Big Ten 'Quotables and Notables': Week 1, Thursday night
Rutgers was up only 14-7 on Howard late in the second quarter in Piscataway, New Jersey. Things didn’t go off without a hitch in Minneapolis, Minnesota, either. The back half of a home-and-home between Minnesota and North Carolina was delayed an hour because of a thunderstorm. That was hardly the biggest hiccup, however: Minnesota’s Dragan Kesich, last year’s Big Ten Kicker of the Year, missed two field goals, one from 27 yards out and the other a 47-yard, potential game-winner as time expired.
Then fireworks went off at Huntington Bank Stadium … celebrating a gut-wrenching loss? Woops.
Now, the Scarlet Knights eventually found their offensive groove against Howard, winning, 44-7, and Illinois rolled past its own FCS opponent, Eastern Illinois, 45-0.
But Minnesota took its first loss of the season Thursday night, albeit against a Power 4 team. Nonetheless, the herky-jerky Golden Gophers performance rocked the boat head coach P.J. Fleck’s trying to row in an expanded, 18-team Big Ten.
That’s where we’ll start in this edition of Big Ten “Quotables and Notables.” I’m highlighting the most notable postgame quotes and stats from the latest Big Ten games. Let’s get into it.
Watch College Football Games Live -Try for Free Fubo! Click HERE NOW
UNC 19, MINNESOTA 17
QUOTABLES
University of New Hampshire transfer quarterback Max Brosmer made his Minnesota debut Thursday night. He moved from the CAA to the Big Ten as a sixth-year veteran after posting a combined touchdown-to-interception ratio of 56:14 over the last two seasons. He wasn’t nearly as prolific against UNC. In fact, he lost a fumble and completed 13-of-21 passes for only 166 yards. He did rush for a score, but, of his 13 completions, only two were on passes that traveled 10 or more air yards, per Pro Football Focus. That said, Brosmer was at his best in the fourth quarter, ultimately engineering a potential game-winning drive, where he completed 3-of-4 passes and drew a UNC defensive pass interference penalty.
Head coach P.J. Fleck on Brosmer’s Minnesota debut:
“I think it took him a little bit to settle in, but once he settled in, he looked like the guy that I’ve seen for a long time. And I would love for everything to go a little bit better for everybody. But I saw a lot of things that I’ve seen for a long time. He’s a really good kid, really good quarterback, got great character. …. He’s got to get better, he knows that. We got to get him better. But I love his leadership, and he’s a competitor, he really is.”
Dragan Kesich converted 23-of-27 field goals last season. He was perfect inside 30 yards. Against UNC Thursday night, though, the fifth-year specialist was mostly off the mark. Granted he drilled a 30-yarder to put Minnesota up late in the fourth quarter, but the Tar Heels struck back with three points of their own. Kesich swung for another potential game-winner, except his final attempt, a 47-yarder, hooked right. While the last-second miss especially sticks out, Kesich’s mishaps didn’t tell the whole story: In UNC territory, Minnesota also dropped an interception and had a fumble recovery negated by a holding penalty.
Redshirt senior linebacker Cody Lindenberg on what he said to Kesich after the game:
“’I love you.’ It’s that simple. None of that game is on him. There’s plenty of plays defensively, offensively special teams, it’s a team effort — there’s no one play that loses you a game. I told him right when we got off the field, ‘Hey, don’t even think about that right now. Keep your head up. Plenty of things that could have went a different way.’ … Couldn’t be more proud of him and the way that he’s going to respond.”
NOTABLES
+ While Kesich struggled, UNC kicker Noah Burnette made four field goals, including a 45-yarder with 1:44 left. The Tar Heels needed all the offense they could get against a veteran Minnesota defense, particularly after starting quarterback Max Johnson left for the hospital with a leg injury in the third quarter.
+ UNC piled up five sacks, and three of them came from senior defensive lineman Jahvaree Ritzie.
+ The Minnesota offense was spearheaded by Oklahoma transfer running back Marcus Major, who stepped up with Darius Taylor out, rushing for 73 yards and a touchdown.
RUTGERS 44, HOWARD 7
QUOTABLES
As mentioned above, Rutgers didn’t get off to the best of starts Thursday night against two-time defending Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference champion Howard. The offense had to punt on its first series and generated just 10 first-half points. Defense got the Scarlet Knights on the board right away: Senior cornerback Eric Rogers picked off Howard quarterback Ja’Shawn Scroggins and went the distance for a 52-yard touchdown.
Eventually, Rutgers made up lost ground on the other side of the ball. Star running back Kyle Monangai finished with 165 rushing yards and a touchdown. Perhaps most notably, Minnesota transfer quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis completed 15 passes, and three of them went for scores.
Head coach Greg Schiano on if the plan was to keep the Rutgers offense a little vanilla for the opener:
“I don’t know if it was so vanilla. We’re not like Barnum & Bailey over here. We kind of do what we do. But we just kind of, at the beginning, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. We dropped a couple that were catchable balls that are converted third downs and the drive continues. Just kind of stumbling a little bit at the beginning.
“But the thing I was really pleased with is our guys just kept chopping, kept doing it. I told them that was the difference. The differentiating factor will be, because you never know as a coach — do they believe what you tell them: that this is a really good football team, that you’ll have to go out and play well and chop every single moment to come away with a victory. And obviously our guys did believe that.”
In the final minute of the game, Howard turned the ball over on downs. Instead of going into victory formation, the Scarlet Knights plowed forward for one final touchdown, an 11-yard scamper from running back Antwan Raymond on the last play of the game. Howard head coach Larry Scott wasn’t happy about it and seemed to let Schiano know about that afterward. Schiano agreed to disagree, basically.
Schiano, after noting his respect for Scott postgame and saying that “everybody sees things a little differently,” was asked to unpack his thought process of going for the final score. Here’s what he said:
“Guys practiced all training camp. They deserve to play. There was no running it up. If it was running it up, you don’t use timeouts when you have the ball. You let the game end. That wasn’t retaliatory. We were going to run plays. We bring in a team in here to play us. We bring them here. We bring them in, we’ve got to win and we’ve got to get reps. And they were there, we took them.”
NOTABLES
+ Schiano believes that Monangai and Sam Brown, who logged 68 rushing yards and recorded a 34-yard receiving touchdown in the win, can make a nice 1-2 punch at the running back position.
Top 10
- 1Breaking
Dylan Raiola injury
Nebraska QB will play vs. USC
- 2
Elko pokes at Kiffin
A&M coach jokes over kick times
- 3New
SEC changes course
Alcohol sales at SEC Championship Game
- 4
Bryce Underwood
Michigan prepared to offer No. 1 recruit $10.5M over 4 years
- 5Trending
Dan Lanning
Oregon coach getting NFL buzz
+ Rutgers junior linebacker Dariel Djabome tallied a team-high 14 tackles, including five solos. Remember, the Scarlet Knights lost senior linebacker Mohamed Toure to an ACL tear, so they need other players to rise to the occasion in the second level.
+ Dating back to last season at Minnesota, Kaliakmanis has now thrown for three touchdowns in three of his last five games.
ILLINOIS 45, EASTERN ILLINOIS 0
QUOTABLES
Illinois went from ranking first in the Big Ten — and first nationally, for that matter — with 12.8 points per game allowed in 2022 to ranking third-to-last in the Big Ten in that same category with 29.4 points per game allowed in 2023. Yes, the Fighting Illini were playing FCS Eastern Illinois in their opener, but they gave up just 196 total yards, created four takeaways and, most importantly, pitched a shutout.
Head coach Bret Bielema on his defense’s long-awaited opportunity to get back out there Thursday night:
“I think one of our talks and conversations was learn from the past but build for the future. Even though we had 45 guys jump into camp this year that had never been with us, that defense in particular had been hearing a lot of things since last fall. To get where they are, give [defensive coordinator] Aaron [Henry] and that staff a lot of credit. … I thought our coaches coached well, I thought our players played well, and they attacked.”
Again, Illinois was playing Eastern Illinois, so it’s important to temper reactions. Still, there’s no denying quarterback Luke Altmyer looked great throwing the ball. He hit on 19-of-24 passes for 213 yards and four touchdowns. Plus, he completed 3-of-4 attempts traveling 20-plus yards downfield, according to PFF. And he completed passes to 11 different Illinois receivers.
Altmyer, who pointed out that he’s mentally and spiritually in a new place this year, was asked about his performance postgame. Here’s what he said:
“I felt confident out there. I thought I saw everything well. It came off my hand pretty well. I feel like the route details of the receivers, they were on their Ps and Qs. Looking forward to just growing from Week 1 into Week 2. Excited to get back to work and display some other things, too.”
NOTABLES
+ Sophomore running back Kaden Feagin carried the ball 16 times for 108 yards and a touchdown. His classmate, Aidan Laughery, wasn’t far behind with 79 rushing yards on 10 totes.
+ Senior wideout Pat Bryant hauled in five passes for 63 yards and two touchdowns, including one that went for 28 yards.
+ Junior defensive backs Torrie Cox Jr. and Miles Scott both grabbed interceptions in the runaway victory.