Rutgers Head Coach Chris Ash
Opening Statement: "Great locker room in there right now. I'm just so happy for those guys. They've been through a lot the past couple of years. We've worked them really hard, but they've been through a lot of tough times. They haven't given up, they haven't quit. It says volumes about the character and chemistry of the football team. Nobody gave us a chance to come out here and win a football game but no one on this team gave up on each other. We've had a great two weeks of practice, started off 1-4, disappointing start, a tough situation. But it doesn't determine how we finish the season. Hopefully we can take this and run with it, but I'm just so happy for the players in that locker room. The coaches and assistant coaches did an outstanding job. We had a lot of injuries, three of our four starters on secondary are out so those guys did an excellent job getting guys ready to play. We had some other things come up these past few weeks, guys just continued to grow and prepare. We didn't play our best football today, we had several turnovers and several foolish penalties that we gotta get that cleaned up but we ran the ball well, stopped the route on defense and made some plays on special teams, and those were things that we knew we had to do. We gotta continue to build on that, but again the only thing that I am worried about is that locker room and those guys are really happy right now, and we have to get them home and get it back."
 
On Jawuan Harris: "It was outstanding, to be honest with you. I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit nervous about it going into the game and how he would handle it. It wasn't until Thursday practice that we started to feel good about him going out there and being able to perform. Trying to throw a lot at him in a short amount of time, but he is an intelligent man and he learned what he needed to learn and we didn't run a lot of calls today because of him being in there but he executed every call we made and made some outstanding plays today that helped us win this football game. I'm really proud of him, very selfless of him to make that move to the defense from the offensive side."
 
On breaking the losing streak: "It's huge, but you guys are the ones that talk about the losing streak. We don't. We have never once mentioned in our locker room the losing streak. It's about trying to get better and going out and solving the mystery of how to play the best football game on Saturdays. We have yet to do that, we were able to win today but we did not play our best football. That's really what we are trying to do, but big picture this is a huge victory."
 
On Kyle Bolin: "Kyle is a captain, Kyle is a real dude, and he handled himself with tremendous character. This week, especially late in the week when he knew he wasn't going to start, one thing that he did on that sideline was try to help the offense, all day he was like a coach, and when his number was called he went in and performed."

Illinois Head Coach Lovie Smith
Opening statement: "All losses are tough, but it seems like some are a little bit tougher than others. You can play good ball and lose at the end, that's one thing. But for us today, we never really were in it. You talk about defense versus their offense, you can't let a team run the ball like that. If you let a team run the ball like that on you, most of the time it will say loss at the end. Now offensively, when you turn the ball over like that, it of course, compounds it a little bit. We started off the right way, taking the ball away and forcing a turnover, but, mistakes to get us out of field goal range and not getting any points right there kind of set the trend for the day. There are a lot of reasons why, of course, we didn't get the guys ready. It always starts on the head football coach with that, I thought we practiced better and we would play better. That's kind of where we are. It's disappointing."
 
On the change at linebacker: "If a guy is out on the football field, we feel like he gives us the best chance to win. If a guy has been out there, and he's not out there anymore, we're not satisfied with the play. That's just the standard way we do things. If some guys have played throughout this time and we haven't been playing ball, we have to look at other guys on the roster and that's what we're doing."
 
On getting takeaways, but not converting them to points: "That's frustrating, you have to. It is a positive, but it's hard to look at some of the positives when there's so much negative out there, but forcing those and taking the ball away did give us an opportunity. Offensively, though, when you can't run the football, we can't just rely on the pass. We got some passing yards at the end, but never really got on with our pass either. We need to be able to put that into points."
 
On Freshman RB Ra'Von Bonner's play: "We didn't do a lot with the running game. Ra'Von will always run hard, but today, not enough production in the running game. Of course, you look to the running back, of course, last week when we had success we looked at what was happening up front. We have to say we didn't get the job done up front today."
 
On Freshman WR Ricky Smalling: "I thought Ricky competed hard, made some good plays. Last week he did, so I thought he took another step. He's a big, strong receiver, he can catch the ball. He had that one drive, but for the most part I thought he competed well and made plays for us."
 
On defensive trends: "We haven't been satisfied with how we've played defense throughout. That's why you keep searching for answers: that's scheme tweaks, that's personnel, to make sure that we've had an opportunity to see everybody on the roster to see if there are better options that we have. But again, right now, we're not getting the job done."
 
On moving forward after today's game: "This isn't where we want to be, but it's where we are. After a performance like this, thank god you get a chance to play another game. So, we're going to go up to Minnesota next week. We play better than this today. Next week we have to get back, clean up some things and play better ball, which we're capable of doing."
 
On the youth of the squad: "I think if you're a young player you should cherish this opportunity. With young players you can have mistakes, growing pains, but eventually young players get better. That's how we're looking at it. We have a talented group. We're not there yet but we'll get there. I think they see that and they know what we're doing as we're building."

Rutgers Player Quotes

Running Back Gus Edwards
On why the running game was so successful: "I think we practiced well this week. The emphasis this whole week was running the ball and that the guys up front had to win the game for us. I feel like they stepped up to the plate and they did a great job creating holes."

On the potential of the rushing attack going forward: "I feel like this game really set the standard of what we wanna do. I mean, we made a couple mistakes running the ball on the ground but we'll clean that up and we just have to move forward from here and continue getting better."
 
Quarterback Giovanni Rescigno
On how the success of the running game benefited the passing attack and game management: "Massive, it's incredible. Coach talked about how we had to win the game up front this week and I really think we did that. I think the stats speak for themselves. So shout out to the o-line they did an amazing job and an incredible job. They really dominated up front and I think that was huge for our success."
 
On the importance of the win for the program: "It's huge. We've been waiting for a win. We got one. It's really credit to the work we put in the last two weeks, how the coaches have coached us and how we responded and how we worked the past two weeks of practice and I think the bye week helped us.  It was super exciting. We were all super excited to play coming into the game and we'll be excited next week too."
 
Defensive Back K.J. Gray
 On the celebration after the game and seeing Coach Ash's excitement after the game: "It was amazing. Any victory is a good victory and a wonderful feeling. It put a smile on my face. When we get a victory it puts a smile on his face. His energy just rubbed off on our whole team."
 
On the keys to the defensive performance today: "It was just a mental approach. Once we have it mentally, then we can do it. It wasn't no physical outmatch. Jawuan (Harris) came over. He had a week of preparation but he performed really well. It's all about preparation."
 
On getting his first interception of the season: "Wonderful feeling. I'm ready to get more."  
 
Defensive Back Jawuan Harris 
On making the move from wide receiver to safety: "I was all for it. I figured I can do it. So when they asked me I was like 'cool I'll go over there and learn and do it.'"
 
On how he felt stepping on the field today for the first time as a defensive player: "I was fine as far as the pass game. I just had to get that first hit out of the way and once I did just try to keep making tackles."

Illinois Player Quotes

Running Back Dre Brown 
On returning from injury to contribute for the Illini: "It is a definitely a good experience, just getting back out there and being with my teammates. Carrying the ball was awesome. I worked hard in practice all week and Coach Smith gave me a chance to get in the game plan." 
 
On the team's mentality: "Mentally, I think we are good. We just have to keep pushing and keep grinding. Eventually it is going to break open for us."
 
On the low point during his time while injured: "The low point was probably during my freshman year. It was the first time I had never played football in the season and it was really devastating. I didn't really know who I was as a person. It was hard"
 
On getting back out on the field: "The feeling is good. I am just thankful at this point. There are not a lot of people in my position who to play with all of my injuries."

Running Back Ra'Von Bonner 
On the game: "I didn't play well. We just have to get better. This was a game that we just let slip away from us. We didn't come out to play today."
 
On preparation this week: "This was the best week of practice that we have had. It must have been something during these last 24 hours for us to lose our focus on this game. We definitely were prepared. We knew what they were doing. We just did not execute." 
 
On losing Mike Epstein: "It takes out a lot. Like I said last week, Mike and I feed off of each other. He is a great back. He is a slasher and a speed guy. He brings a lot of explosiveness to the offense."
 
Defensive Lineman James Crawford 
On the loss: "Like Coach Smith said, that was a tough loss. We had to have that win. We will come out and keep swinging."
 
On the mindset: "No, you can't look at any team differently. You just have to go out there and approach the game like you do every week and try to beat the team you are facing right there. You can't look at their past or our past, you have to focus on the game in front of you." 
 
On practice not transferring to the game: "We did have a good week of practice and we just have to look at the film and see what it was."
 
Quarterback Jeff George, Jr.
On moving the ball well: "We did, but losing at home like that is tough deal. We have to find a way to be more competitive as a team. Each individual player, myself included, needs to be competitive and play harder."
 
On practice not transferring to the game: "We did practice well this week, but that doesn't matter when you come out on Saturday and decide not to show up. I feel like we got down early and weren't able to come together as a group. We need to be more competitive." 
 
On the running game struggling: "When one area struggles, you just have to make up for it. We weren't really able to move the ball and kept stalling out. We have to bring it and have more fire when things are not going well. We need to know what to do when we need to do it." 

On Ricky Smalling: "Rick is a great player and a great guy to have out there. He is a playmaker and can make the big plays. I know when it is one-on-one with him and a DB, I know he is going to find a way to come down with the ball."
 
Linebacker Jimmy Marchese
On Rutgers: "I think they were just pushing us better sometimes and the just tackling. I know personally I miss a couple and we just got to get to the ball better stay in our gaps better. You know just play better. "
 
On if the team fell flat from the beginning: "It did a little bit. We definitely did have a good week of practice and then we just came out flat. You know we always talk about starting fast but it just didn't really feel like that."
 
On if they took a step back from last week: "Yeah, would say so. Last week we came out  you know really starting fast and playing hard against a good team. If we could have done that this week we would have had a better result. You cant expect to come out like that and win a football game."