Sept. 13, 2008
ASU Head Coach Dennis Erickson
On the game:
"We didn't make any plays offensively. We ran the football and just couldn't convert third down. Defensively, we had them at third down a lot of times and they converted it, and they made some big plays at the end of the game to get it in there. It's sickening. It starts with me. I didn't have them ready to play and I'll take the blame. But we have to play better as a group. There are a lot of guys in that locker room that understand that."
On what UNLV did defensively:
"They were playing a lot of two deep and that forced us to run the football. That's what we were trying to do and we were getting some pretty good chunks. They made us earn everything we got, and I knew they were going to do that defensively. When we had some momentum going we just killed it either with a penalty or an incompletion or whatever the case may be. It's just a hard loss. All we can do is try to rebound from that and we will."
On bouncing back from this loss:
"Well we have to get through this game tomorrow. We have to look at the tape and meet. We have to get together as a team tomorrow and look at what happened and talk about what we have to do to get ready for Georgia. There's no question about that. Just getting over this thing first and then we'll approach the other thing after that."
ASU QB Rudy Carpenter
On the game:
I just want to say that obviously, UNLV, we have to give all the credit to them. They played a great game, and they're the reason why we lost. They played a great game, so we lost. Other than that, we practiced fine, but we just didn't execute it in the game. We didn't score, we turned the ball over, and we didn't do well in all three aspects of the game, and when you don't, you're going to lose."
On if what UNLV did anything different than they expected:
"It was all what we expected. We thought we could run the ball on them, which we did, and obviously the turnover that I had before the end of the half was very costly. We just didn't put points on the board when we needed to."
On bouncing back from this loss:
"I will say that I know the character of this team is really good. I know we have great leadership and that this next week in practice we are going to pick it up. All this anger and aggression that we have, we are going to put toward practice and we are going to come out and hopefully play a great game next week."
ASU S Troy Nolan
On UNLV:
"They ran the ball pretty well. No disrespect to them, they won the game and I give all the credit. But we let them hang around in the game and then they beat us."
UNLV Head Coach Mike Sanford
On what he saw on the last play:
"I didn't know what happened. It was just a bunch of guys who thought they were going to win, and they made it happen. Lou Groza Award kicker [Thomas Weber], and that's easy for him, but we rose up and made the play."
On if he played it up to the team that ASU was looking ahead to Georgia:
"Yes we did, of course. We were out to gain respect."
UNLV QB Omar Clayton
On the final offensive drives:
"We knew if we got the last two stops [on defense], we'd have a chance. We had to believe that if we got the ball we had a chance, and we'd have to take advantage of it. We knew we could win if we got the ball back."
On their no-huddle offense and how it affected ASU:
"I don't think it was a shock to ASU. They've played against it before. But it helped us out and kept up a good tempo. It helped us get in the groove and that's what worked for us tonight."
On how big tonight's win was for the team:
"Any time you beat a team like ASU, it's a great thing and a huge boost of confidence. We need to enjoy it now, but after Sunday we need to put it behind us."
UNLV WR Phillip Payne
On the touchdown catch that tied the game:
"I didn't even know what play it was, I just turned around and saw Omar [Clayton] running and I came back to the ball and made the catch. I was shocked."