Jerry Kill and the Gophers return to Houston for the Texas Bowl.
Notes from the Texas Bowl press conference:
• I look it as a great opportunity to compete and make history wit the team, 9 games is important to us, a bowl game win was important to us. There’s great visibility on ESPN. Those people were great to us last year. I’m excited for them. The most important thing we need to do is move our program forward.
• Coach Schaeffer used to be at Northern Illinois
• You can’t control that, our control is getting 9 wins and getting to a bowl game. We’re excited, and we need to go do our job. We still have a lot of work to do. This is the last time this team will be together, we get to enjoy it over the next 3-4 weeks.
• With the 2 bye weeks, we lost a week, we need to get ready quicker and we also have finals in there. The most important thing is that our kids get an education. Plus, we’re all on the road recruiting this week. This time of year you want to be working, and you want to be in a bowl game.
• I think it’s a great deal for us because our crew knows the lay of the land, we recruit Texas. It’s great for us with recruiting, and it’s a great opportunity for us when you’re familiar with something.
• The better that we show, and the more fans, and we need to play well, to move forward in our program
• Don’t know a lot about Syracuse right now, because our focus has been on the Big 10. We’re familiar with Coach, which makes it interesting and a lot of fun.
• On 2 years in a row bowl game – it’s important for the program, we need to continue to show progress. Being 8-4 and moving forward is important. Last year, was a situation where OSU and PSU couldn’t qualify, so we really are moving up, since we jumped spots last year.
• Derrick Engel had surgery, and was rewarded today by our team and the news. We’ve got a few guys banged up a little bit, but we have tough kids, you mention bowl game and they’ll be ready to go.
• Things are going pretty good, but you never know until signing day, we had a few kids in this weekend. That’s why it’s so critical for us pushing forward. Recruiting has gone well, all the stuff from ESPN to USA Today, Lou Holz making fun of me dancing has helped.
• We have to 1st of all win, we have to go finish the job (when asked if he has a bowl game dance).
• Our seniors have a chance to do something rarely done, winning 9 games.
• On coaching from the box: I don’t know, I haven’t worried to much about that, we’ll see how things are going. We’ll do what’s best for the team. I’m doing well and feeling well.
• On the white helmets – I think they’re pretty good, you have some old school on one side, and you have the new school, and brick by brick, it tells a story. You have the great history we’ve had, and some new stuff we’ve started. Kids love all that stuff. They always say they gotta look good and feel good, hopefully they look good and play good.
• We’re 2 games away from playing in the B10 championship, I think yesterday’s game shows how far our defense has come. I think Coach Dantonio has a great deal of respect for us, and I have a great deal of respect for him. He’s done a great job there. Because of recruiting, I misses some pieces. I’m glad some of those dudes are graduating (laughing) on MSU. It’s well deserved. We played them pretty darn tough.
Brock Vereen:
• It’s all about that 9th win, it’s not time to be selfish, we need to focus on getting that 9th win.
• The offensive style that Syracuse runs is very prolific
• It’s frustrating, you start to get anxious, but these past few days have been us getting better on an individual level, now we can focus on the game.
• I gave up on Thursday trying to figure out where we’d end up, I figured I’d get a text on Sunday.
• Watching them was fine, as far a cheering on my teammates, for that to be my last Big 10 game was tough. I want to be there for my team.
• With how young this team is, and how much room for improvement there still is, these practices are important going forward.
• On being 1st team all Big 10: It’s an honor, it’s not something I take lightly, it’s very humbling.
David Cobb:
• I think the white helmets look good.