Sept. 19, 2004
Arizona State Head Coach Dirk Koetter
On the defense:
"There's no question you begin with the defense. All we heard about all week was we are not physical enough to hold up and our defense took that personally. I think we did an awesome job of playing physical. We were able to shut down their run game. We were able to get pressure on (Drew) Tate and keep him contained. I can't say enough about the job our defense did tonight. It's just a shame we lost a shutout at the end."
Compared to playing Iowa last season:
"The main thing that we learned from last year is that we just weren't aggressive enough. We didn't attack them down the field enough and we might have given them too much respect. We came out tonight and tried to attack a lot more. Andrew (Walter) was razor sharp. We had a lot of guys making plays."
On the play of Andrew Walter:
"I'm very pleased and proud of Andrew, but in the same breath let's not forget that offensive line. I don't think we allowed a sack tonight against an excellent front and Andrew had time to throw and guys made plays for him on the other end. It was just a nice effort by all of those guys. We had a lot of guys step up and make plays. One of the great things about having a senior quarterback like Andrew is we drew a couple up in the dirt tonight and they worked out. We've got a really sharp group of guys that can make changes."
On the play to set up a field goal before halftime:
"There were something like 18 seconds left and they called that timeout and they still had one timeout left. So if we just ran the ball into the pile on third and five we were going to run off two or three seconds and they were going to call timeout. So I said if they're going to call timeout let's go ahead and take a shot. They blitzed us all out and Terry (Richardson) made a great catch."
On the crowd:
"The crowd did a great job. I was nervous with the weather delay. We've worked so hard to get it to this point of having a sellout. For all the talk we heard this week of all the Iowa fans that would be in the house, we didn't hear much of them tonight. We did a great job with our crowd. That always gives us that extra edge. Let's come back again next Saturday night and do it again."
Arizona State QB Andrew Walter
On the defense:
"Today was a great win. The team and the defense played awesome. Special teams, except for the last play, also did awesome. Offensively, you couldn't ask for much more as Derek Hagan and Zach Miller played unbelievable along with the offensive line. I do not even think I was touched during the game."
On the most surprising element of this game regarding the Iowa defense:
"I will sing the praises of the offensive lines all night. They did really great. I hardly got touched. That is how they do it. They do a 4 man rush and try to get a rush on the quarterback that way and they were not able to do it tonight."
"I have been thinking about today's game since the plane ride back from Iowa last year. I was more fired for this game than for any game of my career."
Arizona State WR Derek Hagan
On Iowa's play:
"Their play was pretty much what we expected. We expected all week long they were going to give us a little cover two, cover six mix and a little bit of cover four and that is basically what they did tonight. We had our plays set and ready for them.
On what opened him in the game:
"Zach Miller came into training camp proving that he was ready to go. He comes ready to play week in and week out and that is what the others receivers and I try to do too."
Arizona State TE/HB Zach Miller
On knowing if he would be involved in the offense this much tonight:
"I had a pretty good idea because of the way they run their defense. I was supposed to have a big game and I did."
On Andrew Walter's night:
"He played great tonight. I have only seen him in the three games that I have been here, but he definitely played like a Heisman Trophy winner tonight."
On the attitude before the game about payback:
"I didn't see it as payback, but I wasn't on the team last year. I just wanted to beat this team because they came out talking like they were tough but we proved we were tougher"
On his first TD pass of his career:
"I was so excited and everyone on the sidelines yelled `Truth' because that's the nickname the guys gave me. I was just getting really jacked up. It was real exciting."
On the halftime mood:
"There was a lot of talk about not letting down and `don't let them back in the game.' We did it, we played four quarters of solid football."
Arizona State LB Dale Robinson On making a name for Arizona State on defense
"I think we definitely did. The Northwestern game they had some yards rushing because we set up the defense to play against the pass. The coaches set it up for us to play against the run today and we showed them, all three of us Jamar (Williams), Justin (Burks) and myself, that we can stop the run. We have a real good rush defense."
On the defensive looks:
"Yeah we definitely threw a lot of different looks at them. Coach was just calling different plays all the time. I would show sometimes and then I wouldn't go, then Jamar (Williams) would show. Coach had a good game plan for us tonight."
On taking Iowa out of their game plan:
"A lot of time we knew what they were going to run, our coach was calling out their plays, we knew that they were going to do pretty much. Like we knew when their running backs were eight yards in the backfield that they were going to be running. We knew when they were going to be doing play action. Coach was calling the perfect calls for us to be in the right situation at the right time."
On the blitz packages:
"We knew from watching the film the quarterback (Drew Tate) was having a hard time stopping us when we were blitzing like that. Our coach was calling blitz all the time and they didn't know where we were coming from. Tonight we really showed people that we can play."
On Sun Devil offense:
"We are definitely going to have a lot of confidence now. We have to keep it in a certain perspective. It is what it is. We just practice hard and we have to show it on the field. "
Iowa Head Coach Kirk Ferentz
"Obviously, not much to say on that one. A pretty thorough beating in every regard. All congratulations go to Arizona State. They had a great plan and certainly played a tremendous game in all there phases. It was about as sound of a beating as we've had in quite some time. It wasn't much fun for us and it is pretty hard to find any positives outside of the two punt returns in the second half. Probably the only other positive is that it only counts as one loss. If they gave style points, it would probably count as a couple, but fortunately, it only counts as one."
"Anytime a game goes that way, either way, you are probably surprised. I thought that these teams were fairly evenly matched and I probably misjudged that one. They played one tremendous football game and we didn't."
Iowa QB Drew Tate
"We played (a very bad) game tonight. I had a bad game. Their (ASU) defense was very tough and they were very psyched for this game. They put a lot of guys in the box and brought a lot of pressure all night."
Iowa RB Jermelle Lewis
"ASU came with their `A' game tonight. We got beat in every phase of the game. All we can do is go back to the drawing board. You never imagine this can happen. We have to go and think about this on the way home and keep our heads up."
Iowa RB Marques Simmons
"I got in the game and take my opportunities when they come. We were trying to keep some good spirits within the team and I certainly wasn't expecting this."