OPENING STATEMENT...
“We're getting into our next opponent and I can’t say enough about Rocky Long. First of all, I can’t thank him enough for allowing me to interview his coordinator Danny Gonzales, who is now with us, along with coach (Tony) White. They have made a big difference so far defensively in our system. I have a lot of regard to coach Long. He’s got himself a really good football team and a really good program. Last three years, they are 32-9. They have won a lot of football games. I understand what that school is all about, that was one of my many alma mater’s that I visited. I graduated from there and with that being said they are a good football team. They have a DNA similar to Michigan State’s. They want to run the football, they are going to play really good defense, they don’t give up a lot of points, they are a good tackling group and they hit the quarterback. They are similar to what we are trying to become. They have that formula. They came in here last year and beat them and they did a nice job running the ball with 154 yards rushing. I understand they had (Rashaad) Penny. They did very good in the return game as far as kickoff returns where Penny had 99 yard touchdown. They scored 16 points in special teams play when you think of the field goals they made and the special team's touchdowns. They are well equipped to playing slow and methodical games where they like to take time off the clock similar to Michigan State and keep it low scoring. They present their defense in a matter where you cant score a lot of points, getting you flustered and do something to create turnovers. They have done a marvelous job of that over the last 10 years the coach has been there. We haven’t played a road game. This is a good test for us to see if we can continue to improve this week and try to win another football game, which will be difficult because this is a good opponent.”
ON RECRUITING PROCESS THAT LED TO HIM PLAYING AT SDSU...
“I was a double transfer, left Cal and I actually left Cal twice. Went there as a freshman and played, then my sophomore year I got into a disagreement with a position coach and left. I went to JC (Junior College) for a season and they highly recruited for me to come back. I went back and I was JC All-American. I played my junior year, and I was a Pac-8 player. The coach that was coaching me before put him in a different position, brought in a new coach and everything was good. I was planning on staying in the spring but he left and went to the San Francisco 49ers and guess who came back? A disagreement and I left. My senior year I went to San Diego State, redshirted a year, worked in the shipyard at night my first semester because there were no scholarships available. I drove down there and worked in the shipyard. I was in school for the first semester. I went to school during the day and worked at night. From there I played my senior year and had a good team. Tom Craft was from my hometown, I played JC ball with him. We are really close, TC is a good friend. I played my senior year and had a pretty good football team, we lost one game to BYU, 10-7. Some high scoring game against BYU. We had a lot of guys that went on to play pro football. David Turner was one of the running backs. There was a lot of double transfers. They recruited double transfers and JC players, no high school players. It was like the haven for all guys. I know Isaac Curtis who went to Cal and recruited me. He left Cal and went to San Diego State and finished his career there. He went to Cincinnati. A lot of professional DB’s came out of San Diego State. When I came into the league in 1977, as a rookie, there were 13 defensive backs in the National Football League that came out of San Diego State. A lot of pro players have come out of that program - that was the place to go. I told Danny (Gonzales), ‘you guys messed up those uniforms, they use to be all black with a red top hat.’ Now they have red on the jerseys and they don’t look the same anymore. Things change, I am not trying to be the uniform guy. I have a lot of respect for that program because I know what that program means for a lot of guys.”
ON LEADING TEAM IN TACKLE ASSISTS AT SDSU...
“That is true. The first time I went in there fast, John Fox hit me in the ribs and I said ‘I am on your team.’ Fox was in the secondary. We played a lot of man-to-man coverage back in those days. We had basically two coverages. Free safety in the middle and no free safety and we played man-to-man. You are not going to get a lot of assisted tackles because you’re playing corner and you are always in man-to-man. It was a place where it got you to play pro football because we played so much man coverage. It was a fun place, we had a really good football team.”
ON BEING NATIONALLY RANKED...
“I didn’t hear that until today. I don’t pay attention to that. I just coach the football team, I think our coaches and players have done a magnificent job of coming together and its hard when you change. When you get an influx of new players and you get new coaches on your staff, that’s difficult. I think these guys have weathered all that now. We have earned their trust. I always talk as a player, coaches have to earn your trust. You respect coaches because they are the coach but you have to earn their trust and I think our coaches have done that. I hope I have earned their trust by now, I am still trying to work on that. I took this job as a servant, I am here to serve those guys; the players and the coaches and I think they know I am pretty consistent with them. I am pretty calm. Some people would say I am not but I really am. I am a calm guy that makes calm decisions. I don’t get emotionally involved in things where I make one of those decisions. Every once in a while I might have a blowup but for the most part, I am pretty level-headed. I think that’s what has been calming for them through the change and for coaches too. When you hire a staff, they have never worked with you before, these guys have never worked with me. The only guy that really knows me is Kevin Mawae. He has played for me and he kind of understands my mannerisms, and I think as things were going along when we first got here they would lean on Kevin. Kevin would look at them and go ‘don’t ask him that’ or ‘yeah he is good with that.’ I think they have figured me out and I’m still learning these guys as well. That has helped us a lot and its attributed to the players and the coaching staff.”
ON HAVING THE ATTENTION OF THE PLAYERS AFTER BEING RANKED...
“Rankings don’t help you win. Preparation and performance are how you win football games - we won’t get caught up in that. Our motto is simple; stay humble and hungry. We have to continue to be humble because that last game we played could have gone a different way. We don’t make a couple plays and the outcome of the game is different. I think the players realize that. We haven’t played a complete game yet on either side of the football but what we have done, we have played hard. I have text messages and calls after the game from guys that are in football and they said, ‘coach, they play hard.’ I have always said, leave it on the grass. That is all you have to do as a football player. You leave everything you have on the grass and then you can live with the outcome of what happened.”
ON HAVING LIMITED FILM ON SDSU’S STARTING QB...
“The good part is coach (Danny) Gonzales knows who he is. He was on that staff. We know who they are, they are going to run the football and they are going to continue to run it. That is what they do. That’s their personality. They want to possess the clock, they want their defense to be fresh so they can run around. Their defense plays like there hair is on fire. They just play hard. They will be ready to play us, they will match our intensity. The quarterback is athletic, he can leave the pocket and make some plays but they are going to rely on there running game and try to stay out of the third and longs because that’s when we can get creative. They get creative as well where they hit the quarterback. We have been fortunate in the first two games to hit the quarterback and that’s what you want to do, you want to storm the castle and hit the quarterback and make him uncomfortable. That’s what football is about. If the quarterback is down, you have a chance.”
ON MERLIN ROBERTSON’S BREAKOUT PERFORMANCE...
“We are fortunate enough to get him, he was a big get for us in our recruiting process. When you ask your freshman to come in here and start, that’s asking a lot. He hasn’t blinked and every week he gets more confident. He is a good player, it will be fun to watch him a couple years from now to see how he develops and become the guy we anticipate him to become. When we recruited him and I told him, this place is about the opportunity. I don’t care if you are a freshman, sophomore, senior, it doesn’t matter, the best players are going to play. I listen to my eyes every day I go to practice, that is your resume you put on tape every time you walk on the football field. I will listen to my eyes. I don’t care if you’re a freshman. If you are the best player, you are going to play and he looked at me and said, ‘coach, I get it’ and I said ‘I know you get it, that is why you are starting. You go have fun.' He's going to make some mistakes but by week six he's going to be better off for it. Danny played 25 guys again on that defense. A lot of guys go out there and make mistakes but we're going to live with it because we are trying to build something. We’re not going to panic when they make a mistake and holler at them and scream at them. I keep telling them, ‘they are freshman, how are they supposed to know?’ They have never played in this atmosphere, walked down that stadium – that’s a lot. They grow and the only way they grow is they play. I always say experience is one of those things that you actually have to go do it and we're going to allow them to do it. As long as they play hard, we are good.”
ON STEVE MILLER AND ROY HEMSLEY HEALTH STATUS...
"We expect to have both of them back. They did pretty good against a nice front, which was good because Roy (Hemsley) was a guy that we brought in here and new he had experience playing. We visited with him and said ‘hey, your up, let's go and play.’ I thought coach (Dave) Christensen did a great job with all those guys. The offensive line hasn’t had enough credit in the last two weeks in what they have been able to accomplish against this front that is big and powerful. They did a nice job. The stats don’t show it but I just think what they were up against and to hang in there and to make some yards in the fourth quarter because that’s what it boiled down to. The game was in the fourth quarter and going in that was kind of our mindset to get it into the fourth quarter, if we could do that and make a couple plays we would have a chance to win. Offensively the line played pretty well.”
ON FINAL DRIVE TIMEOUT TO SEAL THE GAME...
“I said, ‘don’t even worry about trying to score because that’s not going to happen.’ Were not scoring, we are going to take it down and kick a field goal with four seconds left. That’s the plan, that was the plan when we got it with 4:55 was to try to put points on the board. What I was trying to do – there comes a point where you play against the clock. We were playing against the clock at that point. At 4:55, I walked down there on the 40-yard line trying to move the ball, I told the players, it’s the clock now. The defense should never touch the field. They don’t get the ball back and if we play this right and we do what we are supposed to do we are going to be in good shape to win this football game. Now, we have to execute, you have to go make some first downs. I am not saying we weren’t trying to score touchdowns, you are always trying to score but there comes a point where you are playing the clock and when it got within 2:30, I am going ‘were good, just keep moving.’ I told them, ‘we don’t have to score,’ and then we called a timeout. I told coach (Rob) Likens - he's got these plays and I said, ‘no, do you know what the best play is? Victory. Just go take a knee now,’ because they are going to let us score, that’s why they called the timeout. That’s what I would have done, I would have told my defense the same thing; ‘let them score,’ so we can maybe possess the ball and go down at the end and score and then maybe go for two points to win. That would be a hard one because all of the sudden you are on the road and if that happened, what do you do? Do you kick it and go to overtime or do you go for two points? That’s the next decision you have to make as a coach. I hope I don’t have to make that one too many times because that is a tough one.”
ON HOW NFL EXPERIENCES HAVE HELPED DOWN THE STRETCH IN COLLEGE...
"They affect you in the experience of doing it. A lot of people would say I was away from football. I wasn’t away from football. I just didn’t have a team to coach. When I watch a football game, I don’t watch it as a fan, I watch it as a coach and I’m actually coaching the game. Do you know how many games I have actually coached when I was in Bristol watching them? I watch every situation looking at coverage, the front, and what they’re trying to do. I look at that when I watch the game. I don’t just watch to the game to say, ‘Oh I know those guys.’ No, I’m actually coaching the game and I am coaching situations, and that’s all I’ve done for the last nine years as I’ve watched television because I’ve got to come onto television and report what I’ve just watched. Most people watch the ball when they watch a game. I never watch the ball. I know what’s going to happen. He's going to hike it. That’s the only way a play starts. Why should I watch the ball? I watch everything else but the football, So when I watch games, I was coaching those games. Now, there was no score or right or wrong for me but you experience that as you watch football games. When you watch tape, you are coaching the game. You are coaching situations in the game and you’re watching the score. You understand the timeouts and the situations. These are some of the thoughts, if I was coaching, that I would do. So, I was calm. To the players’ credit, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays we show scenarios of teams that have done something last Saturday that it didn’t work out that well or we show teams where it did work out well. I go through play-by-play and clock running. If this happens and we run out of timeouts, 15 seconds is the cutoff for us to run out there and kick a field goal. We practiced it the day before yesterday. '15 seconds boys, here we go' and make sure you don’t run into somebody when you’re running on. All those things are practice. I mean, we practice on all those things. It’s not half-hazard. You have got to practice it. That’s what we do.”
ON IMPACT OF PRACTICING OUTSIDE...
“I would hope it’s helped us stamina wise and mentally. I think when you fatigue, there comes a point in time when you have to focus and I think their focus is sharp. It showed up in the fourth quarter. No fouls and Michigan State had five fouls and there’s a reason for that too. They were in a bad situation, traveling, and playing a game that late. It’s twelve o’clock at night in the fourth quarter. That’s hard for anybody but we functioned for us because our time zone and the heat helped us. That’s what you call home-field advantage. Take advantage of it. you have got to play well to do it and you have got to get the game in those situations. We were fortunate enough to get this game in that situation.”
ON HAVING SAME PHILOSOPHY IN NFL ABOUT STARTING ROOKIES...
“Ask Kansas City. I started six rookies. I got fired, but I didn’t have a quarterback. The plan was to build a program. When you don’t have a quarterback, it’s hard to build a program. Six rookies and seven first-year guys. I chuckled every once in a while thinking if I was in college football I would win a lot of games with these guys, but I wasn’t in college football. I was in pro football. I had a lot of coaches coming up to me saying, ‘Coach, that’s a valiant effort.’ I said that I get it and they would learn. They ended up being good players. You always do what’s good for the game of football. I have always felt it that way. I’m not afraid to start a rookie and I learned that from one man, and one man only: Dick Vermeil. He called me after the game. He started a free agent rookie at the right corner my first year and I didn’t want to let that guy down. I was an undrafted rookie free agent. Every time I lined up, I thought about that man thinking this guy gave me a chance and I didn’t want to let him down. I played my whole career. The best players play and I think these guys are realizing it doesn’t matter if you’re a 5-star guy, 1-star guy, senior, or freshman, as long as they buy into the team and compete every day, they’ll have an opportunity to play here. That’s me because that’s who I was. I get that part. I don’t get caught up in the rest of that other stuff. I listen to my eyes every day I come to work. We film everything. Sunday is one of the most gratifying days for me because when we go out to stretch, I go across the street in the bubble with 35 to 40 guys that didn’t dress. Some of them are walk-ons or developmental kids. We practice football there and I’m the only coach in there. All the other coaches are in the office. I’m over there with those kids and I’m watching them because it’s important. They know that this is there opportunity to run the offense and defense. This is a developmental program for them to become better football players. We film it. So every Sunday, I’m over there watching those kids in that bubble. I’m not in the film room with the other coaches. I’m over there with those guys and we’re practicing our plays on offense and defense because these young kids in college football run cards all week. They never get to run the offense or defense. How are you going to develop them? We can take them across the street and spend some time with them. I’m with them on every Sunday for about an hour. That’s fun for me.”
ON WHAT HE LEARNED FROM THE TEAM IN THE FOURTH QUARTER OF THE MICHIGAN STATE GAME...
“You know who the players are and you better get them the ball, that’s for sure. You find out what type of competitor they are in stressful moments. It doesn’t surprise me the guys that show up in the fourth quarter. The veteran guys as well as a young guy in Merlin (Robertson). Manny (Wilkins) had 101 yards and a touchdown pass. Number 1 had a big pass interference call in the fourth quarter and he catches a big touchdown. (Kyle) Williams had a big 38-yard pass play. Eno touched the ball five times and had two critical first downs. So, those guys showed up. Merlin Robertson had five tackles and one a half sacks in the fourth quarter. I tell guys in big moments if you want to be a big-time player, go make a play. It’s really simple; the game is on the line. Who’s going to step up and make a play. Who’s going to run to the spotlight and who’s going to run to the shade? Everybody says they want to. I always tell them, ‘here it is. The lights are on, man. Go make a play. Don’t stand over here in the shade now.’ Those guys showed up, so good for them.”
ON SHARING CONVERSATION ABOUT DICK VERMEIL...
“Well, that’s like my second father. He means a lot to me. My father died my rookie year. He was kind of my second dad. I talk to him once a month. He’ll call me or he’ll text me. He’s proud of me. He's a great man. I’ll leave it at that.”
ON HOW DIFFERENT COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS COMPARED TO THE PRO GAME...
“It’s different in the sense that most college coaches want to score. They always think points are the thing and that’s how offenses are run. It’s possessions, how many possessions you have, and how many times can you score for most teams. That’s where I think it gets away from them. Probably a lot of coaches at that moment would have wanted to score a touchdown. I was the opposite. I said, 'We didn’t have to score a touchdown to win this game.’ I was nervous about the fact that if we give them too much time, they will go right back down the field because I’ve seen this too many times in college football. College football is different. The clock stops every time you make a first down. That’s a problem. You have to understand that part of it because, in pro football, that’s not the case. If you run out of timeouts and you run out of bounds, you are good. Every time you make that first down, they’ve got to set the chains and the football stops. The way offenses play now, they’re up on the line of scrimmage so fast, it’s only a second or two and then they’re going again. That is what makes me nervous about college games is that you’re always trying to score.”
ON PRESSURE TO SCORING POINTS TO MOVE UP IN THE RANKINGS...
“You are talking to the wrong guy. I don’t care if we win one to nothing for the next 10 games. That game was over, I got home at 12:30 and I couldn’t sleep, and then I got back over here at 3:30 and watched it so I can put it to bed and not bother the coaches. I took my notes on the summary of what I saw. I went into their rooms whenever they got in and I gave them my summation of offense, defense, and special teams. I have gone onto San Diego State and I’ve moved on. This is the most important game we’ve got to play this week.”
“We're getting into our next opponent and I can’t say enough about Rocky Long. First of all, I can’t thank him enough for allowing me to interview his coordinator Danny Gonzales, who is now with us, along with coach (Tony) White. They have made a big difference so far defensively in our system. I have a lot of regard to coach Long. He’s got himself a really good football team and a really good program. Last three years, they are 32-9. They have won a lot of football games. I understand what that school is all about, that was one of my many alma mater’s that I visited. I graduated from there and with that being said they are a good football team. They have a DNA similar to Michigan State’s. They want to run the football, they are going to play really good defense, they don’t give up a lot of points, they are a good tackling group and they hit the quarterback. They are similar to what we are trying to become. They have that formula. They came in here last year and beat them and they did a nice job running the ball with 154 yards rushing. I understand they had (Rashaad) Penny. They did very good in the return game as far as kickoff returns where Penny had 99 yard touchdown. They scored 16 points in special teams play when you think of the field goals they made and the special team's touchdowns. They are well equipped to playing slow and methodical games where they like to take time off the clock similar to Michigan State and keep it low scoring. They present their defense in a matter where you cant score a lot of points, getting you flustered and do something to create turnovers. They have done a marvelous job of that over the last 10 years the coach has been there. We haven’t played a road game. This is a good test for us to see if we can continue to improve this week and try to win another football game, which will be difficult because this is a good opponent.”
ON RECRUITING PROCESS THAT LED TO HIM PLAYING AT SDSU...
“I was a double transfer, left Cal and I actually left Cal twice. Went there as a freshman and played, then my sophomore year I got into a disagreement with a position coach and left. I went to JC (Junior College) for a season and they highly recruited for me to come back. I went back and I was JC All-American. I played my junior year, and I was a Pac-8 player. The coach that was coaching me before put him in a different position, brought in a new coach and everything was good. I was planning on staying in the spring but he left and went to the San Francisco 49ers and guess who came back? A disagreement and I left. My senior year I went to San Diego State, redshirted a year, worked in the shipyard at night my first semester because there were no scholarships available. I drove down there and worked in the shipyard. I was in school for the first semester. I went to school during the day and worked at night. From there I played my senior year and had a good team. Tom Craft was from my hometown, I played JC ball with him. We are really close, TC is a good friend. I played my senior year and had a pretty good football team, we lost one game to BYU, 10-7. Some high scoring game against BYU. We had a lot of guys that went on to play pro football. David Turner was one of the running backs. There was a lot of double transfers. They recruited double transfers and JC players, no high school players. It was like the haven for all guys. I know Isaac Curtis who went to Cal and recruited me. He left Cal and went to San Diego State and finished his career there. He went to Cincinnati. A lot of professional DB’s came out of San Diego State. When I came into the league in 1977, as a rookie, there were 13 defensive backs in the National Football League that came out of San Diego State. A lot of pro players have come out of that program - that was the place to go. I told Danny (Gonzales), ‘you guys messed up those uniforms, they use to be all black with a red top hat.’ Now they have red on the jerseys and they don’t look the same anymore. Things change, I am not trying to be the uniform guy. I have a lot of respect for that program because I know what that program means for a lot of guys.”
ON LEADING TEAM IN TACKLE ASSISTS AT SDSU...
“That is true. The first time I went in there fast, John Fox hit me in the ribs and I said ‘I am on your team.’ Fox was in the secondary. We played a lot of man-to-man coverage back in those days. We had basically two coverages. Free safety in the middle and no free safety and we played man-to-man. You are not going to get a lot of assisted tackles because you’re playing corner and you are always in man-to-man. It was a place where it got you to play pro football because we played so much man coverage. It was a fun place, we had a really good football team.”
ON BEING NATIONALLY RANKED...
“I didn’t hear that until today. I don’t pay attention to that. I just coach the football team, I think our coaches and players have done a magnificent job of coming together and its hard when you change. When you get an influx of new players and you get new coaches on your staff, that’s difficult. I think these guys have weathered all that now. We have earned their trust. I always talk as a player, coaches have to earn your trust. You respect coaches because they are the coach but you have to earn their trust and I think our coaches have done that. I hope I have earned their trust by now, I am still trying to work on that. I took this job as a servant, I am here to serve those guys; the players and the coaches and I think they know I am pretty consistent with them. I am pretty calm. Some people would say I am not but I really am. I am a calm guy that makes calm decisions. I don’t get emotionally involved in things where I make one of those decisions. Every once in a while I might have a blowup but for the most part, I am pretty level-headed. I think that’s what has been calming for them through the change and for coaches too. When you hire a staff, they have never worked with you before, these guys have never worked with me. The only guy that really knows me is Kevin Mawae. He has played for me and he kind of understands my mannerisms, and I think as things were going along when we first got here they would lean on Kevin. Kevin would look at them and go ‘don’t ask him that’ or ‘yeah he is good with that.’ I think they have figured me out and I’m still learning these guys as well. That has helped us a lot and its attributed to the players and the coaching staff.”
ON HAVING THE ATTENTION OF THE PLAYERS AFTER BEING RANKED...
“Rankings don’t help you win. Preparation and performance are how you win football games - we won’t get caught up in that. Our motto is simple; stay humble and hungry. We have to continue to be humble because that last game we played could have gone a different way. We don’t make a couple plays and the outcome of the game is different. I think the players realize that. We haven’t played a complete game yet on either side of the football but what we have done, we have played hard. I have text messages and calls after the game from guys that are in football and they said, ‘coach, they play hard.’ I have always said, leave it on the grass. That is all you have to do as a football player. You leave everything you have on the grass and then you can live with the outcome of what happened.”
ON HAVING LIMITED FILM ON SDSU’S STARTING QB...
“The good part is coach (Danny) Gonzales knows who he is. He was on that staff. We know who they are, they are going to run the football and they are going to continue to run it. That is what they do. That’s their personality. They want to possess the clock, they want their defense to be fresh so they can run around. Their defense plays like there hair is on fire. They just play hard. They will be ready to play us, they will match our intensity. The quarterback is athletic, he can leave the pocket and make some plays but they are going to rely on there running game and try to stay out of the third and longs because that’s when we can get creative. They get creative as well where they hit the quarterback. We have been fortunate in the first two games to hit the quarterback and that’s what you want to do, you want to storm the castle and hit the quarterback and make him uncomfortable. That’s what football is about. If the quarterback is down, you have a chance.”
ON MERLIN ROBERTSON’S BREAKOUT PERFORMANCE...
“We are fortunate enough to get him, he was a big get for us in our recruiting process. When you ask your freshman to come in here and start, that’s asking a lot. He hasn’t blinked and every week he gets more confident. He is a good player, it will be fun to watch him a couple years from now to see how he develops and become the guy we anticipate him to become. When we recruited him and I told him, this place is about the opportunity. I don’t care if you are a freshman, sophomore, senior, it doesn’t matter, the best players are going to play. I listen to my eyes every day I go to practice, that is your resume you put on tape every time you walk on the football field. I will listen to my eyes. I don’t care if you’re a freshman. If you are the best player, you are going to play and he looked at me and said, ‘coach, I get it’ and I said ‘I know you get it, that is why you are starting. You go have fun.' He's going to make some mistakes but by week six he's going to be better off for it. Danny played 25 guys again on that defense. A lot of guys go out there and make mistakes but we're going to live with it because we are trying to build something. We’re not going to panic when they make a mistake and holler at them and scream at them. I keep telling them, ‘they are freshman, how are they supposed to know?’ They have never played in this atmosphere, walked down that stadium – that’s a lot. They grow and the only way they grow is they play. I always say experience is one of those things that you actually have to go do it and we're going to allow them to do it. As long as they play hard, we are good.”
ON STEVE MILLER AND ROY HEMSLEY HEALTH STATUS...
"We expect to have both of them back. They did pretty good against a nice front, which was good because Roy (Hemsley) was a guy that we brought in here and new he had experience playing. We visited with him and said ‘hey, your up, let's go and play.’ I thought coach (Dave) Christensen did a great job with all those guys. The offensive line hasn’t had enough credit in the last two weeks in what they have been able to accomplish against this front that is big and powerful. They did a nice job. The stats don’t show it but I just think what they were up against and to hang in there and to make some yards in the fourth quarter because that’s what it boiled down to. The game was in the fourth quarter and going in that was kind of our mindset to get it into the fourth quarter, if we could do that and make a couple plays we would have a chance to win. Offensively the line played pretty well.”
ON FINAL DRIVE TIMEOUT TO SEAL THE GAME...
“I said, ‘don’t even worry about trying to score because that’s not going to happen.’ Were not scoring, we are going to take it down and kick a field goal with four seconds left. That’s the plan, that was the plan when we got it with 4:55 was to try to put points on the board. What I was trying to do – there comes a point where you play against the clock. We were playing against the clock at that point. At 4:55, I walked down there on the 40-yard line trying to move the ball, I told the players, it’s the clock now. The defense should never touch the field. They don’t get the ball back and if we play this right and we do what we are supposed to do we are going to be in good shape to win this football game. Now, we have to execute, you have to go make some first downs. I am not saying we weren’t trying to score touchdowns, you are always trying to score but there comes a point where you are playing the clock and when it got within 2:30, I am going ‘were good, just keep moving.’ I told them, ‘we don’t have to score,’ and then we called a timeout. I told coach (Rob) Likens - he's got these plays and I said, ‘no, do you know what the best play is? Victory. Just go take a knee now,’ because they are going to let us score, that’s why they called the timeout. That’s what I would have done, I would have told my defense the same thing; ‘let them score,’ so we can maybe possess the ball and go down at the end and score and then maybe go for two points to win. That would be a hard one because all of the sudden you are on the road and if that happened, what do you do? Do you kick it and go to overtime or do you go for two points? That’s the next decision you have to make as a coach. I hope I don’t have to make that one too many times because that is a tough one.”
ON HOW NFL EXPERIENCES HAVE HELPED DOWN THE STRETCH IN COLLEGE...
"They affect you in the experience of doing it. A lot of people would say I was away from football. I wasn’t away from football. I just didn’t have a team to coach. When I watch a football game, I don’t watch it as a fan, I watch it as a coach and I’m actually coaching the game. Do you know how many games I have actually coached when I was in Bristol watching them? I watch every situation looking at coverage, the front, and what they’re trying to do. I look at that when I watch the game. I don’t just watch to the game to say, ‘Oh I know those guys.’ No, I’m actually coaching the game and I am coaching situations, and that’s all I’ve done for the last nine years as I’ve watched television because I’ve got to come onto television and report what I’ve just watched. Most people watch the ball when they watch a game. I never watch the ball. I know what’s going to happen. He's going to hike it. That’s the only way a play starts. Why should I watch the ball? I watch everything else but the football, So when I watch games, I was coaching those games. Now, there was no score or right or wrong for me but you experience that as you watch football games. When you watch tape, you are coaching the game. You are coaching situations in the game and you’re watching the score. You understand the timeouts and the situations. These are some of the thoughts, if I was coaching, that I would do. So, I was calm. To the players’ credit, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays we show scenarios of teams that have done something last Saturday that it didn’t work out that well or we show teams where it did work out well. I go through play-by-play and clock running. If this happens and we run out of timeouts, 15 seconds is the cutoff for us to run out there and kick a field goal. We practiced it the day before yesterday. '15 seconds boys, here we go' and make sure you don’t run into somebody when you’re running on. All those things are practice. I mean, we practice on all those things. It’s not half-hazard. You have got to practice it. That’s what we do.”
ON IMPACT OF PRACTICING OUTSIDE...
“I would hope it’s helped us stamina wise and mentally. I think when you fatigue, there comes a point in time when you have to focus and I think their focus is sharp. It showed up in the fourth quarter. No fouls and Michigan State had five fouls and there’s a reason for that too. They were in a bad situation, traveling, and playing a game that late. It’s twelve o’clock at night in the fourth quarter. That’s hard for anybody but we functioned for us because our time zone and the heat helped us. That’s what you call home-field advantage. Take advantage of it. you have got to play well to do it and you have got to get the game in those situations. We were fortunate enough to get this game in that situation.”
ON HAVING SAME PHILOSOPHY IN NFL ABOUT STARTING ROOKIES...
“Ask Kansas City. I started six rookies. I got fired, but I didn’t have a quarterback. The plan was to build a program. When you don’t have a quarterback, it’s hard to build a program. Six rookies and seven first-year guys. I chuckled every once in a while thinking if I was in college football I would win a lot of games with these guys, but I wasn’t in college football. I was in pro football. I had a lot of coaches coming up to me saying, ‘Coach, that’s a valiant effort.’ I said that I get it and they would learn. They ended up being good players. You always do what’s good for the game of football. I have always felt it that way. I’m not afraid to start a rookie and I learned that from one man, and one man only: Dick Vermeil. He called me after the game. He started a free agent rookie at the right corner my first year and I didn’t want to let that guy down. I was an undrafted rookie free agent. Every time I lined up, I thought about that man thinking this guy gave me a chance and I didn’t want to let him down. I played my whole career. The best players play and I think these guys are realizing it doesn’t matter if you’re a 5-star guy, 1-star guy, senior, or freshman, as long as they buy into the team and compete every day, they’ll have an opportunity to play here. That’s me because that’s who I was. I get that part. I don’t get caught up in the rest of that other stuff. I listen to my eyes every day I come to work. We film everything. Sunday is one of the most gratifying days for me because when we go out to stretch, I go across the street in the bubble with 35 to 40 guys that didn’t dress. Some of them are walk-ons or developmental kids. We practice football there and I’m the only coach in there. All the other coaches are in the office. I’m over there with those kids and I’m watching them because it’s important. They know that this is there opportunity to run the offense and defense. This is a developmental program for them to become better football players. We film it. So every Sunday, I’m over there watching those kids in that bubble. I’m not in the film room with the other coaches. I’m over there with those guys and we’re practicing our plays on offense and defense because these young kids in college football run cards all week. They never get to run the offense or defense. How are you going to develop them? We can take them across the street and spend some time with them. I’m with them on every Sunday for about an hour. That’s fun for me.”
ON WHAT HE LEARNED FROM THE TEAM IN THE FOURTH QUARTER OF THE MICHIGAN STATE GAME...
“You know who the players are and you better get them the ball, that’s for sure. You find out what type of competitor they are in stressful moments. It doesn’t surprise me the guys that show up in the fourth quarter. The veteran guys as well as a young guy in Merlin (Robertson). Manny (Wilkins) had 101 yards and a touchdown pass. Number 1 had a big pass interference call in the fourth quarter and he catches a big touchdown. (Kyle) Williams had a big 38-yard pass play. Eno touched the ball five times and had two critical first downs. So, those guys showed up. Merlin Robertson had five tackles and one a half sacks in the fourth quarter. I tell guys in big moments if you want to be a big-time player, go make a play. It’s really simple; the game is on the line. Who’s going to step up and make a play. Who’s going to run to the spotlight and who’s going to run to the shade? Everybody says they want to. I always tell them, ‘here it is. The lights are on, man. Go make a play. Don’t stand over here in the shade now.’ Those guys showed up, so good for them.”
ON SHARING CONVERSATION ABOUT DICK VERMEIL...
“Well, that’s like my second father. He means a lot to me. My father died my rookie year. He was kind of my second dad. I talk to him once a month. He’ll call me or he’ll text me. He’s proud of me. He's a great man. I’ll leave it at that.”
ON HOW DIFFERENT COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS COMPARED TO THE PRO GAME...
“It’s different in the sense that most college coaches want to score. They always think points are the thing and that’s how offenses are run. It’s possessions, how many possessions you have, and how many times can you score for most teams. That’s where I think it gets away from them. Probably a lot of coaches at that moment would have wanted to score a touchdown. I was the opposite. I said, 'We didn’t have to score a touchdown to win this game.’ I was nervous about the fact that if we give them too much time, they will go right back down the field because I’ve seen this too many times in college football. College football is different. The clock stops every time you make a first down. That’s a problem. You have to understand that part of it because, in pro football, that’s not the case. If you run out of timeouts and you run out of bounds, you are good. Every time you make that first down, they’ve got to set the chains and the football stops. The way offenses play now, they’re up on the line of scrimmage so fast, it’s only a second or two and then they’re going again. That is what makes me nervous about college games is that you’re always trying to score.”
ON PRESSURE TO SCORING POINTS TO MOVE UP IN THE RANKINGS...
“You are talking to the wrong guy. I don’t care if we win one to nothing for the next 10 games. That game was over, I got home at 12:30 and I couldn’t sleep, and then I got back over here at 3:30 and watched it so I can put it to bed and not bother the coaches. I took my notes on the summary of what I saw. I went into their rooms whenever they got in and I gave them my summation of offense, defense, and special teams. I have gone onto San Diego State and I’ve moved on. This is the most important game we’ve got to play this week.”