OPENING STATEMENT
"Coming off a bye, there is a lot of work that needs to be done. We have USC this week. They are a very talented football team on both sides. When you watch tape, it stands out. They had a tough game against Oregon. It was a very competitive game and then Oregon pulled away at the end. This is probably the most talented receivers that we have faced as a core thus far. They are big, physical, and they can run. They catch a lot of the 50-50 balls, they throw the football up in the air. They did not run it as much against Oregon as much as they would have liked. They had 57 passes and only 25 runs. With that being said, they are a very potent offense. Their young quarterback (Kedon Slovis) is doing a nice job for them, they have a talented offensive line, and their defense is fast. So, we will have our hands full. We need to understand that they will be coming in off a tough loss. We had a pretty bad loss too so this is a game that we should be mentally and emotionally be ready to play for."
"Coming off a bye, there is a lot of work that needs to be done. We have USC this week. They are a very talented football team on both sides. When you watch tape, it stands out. They had a tough game against Oregon. It was a very competitive game and then Oregon pulled away at the end. This is probably the most talented receivers that we have faced as a core thus far. They are big, physical, and they can run. They catch a lot of the 50-50 balls, they throw the football up in the air. They did not run it as much against Oregon as much as they would have liked. They had 57 passes and only 25 runs. With that being said, they are a very potent offense. Their young quarterback (Kedon Slovis) is doing a nice job for them, they have a talented offensive line, and their defense is fast. So, we will have our hands full. We need to understand that they will be coming in off a tough loss. We had a pretty bad loss too so this is a game that we should be mentally and emotionally be ready to play for."
ON EMOTIONS OF TEAM HEADING INTO THIS GAME:
"Anytime you play an opponent like USC, you understand how difficult it is with the talent that they have. You have to be firing on all three phases, no different than last year, which was a 3-point game. That was a very competitive football game. For our young guys, they have never played USC. A lot of our kids are from Los Angeles as you know. This is a place that they grew up understanding the history and they will be able to play them. That will be fun to watch."
ON OPPONENTS AFFECTING THE FLOW OF THE GAME:
"I thought it was a game in which emotions got the better of us. I watched the USC-Oregon game and it was filled with emotion as well. There were 20 fouls for over 250 yards. Oregon had the better of it. They had 12 penalties for 157 yards. USC had 8 penalties for about 92 yards. A lot of those young people playing on the field played each other in high school. It gets to be that and you do not want the game to become that. It slows down the game and it makes things mushy when fouls are happening all the time. To be quite honest, we are not good enough to allow an extension of a drive or give a team an extra play or two because of a foul. We just are not good enough at this point. I do not know if any team is good enough to overcome that to be quite honest. We do not want to get into that. We have to stay away from that. We got into that against UCLA."
ON LACK OF SUCCESS ON 3RD AND SHORTS LATELY:
"I think when you become a little predictable on 3rd and shorts, people anticipate. So, they put seven guys in the box or not allow you to run through the A and B gaps. What are you going to do? Either you get the push or they get the push on you. It is just a matter of will when you go for 3rd and 1's or 4th and 1's if you are going to run the football. Can you get push or do they get push. If they beat you off the punch, they are in the backfield and you are not going to gain yards. It boils down to that. In the end, it is guy against guy. That is football. Can I knock a man off a spot when I have to? That is the same way for defense. Can I knock this guy off his spot and penetrate into the backfield. The runners are basically seven yards behind the line of scrimmage, they have to get a least five yards before they even get a yard. If you get penetration, it is very difficult. You saw that in the USC-Oregon game when Oregon tried to run it on the one and it was a loss of three yards because USC penetrated. Oregon is a pretty good football team too. It just happens that if they beat you inside the gap and they get a crease, then it will be a negative play."
ON POINT IN CAREER WHERE THIS SEASON NOW RESEMBLES:
"This is kind of Kansas City. We started a bunch of young guys. I always said that if we played college football, we would have the best college football team in America, but the problem was that we were playing pro football. You do not win a lot of games doing that. But, the difference is that we have a quarterback here. We did not have a starting quarterback in the lineup. We had a young guy who was a rookie. He did everything he could do to play, but we just could not score any points. It was very difficult. There field became very long. It was not a 100-yard field. That was hard. The defensive guys played hard, but eventually they wore down. If you get a couple of scores, then it becomes one of those games. That was kind of the same situation. We played is hard, but we just could not get over the hump. The quarterback is the key, it really is. When you have one, you feel like you can build your team around him. I think we have one. I think we can build our program around the guy we have. You guys have seen him play. We just have to get more pieces. We are not there yet. There is a process to it, you have to enjoy the journey through the process.The final result never shows up right away, you have to go through all of this stuff. When I took this job, I realized that. I did not come into this job blindfolded. I understood exactly what I needed to do - we all understood that. During my first year, we inherited some good offensive players, some veterans on the line, a veteran quarterback, an outstanding receiver, and a runner. All that was in place while we were trying to build a defense. During our second year, we decided that we were going to play a lot of young guys because we do not have any other options. You have to live with it and know that it in the end we will be a better football team. I have watched the teams in our conference that have done that. They go through it. Everyone goes through it. You just think it would not happen to us. It will happen to us. The key is that we have a quarterback. That is helpful and makes everybody feel a little bit better. Now, we need to build around him, so we can get better."
ON CONTAINING USC'S RECEIVERS:
"It is the ball that goes down the field and how many of those can we contest because they will through with tight coverage and figure that their guy will come down with the ball. This is no different last year when we had N'Keal (Harry). N'Keal would be covered, but he was not covered. I always told Manny (Wilkins) to just throw it to N'Keal (Harry) if you are stuck. We probably had about a 70% chance that he would catch it. That is what they are going to do. They (USC's receivers) might catch some, but we have to make some too.It has to be one of those types of deals and we have to be aware of that."
ON OFFENSIVE LINE HEADING INTO USC GAME:
"We have not had a break-loose running game. We have had some signs of it, but we have not been consistent with it. We ran it okay in Utah against a pretty good defense. We started out running the ball very good against UCLA then, I looked up and we were down 30 points. You can not run the ball anymore because you are playing catch-up. Now, we are playing these guys who are athletic and can play. I think you have to pick and choose what you want to do, you can not knock your head against a brick wall because you then get into a lot of three-and-outs and third and longs. We do not want to be in 3rd and longs against this football team because they can rush you with four guys and they play tight, man-to-man coverage. We want to stay out of those situations because that is not good for the quarterback."
ON KEEPING PLAYERS FOCUSED ON NOW, RATHER THAN FOCUSING ON INDIVIDUAL FUTURES:
"Any time you are in a situation that you are in, it is always the older guys that wonder where they are at when they leave the program. They are a part of helping build it. We have good character guys here that I believe they are invested in it and they want to win. There is no better feeling than winning, especially when you walk into a locker room and watch the joy of guys winning a game. There is nothing like it. It is a lot of fun when you win, but when you do not win, it is like groundhog day. You just have to find a way to do that and that is what we will try to do this week."
ON CONTROLLING EMOTIONS HEADING INTO THIS GAME:
"We went through how many fouls we had all year. We addressed it. Before the Utah game, we were the least penalized team in the PAC-12. That is all you can do. We showed them where it hurts the team. As I said earlier, we are not good enough to do that. We are just not. I think they understand that, but then emotions still come out. I coach our team, I do not coach anybody else's team, but when I look at the Oregon-USC game, one team overcame it. 12 penalties is a lot of penalties. I know their coach (Mario Cristobal). He is telling his guys that they can not do this. It just happened and the broadcasters even spoke about it. Sometimes you think that it is just your team, but it is not. You have to deal with it, you have to try to keep them calm. Football is one of those games you play right on the edge, but you do not want to go over the edge. Also, they always catch the second guy. When you are giving someone the business, you better do it first because the second guy gets caught all the time. So, you can not be the second guy. Do not get into the trap of it."
ON WEEKLY ANNIVERSARY OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S 150 YEAR ANNIVERSARY:
"I can remember sitting at home when I was young and the first thing I watched was always Notre Dame. Because I was Catholic, I would watch Notre Dame. Eddy Robinson would bring the re-televised game on Saturday night and you always had USC because they were pretty good back in those days. They had O.J. Simpson and Mike Garret. I also grew up knowing Ohio State and Michigan. I heard about those schools because they were always on television. There was only one game. There were not 25 channels where you can go get any game. We were glued to the television and we knew who the head coach was, the players, the pageantry, and how watch how it has unfolded over 150 years. Between that and the NFL, NFL games were always on Sundays. College football was on Saturday. I was a high school player on Fridays. On Saturday and Sunday we went into the park of emulating playing in the game after watching the game. It is unique to be involved in it right now and watch where the history has come from. It is fun to watch."
ON JAKE PLUMMER GOING TO HALL OF FAME:
"I would hope so that they catch on to the significance. I will talk about it this week. Jake has been coming out to some practices, so they know who he is. It says a lot about when you get guys like that who are involved in the program. He is around it, he comes to practice. I have coached against Jake in the NFL. He is a great human being and ambassador for ASU Football. In general, he is a fantastic guy and I could not be more happier for him. That is one thing about a lot of young people: They are not history buffs. They are all about the current thing that is happening. The past has something to do with the current. You are always standing on someone else's shoulders and sometimes you forget that because we are in the now-world. What happened in the past has a lot to do with what will happen in the future. It will be fun when he gets honored because it will be a capacity crowd, so he will get a nice ovation."