Chizik speaks: 9/21

Here we go:

• ``It's great to be in a situation where we're 3-0."
  
  
• We just kinda hung in there, some good things happened and we won it. We have to fix some issues, but it was a good win for our team."
  
  
• On Chris Todd: ``Gus has done a great job with him in terms of him having a great feel for the offense. It's a new year. The past is behind us. That doesn't mean we won't run into some stormy weather. It's all about how you want to approach it mentally. (Todd) has been really good with understanding that it's a long game."
  
  
• ``I'm just proud that he's got that sticktoitiveness to him."
  
  
• ``We've got a lot of work to do on defense. A lot of the yardage last night was just missed tackles, believe it or not. I'm not making excuses; I'm just stating what happened. We're still having a problem getting off the field on third down. We have to go back and revisit some of that."
  
  
• ``There are a lot of things to fix, but there were a lot of positives, too."
  
  
• ``They weren't your ordinary-type turnovers. Guys had to make plays to get them."
  
  
  
• On Tim Hawthorne: ``It was very meaningful for him. It was one of those situation where he's done everything he could do. He has such a hunger to get back out there. He's really worked hard to get in position to even be out there. I wasn't sure that he'd be able to come back after two games.
  He loves football. He worked hard to get out there."
  
  
• On Eric Smith: ``He's a football players. That's just what he is. He bocks as a fullback, he can run as a tailback, he plays on return teams. He contributes a lot to our team."
  
  
• On the need for passing last night: ``Every week, we're not going to be able to run the ball. We're going to do what the defense allows us to do. A high percentage of the time last night, they were putting and eighth guy in there. He's unblockable. We go in every week knowing that we have to run the football. It's all based on what they're going to allow you to do.
  
  
• On Ball State: ``We're going to do what we always do. You hope you have enough older guys, a focus-enough team. They'll come in here. They'll be fired up play in this type of venue."
  
  
• On the need for momentum coming out of the Ball State game: ``We need to see a great deal of improvement between Game 3 and Game 4. We've won three games, but I can't say there's any phase that any coach, including me, is happy about. I'm happy that they've played hard. I'm happy that we've won. We haven't put a full game together."
  
  
• On Zaccheus Etheridge's apparent injury: ``His injuries aren't a concern."
  
  
• On Tommy Trott: ``He practiced a very little bit, but he has so much experience. It was more important for us to give him some healing time rather than have him run a route for the 105th time."
  
  
• On tackling with leverage: ``That's part of our problem right now. We've got to understand where our help is coming from. That's tackling 101 … and I'm not sure we're there yet. We're going to address all that."
  
  
• On what he learned about his team Saturday: ``They just keep playing. They don't let circumstances dictate how they play."
  
  
• On what he heard from recruits: ``Loved our crowd. That was the first thing that came out of their mouths. Take our students for instance. I don't think they left their spots. People take notice of that. That was the first thing that was very impressive to our recruits. And just the fact that we fought through and beat a good football team."