Aug. 31, 2006
Listen to ASU Players Post Game Audio
ARIZONA STATE HEAD COACH Dirk Koetter
On the game:
"It certainly wasn't easy and we never said it would be easy. NAU came out and played hard on both sides of the ball."
"You've got to give Jason Murietta a lot of credit for the type of competitor he is. I thought they did a really nice job scheming on both sides of the ball. They did things that were difficult on us. Their change in tempo on offense caught us for a big play in the first half. Their unusual blitz looks definitely caused us problems on our offensive side of the ball."
"All in all, I thought our defense did a nice job tonight. We had something like nine sacks tonight and would have liked to have gotten some more turnovers. We had great pressure on Murietta all night. Other than three big plays, two in the first half and one alley-oop ball in the second half, our defense really played pretty well all night."
"Offensively, we just never really did get in a rhythm. We rotated a lot of backs in and it was good to get them some work. We know we can play a lot better on offense than that and we're going to have to starting next Saturday."
On Derron Ware:
"Derron (Ware) has had a tremendous camp. I talked to Derron and his mother earlier today and I told Derron to just play like he has in practice. If you practice well like he has it's easy to carry it over into the game. Derron certainly showed his speed off the edge and was in the backfield all night. I thought we did a good job of hitting people, we had big hits consistently tonight."
On the crowd:
"I thought the crowd was great, especially the students. What a warm welcome."
On the running backs:
"We feel good about our depth at tailback. I was a little surprised early in the game. I didn't think we hit the holes as hard as we had in practice. (Shaun) DeWitty and (Ryan) Torain both made really nice runs on screens to score a couple of touchdowns. And Keegan (Herring) had that reverse run where it got stacked up and reversed it around the backdoor for a touchdown."
On Dimitri Nance:
"The thing about Dimitri Nance is that guy is a prototype zone runner and we're a zone-blocking team. Even though he's not flashy, that guy is nails. That's how he was his whole high school career. He'd carry it 20 or 30 yards a time and get five yards a crack. We've already decided to play him on special teams and we wanted to get him in there and get a look at him at tailback."
ARIZONA STATE SOPHOMORE QUARTERBACK Rudy Carpenter
On the challenges playing against NAU's Defense:
"It was rough for us the whole night. They have a different style of defense that we never really see. They have three safeties. They could do whatever they want. Even though it is sometime unsound, it confuses us. We didn't know who to block or where to throw. It was a little confusing. We had to resort to running the ball a little bit. We will get better."
"Some times you can't get it going. We couldn't get it going. NAU made a big play first and that sparked us. Dimitri (Nance) and Keegan (Herring) ran well tonight."
"We couldn't make our front calls. That's why we had to try to go no huddle to get them to stop moving so much. That's a credit to them. It's game one. We are going to get better. Like I say, A win is a win. No matter how much or how little you win by.'"
On playing a close game in the first half:
"I think that (a close game is) good for us. We need that. All it's going to do is help us for later in the season. We are going to play close games in the Pac-10. You want to blow people out but it doesn't always work that way. I think what people need to understand, in college football, it is close. Every team wants to win and every team is going to play their heart out each Saturday. It doesn't matter if it is by one point or 100 points. A win is a win. We are going to be happy with that. Like 14-14, it happens some times. I'm just glad we didn't get down on ourselves or fold. We showed you tonight that we can run the ball."
ARIZONA STATE SENIOR LINEBACKER Derron Ware
On igniting the defense in the first half:
"It was very important to set the tone in the game. That was what Coach Bill Miller was talking to us about before we walked out. He said, `We might be up first and we need to set the tone for the game.' We ran on the first play. We decided to blitz them to try to get a sack and it worked out."
On shutting out NAU in the second half:
"I think we came out with a different attitude (in the second half). `Let's come out the second half as a team and play these two quarters hard and separate ourselves from them.'"
On having a break out game:
"The scheme this week had a lot of blitz calls and I could get a free rush. I could use my speed to get past them and try to get some sacks."
ARIZONA STATE JUNIOR WIDE RECEIVER Rudy Burgess
On how many passes he caught:
"I was a little surprised about that. Our offense normally spreads the ball really well and gets it to multiple receivers. I didn't even notice that I was the one target that we were throwing to, but I was able to get open against the defense."
On NAU's defense:
"They were doing a lot of unorthodox stuff. They did a lot of moving around and shifting which was catching us off guard at first. That's when Coach Koetter had us switch to the no huddle to try and catch them off guard."
On the mentality of the team after the game:
"I wouldn't say that we are satisfied, but it is definitely a learning experience for us which we can use later on in the season. We just have to be able to come out strong and not fold in the second half, coach always tells us to win the game in the fourth quarter."
ARIZONA STATE JUNIOR CORNERBACK Chris Baloney
On his first game as a Sun Devil:
"I am just so excited to be out here. I went out there and played my heart out tonight."
On adjustments at half time:
"We just went in to the locker room saying that basically these guys can play with us. We take our hats off to them."
On the interception:
"I was excited. I didn't know what to do. It was my first interception in Division One. I was just so excited, I was just overwhelmed."
ARIZONA STATE JUNIOR TAILBACK Ryan Torain
On his first game:
"It was a good feeling. I got out there looking at the stands. This is kind of overwhelming, but you just got to go out there and have fun. I liked it a lot."
On the running backs:
"We're deep. It's great having all these backs that make plays. All four backs that were in had a touchdown. Having that is good for the team."
NORTHERN ARIZONA HEAD COACH JEROME SOUERS
On NAU's Performance:
"I'm proud of the character our football team showed today. This is a really good Arizona State team. We lost the game. As difficult as that was, I'm very proud of how much we've improved from a year ago. I credit Arizona State, they made the plays that wore us down at the end, and that became obvious. Some of the big plays that we were able to generate, we weren't able to do them consistently enough. "
On the decision to call a fake punt deep in NAU territory:
"In that scenario, we should have called a time-out. It was a good scheme on their part, it caught us off-guard, which was certainly something we didn't want to have happen. However, I am very proud of the defense today, they gave us a chance to win tonight but on offense we couldn't make enough plays."
On the defensive stand following NAU's failed fake punt:
"They brought us out of that position. They made a great effort with some really big plays."
On NAU's execution and focus:
"We weren't consistent enough. We had some penalties, we had some missed assignments, we had some scenarios where we had just one guy break down. In the first game that's not unusual, but in this particular game we needed to be perfect, and we didn't give ourselves a chance because we weren't that tonight."
On NAU's defensive planning against ASU's offense:
"We had a great game plan defensively, we played the 3-3 (defense) with a lot of heart. They (ASU) have some pretty special people on the offensive side of the ball. They have great running backs and their linemen are huge, and it kind of wore us down in the second half."
On the team's reaction to the game:
"We entered the game with the intent to play at our standard. We wanted to play well, we wanted to play with poise. We didn't do that the whole time, but for the most part, we played hard and we never gave up."
NORTHERN ARIZONA SENIOR QUARTERBACK JASON MURIETTA
On the 80-yard touchdown pass:
"I rolled right and saw Alex Watson raising his hand in the air, Alex is a great receiver, he is our go-to guy. I gave him a chance and he made the play. I threw it up aiming for his back shoulder, and thought it was a free play, so I just threw it."
On the team's performance:
"I don't think the score indicated how these two teams match up. We wanted to come in and win, and we definitely had a chance to. We played well through the third quarter, however our numbers got to us. I think if we played again we would win."
On the team's off-season changes:
"I didn't change anything in the off season, I feel that our players are just getting more experience playing with each other and it's showing out there. This game shows that we can play with any team."
NORTHERN ARIZONA JUNIOR WIDE RECEIVER ALEX WATSON
On the 80-yard touchdown pass:
"I saw the safety fall down in his backpedal and I raised my hand. It hung up there; it looked like a punt. I saw a guy in the corner of my eye and shielded him to make the catch."
On the feel of the game:
"There was a lot of talk on the field, especially in the first quarter when they (ASU) tried to intimidate us. By the middle of the second half it died down and we just played. In the third quarter we believed we were in it and about to shock everyone. We were capable but we just couldn't maintain it for all four quarters. We quieted the crowd and that's what we came here to do."
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