As you understand the game of football, you understand that it is about wins and losses.

It's certainly a loss for us here at the University of Washington, because Jeff Compher has been a wonderful friend and administrator. Jeff is a football man first, but he has the compassion and desire to make all of Northern Illinois' programs successful. He's one heck of a guy.

My goals have always been to inspire people to be the best they could be, on and off the field.

I will not rule out anything. I don't speculate on my own future. I'll wait and see what happens.

Years ago, when I was (at Stanford), you had maybe one or two teams -- at one time I was part of one of those teams -- you didn't have to worry about, ... Now it's not that way in the conference. A lot of the teams that were once at the bottom kind of have their games together and are making their way to the top.

As a matter of fact, there is still a lot of light at the end of the tunnel. We just have to find a way to get to it.