Opening statement... "That wa

Opening statement... “That was a tough one. We got ourselves in a position to win the football game and weren’t able to finish. We did a tremendous job getting two non-offensive scores in the fourth quarter, but we just couldn’t control the clock in the fourth quarter and couldn’t make a stop when we needed to. It’s disappointing--we expected to win the football game and we didn’t.”

Message to his players after a tough loss like this one... “I know what our guys are made of--they’re tough. Adversity is something they like to look in the face and respond to it. They hurt right now, and I hurt for them--I love these dudes. They have been through a lot and they deserved this one. We didn’t get it done. Losing a football game doesn’t define us. We’ll rebound because that’s what we do.”

On Minnesota’s final drive… “I saw a lot of gutsy play by them, they made plays when they needed to make them. We had it third down, 2- yard line, they had to go 98. They made plays and we didn’t.”

On how his team was feeling after the touchdown at the end of the first half… “We felt good the whole game. We came up here to win, that’s what we do. We didn’t win, so it hurts.”

On his forced fumble and touchdown… “It’s all a blur. I was just playing around in practice doing some moves and it actually worked.”

On the special move he was practicing that lead to the sack-fumble… “Yeah, I don’t know what it was, but I did it in practice.”

On the Gophers’ final drive… “We got to get them down. We can’t let them get out of bounds. I think we had 13 seconds left on the clock. Maybe if we had gotten them down earlier, maybe there would have been time for us to let the clock run out."

On his disappointment level… “Very, very disappointed in myself.”

On the bench’s feeling after the two big defensive plays…. “For me it was a relief to see the defense had our backs. It was a great feeling, but still we don’t want to put them in that situation.”