Indiana University Athletics
Cam Cameron Quotes Prior to the Iowa Game
10/19/1999 12:00:00 AM | Football
Opening Statement: "Well, obviously we ran into in awfully good Wisconsin football team. I said earlier in the (Saturday) press conference, really in all three phases that's as well as anyone's played against us. They came at us from the start and we didn't handle it very well. By the time our guys realized what happened we were down 21-to-nothing. Then we go three-and-out, three-and-out, and four-and-out, in our first ten plays and it's 21 to nothing. Again, we didn't handle the situation very well at all. Our focus has been, from the time we got back from Madison, to focus on the fact that we've got to get a lot better as a football team. I think (Wisconsin head coach) Barry Alvarez made a very interesting comment that we talked about with our team after the game. One, that this is the time when a lot of teams start to divide and, secondly, he said it's that point in the season where you are going to get better or you are going to get worse. So we've talked to our team about staying together, which we've talked about all year long, and then just making sure that we're focused on everything we can to get better as a football team, irrespective of who we're playing. I think that's the point where we're at this week - just those two things. Focus on each other and focus on the things we can do to help each other and, at the same time, focus on the things that we've got to improve upon and get better. That takes you right into the fact that we're playing Iowa, who in the second half of the Northwestern game played their best football. They gave up a touchdown late in the game that cost them the game and I know they feel that their backs are against the wall. They're at home for homecoming. I think they'll obviously be ready to play and obviously I hope we've learned something. We've got to come ready to play. Although this game won't have the national spotlight this is a big, big, football game for both teams and it's a big, big, football game for us."
On Sunday's scrimmage with younger players: "It was basically a scrimmage with our young guys, basically guys who did not travel. We've done that off and on the last couple of years on Sundays. We'll have another scrimmage a week from Friday. At this point in time we basically know who is redshirting and who isn't. You're a little nervous about scrimmaging too early in the season because you are not sure, from an injury standpoint, which freshmen may have to play and who you may be redshirting. We felt comfortable that all of the people who played in the scrimmage would not be playing this year and that's why we'll have two or three more scrimmages. But then we practiced. I didn't think we expended enough energy (vs. Wisconsin) to worry about whether or not we were tired. I don't think we're a tired football team. A year ago, as the season went along, we wore down. We played a lot of people in that game. We had eight defensive linemen and all played over 30 snaps. In our secondary we've played a lot of guys these last three weeks. Offensively, the three guys who have played the most are our tackles and our quarterback. So, we're going to have to be smart with those guys. We had to get back to work because, one, we had to put the game behind us and, secondly, we've got some areas that we have to address where we've got to plain get better going into these next four ball games."
On being dominated on both lines of scrimmage: "We sure did. And that was a valuable lesson. I think we learned a valuable lesson at Penn State, as we talked about from the mental side. I think this taught us a valuable lesson from the physical side. We had talked to Penn State earlier in the year and when you talk about good teams in this league Wisconsin's name comes up and Wisconsin has dictated some things to people in this league. You've got to recruit bigger people if you're going to play against them. Any time you are looking at a strength and size issue you've got to look at your recruiting, you've got to look at your strength and conditioning, you've got to look at your training table. You've got to look at a lot of things. It's not that you're going to overhaul everything but you've got to continually try to improve because you're going to have to match up with them at some point in time every year. Give them a lot of credit. We've got to make some changes in order to elevate our system here to some of the things that they are doing."
On the Wisconsin offense: "You've got to give credit to Wisconsin first. They've got great patience with the running game. Now they've got a quarterback with the mobility that can complement their running game with the play-action pass. Obviously, they hurt us with that. And their kicking game. That's the thing I always talk about with Wisconsin. They really set the tone because you're always starting at the 20 (yard-line), or the 17, or the 18, every time they kick off. So you've got to go a long way. We were three-and-out, three-and-out, and they had pretty good field position especially because we had to punt into the wind. They made it difficult for us in all three phases."
On Iowa: "I think any time you go on the road, and we've played well at times on the road, when you go into Iowa City you know it's a great environment in which to play. I know they think their backs are against the wall. I know the emotional thing is the thing that concerns you the most because you know with what approach they are going to come into the game. We've got to be ready for that. Obviously, we weren't ready for that this past week. Wisconsin is looking at us at two-and-one in the league, and they are two-and-one in the league, and they are looking at it like they have to beat us to stay in the hunt for the Rose Bowl and win the Big Ten championship. We weren't ready, for some reason, for that. We've got to be ready going into Iowa City. They will be ready to play. Again, they feel like their backs are against the wall, they're at home, they've got some confidence with some of the good things they did during the second half of the Northwestern game so those are the major concerns."
