Austin Haws Quotes

Even though we won, we felt like we could have done a lot more. But it was still a win. It wasn`t our best win, but it beats a good loss. We have high expectations.

It`s great to have Dan back. He`s a great player, and we`re a better football team with him.

(On Chris Harrell`s near fatal late-hit penalty on Wildcat quarterback Brett Basanez in the fourth quarter, which would have forced Northwestern to punt deep in its own territory with the Lions down two points:) That could have changed the whole course of the game, ... But we could have folded at that point, but you just have to know there`s always going to be adversity. None of these games are going to be easy. Nothing will be given to us.

I wouldn`t say I use them as a measuring stick, ... It`s definitely a form of motivation. Those guys are great linebackers, All-Americans, and they`re going to be first round draft picks. You can`t take anything away from them. The situation they`re in right now, that`s where we want to be at. Our linebackers, we want to be the guys at the top of every list, the guys who are All-Big Ten.

We`ve improved on so many different things '” being able to stop the run, dropping back into pass coverage. We just learn so many things from week-to-week we just get better every day, so we`ll always keep improving through the season.

With Chris back, we have a heavy hitter. He`s a huge guy to have back there.

I think our defensive line played very well today. That was the big difference from this week and last '” they played excellent. When you hold a team to three points like that you`re always going to be happy.

It just seemed like they were nicking us here and there. They just had our number, ... We didn`t expect that to happen. It was really frustrating at first.

With Chris back we have a heavy hitter at safety, and he also adds to us in pass coverage. We missed him last year, so we are definitely happy to have him back. He`s a bigger safety, and he can help us stop the run.

That`s a great question, ... It`s going to be a long day at the hotel on Saturday. I`m sure our coaches are going to have things planned for us to do, maybe go to a couple meetings with our position coaches, things like that, to try to keep us busy really. Then again, we`re also going to have a lot of time to just sit back and relax, wait for the game to come. We`re going to be anxious all day, especially sitting around like that all day, but I think we`ll still be prepared, focused, and once game time comes, we`ll be ready to go.