Issue link: http://catalog.e-digitaleditions.com/i/251764
15 compete as hard as we could. We did that against Northern Illinois, they had a good football team, we knew that coming in. We came up a little short that day but I don't know if anybody was discouraged aer the ball game — disappointed but not discouraged about where the team had potential to go. Q: e linebacker position was a great story this season, but was the emergence at the quarterback position one of the top stories of the year in your opinion? Two opposite scenarios. With our linebackers we knew what we had there with three four-year seniors playing at that position who had played well a couple of years. More importantly, they practiced well in the spring — all three of those guys did a wonderful job of practicing, improving and being leaders. We felt we knew what we had with those guys. e quarterback situation was a different deal. We didn't know who was going to win the competition and then when Jake (Rudock) did emerge at the end of camp you're still never quite sure how a player's going to react in a game condition and quarterback is probably the most challenging position to play on the field for what we do at least. Nobody knew how it was going to unfold and Jake did a wonderful job handling each challenge along the way and dealt with the disappointment — he handled adversity well. at's a key attribute for that position. I would be remiss if I le out C.J. Beathard, who came in and relived Jake a couple different times. We have nothing but great feelings about him, too. I thought he reacted well, too. As we move forward we have two guys we think we can win with at that position. Cody Sokol did a great job as well.