On preparing for Oregon State
“Much improved football team. They beat Oregon, they (Oregon) were ranked ninth. That’s a big rivalry game for them, as well. They had Washington on the ropes, just couldn’t get it in there toward the end. So, they’ve been very competitive. [Head] Coach [Jonathan] Smith has done a marvelous job of really recruiting players that fit his style on offense and defense. Very, very complicated offense. We dealt with them last year. Multi-dimensional, lot of tight ends, lot of receivers, lot of motions. Lots of eye-candy for defense. It can get you in some bad situations if you don’t read your keys. They have a nice running attack, have a quarterback now who’s installed in the lineup and it seems like he’s starting to get confident in what he’s asked to do. Defensively, they improved. They’re a solid defense, don’t make a lot of mistakes. They have some pretty good players in the secondary, good linebacking crew. This is a team that, every year, seems to get more talent. Now, they’re under the coach's watch and he’s starting to develop a good program.”
On having a road game, what it means to seniors
“You always feel bad for the seniors. But, that’s just part of what we’re dealing with. Every program right now, nothing is written in pen. I would say everything this year is written in pencil because you might have to erase it and change. You have to deal with change, have to deal with -- all of a sudden, you’re headed in one direction and it could change. We all knew that when this season got started. The virus obviously has a lot to do with it. You can see, there’s already been some cancellations in our conference. I think last week was actually the first week that everyone actually played. This week, we have a cancellation already. You just deal with the cards you’re dealt with, and you don’t make a big deal out of it; I’ve never done that. We’ll get ready to play and prepare to play and try to go win us a football game.”
On looking to reach a certain number of points against Arizona
“No, no, no, no. I don’t believe in that. I’m not that guy. We threw 13 passes. We were trying to run the football. If you watched us play, I made sure to take the clock down to five seconds before we hiked it on offense. I was playing against the clock, was trying to get players out of there, trying to get our players out of there healthy, as well as our opponent healthy, get them out of there. Also, to allow young players to play. Jackson He got a lot of attention and rightly so. A lot of the kids played. We had other walk-on guys that played, as well. It wasn’t just Jackson He.”
On playing 61 student-athletes against Arizona
“Sixty-one players played in this football game. As a coach, when you get in a game like this, you realize that all of these guys -- scholarship players, along with some walkons -- have not played a lot. We wanted to give them an opportunity to play. We were fortunate enough with where the game was at, that’s what we were trying to do, to be quite honest.”
On the progression of defense this season
“They’re starting to understand what’s required, and I think it’s on both sides of the ball. If you think about it, we’ve only played three games. That’s why you have spring ball, it’s why you have a 12-game season, so maybe your first three games aren’t against Pac-12 opponents where you can grow as a team, especially on offense and defense. I think our games have been under the spotlight of playing in conference, against conference opponents. It’s been tough, but it’s been good, too. You watch a lot of guys develop. We can’t wait until spring ball starts. Then we’ve had a four-game season, or whatever the season ends up being, under our belt and we can build on that going forward. It’s been fun to watch guys start to understand what’s required of them.”
On the biggest area of improvement so far
“I think our ability to pay attention to the details of what’s required, in all three phases. I’ll always say, it’s never about the opponent so much. It’s about ourselves. What do we do to better ourselves? And how complete can we be in all three phases of football? That’s the key to football. The more you play, the more you have experience of the competition and how players function competing against an opponent. I think this is good for us because we can build on this going into the spring, that we’ll get four, or however many games we get in as I said earlier, and find out a lot about some of the young guys. I think some of the young guys in this game played better. They played better than the USC game. If you just watched us play the last three games, we had a lot of young players play, especially at the receiver position. Now, I say that and we only threw the ball 13 times. But their effort, the blocking part of it, Johnny [Wilson] made some catches. We saw some guys all of a sudden who are kind of growing up, which is what you want. Same way on defense. A lot of young players on defense, especially in the secondary, and the linebacker position -- a lot of young guys played. Those are valuable reps, believe it or not.”
On relaying the message that there’s still work to be done after a big win
“There’s a lot of things to work on. We’re nowhere close to where we want to be. This was the first time for a lot of these freshmen kids who are in our program to have actually won a college game. It was hard. This was their first win. How they use it will be interesting this week, and how they come to work this week. They’re going to think that they actually didn’t win when I get through talking with them tomorrow. There’s gotta be a tone set, and I think it’s important that we try to win another game. All of a sudden, you win two in a row -- that would be a good thing for us this year.”
On the freshmen learning from adversity
“I think on both sides of the ball, and even special teams, a lot of young guys were getting to play, and that’s vital for our program. You have to grow them up. The only way they learn is to play. You always promise players are going to get an opportunity. This game, it kind of unfolded where we could get a lot of players playing time. The coaches made sure they were in the game. There were so many of them in the game, I couldn’t keep up with everybody until I actually watched the tape and got the snap count of a lot of guys. The young offensive lineman, there’s a group of kids there who haven’t played a lot here. They’ve played on special teams, PATs and stuff like that, but we got them in the game. They played 15, almost 20 plays, some of those guys. That was good. That was their first time playing in a football game. Same way on defense, at numerous positions. I think that’s always good when you get the young kids in there to play.”
On building players off the field during adverse times
“I think what you value in life is important, and your purpose. I think when that gets disrupted, you have to check yourself and say, ‘How am I going to deal with all of this?’ I’ve said this numerous times with you folks, this is unprecedented for all of us, for everybody. Whatever job title you hold and whatever you do, this has been unprecedented. I think for a lot of us, we learned a lot about ourselves and the people we surround ourselves with and the people we work with and we associate with. We find out a lot. Since March 8, we have found out a lot about who we are and how we handle something like this, that we had no idea that right now in December, a week away before Christmas, we would still be dealing with this. So, I think as the calendar switches and the new year comes in place, there is hope that we’re going to be on the backside of this eventually. When we start next year, when the season starts, we won’t have this discussion. You folks will be sitting in this room and I’ll have the ability to talk to you. But, I think we all have to really look at ourselves and look at our lives and say, ‘What did I learn about myself going through this?’”
On what he focused on when watching film from Arizona
“It was really highlighting a lot of the young guys who got an opportunity to play. That’s what I did. I highlighted some plays on offense, defense and special teams of young guys playing and contributing and finally getting an opportunity to play. It was big for a lot of these guys. As I said, Jackson He is the guy who’s getting all the publicity right now, and rightly so. I understand why. But, there were a handful of walk-on guys who played on both sides of the play, who are not on scholarship. The quarterback, a back-up quarterback on scholarship, played. There were some receivers, some other guys, offensive linemen, defensive players in there, too. They got to play, and that was kind of fun to watch them play. The excitement they had of playing the game -- Jackson was the one who got the game ball and all that and he was interviewed. The rest of those kids weren’t interviewed. But, I tell you what, there were some memories made for them. I don’t know if they’re going to play again, but we had an opportunity to get them in the game and I can’t thank my coaches enough for realizing that we needed to get those guys in the game. They’ll remember that. When it’s 20 years from now, they’ll remember that. I promise you, they will.”
On impact of first-year defensive line coach Robert Rodriguez
“He’s been very good as far as the fundamentals go and what’s required. Obviously, we changed our front. We went to a four-man front. It’s going to be interesting going forward in the spring and then when we get the recruiting class we have that hopefully we will get to watch that develop, to watch that line continue to develop with some more talented players. It’s going to be fun. It’s a four-man front, it’s something I’m used to, something Marvin [Lewis] is used to, as well as AP [Antonio Pierce]. Not that our defense before wasn’t very good, it was. [Former defensive coordinator] Danny [Gonzales] and those guys did a fabulous job. But, now we’ve gone to more of a four-man front. You saw that in the bowl game last year against Florida State; we played more of a four-man front, knowing we might be headed that way. So, it’s going to be interesting to watch those guys grow.”
On potentially playing in a bowl game this season
“That’s a possibility. There’s a possibility of that. We’ll just see where that goes. We’ll see where that stands with us.”
On what he’s learned about himself this year
“Probably something I already knew about myself: that I consider myself a guy that has a positive attitude and I always rely on hope. That’s kind of how I live my life. I always lived it that way. I learned it from my parents, from what they had to go through from when they were growing up, especially my mom. My father is no longer here, but my mom is still with us. She’s 95 years old. I get to talk to her every once in a while. She’s in a home. She still remembers her son, which is good, and I see that gleam in her eyes at 95 years old, which is good. I have a lot of my mom in me, to be quite honest, and it’s good to see her.”
“Much improved football team. They beat Oregon, they (Oregon) were ranked ninth. That’s a big rivalry game for them, as well. They had Washington on the ropes, just couldn’t get it in there toward the end. So, they’ve been very competitive. [Head] Coach [Jonathan] Smith has done a marvelous job of really recruiting players that fit his style on offense and defense. Very, very complicated offense. We dealt with them last year. Multi-dimensional, lot of tight ends, lot of receivers, lot of motions. Lots of eye-candy for defense. It can get you in some bad situations if you don’t read your keys. They have a nice running attack, have a quarterback now who’s installed in the lineup and it seems like he’s starting to get confident in what he’s asked to do. Defensively, they improved. They’re a solid defense, don’t make a lot of mistakes. They have some pretty good players in the secondary, good linebacking crew. This is a team that, every year, seems to get more talent. Now, they’re under the coach's watch and he’s starting to develop a good program.”
On having a road game, what it means to seniors
“You always feel bad for the seniors. But, that’s just part of what we’re dealing with. Every program right now, nothing is written in pen. I would say everything this year is written in pencil because you might have to erase it and change. You have to deal with change, have to deal with -- all of a sudden, you’re headed in one direction and it could change. We all knew that when this season got started. The virus obviously has a lot to do with it. You can see, there’s already been some cancellations in our conference. I think last week was actually the first week that everyone actually played. This week, we have a cancellation already. You just deal with the cards you’re dealt with, and you don’t make a big deal out of it; I’ve never done that. We’ll get ready to play and prepare to play and try to go win us a football game.”
On looking to reach a certain number of points against Arizona
“No, no, no, no. I don’t believe in that. I’m not that guy. We threw 13 passes. We were trying to run the football. If you watched us play, I made sure to take the clock down to five seconds before we hiked it on offense. I was playing against the clock, was trying to get players out of there, trying to get our players out of there healthy, as well as our opponent healthy, get them out of there. Also, to allow young players to play. Jackson He got a lot of attention and rightly so. A lot of the kids played. We had other walk-on guys that played, as well. It wasn’t just Jackson He.”
On playing 61 student-athletes against Arizona
“Sixty-one players played in this football game. As a coach, when you get in a game like this, you realize that all of these guys -- scholarship players, along with some walkons -- have not played a lot. We wanted to give them an opportunity to play. We were fortunate enough with where the game was at, that’s what we were trying to do, to be quite honest.”
On the progression of defense this season
“They’re starting to understand what’s required, and I think it’s on both sides of the ball. If you think about it, we’ve only played three games. That’s why you have spring ball, it’s why you have a 12-game season, so maybe your first three games aren’t against Pac-12 opponents where you can grow as a team, especially on offense and defense. I think our games have been under the spotlight of playing in conference, against conference opponents. It’s been tough, but it’s been good, too. You watch a lot of guys develop. We can’t wait until spring ball starts. Then we’ve had a four-game season, or whatever the season ends up being, under our belt and we can build on that going forward. It’s been fun to watch guys start to understand what’s required of them.”
On the biggest area of improvement so far
“I think our ability to pay attention to the details of what’s required, in all three phases. I’ll always say, it’s never about the opponent so much. It’s about ourselves. What do we do to better ourselves? And how complete can we be in all three phases of football? That’s the key to football. The more you play, the more you have experience of the competition and how players function competing against an opponent. I think this is good for us because we can build on this going into the spring, that we’ll get four, or however many games we get in as I said earlier, and find out a lot about some of the young guys. I think some of the young guys in this game played better. They played better than the USC game. If you just watched us play the last three games, we had a lot of young players play, especially at the receiver position. Now, I say that and we only threw the ball 13 times. But their effort, the blocking part of it, Johnny [Wilson] made some catches. We saw some guys all of a sudden who are kind of growing up, which is what you want. Same way on defense. A lot of young players on defense, especially in the secondary, and the linebacker position -- a lot of young guys played. Those are valuable reps, believe it or not.”
On relaying the message that there’s still work to be done after a big win
“There’s a lot of things to work on. We’re nowhere close to where we want to be. This was the first time for a lot of these freshmen kids who are in our program to have actually won a college game. It was hard. This was their first win. How they use it will be interesting this week, and how they come to work this week. They’re going to think that they actually didn’t win when I get through talking with them tomorrow. There’s gotta be a tone set, and I think it’s important that we try to win another game. All of a sudden, you win two in a row -- that would be a good thing for us this year.”
On the freshmen learning from adversity
“I think on both sides of the ball, and even special teams, a lot of young guys were getting to play, and that’s vital for our program. You have to grow them up. The only way they learn is to play. You always promise players are going to get an opportunity. This game, it kind of unfolded where we could get a lot of players playing time. The coaches made sure they were in the game. There were so many of them in the game, I couldn’t keep up with everybody until I actually watched the tape and got the snap count of a lot of guys. The young offensive lineman, there’s a group of kids there who haven’t played a lot here. They’ve played on special teams, PATs and stuff like that, but we got them in the game. They played 15, almost 20 plays, some of those guys. That was good. That was their first time playing in a football game. Same way on defense, at numerous positions. I think that’s always good when you get the young kids in there to play.”
On building players off the field during adverse times
“I think what you value in life is important, and your purpose. I think when that gets disrupted, you have to check yourself and say, ‘How am I going to deal with all of this?’ I’ve said this numerous times with you folks, this is unprecedented for all of us, for everybody. Whatever job title you hold and whatever you do, this has been unprecedented. I think for a lot of us, we learned a lot about ourselves and the people we surround ourselves with and the people we work with and we associate with. We find out a lot. Since March 8, we have found out a lot about who we are and how we handle something like this, that we had no idea that right now in December, a week away before Christmas, we would still be dealing with this. So, I think as the calendar switches and the new year comes in place, there is hope that we’re going to be on the backside of this eventually. When we start next year, when the season starts, we won’t have this discussion. You folks will be sitting in this room and I’ll have the ability to talk to you. But, I think we all have to really look at ourselves and look at our lives and say, ‘What did I learn about myself going through this?’”
On what he focused on when watching film from Arizona
“It was really highlighting a lot of the young guys who got an opportunity to play. That’s what I did. I highlighted some plays on offense, defense and special teams of young guys playing and contributing and finally getting an opportunity to play. It was big for a lot of these guys. As I said, Jackson He is the guy who’s getting all the publicity right now, and rightly so. I understand why. But, there were a handful of walk-on guys who played on both sides of the play, who are not on scholarship. The quarterback, a back-up quarterback on scholarship, played. There were some receivers, some other guys, offensive linemen, defensive players in there, too. They got to play, and that was kind of fun to watch them play. The excitement they had of playing the game -- Jackson was the one who got the game ball and all that and he was interviewed. The rest of those kids weren’t interviewed. But, I tell you what, there were some memories made for them. I don’t know if they’re going to play again, but we had an opportunity to get them in the game and I can’t thank my coaches enough for realizing that we needed to get those guys in the game. They’ll remember that. When it’s 20 years from now, they’ll remember that. I promise you, they will.”
On impact of first-year defensive line coach Robert Rodriguez
“He’s been very good as far as the fundamentals go and what’s required. Obviously, we changed our front. We went to a four-man front. It’s going to be interesting going forward in the spring and then when we get the recruiting class we have that hopefully we will get to watch that develop, to watch that line continue to develop with some more talented players. It’s going to be fun. It’s a four-man front, it’s something I’m used to, something Marvin [Lewis] is used to, as well as AP [Antonio Pierce]. Not that our defense before wasn’t very good, it was. [Former defensive coordinator] Danny [Gonzales] and those guys did a fabulous job. But, now we’ve gone to more of a four-man front. You saw that in the bowl game last year against Florida State; we played more of a four-man front, knowing we might be headed that way. So, it’s going to be interesting to watch those guys grow.”
On potentially playing in a bowl game this season
“That’s a possibility. There’s a possibility of that. We’ll just see where that goes. We’ll see where that stands with us.”
On what he’s learned about himself this year
“Probably something I already knew about myself: that I consider myself a guy that has a positive attitude and I always rely on hope. That’s kind of how I live my life. I always lived it that way. I learned it from my parents, from what they had to go through from when they were growing up, especially my mom. My father is no longer here, but my mom is still with us. She’s 95 years old. I get to talk to her every once in a while. She’s in a home. She still remembers her son, which is good, and I see that gleam in her eyes at 95 years old, which is good. I have a lot of my mom in me, to be quite honest, and it’s good to see her.”