Denver Johnson Good Quotations

To be honest, I'm excited again to be head coach here at Illinois State. There was a time here when I'm not sure I could say I was excited. My tenure here has not been an easy one. I feel we've got new leadership in the department, we've got good direction in the program. I feel that we're going to get a little bit of traction here and really become productive.

I was really disappointed on the offensive side of the ball today. We are little watered down right now (in terms of offensive personnel), but overall I thought it was a good day - we got a little something done and lots of film to look at.

We've got three pillars that we're going to try and build this program around. The first is academic integrity. The second is social responsibility. We want good citizens. Third is competitive excellence. When I evaluate our program on those three pillars, I think we're making good progress.

We won't be better because Boomer's gone, but it has forced us to structure some things differently, and I think that will prove good for us.

I'm not sure I anticipated how far and how fast this institution would move academically, but I did see it coming. It's not a bad thing. It is a good school. To get a degree here is not an insignificant thing.

Drake is certainly a worthy opponent. They gave us a pretty good game out here a couple of years ago. Drake is a good enough team to come in here and beat us. If you don't play well, you give people the opportunity to upset you.

I'm not happy, certainly not satisfied, with what we've been able to get done on the field. We've had some good years. We've had some very competitive games, but we need to break through. We need to have an 8-, 9- or 10-win season before long.

I don't know if Luke was nervous, but I was. You have a sophomore quarterback who has never started a college game and the first time he takes the field he's on his own 20-yard line and staring at a very good Big 12 defense. He didn't complete a pass on his first couple of tries, but once he completed one he turned the ball loose with a little more confidence.