Sept. 6, 2008
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery 
BAYLOR (1-1) 51, NORTHWESTERN STATE (1-1) 6
FLOYD CASEY STADIUM • WACO, TEXAS
SEPT. 6, 2008 • ATTENDANCE: 36,258
BAYLOR HEAD COACH Art Briles
On the win...
"We had a good crowd tonight. I am really, really proud for them. I guess last week we felt people came out here ready to see it happen and to help us make it happen, and we did not fulfill expectations. We played intelligent and took care of the football. It was a situation where we did what we had to do. We had to be a dominant football team against them and we were."
On key to the game...
"The key to the game for us was up front on both sides of the ball. That was our theme going into the week. We knew we had a chance to dominate up front and that is what we did, and that is what we will continue to try and do each week."
On the offense...
"We want to run the ball. We didn't run it quite as effectively as we wanted to. We will try to stay balanced, that is the main thing to us. The execution was good. We hit a couple big plays early and we were able to establish a little something. I was proud we won the turnover battle and we didn't have many penalties. I thought we played a pretty clean, disciplined football game."
On the confidence the win brings...
"It's tough anytime to get a win. This is a big win for this football team. It's a big win for our university and we will certainly try and use it as a springboard."
On Robert Griffin...
"He did exactly what he needed to do; control the tempo on offense, make a couple plays, get himself out of a couple jams and be protective of the football. He did a great job of throwing the football tonight."
BAYLOR QUARTERBACK Robert Griffin
On leading the team out through the tunnel... "A lot of guys want me up at the front. I'm the leader of the team. I'm the quarterback. When I lead the team out of the tunnel, that is a metaphor for saying he's the leader and we're going to follow him."
On being a true freshman...
"Not very many true freshman have a whole team behind them, and these guys trust in me and that means a lot."
On getting off to a great start at the beginning of the game by scoring on the first five possessions...
"We wanted to come out strong unlike what we did against Wake Forest. We didn't come out fast and hitting on everything. We wanted to come out and play well really early and try to maintain that. We put them away early and kept pounding it after that."
BAYLOR LINEBACKER Joe Pawelek
On winning... "It feels good just to win. Our offense came out and played great tonight. We didn't give up a touchdown. We gave them that second field goal by jumping offsides. We're leaving here with a victory and that's what we came hear to do, so we're pretty excited."
On the two turnovers in the first quarter...
"The defense gets everyone going, and the offense loves it too. Having that great field position got everything going."
On helping out the defensive coaches by making turnovers...
"From a coaches standpoint, I'm sure he can bring a little more pressure here and there and let us run around a little bit, so it was a good night for us."
NORTHWESTERN STATE HEAD COACH SCOTT STOKER On the game...
"We just got off to a horrendous start. We had a chance with the second play of the game for a huge gain, but we just overthrew the ball. We really didn't recover in the first quarter. They have some great players. [Robert] Griffin is a great quarterback and they have some great wide outs on the team. We just got off to such a bad start that we could not get any type of rythym on the offensive side."
On defensive play...
"We just missed a lot of tackles. It is hard to bring a lot of pressure with the kind of offense that they run. We had them pinned up a couple of times, but we just could not make the tackle in the backfield. It was tough, but [Baylor] has a good football team. "
On Baylor's offense...
" They spread you out all over the field. They run a lot of option type plays and played solid football so it was tough to bring pressure. [Robert Griffin] is just a really good athlete-- the times that we got him pinned up early, he just broke a tackle and made a really good play."
WIDE RECIEVER ADAM VARNADO
On the slow start... " We came out and had some chances to make some really big plays, and we just did not execute. I am not sure of a particular reason, but we just could not get things rolling."
On Baylor's defense...
"We were ready for everything that they did. We just did not execute. We had our chances, but we just did not get it done."
On Baylor's offense...
"It is hard to sit there and watch them score over and over when we see our defense out there having to play so many plays. We needed to be able to keep them off the field [to help our team]."
DEFENSIVE TACKLE SCOTT WATTIGNY On Baylor's offense... "Baylor has a good offense and [
Robert Griffin] came out ready to play for his first start. We just have to execute on defense. We did not do that at all"
On Baylor's passing attack...
"We were worried about [Robert Griffin] running the ball because he has great moves and great speed. He definitely lit it up passing wise. He is a great quarterback."
On Robert Griffin...
"[Robert] Griffin put us in a bind with that hurry up offense. That put us in a bad situation defensively. We have to execute, and we did not do that tonight."
