UW Post-game player quotes

Joe Kaiser went into the UW media room for the post game quotes, and found a much nicer atmosphere than we found in Columbus. Here is what the Dawgs were saying this afternoon in the aftermath of a 38-13 win over Indiana.

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Casey Paus

On seeing his first action, but not throwing a pass: We need to get the offensive line confident and get the guys carrying the ball confident as well, so I understand that that’s part of the game. I think it will make a big difference down the road.

On the feeling of getting his first playing time: It’s the same situation as in practice just with some more people. Having a big lead like that made it easy. If it was 14-13 it would have been a different story. It wasn’t that nerve-racking. It was more exciting than anything, just getting out there and getting my feet wet.

Greg Carothers

On the game: They came out pretty strong, but I thought we played really well. I think a lot of that stems from how our offense played and how well we ran the ball. That helped keep their offense off the field.

On recording his second-career reception: I haven’t seen one of those for a while. It kind of just popped to me. I probably kept running, I don’t know. Maybe I just got excited and fell down and tripped.

On the defense stepping up after halftime: I think we did. The offense continued to run the ball and give us some rest, and give us some time to adjust to what Indiana was doing to us. They could only shift and adjust so much before we adjusted to it.

On forcing a fumble on the backwards pass: We were on a blitz, and I just kind of ran with him. I didn’t even know it was a backwards pass.

Shelton Sampson

On scoring on his first rush at the collegiate level: Once you score you don’t know what to do. When you get in the end zone, it’s like, “wow.” It was something else. Especially with it being my first college touchdown.

On getting his first playing time: I was just blessed. I saw it and I went with it. I was telling myself the whole time when I was on the sideline to just run with faith, to have faith that he holes are going to open and have faith that every time I get the ball that I’ll run my hardest.

On his performance: It was cool. I just wanted to go out there and have some fun. I love playing football; I just wanted to go out there and play my hardest. I kept telling all the other players, “It’s Saturday and we don’t have anything else to do, why don’t we just go play some ball and have some fun.”

On his first touchdown: It just came. If I could tell you how I did it I think it’d be wrong because in situations like that you just go out there and do it. Coach was telling me before that game that sometimes you need to just go out there and play like you know how and have fun. On game days, you’ve got to just do it. I took that in stride, and just went out there and did it.

Graham Lasee

On getting the first win: It feels really good to get our first win. We still have a lot to improve upon though. We have a bye week coming up and we will have to fine-tune some things.

On how the defense can improve: We have to stay in our gaps and try not to do everything on each play. We have to trust each other by staying in our assignments. If we do those things, we should be more successful in the future.

Rich Alexis

On whether the running game improved: I think so. I mean, we’ve been hearing from everybody that we couldn’t run the ball. We got some positive yards there, so I guess it did take a step forward for the best. Hopefully we can keep improving each week.

On heading into a bye week: After doing something good like this, you always want to keep the momentum going a little bit. But this is going to test our team and our senior leadership. We’ve got a week off, but we need to get back to work and keep trying to improve.

On hearing about the problems with the running game: We tried not to worry about that. We just tried to get as many yards as we could on the ground. We just tried to keep believing in ourselves and help the team out the best way we can.

On a shift in game plan: After Ohio State we wanted to try to concentrate on the run. We know we can pass the run. We knew that we had to show that we could run the ball.

On heading into his final season: I’m all about winning and trying to get back to the Rose Bowl. This is my last year. I’ve had a lot of great times here, learned a lot here, and I’m just about winning a championship.

Reggie Williams

On the game: We started off kind of rough in the first half. I had some catches I should have made. But in the second half we came back and we did our thing.

On starting slow: They didn’t really shut us down, we just didn’t execute like we wanted to. The plays were there, we just didn’t execute. The second half, we did.

On his 70-yard touchdown: It was a slant route, and the guy was talking trash, so I knew that I had to do something special, and I did. I got a good block from E.T. and then it was just me and the end zone.

On whether his first touchdown sparked the team: I think so. We just needed to come out hot in the second half and put some points up real quick. That’s what we did.

On the feel at halftime: We knew we could play better. We knew in the second half we had to come out and start fast.

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Terry Johnson

On the performance of the defense: I am not satisfied with our defense yet. I think our defense let the team down. We have to be more proactive.

On the thoughts in his head when the Huskies trailed, 13-10: We can’t lose and we can’t let this happen. No matter what happens in this drive or that drive, we’ve got to live in the moment. It was a reality check, and it helped us adjust to go out there and get that win.

On the inability to get to the Indiana quarterback early: The quarterback was quick on his feet and the offensive line protected him well. Those guys weren’t throw-arounds. They were pretty good football players. Once we started wearing them down conditioning wise, that’s when we started getting to their quarterback.

On the mindset coming into the game: We knew that we could beat these guys and we knew that we couldn’t beat ourselves.

On starting slow: I think it was a little bit of a letdown coming out of the tunnel. I know personally I came out real slow, real sluggish. And I couldn‘t really get myself out of that little funky mood I was in early. In the second half, our guys helped rally us back and we started to make some plays.

Khalif Barnes

On the home opener: It feels good. I like playing at home. It’s one of the best places to play at.

On the difference from last week and this week: We went back to our veteran guys, and I think we worked well as a group. I’m just happy that we played well as a front together. This week in practice it was hard. We’ve been called out by a lot of guys, some of our own guys, the media, we read it in the newspapers and on your site. We knew that we had to come out and prove everyone wrong and show that we could run the ball. I thought our front line played great today.

Isaiah Stanback

On adding receiver to his resume: For the time being. I’m not going to play quarterback right now. Cody is here, he is the man, and he is going to be in the game. He’s earned the job, he’s got the respect. So I figured why sit on the sidelines when I can go in the slot and help out?

On when he asked Coach Gilbertson to use him at receiver: I didn’t give him enough time where I could play in the Ohio State game but I went to coach Gilbertson before that game and said I wanted to play. I started having the realization that I wasn’t going to play (at quarterback), so I went to him and told him that I wanted to help out. As long as I get my reps in at quarterback, I’m happy with it.

On his thoughts when entering the game: Truthfully, I wasn’t even nervous. Last night, at meetings, I was getting nervous. When I got in the game, it was easy. It was a lot more relaxed than I thought I was going to be. I thought I was going to go in today and catch some balls, but they didn’t need me to do that.

On completing his first and only pass of the game: First pass, I’m glad, 1-for-1. I’ll stick with that right now.

Cody Pickett

On the game: Today was a little confidence builder and we are going to keep going from here and hopefully keep improving.

On the running game: People ask why we don’t work on the run. Well we work on the run every day. It’s not like we don’t take that seriously. Today, we came out and showed everybody that we can run the ball.

On the three-man rotation at running back: I have confidence in all my guys. Whoever is in there is going to run hard and we are going to play hard.

On the freshmen receiving corps: Some of those guys are going to get their first experience. They’ll learn and get better as the year goes on.