevalent now than 30 years ago...  
I think there's a number of reasons. I think it stems from the 85- scholarship limitation that we now have. I think the gap has closed. I think that recruiting in general and the power of national television. I think in terms of the scholarship limitations now and national television and winning, we are able to attract some great caliber student-athletes. I wouldn't say that's evened it up right now, but it has given us an opportunity to compete on the playing field.

On what this win means for Central Michigan's football program...  
I think that it proved to recruits out there that we can go on the big stage and win these games. But again, its just victory number one. If we finish 1-11 then this game drops in significance, and that's the thing; it's big because it's our first win. Our two goals always in our program is to challenge for the Mid-American Conference Championship and to go to a bowl game, and it gets us one step closer to going to a bowl game with a victory.

On Senior Quarterback Dan LeFevour's preparation for this game and his poise during it...  
I thought he had great poise. Dan was focused, he had his best week of preparation. He told me before the game that he practiced mad all week, and I could see it. There isn't anyone who is harder on himself than him, and he was extremely disappointed by the way we played last week and he stepped up and made some big plays for us.

On Senior Wide-receiver Brian Anderson...  
Brian made some big plays and he's done that for us throughout his entire career. I just can't say enough about him. He is an individual that never says anything, he just comes to work each and every day and gives us everything he has. He made some huge plays for us today.

On the support of Central fans at an away game...  
It was huge. It's my job as the caretaker of this football program to present a vision, and the way you saw our band and our cheerleaders and our fans that's what it's all about. It was a great day for college football. I expect Kelly/Shorts Stadium to be sold out next week. Why not? The best part of building a big-time college football program is for our student section our fans and to our alumni. And that's part of our vision. It's up to us to put a product on the field that they want to come and watch. It's up to us to get them in the stands.

On the defensive performance throughout the game...  
Without looking at the film I think we did a good job up front. I thought we played downhill. Our goal was to try and get Michigan State into some third and longs and we actually did a good job on some third and shorts. Michigan State was six out of thirteen on third downs and we really stressed to our kids getting off the field because Michigan State is a very, very, very talented football team and they are going to win their share of games. They're extremely well coached. You're looking at a person who has the utmost respect for Coach Dantonio and what he's done here.

On the aggressive offensive play-calling late in the game...  
We just felt like we had some plays that we had great confidence in and we had great confidence in our defense so we felt good about what we had and we wanted to be the aggressor. Maybe we weren't as aggressive last week but we came in and that was part of the game plan.

On Dan LeFevour's improvement over last week's performance...  
Even though Michigan State was able to generate a pass rush, I thought he could set his feet and get some throws. I thought our wide-outs did a good job. Late in the third quarter we were able to establish the run a little bit. Paris Cotton came in and gave us a little bit of spark, gave us a little bit of energy. And I thought [Offensive Coordinator] Mike Bajakian did a great job of putting the ball in the hands of our playmakers. We had Antonio [Brown] touching the ball, Paris [Cotton] coming in, Brian Anderson, Kito Poblah, David Blackburn at tight end. I thought we did a good job of putting the ball in the hands of our playmakers.

On the play of Sophomore Running back Paris Cotton...  
Paris Cotton has probably worked as hard as any individual in our football family. He's worked extremely hard on his ball skills. He did a good job of catching the ball. Paris has a little bit of spark to him, he's got that energy that the team feeds off of. I think that you could see when he came in there our team kind of fed off him.

On the importance of Dan LeFevour playing so well on a national stage...  
I think it proves that he can bounce back. He played at a level we all expect him to play at. We have a lot of things to improve on and a lot of things to get better at, and he'd be the first to tell you that he's got a lot to improve as well. We just have got to develop and improve as a football team from week one all the way to week twelve, hoping to get to week thirteen and week fourteen. That's going to be our focus, just continually getting better week in and week out.

Quarterback Dan LeFevour
On taking last week's loss against Arizona personally...  
Yeah, I kind of hurt my ego a little bit. We had to get back strong this week. Our offense was doing some good things so it was really great to see.

On the difference between today and last week's game...  
It was just trusting my offensive line. Knowing that they were giving me protection and they worked their butts off. They played a great game and I trusted them. That really helped our offense go.

On what went through his mind when they were down a touchdown with eight minutes left...  
Everything. You don't hear anything but you are just focused on what is going on. We had a lot of successful drives. We had a feel for what they were doing defensively so you can get rid of the rest of the stuff and just play football at that point.

On what this win does for his team...  
It does a lot. Hopefully it does something for recruiting. But this is also our first victory of the year. We got to do a lot more than win just one game to do something for our program. I think we got to keep going, keep winning, and we'll see where this thing goes.

On what this win means for Coach Jones...  
I think it means a lot, first and foremost, but like I said it is the second game of the year so it is our first victory of the year. I think that means more than anything at this point.

Kicker Andrew Aguila 

On what was going through his mind when his first kick was blocked...  
I heard the whistles going on already, it was already a set call. The ball came back and it was a practice kick. Try and go through it. It was just like being back in front of the net. I understand the offensive line is going to give up a little bit when the whistles start blowing but I didn't think they were coming through at all. I mean we have good operations and our line is always solid. We have a good snap, good hold, just put the ball up.

On what was going through his mind when Michigan State kept calling time outs...
They kept calling time outs and it was just more time to relax, clear my head, breathe, and understand that it was just like every other kick and just go with the routine checks in my mind.

On whether the on-side kick or field goal was more important...  
I think the on-side, I mean that was the biggest kick. I personally feel that it was. The field goal is going to be remembered but the on-sides kick was executed perfectly. B.A. came through, got the ball perfectly. If we would have been able to move the ball and call it, he would have probably taken it to the house.

On calling this the biggest kick of his career...  
Yeah I mean it's the biggest kick. We got the big victory, the first one of the year. We came to a Big Ten school, supposed to play these guys at their best, and we came away with the victory so it definitely ranks up there.

On his emotions when he kicked the winning field goal...  
It felt like a good hit. I just knew I had the distance and I just wanted it to stay straight and it did.

Linebacker Nick Bellore

On how the on-sides kick worked out so well...  
Andrew made a great kick, just like we practiced, right up the sideline. I just couldn't believe it.

On crediting the improvement to both the offense and defense...  
I think we did a lot of great things. We have a lot of veterans on the team, who have played a lot of football. We count on those guys, and they did a good job today.

On how important pass deflections were in this game...  
That was huge. Anytime we can get the ball down and stop the pass, which has been our Achilles heal in the past, it is huge for our defense.

Receiver Bryan Anderson

On practicing the on-sides kick...  
We practice it every Thursday. I hardly ever get it though; I'm just supposed to keep it in bounds. This time it just took a beautiful bounce. Aguila did a great job.

On what he's thinking going one-on-one alone on the outside...
If it's coming my way and we are going deep, I know Dan is probably going to come to my side.

On going down-field a lot more...  
We knew we had to open it up a little bit and take some shots down-field. As a wide receiver, that's the kind of game I like to play, and it worked out well.

Central Michigan University Athletics

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