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University of Minnesota Athletics
Postgame Quotes
11/28/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
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Nov. 28, 2015
TCF Bank Stadium
Wisconsin at Minnesota
Tracy Claeys, Minnesota Head Coach
On what he said to the players after this loss
"I was really pleased in the second half with how we competed. We got it back to 14-14 and then the two turnovers. We struggled on defense controlling the line of scrimmage. We didn't quit. We came out at halftime and said we are better than this. We need to play the way we are capable of and give it our best and see what happens. I thought defensively in the second half we gave ourselves a chance. Just didn't make enough plays at the end."
On defensive struggles in the first half
"They just ran the ball at us. We were having trouble getting them down so we made a couple little adjustments and we got a little bit more downhill. But every time you lose the line of scrimmage and the turnovers, we would start to get a little momentum and then a couple turnovers take away the momentum. You have to stop the run and we did a better job in the second half, we can't have the turnovers. When you play a rivalry game and a good football team, you can't make those kind of mistakes in the second quarter that we did. But like I said we came back and battled. That's all we can ask."
On this season...
"I think that we played awfully well in the first game against TCU and then from there it's just been a weird season. Injuries are a part of football and you can't use it as an excuse. We have just had a tremendous amount of them. Kids have missed several games. You always have kids miss one game here or there so after that we never got a line up with our best football team or players. That's not against the kids that lined up and played because they worked their tail ends off. To go through the situation with Coach Kill and we support him 100%. He did what was best for his family and he'll always be a part of this football program. I told the kids whenever he's present he's the head coach. Our kids have been through a lot. They didn't know me, you know half the kids didn't really know me on offense. We've tried to work on that the last four or five weeks and continue to get better. Then you have to remember our schedule. To go on the road to those places and boy we just compete our butts off and have opportunities in the fourth quarter against some of the best teams in the country this year. We didn't move forward in the amount of wins and we didn't qualify for a bowl but there is a hell of a lot of other things I feel like we did do better. We will get our kids back and have a great offseason and we will continue to move forward."
Minnesota Players
On assessing the season and missing out on the Axe…
"We did our best, we battled. You can't ask for anything more. We just went out there and played our hardest for our seniors, and the outcome is the outcome. A few mistakes, a few things that hurt us, but I'm not going to say im disappointed. I think that we did a great job, we fought, we battled hard against every team. So, I'm not disappointed. Im looking forward to next year."
On the Wisconsin defense…
"I think we played pretty well against them. We missed a few things, fumbled a few times. I thought the way we were able to drive was good. I didn't see any reason we couldn't keep scoring."
LB Nick Rallis
On getting called on for the game…
"I'm just going out there and I'm doing what I practice. It was a big game because, obviously, it was for the axe. And because it was the last night for the seniors in the stadium. We played hard, we wanted to get a win. It's unfortunate that we didn't. We're going to move on, we're going to learn from it. Keep playing hard, starting next year and the offseason."
On outside chance of going to a bowl game…
"I've heard some stuff about that. I'm not sure. It would be unbelievable to play another game, and get another game for the seniors. If it does happen, great. If it doesn't, we move on and we start the offseason right away, and we start preparing."
On the key in second half to stop Wisconsin offense….
"I think we kind of got used to the run game they were bringing. They started running very similar plays in the second half and the first half. And we were able to get downhill on those plays, and kind of stop them in the backfield. We were physical upfront in the second half, and I think that helped us shut them down."
