Notes from Pat Fitzgerald's press conference vs. Purdue

Notes from Pat Fitzgerald's press conference:

-"Kyle Prater arguably had his best game of his career. I couldn't be happier for him. With a lot of the injury issues we've had he's really stepped up." Fitz thought Prater's catch and run out of bounds in the last two minutes was a "big time play in the moment"  and showed "great awareness."

-Fitz said: "Siemian was a couple drops away from having one of those memorable games that goes down in Wildcats history." With Siemian healthy, "It gives him a lot of confidence and give us an opportunity to open things up schematically that we've not been able to do. He can keep plays alive and make big plays off of it."

--Fitz said that the win overshadowed some "self-inflicted" wounds and defensive lapses. But he said "I'm proud of how the guys responded and persevered."

-"You can't minimize the significance of the win. But we've moved on...We've got a lot of work to do to get ready for Purdue. We're pretty beat up. We emptied the tank."

-On the offensive line: "The offensive line has just taken the play personally. They stopped overthinking things. They made a lot of mistakes but overcame them with a lot of effort."

-"I was happy to stand back and enjoy the moment after the game," Fitz said.

-On Purdue: "They're building something special in West Lafayette. They've been dynamic offensively recently... Probably the best special teams unit we've seen. Our punt and kick return units were not very good [against ND]."

-Fitz also announced that Greg Kuhar is having season-ending surgery for a lower body injury. And that Miles Shuler is out again this week.