Oct. 17, 2009
Head Coach Dennis Erickson
On his feelings about the game:
"I'm in shock. We were able to come back, we had one timeout to try and get down there and attempt a field goal, although I'm not sure who would have kicked it, because Thomas Weber isn't 100 percent. I've been in a lot of games in the many, many years I have coached and I don't know that I've ever won a game on the last play like that."
On what the Huskies defense was doing on that last play:
"I don't even know what they were playing to be honest with you. They were playing some kind of two deep. We had four wide receivers and we sent one towards the safety on one side, the other one on the other side and we tried to put Chris [McGaha] up the middle and the guy tried to reroute him I guess. I'll have to look at it on tape. I really don't know."
On what could have been improved in the game:
"What's bad is that we really had great rhythm offensively in the first half, better than we've had since I've been here. We were making plays. Then we throw the one to Kyle [Williams], we could go ahead 21-7, and he fumbles the ball into the endzone and it kind of hurt our momentum. The second half we moved it, and then of course we missed field goals and couldn't get it into the endzone. Physically, I thought we convincingly won that football game, but we weren't very good on third down on defense either. I'll have to look at it but all I know is that it's a win. We should have scored more points, we didn't, but we won. Game's over. They have to go and get on a plane and go home and I get to stay here."
On his strategy as they were trying to stop the Huskies on their last drive:
"I thought they were going to go into overtime and I was going to wait until third down and then I was going to call the timeout. They ended up trying to throw it, so I didn't need to."
On freshman Vontaze Burfict's perfomance:
"Vontaze [Burfict] played well, but he has to learn to control his emotions a little bit."
On missed opportunities in the game:
"You could look out there, and there's 28 points left out on that field."
On Danny Sullivan:
"Everybody in the stadium is on his rear end if he does one thing bad. He made some great plays in the first half and then he made a couple throws that guys make. He had some pressure. He's had a lot of heat. He's a quarterback at Arizona State. The guy made a play, so he going to breathe for six days."
On what a win like this means:
"We haven't won a game like that in this stadium in a couple of years. That's a good team, they beat Arizona, they beat USC, they almost beat Notre Dame. It's a pretty good team. It wasn't like we won against [a team] that isn't pretty good. That kid they got behind center is special."
On UW quarterback Jake Locker:
"They have not been running him as much as they have in the past. They're not running much read option. They're running quarterback draws. They're running a little bit of option, but not as much as they did previously."
ASU Quarterback Danny Sullivan
On the winning play:
"We were just trying to get something about 18, 20 yards, so that we would have a chance for Thomas [Weber] to kick a field goal. We had the inside guy kind of going the opposite hash and their safety went for him. I saw [McGaha] over here running, wide open, and just told myself 'do not overthrow this,' and I made the throw and he made the catch."
On what it means to him to have a big game like this:
"I've been waiting for a game like that, as you guys probably know. Especially with the last time I played in this stadium, it wasn't too fun. My frustration showed after that game, but it's a complete 180 right now, that's for sure."
On hearing fans chant his name when leaving the field:
"It was awesome. I hope it happens here in another two weeks."
On what was going through his mind after the final touchdown:
"[I was thinking about] all of the rough times that I've had to deal with this year. All of the people saying I can't do it. People saying, `He's never going to make big plays', well, there is one for you, and it won the game. All of the guys on the sideline were just supporting me and saying `we got your back, don't even worry. Keep doing what you're doing. You're doing fine.' That meant a lot to me."
On if his mindset was different in this game:
"Definitely. Thinking of my last two games, where I haven't played the way I wanted to play, that fired me up. I told myself, just be loose and throw. I haven't done that. I've just been trying to think too much. That first half, I don't think I missed too many throws, I was hitting guys on the line. I need to have that mentality every game now, because I was having so much fun out there."
On the offensive line:
"They are phenomenal. As I've said before, you now have all of those guys who have at least a year of experience under their belt. That was the key two years ago, with [Mike] Pollak and all those guys, they had experience."
On where the final play of the game ranks among best plays he's ever had:
"Number one. By far. I haven't had many opportunities to make a play like that. That's number one, number two, number three, number four."
On if he was surprised how open McGaha was at the end:
"I couldn't believe it. Could not believe it. I saw the safety in the middle and I was getting ready to go 'Ok, do I key him?', but he just jumped the first guy and then I was like, 'Ok, where's Chris [McGaha]? Oh my God, he is that wide open!' That's when I told myself, 'If you overthrow this, Coach Olson is going to get mad, let alone you are going to get mad at yourself.' So it was a great play."
ASU Wide Receiver Chris McGaha
On his game-winning catch:
"It seemed like it took forever for the ball to come down. It was in the air for awhile. I'm just happy I got the opportunity to score a touchdown and win the game."
On how he feels:
"I'm actually kind of sick. I didn't play very much. I only had one catch. I definitely capitalized on my opportunity."
On if he practiced at all this week:
"I didn't even see practice. I was in my bed all week. I didn't think they were going to play me. I didn't play at all the first half besides the first play, and then I missed the block and they weren't too happy with me, so I didn't play the rest of the half. I got my opportunity in the second half. I prepared all week at home watching film. I tried to prepare myself as best as I could."
ASU Wide Receiver Kyle Williams
On his touchdown throw:
"I probably shouldn't have thrown it. We've been practicing that for about two years. Oddly enough, we finally ran it. T.J. (Simpson) was covered. I give all the credit to him. It was a terrible throw, but he made a great play and all the credit goes to him for that one."
ASU Linebacker Mike Nixon
On the defense:
"We gave up a few yards, but as a whole we stood our ground and didn't break. It was kind of like how we played two years ago. With a quarterback like that, we just try to eliminate big plays. Obviously they got one early, but after that we kept them under 20 or 25 yards. There was constant pressure on the pocket, and that makes it so much easier on the rest of us."
Washington Head Coach Steve Sarkisian
Opening Statement:
"So, seven games in, and I feel like every game gets crazier and crazier. Some of the stuff is hard for me to explain, and I don't know if I will be able to explain all until I'm able to look at the film, but we obviously had the opportunity to win the game or go into overtime. We had a change to win it there, but it is unfortunate and I feel bad for these kids. They worked extremely hard and played hard. It was not easy tonight. We need to find a way to correct our mistakes, find a way to eliminate the penalties that we had tonight. We need to find a way to regroup and play a very good Oregon team next Saturday."
On the third down play on their final drive:
"We thought we had a play. We thought we had something set up that we were working on all game. Obviously, it didn't work the way we had planned it. You look at the play call and the situation in the game; the right decision would have been to run the ball. The game would have ended with the ball in our hands, which is what you always want in a tie game. This was hard to swallow for me."
On their defense on ASU's game-winning touchdown:
"It was not an aggressive play. We had eight guys dropped into coverage. We had our guys deployed underneath, so they couldn't dump it down and get a lot of yards to get in field goal range. We thought we had the deep ball covered, but we didn't."
On the team's mindset on the last drive:
"The mindset was to get some yards and see what happens, which is why we ran it. The mindset was also to end the game with the ball in our hands. It was just a poor call."
Washington Quarterback Jake Locker
On the team's mindset for the last offensive drive:
"We were hoping to get a first down with our running game, but we were not able to do that on first or second down."
On the offense's performance tonight:
"We left a lot of yards and points out there. We threw an interception at the 10-yard line, which could have been seven points. We missed a couple other shots down the field, and we have to convert on those."
On the team's mood:
"This is not easy to take a loss like this. We thought we had a chance to go to overtime but it didn't work out. I've never seen a game end like that."