Quotes from today's football press luncheon

COACH RICK STOCKSTILL DURING TODAY’S PURDUE PRESS CONFERENCE
“We open this week at Purdue and our team is excited about getting the season started. We’ve had a good fall camp, and our players have a good attitude and from a mental standpoint, they have approached this game just like I want them to.”

“I think this is a tremendous opportunity for our football team to go play what I consider a much-improved Purdue team over last year. They had a lot of injuries last year, but they have some key guys back. I personally expect Purdue to come out and try to establish the running game, especially early. They have a very good running back returning, plus a junior college runner that was there for spring practice.”

“Defensively, I think their secondary is their strength. Their corners are potentially All-Big Ten guys. They lost a defensive end last year to the NFL, but their two inside guys are really good, they’re physical, they’re big, 300 pounds plus, and they can run. Their defensive ends are athletic and can run. Their linebackers are a lot like us, not as big, not your typical Big Ten linebackers from a size standpoint, but they are athletic and can run. They also have a good kicking game.”

“The keys to winning starts with protecting the ball first, not giving up a lot of explosive plays on defense.”

“Nationally, nobody expects us to beat Purdue, but we expect to win the game. Everybody that takes the field for practice this afternoon expects us to win the game. Going up to their place for the first game of the year is a tremendous challenge. I love doing things that nobody thinks you can do, and nobody thinks we can win this game … except us. And that’s why we have these games on the schedule.”

STOCKSTILL ON LOGAN KILGORE’S DEVELOPMENT: “Logan just needs to play smart. He doesn’t need to take chances, he’s got to engineer and run the offense, and he’s done that this August. He had a good spring and summer, and he’s had a really good camp so far this month. When he has made a mistake, it’s been where he’s tried to make something out of nothing. And the next day, he’s come back and when the same situation came up again, he’s made a better decision. It’s the maturation that he’s gone through as a quarterback. He’s gotten better and played smarter every day in camp.”

QUARTERBACK LOGAN KILGORE
On first game this year: “All the big guys like Peyton Manning and Drew Brees still get jitters before every game. But it is nice to not answer questions about being on national TV and playing a Big Ten team for the first time. We’re all excited to get things started.”

On protecting the ball: “Coach Faulkner says you need to have a high tolerance for boredom. A four-yard hitch rout some people might see as boring, but I see it as a chance to make a play. We can’t be afraid of going deep down field, but dumping it off is not a bad option either.”

On first game of season: “Everyone is excited to get out there and play. Although there is some inexperience, we’ve rotated a lot of those guys in and they’ve played some in previous years. So we’re ready to go. During camp, the first week is fun just to get back out there, then the second and third week gets difficult because we’re hitting the same people all the time. It’ll be great to get out there and hit someone else.”

On taking a chance:Taking a chance needs to be defined to me. Some people might think taking a chance is going for a long pass play or something. But to me taking a chance could be throwing 5 yards on 3rd and 11 and maybe we get it or maybe we don’t. Sometimes punting the football is okay.”

On big crowd at Purdue:”There are some things you can do in practice to prepare for that. But everything we have is signaled from the sideline. So I don’t see that being a problem.”

On the “us against the world” mentality:”I feel like there isn’t a person in our locker room that doesn’t believe we can win. But there is some satisfaction in pulling off an upset. But we all believe we can win.”

SAFETY DERRICK CRUMPTON

On excitement of the first game: “You get tired in camp with practicing against your own guys. So we’re excited to get this season kicked off. We want to be defined as a hard-nosed defense that forces turnovers and keeps points off the board. We had trouble with that last year but we want to do a better job with that this year.”

On playing a big Non-conference opponent: “No game is more important than another. But this is a great opportunity for us. We’re looking forward to strapping on our helmets and going up against someone else.”

On playing a Big Ten school: “We know the talent level. They have big physical players. We may not know these guys personally like we do in the SEC, but we know what to expect. “

On playing Purdue’s backup quarterback: “They’re backups are more than capable of leading them to victory. We do think they’re going to run the ball as much as possible but we’re preparing for them to come out throwing as well.”

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