OPENING STATEMENT:
Oregon State is a team that is vastly improved from last year. If you remember last year’s game, the score 52-24, did not reflect what happened in that football game. They (Oregon State) rushed the ball 53 times for 261 yards and we rushed it 48 times for 326 yards. Sometimes, we forget about that type of stuff. We both had a day running the football. There were only 24 passes by them and 25 for us. We were able to get some stops. We did not turn the ball over. They had one turnover. We only had one penalty. We played a pretty clean game, but they were able to run the football. They ran the ball very well against us. When you watch them on tape, they are balanced. They have a good offense and Coach (Jonathan) Smith does a great job at calling plays. So, we have to be prepared for that. Defensively, they have improved some. They played Washington pretty tough to be quite honest. They did a nice job at slowing that offense down. We know we will have our work cut out for us. I talked a lot to our team about not self-destructing and getting behind early. If you look at the four games that we have lost, the score in the first quarter has been 56-14. We have not scored a lot of points in the first quarter. We were down to USC 28-7. We were down to UCLA 14-7. We were down to Colorado 14-0. Utah was tied at 0 after the first quarter, but the total amount of first-quarter scores is 57-14. So, we have gotten down early in some games and we have had to fight our way back. Those are the four that we have lost so far. It is the same pattern. That and self-destructing are hurting us. The Sun Devils are beating the Sun Devils. We had nine fouls in the last game. That kills or continues drives. We had five dropped passes and some of them were critical in big moments. We had three turnovers that killed drives. We had some missed kicks including an extra point and we kicked the ball out of bounds on a kickoff. So, we have to get back to the details, focus on our jobs, and do it better. If we do that, then we will have a chance to win a football game.”
ON METHODOLOGY TO FIXING PROBLEMS:
“It is repetition and paying attention to alignment and assignment. Earlier in the game, we had some secondary breakdowns. We got those critical errors fixed after the first quarter. We seemed to settle down and get going. A lot of it is youth. If it happens at the back end of your defense, then you have a problem because you then would give up a score. It is not like it happens in the front where someone can make a tackle and get you out of a bad play. That happened in the back end numbers times. The only thing you can do is continue to coach them. The more experience they get, the more confidence they will get hopefully. That is what we have to do. We can not allow the big explosion plays or the continuation of drives. We have been scored on early in games defensively. All of a sudden, our offense is playing uphill. I think their (USC's) first score took six or seven minutes off the clock. We took three plays, so we just took one minute and then we were off. Them, it is 14-0. When you try to correct it, it is 21-0 again when you look up at the clock. It gets away from you. We tried to settle down a bit. We found our way and made it a competitive game again. But, it was too late. You cannot play football that way. It is too hard to win.”
ON JAYDEN DANIELS INJURY UPDATE:
"I am hoping that he can get through practice. Last week, he practiced a little bit, but he could not quite get through it. So, we will see this week where he is at. Hopefully, he can make it through practice and if he can, then that would be a good sign for us. That would mean he has a good chance to play.”
ON PROGRESS FROM YEAR ONE TO YEAR TWO FROM KEY DEFENSIVE PLAYERS:
“Not as explosive. They need to play better to be quite honest. Your good players need to play well and make plays for you. They are close, but again there are expectations now. Last year, nothing was expected out of those freshmen. They did some things and now they have to live up to that. Learning how to do that is a new thing for guys too at a different level. They are not the best player on the field, like in high school. They are now playing against really good players. We have some of that going on too. All of that is a part of it, such as youth and experience. Like pro football, I always say the second year is the key year, not your first year. I experienced that as a second-year guy. I started my rookie year and no one expected anything. I got six interceptions in 14 games. Everybody was intrigued. During my second year, my dad died, so that was something that I was dealing with early. All of a sudden about halfway through the season, I found out that about halfway through the season I was not the same guy. I fought my way out of it and I got seven interceptions. I understand that because I went through it. It is a part of the growing process. You cannot rush it. Every guy is different. It is not an excuse. It is just reality. It is like when you first take your job, the first year is always exciting because people do not have expectations because you are young. Going into the next year, you have to meet standards. It is no different in sports. It is not one or two guys. The problem for us is that it is 3/4 of our football team. You cannot get mad at the players because I get it. I was a player. You cannot rush them through it. They all find a way to figure it out. When they do that, we will have a chance to be a good football team. But, we have to live with that right now.”
ON CONCERN WITH DEFENSE IN FIRST QUARTER:
“I do not think it is effort or game plan. I think it is just a lack of focus at times because we did not change the game plan after the first quarter. I scratched my head thinking about what we did wrong in the first quarter, then we gave up just three points. We were playing the same offense with the same players. I do not know what happened during the first quarter. When you play Cover 2, that is about as basic as it gets. That is two guys deep and you should avoid giving up the deep ball. We might have set a college record for giving up a 95-yard catch against Cover 2. You have two guys deep and one of their (USC) guys running through us. You would think that should be an interception, but it was a touchdown. When you are supposed to have the running back and he goes into the flat, then they should go cover the running back. Their running back caught the ball and ran up the boundary. I do not know if it is a game plan. I just think it is maybe about guys trying to do too much or trying to make a play rather than just playing the defense fundamentally. If we do that, we have a chance at being successful. If not, then errors happen.”
ON SPECIAL MEANING OF VETERAN’S DAY:
“Today has a special meaning. It is a special day for all of those who have served our country both men and women. You can never thank them enough for their service. Freedom is never free. You do not realize that sometimes. I learned that from my dad. It is a special day for me. I have a lot of memories when this day hits every year.”
ON COMFORT LEVEL WITH JOEY YELLEN:
“For me, it was no different than the other 20 guys that play. He was playing quarterback. I did not bother him all week. I waited until game day and went up to him in the locker room. I could tell he was waiting for some type of big speech. I just told him to have fun and go sling the football around. He smiled back at me. He did a great job. He was not perfect, but we were not as perfect as a team. I think to be put in that situation to be playing against a talented defense for the first time was impressive. He threw four touchdown passes and you cannot ask a kid to do more than that. I thought the team rallied around him. They did a good job. USC had a high sack total coming into this game. After the first sack, he (Joey Yellen) stood in the pocket and threw it. We moved him out a couple of times and got him on the perimeter with some bootlegs. That is what he does well. He feels the pocket, knows how to move in the pocket, and he made some nice throws. I think it shocked everybody that he threw the ball downfield as much as he did. When he sees press coverage, I told him to just chuck it. The first two plays he chucked it. The problem was that one minute came off the clock with three passing plays. He ended up finding his way and he did a pretty good job for us. He had a chance at the end, we just fell a little short."
ON ENO BENJAMIN FUMBLING:
“I think the one hit was right on the ball. When he went into the guy, he led with the shoulder that he is carrying the ball and Eno (Benjamin) is not a fumbler by any stretch of the imagination. He had not fumbled the ball at all the year before that, I don’t think. This year it has happened to come out a couple of times. I am pretty sure he will secure it and probably at times because he fights so much for yardage when he gets hit. Here is the problem when you fumble it, the word gets out and defenses come now, they are coming to attack the ball. That is what they do and it is no different at any level. You see that on tape, your coaches are saying, ‘Just go after the ball, just go after the ball.’ Eno always fights for extra yards but he is not a fumbler and we have to get him the ball when we can. He had a big day against these guys (Oregon St.) last year and their defense is probably talking about that. They don’t want that to happen but they are going to have a big day against us too. It was a game that, it was some scoring in it but there was a lot of running in it. When you think about it, no one anticipated that both teams could run the ball that many times and they did, they did as well as us.”
ON MISSED OPPORTUNITIES:
“Ball on the ground, missed opportunities. As I stated, five dropped-balls in that game, which you have to catch, you have to catch the ball and you can’t drop it. In big moments, I think on the last drive we dropped a couple. If we catch them, if we catch one of them early in the drive, we are on the 50 (yard-line) with three minutes left. We had lots of time, the time wasn’t a factor, in college football. You make a first down and the clock stops, we had 3:36 left. To me it was okay, let me use my timeouts now. Because I know what they were going to do, they are running the clock down when they had the ball. That is what I am going to do, I am going to run it down as much as I can to get as much time off the clock. It is not like pro-football where first downs do not matter, you have to get out of bounds. In college, you stop the clock every time you make a first down and if you get past the 50, at that point you can clock it every time you make a first down or second down to stop the clock. We had plenty of time, we dropped some balls that we have to catch. The guys feel bad about dropping them, I get it, but we have to catch them in those moments.”
ON IF THE TEAM GOT MORE COMFORTABLE WITH JOEY YELLEN AS THE GAME WENT ON:
“I think the players are very confident in Joey (Yellen). Joey, you don’t see it a lot but he’s got a really good personality. Peyton Manning, that is kind of his idol. He has mannerisms like Peyton Manning, he does. If you watch Peyton Manning and you watch Joey, he has gone to all of his clinics and all of that stuff. He has the mannerisms, patting his feet in the pocket and he throws the pass. Peyton Manning used to pull up his sleeves, he does that. He kind of mimics him and our Fridays we have our canon camera deal, we always do things on Fridays. We get about eight players and we have a canon camera and we have fun with it and I showed Peyton Manning in games. Then I showed Joey in practice doing it, the players were like dang. He wears #18 like Peyton Manning, that is his guy. He studied him and he has gone to his camps and all of sudden he comes in the game, the first play he is chucking it. I said he does think he is Peyton Manning, you have to be kidding me. He chucks the first one, he sees man coverage, press coverage and I am not like no he didn’t. He goes he’s open, I am going to throw it deep, I said good for you son. He throws one down the rail, I go, “Oh well, he is not afraid.” He just throws it, it is okay.”
ON HOW GOOD YELLEN THROWS THE BALL AND BUILDING A PROGRAM STARTING WITH THE QB POSITION:
“Yes, [I’m] answering the second question first. Exactly, because when you feel like you have a quarterback, you can build your team around that. We are still some pieces away but that comes in recruiting and there were a lot of recruits here this weekend. We hosted a bunch of them and I think we had some good vibes going in some of these kids. Joey (Yellen) has a nice feel, some guys can throw the long ball very well and Joey has a catchable longball where he puts enough air on it where guys can go and make a play. Especially when they are in man coverage with their backs turned away. I told them when he threw the interception, as soon as he came off the field, I said Joey. He says yeah coach, I did not look him off, I said you have to look the safety off. He said this too which did not surprise me, ‘Those guys are pretty fast.” I said, ‘Yeah they are fast,’ because of the speed of the game, he had not played in a real game. It’s practice but he hadn’t played in a real game and the speed of the game gets everybody when they first go in the game. So that caught him a little bit by surprise, the safety made the play. But after that, he did a nice job of looking him off and throwing the ball. He is a quick learner, he’s a quick learner and he’s got some talent, now. He has football talent, he throws a nice-catchable ball. The moment wasn’t too big for him and I don’t think anyone felt that, I had no anxiety about how he was going to play, I really didn’t. I just said he was going to be okay because I trust the players, I just do. You have to go play man and he did a pretty good job of playing football for us.”
ON EVALUATION OF RUNNING GAME:
“It has been a little bit inconsistent for the most part. Even that game, we had some flashes of making some yards. The problem is that we have gotten behind and that is always a cause for concern. This game we kind of caught up after the first quarter, we held them. You’re behind and now you are trying to score and people come in, rightly so. We have Joey, who hasn’t played quarterback yet and you are USC, what are you going to do? You are going to stack the box, you are going to say this freshman quarterback (Yellen) has never played a game, why wouldn’t we stop Eno (Benjamin)? Eno, I told him that in the off-season. I said Eno, the likelihood of a freshman quarterback playing is high. I said you have to realize that they are going to put eight guys in that box until that quarterback can beat them. I said here is the next problem, I did not know this but after week two I said now you have a left-tackle and a right-guard that are freshmen, too. We were fortunate last year when we got into the program, we went and got two veteran players, we got Casey from Stanford, played tackle. We got Roy (Hemsley), we had an experienced offensive line. Now we don’t, we don’t have that same experience, we have two younger players playing. That puts a burden on everybody and that is apart of the process and you know it. There is no other guy, those are the guys we are playing. Roy is kind of playing all over the place, it is good to have him because he can give guys relief every once in a while. Eno knew that coming in and I told him that it was going to be hard, man. It is no one’s fault but that is kind of where we are at right now as a team because that is what we are trying to build. Last year was different, when I came in I said we have to get an offensive line. We have to go forward, we are looking for some older players because the guys we are bringing. We are bringing in some more freshmen offensive linemen, but they are freshmen. We need some guys that have played and that is why, I hate to say it, Mr. [Transfer] portal or grad transfers. Are we looking for guys? We are looking for guys, I will say that right now we are looking for guys because what we have is a bunch of young guys. We have freshman right now that are not playing but they haven’t played either. It is not like we have this abundance of offensive linemen, I said it on the field during the game to somebody reporting. At halftime I said I have no pass-rusher, I am looking for a pass-rusher, too. If you find one, send them here. I am not kidding, you guys watch us play. Danny (Gonzalez) is doing everything he can to generate a rush but you need a guy. The whole defense changes when it hits one guy, I watched a little pro game every once in a while, I watch the Vikings. (John) Lynch is a good friend of mine. You know the (John) Lynch story, I look at his defensive line, all first-round picks. When you can rush four guys and you can make the quarterback go, ‘oh.’ It is a difference playing defense, I am not making excuses, I am just telling you where we are at. They don’t appear, you just don’t find them. Everybody wants these same guys, we are all recruiting the same kind of guys but we have to get a couple of those guys because then you are different. You look at the teams we have played, look at Utah, they rushed four guys and the quarterback is like I have to get the ball out because they are coming. You just watch it, I watch Washington, they have some guys too that come off the edge and rush. That is what you have to have at any level, you have to have a guy that can affect the quarterback and we have to find some guys like that and we will.”
ON ISAIAH HODGINS:
“He is a good player he played last year, got hurt, he pulled his hamstring I think in the first quarter. He caught a nice seam ball on us and they do a nice job with him, they get him the ball a lot. They have a nice passing attack, very balanced offense they know how to attack you. He is a big receiver, he is about 6’3-205, somewhere around there. [He] runs good, good hands, he is a handful, now. They are going to throw him some balls, some jump balls. He’s got I think 12 touchdowns, somewhere right around in there I believe. He is a good player and they have two good runners, they run the ball, they are a very balanced offense.”
Oregon State is a team that is vastly improved from last year. If you remember last year’s game, the score 52-24, did not reflect what happened in that football game. They (Oregon State) rushed the ball 53 times for 261 yards and we rushed it 48 times for 326 yards. Sometimes, we forget about that type of stuff. We both had a day running the football. There were only 24 passes by them and 25 for us. We were able to get some stops. We did not turn the ball over. They had one turnover. We only had one penalty. We played a pretty clean game, but they were able to run the football. They ran the ball very well against us. When you watch them on tape, they are balanced. They have a good offense and Coach (Jonathan) Smith does a great job at calling plays. So, we have to be prepared for that. Defensively, they have improved some. They played Washington pretty tough to be quite honest. They did a nice job at slowing that offense down. We know we will have our work cut out for us. I talked a lot to our team about not self-destructing and getting behind early. If you look at the four games that we have lost, the score in the first quarter has been 56-14. We have not scored a lot of points in the first quarter. We were down to USC 28-7. We were down to UCLA 14-7. We were down to Colorado 14-0. Utah was tied at 0 after the first quarter, but the total amount of first-quarter scores is 57-14. So, we have gotten down early in some games and we have had to fight our way back. Those are the four that we have lost so far. It is the same pattern. That and self-destructing are hurting us. The Sun Devils are beating the Sun Devils. We had nine fouls in the last game. That kills or continues drives. We had five dropped passes and some of them were critical in big moments. We had three turnovers that killed drives. We had some missed kicks including an extra point and we kicked the ball out of bounds on a kickoff. So, we have to get back to the details, focus on our jobs, and do it better. If we do that, then we will have a chance to win a football game.”
ON METHODOLOGY TO FIXING PROBLEMS:
“It is repetition and paying attention to alignment and assignment. Earlier in the game, we had some secondary breakdowns. We got those critical errors fixed after the first quarter. We seemed to settle down and get going. A lot of it is youth. If it happens at the back end of your defense, then you have a problem because you then would give up a score. It is not like it happens in the front where someone can make a tackle and get you out of a bad play. That happened in the back end numbers times. The only thing you can do is continue to coach them. The more experience they get, the more confidence they will get hopefully. That is what we have to do. We can not allow the big explosion plays or the continuation of drives. We have been scored on early in games defensively. All of a sudden, our offense is playing uphill. I think their (USC's) first score took six or seven minutes off the clock. We took three plays, so we just took one minute and then we were off. Them, it is 14-0. When you try to correct it, it is 21-0 again when you look up at the clock. It gets away from you. We tried to settle down a bit. We found our way and made it a competitive game again. But, it was too late. You cannot play football that way. It is too hard to win.”
ON JAYDEN DANIELS INJURY UPDATE:
"I am hoping that he can get through practice. Last week, he practiced a little bit, but he could not quite get through it. So, we will see this week where he is at. Hopefully, he can make it through practice and if he can, then that would be a good sign for us. That would mean he has a good chance to play.”
ON PROGRESS FROM YEAR ONE TO YEAR TWO FROM KEY DEFENSIVE PLAYERS:
“Not as explosive. They need to play better to be quite honest. Your good players need to play well and make plays for you. They are close, but again there are expectations now. Last year, nothing was expected out of those freshmen. They did some things and now they have to live up to that. Learning how to do that is a new thing for guys too at a different level. They are not the best player on the field, like in high school. They are now playing against really good players. We have some of that going on too. All of that is a part of it, such as youth and experience. Like pro football, I always say the second year is the key year, not your first year. I experienced that as a second-year guy. I started my rookie year and no one expected anything. I got six interceptions in 14 games. Everybody was intrigued. During my second year, my dad died, so that was something that I was dealing with early. All of a sudden about halfway through the season, I found out that about halfway through the season I was not the same guy. I fought my way out of it and I got seven interceptions. I understand that because I went through it. It is a part of the growing process. You cannot rush it. Every guy is different. It is not an excuse. It is just reality. It is like when you first take your job, the first year is always exciting because people do not have expectations because you are young. Going into the next year, you have to meet standards. It is no different in sports. It is not one or two guys. The problem for us is that it is 3/4 of our football team. You cannot get mad at the players because I get it. I was a player. You cannot rush them through it. They all find a way to figure it out. When they do that, we will have a chance to be a good football team. But, we have to live with that right now.”
ON CONCERN WITH DEFENSE IN FIRST QUARTER:
“I do not think it is effort or game plan. I think it is just a lack of focus at times because we did not change the game plan after the first quarter. I scratched my head thinking about what we did wrong in the first quarter, then we gave up just three points. We were playing the same offense with the same players. I do not know what happened during the first quarter. When you play Cover 2, that is about as basic as it gets. That is two guys deep and you should avoid giving up the deep ball. We might have set a college record for giving up a 95-yard catch against Cover 2. You have two guys deep and one of their (USC) guys running through us. You would think that should be an interception, but it was a touchdown. When you are supposed to have the running back and he goes into the flat, then they should go cover the running back. Their running back caught the ball and ran up the boundary. I do not know if it is a game plan. I just think it is maybe about guys trying to do too much or trying to make a play rather than just playing the defense fundamentally. If we do that, we have a chance at being successful. If not, then errors happen.”
ON SPECIAL MEANING OF VETERAN’S DAY:
“Today has a special meaning. It is a special day for all of those who have served our country both men and women. You can never thank them enough for their service. Freedom is never free. You do not realize that sometimes. I learned that from my dad. It is a special day for me. I have a lot of memories when this day hits every year.”
ON COMFORT LEVEL WITH JOEY YELLEN:
“For me, it was no different than the other 20 guys that play. He was playing quarterback. I did not bother him all week. I waited until game day and went up to him in the locker room. I could tell he was waiting for some type of big speech. I just told him to have fun and go sling the football around. He smiled back at me. He did a great job. He was not perfect, but we were not as perfect as a team. I think to be put in that situation to be playing against a talented defense for the first time was impressive. He threw four touchdown passes and you cannot ask a kid to do more than that. I thought the team rallied around him. They did a good job. USC had a high sack total coming into this game. After the first sack, he (Joey Yellen) stood in the pocket and threw it. We moved him out a couple of times and got him on the perimeter with some bootlegs. That is what he does well. He feels the pocket, knows how to move in the pocket, and he made some nice throws. I think it shocked everybody that he threw the ball downfield as much as he did. When he sees press coverage, I told him to just chuck it. The first two plays he chucked it. The problem was that one minute came off the clock with three passing plays. He ended up finding his way and he did a pretty good job for us. He had a chance at the end, we just fell a little short."
ON ENO BENJAMIN FUMBLING:
“I think the one hit was right on the ball. When he went into the guy, he led with the shoulder that he is carrying the ball and Eno (Benjamin) is not a fumbler by any stretch of the imagination. He had not fumbled the ball at all the year before that, I don’t think. This year it has happened to come out a couple of times. I am pretty sure he will secure it and probably at times because he fights so much for yardage when he gets hit. Here is the problem when you fumble it, the word gets out and defenses come now, they are coming to attack the ball. That is what they do and it is no different at any level. You see that on tape, your coaches are saying, ‘Just go after the ball, just go after the ball.’ Eno always fights for extra yards but he is not a fumbler and we have to get him the ball when we can. He had a big day against these guys (Oregon St.) last year and their defense is probably talking about that. They don’t want that to happen but they are going to have a big day against us too. It was a game that, it was some scoring in it but there was a lot of running in it. When you think about it, no one anticipated that both teams could run the ball that many times and they did, they did as well as us.”
ON MISSED OPPORTUNITIES:
“Ball on the ground, missed opportunities. As I stated, five dropped-balls in that game, which you have to catch, you have to catch the ball and you can’t drop it. In big moments, I think on the last drive we dropped a couple. If we catch them, if we catch one of them early in the drive, we are on the 50 (yard-line) with three minutes left. We had lots of time, the time wasn’t a factor, in college football. You make a first down and the clock stops, we had 3:36 left. To me it was okay, let me use my timeouts now. Because I know what they were going to do, they are running the clock down when they had the ball. That is what I am going to do, I am going to run it down as much as I can to get as much time off the clock. It is not like pro-football where first downs do not matter, you have to get out of bounds. In college, you stop the clock every time you make a first down and if you get past the 50, at that point you can clock it every time you make a first down or second down to stop the clock. We had plenty of time, we dropped some balls that we have to catch. The guys feel bad about dropping them, I get it, but we have to catch them in those moments.”
ON IF THE TEAM GOT MORE COMFORTABLE WITH JOEY YELLEN AS THE GAME WENT ON:
“I think the players are very confident in Joey (Yellen). Joey, you don’t see it a lot but he’s got a really good personality. Peyton Manning, that is kind of his idol. He has mannerisms like Peyton Manning, he does. If you watch Peyton Manning and you watch Joey, he has gone to all of his clinics and all of that stuff. He has the mannerisms, patting his feet in the pocket and he throws the pass. Peyton Manning used to pull up his sleeves, he does that. He kind of mimics him and our Fridays we have our canon camera deal, we always do things on Fridays. We get about eight players and we have a canon camera and we have fun with it and I showed Peyton Manning in games. Then I showed Joey in practice doing it, the players were like dang. He wears #18 like Peyton Manning, that is his guy. He studied him and he has gone to his camps and all of sudden he comes in the game, the first play he is chucking it. I said he does think he is Peyton Manning, you have to be kidding me. He chucks the first one, he sees man coverage, press coverage and I am not like no he didn’t. He goes he’s open, I am going to throw it deep, I said good for you son. He throws one down the rail, I go, “Oh well, he is not afraid.” He just throws it, it is okay.”
ON HOW GOOD YELLEN THROWS THE BALL AND BUILDING A PROGRAM STARTING WITH THE QB POSITION:
“Yes, [I’m] answering the second question first. Exactly, because when you feel like you have a quarterback, you can build your team around that. We are still some pieces away but that comes in recruiting and there were a lot of recruits here this weekend. We hosted a bunch of them and I think we had some good vibes going in some of these kids. Joey (Yellen) has a nice feel, some guys can throw the long ball very well and Joey has a catchable longball where he puts enough air on it where guys can go and make a play. Especially when they are in man coverage with their backs turned away. I told them when he threw the interception, as soon as he came off the field, I said Joey. He says yeah coach, I did not look him off, I said you have to look the safety off. He said this too which did not surprise me, ‘Those guys are pretty fast.” I said, ‘Yeah they are fast,’ because of the speed of the game, he had not played in a real game. It’s practice but he hadn’t played in a real game and the speed of the game gets everybody when they first go in the game. So that caught him a little bit by surprise, the safety made the play. But after that, he did a nice job of looking him off and throwing the ball. He is a quick learner, he’s a quick learner and he’s got some talent, now. He has football talent, he throws a nice-catchable ball. The moment wasn’t too big for him and I don’t think anyone felt that, I had no anxiety about how he was going to play, I really didn’t. I just said he was going to be okay because I trust the players, I just do. You have to go play man and he did a pretty good job of playing football for us.”
ON EVALUATION OF RUNNING GAME:
“It has been a little bit inconsistent for the most part. Even that game, we had some flashes of making some yards. The problem is that we have gotten behind and that is always a cause for concern. This game we kind of caught up after the first quarter, we held them. You’re behind and now you are trying to score and people come in, rightly so. We have Joey, who hasn’t played quarterback yet and you are USC, what are you going to do? You are going to stack the box, you are going to say this freshman quarterback (Yellen) has never played a game, why wouldn’t we stop Eno (Benjamin)? Eno, I told him that in the off-season. I said Eno, the likelihood of a freshman quarterback playing is high. I said you have to realize that they are going to put eight guys in that box until that quarterback can beat them. I said here is the next problem, I did not know this but after week two I said now you have a left-tackle and a right-guard that are freshmen, too. We were fortunate last year when we got into the program, we went and got two veteran players, we got Casey from Stanford, played tackle. We got Roy (Hemsley), we had an experienced offensive line. Now we don’t, we don’t have that same experience, we have two younger players playing. That puts a burden on everybody and that is apart of the process and you know it. There is no other guy, those are the guys we are playing. Roy is kind of playing all over the place, it is good to have him because he can give guys relief every once in a while. Eno knew that coming in and I told him that it was going to be hard, man. It is no one’s fault but that is kind of where we are at right now as a team because that is what we are trying to build. Last year was different, when I came in I said we have to get an offensive line. We have to go forward, we are looking for some older players because the guys we are bringing. We are bringing in some more freshmen offensive linemen, but they are freshmen. We need some guys that have played and that is why, I hate to say it, Mr. [Transfer] portal or grad transfers. Are we looking for guys? We are looking for guys, I will say that right now we are looking for guys because what we have is a bunch of young guys. We have freshman right now that are not playing but they haven’t played either. It is not like we have this abundance of offensive linemen, I said it on the field during the game to somebody reporting. At halftime I said I have no pass-rusher, I am looking for a pass-rusher, too. If you find one, send them here. I am not kidding, you guys watch us play. Danny (Gonzalez) is doing everything he can to generate a rush but you need a guy. The whole defense changes when it hits one guy, I watched a little pro game every once in a while, I watch the Vikings. (John) Lynch is a good friend of mine. You know the (John) Lynch story, I look at his defensive line, all first-round picks. When you can rush four guys and you can make the quarterback go, ‘oh.’ It is a difference playing defense, I am not making excuses, I am just telling you where we are at. They don’t appear, you just don’t find them. Everybody wants these same guys, we are all recruiting the same kind of guys but we have to get a couple of those guys because then you are different. You look at the teams we have played, look at Utah, they rushed four guys and the quarterback is like I have to get the ball out because they are coming. You just watch it, I watch Washington, they have some guys too that come off the edge and rush. That is what you have to have at any level, you have to have a guy that can affect the quarterback and we have to find some guys like that and we will.”
ON ISAIAH HODGINS:
“He is a good player he played last year, got hurt, he pulled his hamstring I think in the first quarter. He caught a nice seam ball on us and they do a nice job with him, they get him the ball a lot. They have a nice passing attack, very balanced offense they know how to attack you. He is a big receiver, he is about 6’3-205, somewhere around there. [He] runs good, good hands, he is a handful, now. They are going to throw him some balls, some jump balls. He’s got I think 12 touchdowns, somewhere right around in there I believe. He is a good player and they have two good runners, they run the ball, they are a very balanced offense.”