Rutgers Head Coach
Kyle Wood
Reporter: “Was it as easy as it looked?”
Coach Wood: “As we’ve seen over the last couple of years,
there are no easy wins in the Big East Conference. From top to bottom, it’s as
competitive as a conference as there is in the country. Coach Holtz and his
team have a fine football team over there and a very difficult environment to
play in. That certainly causes a lot of problems, but we were very fortunate to
win the game.”
Reporter: “You guys have been able to cause problems for B.J.
Daniels since he has been starting, and it happened again tonight. What were
you able to do to just fluster him and force him into so many mistakes?”
Coach Wood: “You know, I think Coach Smith and his staff,
they did an excellent job at game planning. Like I said during the week, you
don’t ever stop B.J. Daniels. He made some spectacular plays today, some deep
completions. There was a 44-yard completion, a 58-yard completion, and there
was another one that I think was over 30 yards and he got them down to the
one-yard line. He makes plays out of broken plays. He makes the plays he
should. We were fortunate to hold that team to the points that we did. It was a
great effort by our defense.”
Reporter: “Do you have a championship defense on your
hands?”
Coach Wood: “I don’t know that. I know right now we have a
defense that’s helped us be 1-0 in the Big East and to even talk about a
championship this year is way, way down the road. We’ve got a game against a
really good Arkansas team that we have to get ready for Saturday, and then we
jump right back into the Big East play. There will be another battle on our
hands after that.”
Quarterback - Gary
Nova
On how the win felt
“It felt good, you know, we got off to a little bit of a
slow start. It felt good, felt in rhythm,
and I just tried to keep the energy of the offense up. I have penalties and stuff that we need to
correct, but overall it was a team effort.”
On comparing comfort
level tonight opposed to earlier starts
“I feel the same. I feel like, today I just calmed down,
didn’t let the hype get the best of me and just played, just did what the coaches
asked me to do. I think it worked out for the best.”
On success on third
and long
“We just ran a couple of great routes and just tried to
get a little isolation on the guys. Great calls, and we just executed.”
Defensive Back –
Wayne Warren
On his second
career interception
“It feels great. Anytime you can get an interception or
make a play for your team - especially in a critical moment like that, when
your back is up against the wall and they are going in to score – it’s huge. It
was a huge confidence boost and you just feel great.”
On handling a
tipped ball
“You know, I think it all goes back to our defense
scoring through the ball. One thing we preach in practice is no matter what,
everybody run for the ball. That’s what happens
- you run to the ball, go where it’s going and you get to the ball.”
