OPENING STATEMENT…
“Pac-12 competition is going to start for us this weekend, obviously it’s a road game against a very good opponent in Washington. Coach (Chris) Peterson has done a fabulous job of developing a program in the time he has been there. I know for a few teams, there have been Pac-12 competition games in our conference USC and UTAH have played and over in the other conference, Stanford and Washington. I’m excited about entering the Pac-12 division - our division. More than that, we have nine games left in the season and we go into it with a record of 2-1 against a team that is highly talented and they should be. They have a veteran offense, they have some skill players at the wide receiver position, as well as the running back position. Their defense is outstanding, one of the better defenses in college football, in my opinion, in what they do schematically - how they build it. They do a nice job with their secondary - very talented. They have a good group up front, some linebackers that play in space as well. They are an opponent that is very tough at home. We know they have averaged about 27 points and they are giving up about 10 points. They can run the football, they are very balanced.”
ON WATCHING THE FILM POST GAME…
“I didn’t go to bed Saturday night. I came into the office and I didn’t go home. We got off the bus at 3:30, I started watching the tape. Watched all three phases like I always do. We got in so late so it didn’t make any sense for me to go home because I am here so early in the morning. I just got in and watched all the tape and watched all three phases of it and put it to bed. So when the coaches came in I could get in discussion with them about how we played and some things we need to improve on.”
ON OPINION ABOUT (FRANK) DARBY’S CATCH…
“I think with a situation like that occurs and they replay it because of the targeting act the whole play gets reviewed. If the targeting never happens it probably doesn’t get reviewed but it did. Right now, the rule that I think that it's not a spot foul. I think there will be some discussion after the season about that maybe being changed, other than that, looking at it and discussing it we lost. You don’t get the loss back. It doesn’t work that way in the football, I have learned that a long time ago. There is nothing you can do about the past than learn from it. I say football is teaching moments. We will learn a lot about ourselves. We have to improve our play on the road. The last three years we are 4-12 on the road. That’s not a good record so we need to do a better job now. We had a chance to win a road game and we didn’t get it done against a good football team. I said that the week we played them. They are a good football team, there is a reason they average 10 wins in the last three years. It's not by accident. They are a good football team.”
ON FACING A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT OFFENSE THIS WEEK COMPARED TO SDSU...
“They are a vertical team that will throw it down the field, they will take vertical shots similar to what we do. They have some explosive players, they are very balanced though. They can run the football, they rush it for about 156 yards a game so that has to be a concern to you. You watch our last tape we weren’t very good against the run due to a lot of alignment errors and basically missing some tackles allowed them big plays. Prior to that, we were pretty good versus the run. We have to get that corrected but they are going to take their shots, they have a veteran quarterback, good receivers. This is a good football team. They have been in the top 10 not by accident."
ON PLAYING ISAIAH FLOYD AND TRELON SMITH MORE AGAINST SDSU…
“We say that, but I think what happened is you have to give San Diego State a lot of credit. They were in our backfield a lot, there were no clean runs. They got after us pretty good with that defense. Its been in place now for almost a decade. They had an opportunity to study us and they played them last year so they get the tape from last year and they did a good job of stopping us from running the ball. The problem is you can't get discouraged, you have to continue to run the football, I believe in football games. You have to be balanced. When you are not balanced that’s not good and you can't throw it as many times as we had to throw it on the road. That’s never a good formula. You have to be able to run the ball on the road, it just takes the crowd out of the game, you control the line of scrimmage and you become a balanced offense. When you always go back to throwing on the road bad things generally happen. We have to play better on the road and we have to get our running game going.”
ON FEEDBACK FROM THE OFFENSIVE PLAYERS ON THE SIDELINES…
“All receivers, the good ones are always open during a seven-eleven. Nkeal (Harry) is always going to be open and I get that part. I have dealt with that part my whole life as a head coach and you know it. Sidelines are emotional. I think, if you guys can figure this out, you should actually get a broadcasting company and film the sidelines of both teams while the game is being played live and see how much emotion is over there. I think sometimes you can get a camera on a guy and in a moment. I know Tom Brady. Tom Brady had some emotional outbursts. You know what that means to me is that they care, they actually care and that’s a good thing. Football is one of these things that I said all the time, ‘its chaos.’ Its controlled chaos and there is emotions from every guy on the bench and that’s not sitting on the bench. People look at it and try to say, ‘they're saying that.’ They have no idea what they are saying and sometimes its good. Some guys it comes out of there system and they have to get it off there chest for 10 seconds, then its over and then they go back to playing football. That’s the game of football and its always been that way. If you guys want to make some money, im telling you don’t even film the game just film both sidelines and watch the reactions of the players and coaches, but that’s the norm. If they all sat there like this we would be going, ‘those guys aren’t into the game’ and then when they have too much emotion, we say ‘they are not controlling emotions’. No, you don’t have to control your emotions on the sideline, make sure you control them on the field because if you don’t control them on the field you are going to make bad decisions. I have been involved in this for too long. I remember the sidelines in Philadelphia the defense I played on. It was a lot of things going on over there. There were things being said, I was like, ‘you guys are angry.’ That is just the way it is at every level and professional football where they are quote professionals. Watch the sidelines sometimes and you will say ‘what are they doing over there? They shouldn’t act like that.’ That is just part of it.”
ON FRANK DARBY’S INJURY STATUS AFTER THE CATCH…
“He is fine. He's tough, he is from Jersey. I call him ‘Jersey Frank.' That was a heck of an attempt by Frank (Darby), nice throw by Manny (Wilkins). He just went up and competed for the ball. He had a good day, Frank had a good day. He made some big-time plays for us and you love the guy and the way he competes."
ON FRANK DARBY BEING THE THIRD RECEIVER TO COMPLIMENT CORE...
“He's sneaky fast. He seems to get behind people and we have seen this the past couple weeks. Probably one of the best long ball catchers on our team as far as adjusting to the ball and finding it the air. The kid makes a good catch against Michigan State as well down the boundary line. He’s a fun guy to be around, he’s got a lively personality. He knows I was born in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He always tells the players, ‘Hey, coach Herm is a Jersey guy.’ That’s always nice to see when you have a player that understands the mindset of the people that were born in New Jersey.”
ON FRUSTRATION OF OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES…
“That’s critical, they competed. We needed a big takeaway and they took the ball away. We needed to score and we scored one and fell short of the second one so I like that mindset. You have to build on that. We were very lethargic after the halftime and then we couldn’t find our way. We had three possessions and all of them were three and out then the third quarter was gone. All the sudden the fourth quarter we saw the fight. If that is who we are in the fourth then that is who we have to be in the third quarter too. I like that about our guys, they didn’t give into it. It could have been easy to give into because it was an ugly game. San Diego State had put us in a position where they were controlling the game by running the football. We had to get the ball away and then score than I thought, the waning moments we put ourselves in position – It would have been interesting wouldn’t it been because that would have been the next decision I was going to have to make, right. If we scored, what are you going to do? I bet you guys would have wondered - keep wondering. I know exactly what I was going to do. We don’t have to worry, maybe there will be a game where I have to do it and you will see what I am going to do.”
ON TAKEAWAYS FROM WASHINGTON'S GROWING CREDIBILITY...
“I actually spoke with Coach Peterson and his group when he was at Boise while they were playing in a bowl game. That’s when I first met coach. We have got a lot of ties. We’ve known a lot of people as he’s come up through his coaching experiences. We have connected that way. I saw him up in Sacramento State when he had one of his football camps. His crew was up there and we spent some time together. He is a fine football coach. It took him a couple of years to get it going. When you have a change on your staffs, you have to find the people that you want on offense, defense, and special teams. He has done a really nice job of who his team is. When you look at the PAC-12 across the board, I think of big, athletic people. That’s kind of how I view the PAC-12 and they have those guys. If you look at their offensive line, they’ve got some big tackles that are pretty athletic. They have big people and that’s what wins in this conference. I think big guys and length define the PAC-12 as a whole. Everybody is recruiting the same guys and there’s a reason for that because we all play in this conference. That’s what you have to remember. We’re all recruiting the same athletes. It’s just a matter of where some decide to go and hopefully some of them will come here.”
ON CONSISTENCY OF RUN GAME...
“We need to have continuity with our offensive line because there are so many things that they have to do together. It’s one unit, but it’s five players. As far as these guys’ resilience, this is the first time I have been with them for a loss. The first two games were wins. I’m hoping what I saw in the fourth quarter is how we will compete. When you go on the road, you have to bring your own energy. I told them that all week. I said this is going to be one of those games where you have to supply your own energy because our fan base will travel, but you still have to have your energy. Our fan base was great. There were a lot of people from Arizona in the stands and rooting us on. This place up in Washington is a fantastic venue to play a game in. It’s going to be loud. I remember when I first went up there as a freshman in college. The quarterback was Sunny Siskeller. I remember thinking this guy has a good football name. I think they have taken the track out of there, so it’s even more tight. They have got a great fanbase. It’s going to be another spectacular night game. These are the types of venues you want to play in. I think I’m going to be forced to go into the bubble one day this week just for crowd noise. If we turn the music up, we can get used to the noise. It’s going to be noisy for our offense. It’s one of those things that I’m considering because it’s in the best interest of the team. It’s not to get away from the weather, so I don’t want anybody reporting that. It’s for crowd noise and crowd noise only.”
ON HIS SLEEP SCHEDULE...
“If I can get five hours in a day, I’m good. When the game was over, I called my wife and she said you don’t have to tell me. I told her that I’ll come over Sunday after we go to mass. They came over and I saw my family Sunday. You don’t get a lot of sleep. You can’t sleep because you’re always thinking of stuff at night. When you wake up, you just start writing things down. That’s the life of a coach. Believe it or not, when I was working somewhere else and I wasn’t coaching, I slept a little better, but a not whole lot. When you’re a coach, you don’t sleep because you are always thinking of things to improve on and your players. All of those come through your mind. There is always something you can do. The work is never done as a head coach because there is always someone you are visiting with or talking to. A coach’s job is to uplift people to make sure they’re doing okay whether it’s the trainers or the weight coach. I’m always trying to uplift people because that’s my job. You want to create an atmosphere where people feel good about coming to work every day and it’s a positive day. The players were tired yesterday. I could see it and I knew it. Even the coaches were tired. No one is going to feel sorry for anyone. We’ve got to prepare to try to win us a football game this week.”
ON HOW MICHIGAN STATE GAME PREPARED YOUNG PLAYERS TO PLAY IN BIG ATMOSPHERE...
“It’s good in a sense. The guys that have played against Washington know what to expect. The young guys don’t know. We have got a lot of young guys. They are going to have to go in there and deal with the atmosphere. I just think it’s great. College atmospheres are a little different than the pros because of all the tradition that’s involved in it. There’s always going to be a couple groups that have certain things they do when the game is being played. The band and all those things are present. That’s what makes college football unique. When you go to someone else’s venue, there’s always something you see that’s a little bit different, but the electricity is always in the stands. Those folks up there are big-time fans when it comes to football. There’s no doubt about that.”
ON DARIUS SLADE NOT BEING A PART OF ROTATION...
“He had a finger that was bothering him and he felt like he just couldn’t go. Hopefully, he’s going to be better this week because we need him. We need all hands on deck playing these guys. Hopefully, he’ll be available this week.”
ON SAN DIEGO STATES RUSHING ATTACK...
“Some of those runs, the box wasn’t set correctly on our part. We didn’t line up correctly. Some of that is just alignment error and that’s what you dread the most. I don’t know if it was fatigue or guys not trusting it and wanted to make a play. They did a good job at getting the ball to the second level where our corners and safeties had to tackle. When you look at the tackle list, that’s a bad day if your corners and safeties are making the majority of the tackles. That’s not how it’s constructed at all. They have to make some. They did a great job of bringing those receivers in cracking the support. It’s one thing for the corner to go up there, but it’s another thing for a guard pulling around trying to hit the corner. We have tough guys, but they did a nice job of putting us in that situation sometimes due to their scheme due to us not lining up correctly in our own scheme. So, it’s a teaching moment and I think the guys know that we have to do a better job of that after watching the film yesterday. You have to stop the run. It’s painful to watch and it’s a hard pill to swallow when people are running the ball on you because there’s hardly anything you can do. The ball is on the ground and unless you can cause a fumble, it becomes a short game and a long afternoon for you defensively while your offense sits over there watching the clock being bled down. That’s the problem. They got us into their game where they could control the game. That’s why you have to score against teams like that in my opinion. You have got to get up a couple of scores, so they have to abandon it and throw. That never was the case. At the end, we kind of made it a game because we took the ball away and our offense scored and we got into it. But, that was the second half of that ball game and that’s why it was so important for us to score as many points as possible before halftime, in my opinion, getting the ball back in the third quarter trying to put more points on the board because they had to abandon the run because the clock was their friend. They weren’t playing against us. They were playing against the clock. They figured that they should just keep running the ball and get first downs. As the clock dwindles, we would lose possessions. That’s why you have to get it to a game where they are uncomfortable playing and we weren’t able to do that. It’s a credit to them.”
ON HOW WINNING HAS AFFECTED OPPOSING TEAMS MINDSET...
“The team that lost will use it. The team that wins maybe won’t use it a lot. I think you would look at the circumstances on why you have won the game. That’s important. No matter how you win, you win. But, a lot of factors go into that. A lot of people have that sense of history. This team has beaten that team so many times. I always would say, ‘what team was that when they beat them.’ I just kind of look at it like that. How many coaches have changed since they beat them? How many players have changed between all of the wins and losses? I get it that it’s a PAC-12 game, which is important. They are not in our division obviously. But, they are a big-time football team. It’s a big-time football program. Coach Peterson has changed it to that mindset. If you win this game, all of a sudden you feel pretty good about getting your first conference win on the road against a team that is considered to maybe win their division. Washington or Stanford I assume would be at the top of the list. That’s just me assuming things and I shouldn’t do that."
“Pac-12 competition is going to start for us this weekend, obviously it’s a road game against a very good opponent in Washington. Coach (Chris) Peterson has done a fabulous job of developing a program in the time he has been there. I know for a few teams, there have been Pac-12 competition games in our conference USC and UTAH have played and over in the other conference, Stanford and Washington. I’m excited about entering the Pac-12 division - our division. More than that, we have nine games left in the season and we go into it with a record of 2-1 against a team that is highly talented and they should be. They have a veteran offense, they have some skill players at the wide receiver position, as well as the running back position. Their defense is outstanding, one of the better defenses in college football, in my opinion, in what they do schematically - how they build it. They do a nice job with their secondary - very talented. They have a good group up front, some linebackers that play in space as well. They are an opponent that is very tough at home. We know they have averaged about 27 points and they are giving up about 10 points. They can run the football, they are very balanced.”
ON WATCHING THE FILM POST GAME…
“I didn’t go to bed Saturday night. I came into the office and I didn’t go home. We got off the bus at 3:30, I started watching the tape. Watched all three phases like I always do. We got in so late so it didn’t make any sense for me to go home because I am here so early in the morning. I just got in and watched all the tape and watched all three phases of it and put it to bed. So when the coaches came in I could get in discussion with them about how we played and some things we need to improve on.”
ON OPINION ABOUT (FRANK) DARBY’S CATCH…
“I think with a situation like that occurs and they replay it because of the targeting act the whole play gets reviewed. If the targeting never happens it probably doesn’t get reviewed but it did. Right now, the rule that I think that it's not a spot foul. I think there will be some discussion after the season about that maybe being changed, other than that, looking at it and discussing it we lost. You don’t get the loss back. It doesn’t work that way in the football, I have learned that a long time ago. There is nothing you can do about the past than learn from it. I say football is teaching moments. We will learn a lot about ourselves. We have to improve our play on the road. The last three years we are 4-12 on the road. That’s not a good record so we need to do a better job now. We had a chance to win a road game and we didn’t get it done against a good football team. I said that the week we played them. They are a good football team, there is a reason they average 10 wins in the last three years. It's not by accident. They are a good football team.”
ON FACING A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT OFFENSE THIS WEEK COMPARED TO SDSU...
“They are a vertical team that will throw it down the field, they will take vertical shots similar to what we do. They have some explosive players, they are very balanced though. They can run the football, they rush it for about 156 yards a game so that has to be a concern to you. You watch our last tape we weren’t very good against the run due to a lot of alignment errors and basically missing some tackles allowed them big plays. Prior to that, we were pretty good versus the run. We have to get that corrected but they are going to take their shots, they have a veteran quarterback, good receivers. This is a good football team. They have been in the top 10 not by accident."
ON PLAYING ISAIAH FLOYD AND TRELON SMITH MORE AGAINST SDSU…
“We say that, but I think what happened is you have to give San Diego State a lot of credit. They were in our backfield a lot, there were no clean runs. They got after us pretty good with that defense. Its been in place now for almost a decade. They had an opportunity to study us and they played them last year so they get the tape from last year and they did a good job of stopping us from running the ball. The problem is you can't get discouraged, you have to continue to run the football, I believe in football games. You have to be balanced. When you are not balanced that’s not good and you can't throw it as many times as we had to throw it on the road. That’s never a good formula. You have to be able to run the ball on the road, it just takes the crowd out of the game, you control the line of scrimmage and you become a balanced offense. When you always go back to throwing on the road bad things generally happen. We have to play better on the road and we have to get our running game going.”
ON FEEDBACK FROM THE OFFENSIVE PLAYERS ON THE SIDELINES…
“All receivers, the good ones are always open during a seven-eleven. Nkeal (Harry) is always going to be open and I get that part. I have dealt with that part my whole life as a head coach and you know it. Sidelines are emotional. I think, if you guys can figure this out, you should actually get a broadcasting company and film the sidelines of both teams while the game is being played live and see how much emotion is over there. I think sometimes you can get a camera on a guy and in a moment. I know Tom Brady. Tom Brady had some emotional outbursts. You know what that means to me is that they care, they actually care and that’s a good thing. Football is one of these things that I said all the time, ‘its chaos.’ Its controlled chaos and there is emotions from every guy on the bench and that’s not sitting on the bench. People look at it and try to say, ‘they're saying that.’ They have no idea what they are saying and sometimes its good. Some guys it comes out of there system and they have to get it off there chest for 10 seconds, then its over and then they go back to playing football. That’s the game of football and its always been that way. If you guys want to make some money, im telling you don’t even film the game just film both sidelines and watch the reactions of the players and coaches, but that’s the norm. If they all sat there like this we would be going, ‘those guys aren’t into the game’ and then when they have too much emotion, we say ‘they are not controlling emotions’. No, you don’t have to control your emotions on the sideline, make sure you control them on the field because if you don’t control them on the field you are going to make bad decisions. I have been involved in this for too long. I remember the sidelines in Philadelphia the defense I played on. It was a lot of things going on over there. There were things being said, I was like, ‘you guys are angry.’ That is just the way it is at every level and professional football where they are quote professionals. Watch the sidelines sometimes and you will say ‘what are they doing over there? They shouldn’t act like that.’ That is just part of it.”
ON FRANK DARBY’S INJURY STATUS AFTER THE CATCH…
“He is fine. He's tough, he is from Jersey. I call him ‘Jersey Frank.' That was a heck of an attempt by Frank (Darby), nice throw by Manny (Wilkins). He just went up and competed for the ball. He had a good day, Frank had a good day. He made some big-time plays for us and you love the guy and the way he competes."
ON FRANK DARBY BEING THE THIRD RECEIVER TO COMPLIMENT CORE...
“He's sneaky fast. He seems to get behind people and we have seen this the past couple weeks. Probably one of the best long ball catchers on our team as far as adjusting to the ball and finding it the air. The kid makes a good catch against Michigan State as well down the boundary line. He’s a fun guy to be around, he’s got a lively personality. He knows I was born in Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. He always tells the players, ‘Hey, coach Herm is a Jersey guy.’ That’s always nice to see when you have a player that understands the mindset of the people that were born in New Jersey.”
ON FRUSTRATION OF OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES…
“That’s critical, they competed. We needed a big takeaway and they took the ball away. We needed to score and we scored one and fell short of the second one so I like that mindset. You have to build on that. We were very lethargic after the halftime and then we couldn’t find our way. We had three possessions and all of them were three and out then the third quarter was gone. All the sudden the fourth quarter we saw the fight. If that is who we are in the fourth then that is who we have to be in the third quarter too. I like that about our guys, they didn’t give into it. It could have been easy to give into because it was an ugly game. San Diego State had put us in a position where they were controlling the game by running the football. We had to get the ball away and then score than I thought, the waning moments we put ourselves in position – It would have been interesting wouldn’t it been because that would have been the next decision I was going to have to make, right. If we scored, what are you going to do? I bet you guys would have wondered - keep wondering. I know exactly what I was going to do. We don’t have to worry, maybe there will be a game where I have to do it and you will see what I am going to do.”
ON TAKEAWAYS FROM WASHINGTON'S GROWING CREDIBILITY...
“I actually spoke with Coach Peterson and his group when he was at Boise while they were playing in a bowl game. That’s when I first met coach. We have got a lot of ties. We’ve known a lot of people as he’s come up through his coaching experiences. We have connected that way. I saw him up in Sacramento State when he had one of his football camps. His crew was up there and we spent some time together. He is a fine football coach. It took him a couple of years to get it going. When you have a change on your staffs, you have to find the people that you want on offense, defense, and special teams. He has done a really nice job of who his team is. When you look at the PAC-12 across the board, I think of big, athletic people. That’s kind of how I view the PAC-12 and they have those guys. If you look at their offensive line, they’ve got some big tackles that are pretty athletic. They have big people and that’s what wins in this conference. I think big guys and length define the PAC-12 as a whole. Everybody is recruiting the same guys and there’s a reason for that because we all play in this conference. That’s what you have to remember. We’re all recruiting the same athletes. It’s just a matter of where some decide to go and hopefully some of them will come here.”
ON CONSISTENCY OF RUN GAME...
“We need to have continuity with our offensive line because there are so many things that they have to do together. It’s one unit, but it’s five players. As far as these guys’ resilience, this is the first time I have been with them for a loss. The first two games were wins. I’m hoping what I saw in the fourth quarter is how we will compete. When you go on the road, you have to bring your own energy. I told them that all week. I said this is going to be one of those games where you have to supply your own energy because our fan base will travel, but you still have to have your energy. Our fan base was great. There were a lot of people from Arizona in the stands and rooting us on. This place up in Washington is a fantastic venue to play a game in. It’s going to be loud. I remember when I first went up there as a freshman in college. The quarterback was Sunny Siskeller. I remember thinking this guy has a good football name. I think they have taken the track out of there, so it’s even more tight. They have got a great fanbase. It’s going to be another spectacular night game. These are the types of venues you want to play in. I think I’m going to be forced to go into the bubble one day this week just for crowd noise. If we turn the music up, we can get used to the noise. It’s going to be noisy for our offense. It’s one of those things that I’m considering because it’s in the best interest of the team. It’s not to get away from the weather, so I don’t want anybody reporting that. It’s for crowd noise and crowd noise only.”
ON HIS SLEEP SCHEDULE...
“If I can get five hours in a day, I’m good. When the game was over, I called my wife and she said you don’t have to tell me. I told her that I’ll come over Sunday after we go to mass. They came over and I saw my family Sunday. You don’t get a lot of sleep. You can’t sleep because you’re always thinking of stuff at night. When you wake up, you just start writing things down. That’s the life of a coach. Believe it or not, when I was working somewhere else and I wasn’t coaching, I slept a little better, but a not whole lot. When you’re a coach, you don’t sleep because you are always thinking of things to improve on and your players. All of those come through your mind. There is always something you can do. The work is never done as a head coach because there is always someone you are visiting with or talking to. A coach’s job is to uplift people to make sure they’re doing okay whether it’s the trainers or the weight coach. I’m always trying to uplift people because that’s my job. You want to create an atmosphere where people feel good about coming to work every day and it’s a positive day. The players were tired yesterday. I could see it and I knew it. Even the coaches were tired. No one is going to feel sorry for anyone. We’ve got to prepare to try to win us a football game this week.”
ON HOW MICHIGAN STATE GAME PREPARED YOUNG PLAYERS TO PLAY IN BIG ATMOSPHERE...
“It’s good in a sense. The guys that have played against Washington know what to expect. The young guys don’t know. We have got a lot of young guys. They are going to have to go in there and deal with the atmosphere. I just think it’s great. College atmospheres are a little different than the pros because of all the tradition that’s involved in it. There’s always going to be a couple groups that have certain things they do when the game is being played. The band and all those things are present. That’s what makes college football unique. When you go to someone else’s venue, there’s always something you see that’s a little bit different, but the electricity is always in the stands. Those folks up there are big-time fans when it comes to football. There’s no doubt about that.”
ON DARIUS SLADE NOT BEING A PART OF ROTATION...
“He had a finger that was bothering him and he felt like he just couldn’t go. Hopefully, he’s going to be better this week because we need him. We need all hands on deck playing these guys. Hopefully, he’ll be available this week.”
ON SAN DIEGO STATES RUSHING ATTACK...
“Some of those runs, the box wasn’t set correctly on our part. We didn’t line up correctly. Some of that is just alignment error and that’s what you dread the most. I don’t know if it was fatigue or guys not trusting it and wanted to make a play. They did a good job at getting the ball to the second level where our corners and safeties had to tackle. When you look at the tackle list, that’s a bad day if your corners and safeties are making the majority of the tackles. That’s not how it’s constructed at all. They have to make some. They did a great job of bringing those receivers in cracking the support. It’s one thing for the corner to go up there, but it’s another thing for a guard pulling around trying to hit the corner. We have tough guys, but they did a nice job of putting us in that situation sometimes due to their scheme due to us not lining up correctly in our own scheme. So, it’s a teaching moment and I think the guys know that we have to do a better job of that after watching the film yesterday. You have to stop the run. It’s painful to watch and it’s a hard pill to swallow when people are running the ball on you because there’s hardly anything you can do. The ball is on the ground and unless you can cause a fumble, it becomes a short game and a long afternoon for you defensively while your offense sits over there watching the clock being bled down. That’s the problem. They got us into their game where they could control the game. That’s why you have to score against teams like that in my opinion. You have got to get up a couple of scores, so they have to abandon it and throw. That never was the case. At the end, we kind of made it a game because we took the ball away and our offense scored and we got into it. But, that was the second half of that ball game and that’s why it was so important for us to score as many points as possible before halftime, in my opinion, getting the ball back in the third quarter trying to put more points on the board because they had to abandon the run because the clock was their friend. They weren’t playing against us. They were playing against the clock. They figured that they should just keep running the ball and get first downs. As the clock dwindles, we would lose possessions. That’s why you have to get it to a game where they are uncomfortable playing and we weren’t able to do that. It’s a credit to them.”
ON HOW WINNING HAS AFFECTED OPPOSING TEAMS MINDSET...
“The team that lost will use it. The team that wins maybe won’t use it a lot. I think you would look at the circumstances on why you have won the game. That’s important. No matter how you win, you win. But, a lot of factors go into that. A lot of people have that sense of history. This team has beaten that team so many times. I always would say, ‘what team was that when they beat them.’ I just kind of look at it like that. How many coaches have changed since they beat them? How many players have changed between all of the wins and losses? I get it that it’s a PAC-12 game, which is important. They are not in our division obviously. But, they are a big-time football team. It’s a big-time football program. Coach Peterson has changed it to that mindset. If you win this game, all of a sudden you feel pretty good about getting your first conference win on the road against a team that is considered to maybe win their division. Washington or Stanford I assume would be at the top of the list. That’s just me assuming things and I shouldn’t do that."