Sept. 17, 2005
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Arizona State Head Coach Dirk Koetter
On the game:
"Unfortunately, it looks like we lost Zach Krula for the year with a broken ankle. For all the good things we do, that's one of the first things I thought about at the end of the game. He's in the locker room and he's not in too much pain right now, but it's just too bad it had to be that way. I'm real proud of our guys because we played without a lot of our top guys tonight. We were missing four starters and two or three of our top special teams players. A lot of players helped and got in the game. We ran the ball well and threw the ball well. That's a tough offense to defend and I think our defense did a nice job. Northwestern will move the ball on everybody. From here on out, it's Pac-10 play and every game is big. We're certainly looking forward to kicking off the Pac-10 next week with a tough place to go in Corvallis."
On penalties:
"The only thing is we had too many penalties. Some of them were aggressive penalties and you can live with that. But I'm proud of how we played and we executed better. In these games, all you can do is go out and do what you're supposed to do and we did that."
On Northwestern's offense:
"(Brett) Basanez runs that system so well. He's an accurate thrower. They spread you out and the running backs run the ball hard, but I thought we were pretty disciplined for the most part. We kept the ball in front of us and didn't give up big plays. We tackled well and got turnovers. We did a decent job on third down and against that style of offense that's all you can ask. I'm sure the experience from playing this offense will help us in three weeks when we play a tough Oregon team. Oregon has gone to a very similar offense with Kellen Clemens playing the role of Basanez."
Arizona State QB Sam Keller
On the play of the offense:
"We're a good offense. We do whatever we do when we want to do and we still had a bunch of penalties. If we do everything better, we would probably have 900 yards."
On Northwestern's defense:
"We practiced all week on their "weird" defense. Our coaches put in a great position to be successful on what they threw at us. It is nice to know that we had an average week in practice and we can still turn it on for a game."
On injuries:
"We have such great depth. Matt Miller had a great game tonight. But when we have Terry Richardson, Matt Miller and Zach Miller, we are that much better. Knowing that we did it with out [Zach Miller and Terry Richardson], just shows that we are a high powered offense. We are scary to face."
On ASU's offense:
"We didn't know we were going to come out and do things we wanted to at will. We have such good players and coaches on offense. If we don't get the play, it's because one of us messes up. It's a tribute to how well the coaches and the offense work together. If we do something wrong, we work on it the next play and get a first down."
On ASU's rushing offense:
"When Keegan gets going and gets holes, he just runs. The kid can bounce off tacklers. It's when I turn around to see what is happening with the play, he's already gone and that's pretty impressive. Its not just because of him, it's because of our Offensive line. The rushing attack and the passing attack feed off of each other. We are going to throw the ball every game, that's no secret but having the attack to be able to rush the ball opens up our whole playbook. Having guys like Keegan and Rudy adds a whole new dimension."
On the offensive line:
"You can't say enough about the offensive line. They are good. There is no other way to put it. They do their job almost every time. When they don't, it's weird. I'm proud of them every day in practice. They are going to carry this offense. It starts and finishes with those guys. I wish people would give them more credit than they get."
On upcoming Pac-10 schedule:
"This is Pac-10. It's no joke. I think Northwestern found out the hard way tonight. LSU found out. Everyone we play from now on tonight is good. Everyone we play will be a dog fight and we'll be ready. Our intensity will be huge. Getting all the guys back will be good so we can practice. If we keep doing what we are doing now, it will be fun."
Arizona State WR Matt Miller
On his performance:
"I had a good week of practice with Sam (Keller) and he helped me prepare for the game and made it easy for me. Sam called that last play (fourth and one) and saw I was in man coverage and he put it right there."
Arizona State TB Keegan Herring
On his rushing stats for the game:
"I owe everything to the offensive line. The more yards I get, the more credit they deserve."
On his fumble trouble:
"It is hard to come back after a play like that (fumble on 66 yd run), but the o-line and everybody kept telling me to forget about it and give it 110 percent the next time out. So that is what I did. I let it go and went back out there and gave it everything I had."
"It means everything to me that my coaches, o-line, quarterback and other teammates have faith in me. They put me back in there and gave me a chance to show what I got. They know I can hold on to the ball."
On why he was holding a football during the press conference:
"I'll let you answer that when you watch the tape."
On the play of Sam Keller:
"Sam does a great job of checking the play off at the line of scrimmage. He can read the other team so well and knows what to call out there. That makes it so easy on me and everybody else out there."
Arizona State LB Dale Robinson
On his helmet coming off for the second game in a row:
"I'm always playing hard. That's all I can say about that."
On the defensive play of ASU:
"We took a step in the right direction. With Jamar [Williams], the quarterback of our defense, being out, guys like Nick Clapp and Robert James stepped up big for us tonight."
On starting Pac-10 play:
"Our goal is to win the Pac-10 championship. We are making good strides towards that. The Pac-10 is where it counts."
Arizona State DT Jordan Hill
On Northwestern's offense:
"There was a lot of pressure on the defense this week, because of the things that they do. They have an unorthodox offense as far as what we face normally. We have a game plan. There was a lot of emphasis put on the defensive end and they came through to shut down the option. They had a few big plays on it, but for the most part we executed when we need to.
On defensive adjustments in the second half:
"We just had to regroup we had to talk about the things we were seeing on the field and talk about the things that they were doing differently than what we were seeing all week. Obviously they game-planned us and made some adjustments on their offense to execute against us. We had to get together as a defense on the sidelines and talk about how to stop them."
Northwestern Head Coach Randy Walker
"First, I want to give a lot of credit to Arizona State and Coach (Dirk) Koetter because they are an awful good team, as we found out throughout the game today. We knew that we were coming into a very difficult place to play and that we were playing an outstanding football team. This game got away from us in the second quarter and I'm disappointed in the fact that we didn't play better. As I told our football team, we didn't have as good of a week of practice as we needed to have. You tend to get in life, and in football, what you deserve. We probably deserved to get this, although I don't know that anybody wants to get beat that bad. By and large, we didn't have the kind of week and the kind of preparation that we needed to have. Hopefully, we take a learning step from this that we can't expect to just turn on a switch on Saturday night. I think that some of our guys think that they can just flip that switch and we'll come out and play. It takes great preparation and practice to compete at this level, especially when you are playing a very good football team; a team that arguably is a Top 10 team. They had one of the best football teams I've seen in a long time on the ropes last week and barely lost. We had to come in here and play a good football game, making plays when they were presented, and we didn't make those plays. As I reminded our kids, we've been here before and I expect the team to respond the right way. We have some work ahead of us, but I still believe and know that we can play well and be a good football team."
On the running back situation in the game:
"We don't ever go into a game, especially with the running game, thinking that we have to give certain kids so many touches. We are going to try and play with balance, but honestly it's a blur at this point what happened when. I thought that we had some things going on offense and I think we left a lot of points out on the field. We had some possessions and drives that we didn't capitalize on. The bottom line is they are a real good football team. They are a good offensive football team and I haven't seen a quarterback throw the ball on target like that in a real long time. He made virtually every pass. They had answers for everything we tried to do and Coach Koetter did a great job with their game plan. They took it to us in a lot of different ways, both running and passing the ball. They had us on our heels on defense."
On whether the problem was execution or preparation:
"It's all that. As I said, we didn't have a very good day of practice on Tuesday. It wasn't our best day and it wasn't my best day. I am the first to admit that. To be a good football team, we need to prepare well, practice well, and we didn't get that on Tuesday. It was disappointing. Couple that with the fact we didn't tackle or make plays on the ball. I'll take credit for it. I didn't do a good enough job of coaching and getting our kids ready to play. We just weren't very good and that's all I can say, out coached and outplayed. A better football team took it to us tonight."
Northwestern QB Brett Basanez
On the team's effort:
"The game did not end up the way we wanted to. We got to learn from it, it makes a loss worse if we don't learn from it. We learned a lot as a team, Arizona State is the fastest team we have played this year, and they are extremely talented on offense, and we knew we were going to be in a shot out with them."
On red zone troubles:
"We didn't execute in the red zone, we need to watch film and see what mistakes we made, I have been telling you guys for a while that we need to put the ball in the end zone, we need to find the answer and until we do it is hard, cause we moved the ball well but we did not finish in the end zone."
On what needs to be done:
"We have to have that killer instinct, we shot ourselves in the foot, execution is key and since of awareness is crucial. Its on us a offence to execute, and develop consistence, we have the right plays called, and players are there but we have to execute."
Nortwestern DT Barry Cofield
On Northwestern's pass rush:
"We could have rushed better. We tried to pressure Keller out of the pocket, tried to blitz early, but we have a lot to work on."
On changes that need to be made:
"I couldn't tell from the field, they stepped up and responded. They punched us, but we didn't punch back."
On whether ASU's run attack was expected:
"They opened it up with the pass, and when you're on your heels anything can happen."
On allowing five consecutive scoring drives:
"It wasn't fatigue, just momentum. It is a game of momentum and that's what happens when they execute like that and we do not execute."