Opening comments:

“First and foremost, a lot of credit goes to Coach Farley. Their young quarterback played an outstanding football game. That’s why I really enjoy playing this game, because it demands you be your best right out of the gate. Were we perfect today? Obviously, no. I’m not going to sit here and say that we were. I will tell you this: I really love this team and I think the character and resolve of this team shows. It’s really huge for us. These are some of the moments that maybe we didn’t have a year ago, from an evaluation standpoint. What are our strengths and weaknesses? We can continue to go and make great changes. We knew it wasn’t going to be perfect. Some really good things occurred today. The greatest thing that occurred today for us, was the fact that our leadership and the guys who needed to make plays when it mattered most stepped up and made great plays.”

On where the offensive line was at as far as an evaluation:

“It’s hard to tell, because I thought we really ran the ball extremely well. Schematically, we did some things early and didn’t know exactly what we were going to get. I thought we made some really great changes. Some of the big run plays get called back. That (Josh) Knipfel play and that holding call. There was growth. When we needed those guys the most, I thought they did a really good job today. When we have an opportunity to meet again after I watch film, I could probably give a better evaluation of it. When I go back to critical moments, those guys stepped up and really allowed us to run the football. We need to put them in the best position to run the football with great success. That’s a Matt Campbell deal.”

On Sheldon Croney being the running back playing with the game on the line late:

“Sheldon is the rock in there. The hot topic has been who is the tailback. You need these moments and these games and these situations to continue to figure that out. All of the guys had spurts of positive things happening. Johnny (Lang) had a couple good runs. Breece (Hall) had a couple good runs. Kene (Nwangwu) got dinged up and we’ll see what that situation looks like. Sheldon came in and really steadied the ship late in the football game. All of the guys can do different things. I wouldn’t say that anyone separated themselves. I think it will be a little before we figure that out and guys get into a groove.”

On Nwangwu’s prognosis following his injury:

“We don’t know. That happened so late in the game. It looked from a physical standpoint that it wasn’t going to be a terrible situation. Those are the things I’ll have better answers for you on Monday or Tuesday.”

On Purdy diving on the pile in overtime to save the Cyclones:

“I saw who was underneath the pile, so I knew who would come out with it. Isn’t that defining of what that kid is? I really think it is. Brock would tell you he was pressing in the first half. Northern Iowa’s defense forces you to press, because they play back and don’t really give you much. They make you dink and doink your way down the field. He was anticipating the big play and did a good job of collecting his poise. When we needed him the most, he was incredible. The throw to (La’Michael) Pettway, there’s not many guys in the country who can make that throw. That’s exactly what I saw in Brock.”

On what having a veteran like Croney in there late does for a team with a young nucleus:

“Sheldon has earned that over time. He would tell you that he’s not always been perfect, either. He’s had to work hard to get where he’s at. That’s where getting a guy like Pettway and Sheldon Croney…some guys on the offensive side, new faces and new names, this was the first time under the lights for guys like that here. Those guys can at least steady the ship for you, while the other guys start to get comfortable in their roles and what they can do for four football team. It’s huge.”

On Deshaunte Jones’ effort:

“Deshaunte Jones becomes the player of the game from an offensive standpoint. What did in the game is what you hope a senior that’s played a lot of football here would do. The one-handed catch is what sticks in my mind, but he had a lot of great things that occurred. I’m proud of Deshaunte. He’s taken a leadership role in that room and this gives him even more credibility of that leadership role as we move ourselves forward.”

On O’Rien Vance’s effort:

“I said this a little bit before we started the season, the last time we were together. I really thought O’Rien had had maybe his best 15, 16 practices that I’ve seen from him. I’ve always been a big O’Rien Vance fan. A year ago, in the spring, he had an incredible spring and got dinged up in the summer. He lost his way for a little bit. All of a sudden, even in some of our big moments a year ago, he did some great things. It was that consistency and ability to do the little things consistently. He’s changed his life. He’s changed who he is, how he sleeps, how he eats, how he approaches things and what we’ve got is the best O’Rien Vance that Iowa State’s seen. He’s earned that right to be in our starting 11. It’s great to have that flexibility, because you saw Will (McDonald) in there at times. (Chandler) Pulvermacher and Mike (Rose) can move around a lot.”

On his thoughts on a game that had several twists and turns:

“It felt like a football game again. I don’t mean to be funny about that. When you haven’t played for eight or nine months, and all you’re doing in our sport is try to replicate those situations, I think that becomes really hard until it’s really real. Our story is never going to change. We are going to always have to win in the margins. We didn’t just become somebody we’re not. We know who we are and the fact of the matter is we did at times and didn’t at times. We better learn and grow from it. What am I excited about? I’m excited that we have a week that we can really put our focus entirely back on our program, who we are, take this videotape and what we did and didn’t do well, and move forward from there.”

On if a result like this was humbling?

“It’s not humbling to me and our kids, because I don’t think we’re anything that we’re not. I don’t think you saw our kids blink. You saw them keep playing. I don’t think it was an attitude or effort issue. We’ve all been here and nothing’s been easy for three years. The only people that think it’s going to be easy are sometimes outside of our walls because expectations occur. I don’t think any of our character changed throughout the football game. Some of the situations broke down for us and against us that we had to handle. Hopefully we can continue to learn and grow, just like our program has always done.”

On the offense utilizing three tight ends consistently throughout the game:

“We’ve talked about all three of those players being good ones. Chase (Allen) got dinged up a little bit in fall camp. Getting him back to complete health will be nice, because he wasn’t there today. I think over this extended time we can get him back to full health. That will enable us to be more creative with those three tight ends. At critical moments, all three of those guys showed up. We trust them and they’ve proven it. Those guys will just have to continue to have major roles for our football team moving forward.”

On the huge touchdown receptions by grad transfer La’Michael Pettway:

“Being a big playmaker, we need to temper that just a bit. I think what he did do today was making the plays he needed to make. He’s a big physical player and would tell you that he was a little bit raw coming into fall camp. He didn’t have spring practice and that’s always really hard. Other guys around him saw what Pett has the capability of doing. He stayed the course throughout and was positive instead of negative early on. He’ll need to continue to grow, but did some good things today.”

On the improvements he saw from Purdy during his first game:

“From Brock’s standpoint, teams will do a great job of being prepared for his ability to move in the pocket and do some of those things. If there wasn’t a holding call, he would have scored on (a play). When you have some tight ends, you have the ability to create some edges and there are times you don’t have to always use that guy as so much of an open advantage. I thought Brock’s growth came from was by stepping up in the pocket and throwing the football. There were times last year where he was just scrambling around instead of just sitting in there and delivering the football.”

On Braxton Lewis’ injury status:

“He did not (play). It was questionable going into it. I would expect him back at full strength as we get ready to go into next week. He was dinged up.”

On what he saw from linebackers Mike Rose and Marcel Spears:

“Every time I look on the field, (Rose) was either making a play in the backfield or was setting the edge on the perimeter. That kid is really special. Think about what he did today, from being the MIKE linebacker to SAM linebacker and playing the level he played at today. It was powerful. Marcel’s situation, I’ll have to go back and watch. I know what I get from Marcel Spears. He is the same guy every game. His character and leadership down the stretch was big. He was the guy in both huddles that was taking charge. All positive on my end.”

On using Will McDonald at a variety of positions on defense:

“Will can do so many things. He’s such an athletic person that gives you the ability to move him around and do different things. He had a sack early in the game and missed it and had to come back. It was great to see him correct that mistake and come back. He was huge for us. We had guys that, for the first time out there, made some mistakes but also big plays down the stretch.”

On his assessment of the defensive line’s play:

“When you look at just the rushing statistics, you saw from our end the line going the opposite way. You saw Jamahl Johnson and Ray Lima, some of those guys make some good plays. I’m anxious to see what the discipline looked like, vertical, take-off, ability to re-establish the line of scrimmage.”