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PURDUE UNIVERSITY MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 30, 2006

Joe Tiller

Q. Did you anticipate -- I'm not suggesting you anticipate 250 receiving yards, but did you think with the match up this could be a little bit of a breakout game for him?
COACH JOE TILLER: No. I don't know. I don't think in terms of that. When I say a breakout game, to me, the Purdue folks have heard me talk about him for a long time. So he's doing what we thought he could do.

Q. (Inaudible).
COACH JOE TILLER: No, he was not featured coming into the game. It was because he was open and he caught the ball.

Q. From an offensive standpoint was this perhaps about squandered opportunities in the sense you lost the fumble in the first half, had a couple drops that would have extended drives, obviously turned the ball over on downs in Notre Dame territory. Those are some key factors, right?
COACH JOE TILLER: Sure. You get down in the red zone, you like to score. It's important to come away with points in the red zone. It's not always critical to score a touchdown in that, in the red zone, but you need points in the red zone. Of course we didn't do that.

Q. It seemed like you did a lot more in the second half and it was working to some extent, any particular reason? The pressure wasn't there in the first half.
COACH JOE TILLER: We found out in the first half that we were going to have a difficult time covering him and we didn't know if they would come out running the football, we felt like they would. People have run the ball against us at times this year. They have passed it against us. So they have done a lot of things against us.
So you go in an a game and you structure your defense accordingly and then try to figure out what it is they're doing and then see how you can counter it. And that's why we ended up bringing more numbers later in the game.

Q. Just briefly, what did you think in your opinion were the keys of the game; and a second part to that question, with Notre Dame's weapons and your young defense if somebody told you before the game you were going to hold them to 35 would you have said I will take my chances with that?
COACH JOE TILLER: No, not really. I would like to hold them to less than 35. But I would like to, but your point is a good one, we're extremely young and we won't play a more experienced team than the one we played today. And most likely won't play against a more talented team. We may. We may. As we get into Big-10 play, we may see a team that's as talented or maybe more talented. But against that type of a team, you know, I thought we had our moments where we did some good things defensively. I thought Anthony Spencer had an outstanding game once again. But I think that from an offensive point of view, there was no secret coming into 2006, we felt like we were going to have to outscore some people. So if they score 35, we need to score 36.

Q. You said you weren't necessarily surprised they came out running, but yet it seemed like on paper this was a match up that didn't seem like that would go that way. So why were you not necessarily surprised that they tried to feature the run and establish it?
COACH JOE TILLER: Because they really like their tailback and the guy rushed for a couple hundred yards a week or so ago. And so I think I would let the big dog hunt if I were in their corner. I think they felt like physically they were a superior offensive line to our defensive line. When you have that type of a match up you usually think about running in the ball, controlling the ball, wearing the other team down, and just eventually breaking their will by wearing them down. So that's not an unusual strategy.

Q. Were you surprised Notre Dame's third down conversion rate, considering they came into the game not doing very well on third downs, they were a sixty percent at one point and they just converted a lot of those. A lot of those were for double digit yardage too?
COACH JOE TILLER: Yeah, I thought they did a nice job of pushing our young corners off and coming back to the ball. I was impressed with the way they came back to the ball. Like this far beyond the first down marker. Which is the mark of an experienced player and an experienced team and an experienced quarterback bringing them back to the ball.
And I think McKnight is exceptional at that. I think that's what he does the best, but yet he has the ability to run by you. So he's a real handful. And the other guy is too. Jeff is too. So, no, it didn't surprise me. We would have like liked to have had a few of them not go that way, but.

Q. Curtis take another step forward today?
COACH JOE TILLER: Yeah, he did. I don't think he hit the open linebacker and so I think that his development continues. This is now his 10th game as a starter, so he's still about coming to the close of his first year as a starter. I think he's improving as a player. I really like the way, which I think reflects, is reflected in his personality, but I like the way he managed the game. I like the way our offense managed the game. There were some situations there where you could have had false starts and I think that our, that we were a little jumpy early but we settled down and did a nice job with it. And a lot of that can be directly traced to the quarterback and his presence of mind to get the offense functioning.

Q. In my years around you I've never seen you or your staff as vociferous on the sidelines as you were at times and I'm assuming it was about the officiating. Other than when they missed the call on the illegal substitution, was there anything in particular that was upsetting?
COACH JOE TILLER: Well, I didn't particularly like the one time when we didn't convert in the red zone, I thought that our receiver, number nine, he got held, we couldn't get off. And then I thought they drove our guy two yards out of bounds and didn't, we didn't, and nothing showed up. So that's the way they see it and the way they see it is the way they call it and the way they call it is in the record books.

Q. You've seen a lot of Brady Quinn the last four years, I wonder if you could reflect on his play today and his career against you.
COACH JOE TILLER: Well, we watched him grow at a distance. I think he's certainly a quarterback with a real feel for the game in terms of maximizing his opportunities, finding that open guy, knowing where everybody is on the field at all times, and I think the biggest difference in him now from when he was a youngster was we sacked him a couple of times, a few times today and hit him a few times today, but he wasn't careless with the ball at all. I think he is a much more polished guy than he certainly than he was as a youngster. I thought he had great physical talent as a youngster, and now I think he has outstanding physical talent as well as mental skills to help him maximize his abilities.

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