Sept. 5, 2010
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Photo Gallery
Game Quotes
Arizona State 54, Portland State, 9
Arizona State head coach Dennis Erickson
On the game overall:
"No disrespect to Portland State by any means but we had better players than they did. The good thing is we executed and I thought our speed showed up and we got the big play. We ran the football extremely well and I thought Steven [Threet] executed the offense real well. It was good. We haven't moved the ball like that against anybody in a long time. Hopefully we can continue to improve and get better. We had too many penalties and some dropped balls early and that's something we have to correct."
On quarterback Steven Threet:
"Yeah he did. I think we dropped four or five balls on him early in the game. I thought he played well, got rid of the football and threw it where he was supposed to throw it. He didn't make any mistakes. He forced one in there a little bit on that interception but the guy has been around and he was cool out there, got the plays in. I thought he had a great night but he just has to continue to improve like the rest of us. If he does that then we have a chance to have a good year. "
On if the team has improved from last year:
"Well no question about it. I said this all along, we're so much faster than we've been. You have to look at Cameron Marshall, there's a guy that really jumped out today. He's got great speed, no one runs him down. You look at the other guys in there and it's a little different than it's been and we've been recruiting for that. Hopefully we can continue to get better. I thought defensively of course we played pretty darn well for having some guys hurt in the front. We had to play Lee Adams because you just have guys hurt. He's just going to have to play for us. Our linebackers and secondary played well so it was just a good overall win."
On the secondary:
"We're going to get tested but we lost our safeties but we have a lot more speed at safety than we've had with Clint [Floyd], Keelan [Johnson] and [Max] Tabach came in and Eddie Elder. We have four or five of them that can run. There's a couple times we're playing cover two and we're over there making a play or an interception and that just shows you what kind of range you have."
On why the secondary is so effective:
"They see it every day, you have a tackle out there in space and we're pretty good at that because we're pretty athletic and pretty fast. But they see it a lot so it makes it a little bit easier."
On the special teams:
"We're a lot better, and I said this we need to continue to improve but we have more depth than we've ever had and when that happens you're going to be better on cover teams and better on return teams and you're just going to be faster at covering because you have better players doing it."
On where to go from here:
"People know what we're going to do now so it's not going to be quite as easy as it was tonight but we're just going to have to get better. But it was fun to watch them play and watch them make plays."
Quarterback Steven Threet
On ASU's execution:
"I think we did well. I think it started with the offensive line, and they really dominated the scrimmage for us. They did a phenomenal job in the run game by opening up huge holes for the backs and then in the passing game the protection. Everything was on point with communication."
On guiding the offense:
"That's really all I tried to do. Just come out and execute the offense. The plays were there, I just tried to make them."
On if anything was said on the sidelines about the dropped balls:
"We knew we just had to bounce back from it. We went three and out, we had an incompletion, a false start and another incompletion. It's not a great way to start out a drive. Going three and out, we just knew we had to put it together and we'd be fine."
On the running game:
"The offensive line did a tremendous job. These guys [Cameron Marshall and Deante Lewis] get the ball in their hands with space and they're tough to take down one-on-one. It's not going to happen often."
On the pressure of starting the game:
"Pressure didn't necessarily mount, I was just anxious to get on the field. It's been a long time since I've been able to play in a game. It was just a lot of fun to get back out with the guys and have a chance to compete and have it count."
On the outcome of the game:
"Yeah, we won. That's the biggest goal. We're 1-0 and that's all we could ask for."
On offensive improvements:
"There's always room for improvement. There were definitely some mistakes out there, but overall I think we played a pretty good game."
On the tempo:
"Yeah, we were playing pretty fast. I think we could play faster. I think we did a good job of getting lined up and getting the plays out pretty quickly."
On conditioning:
"We really put in the time and effort this offseason with the strength and conditioning coaches. It was the hardest summer I've been a part of. I think it really paid off."
Running back Cameron Marshall
On his performance:
"The holes were open so a big shout out to the O-line and the tight end for leading the blocking. We just had a productive day rushing."
On the tempo of the game:
"I think it was a great tempo. I think we could play a little faster, but it puts us in a greater advantage when we come out and run every play pretty quickly. I think the heat gives us another advantage."
On gaining confidence:
"Definitely. I think the better we run the ball, the better we can pass the ball and the better offense moves. And vice versa, the better we can run."
Running back Deantre Lewis
On his game-day debut:
"It was a good job by [Steven] Threet getting me the ball. We had good downfield blocking by the receivers and I thank them very much for helping me get in the end zone."
On his 62-yard catch in the second half:
"Basically, Threet and I were talking about it in the backfield. I did something with it and had downfield blocking by Kerry Taylor and got into the end zone."
Portland State head coach Nigel Burton
On the game:
"We knew it was going to be a challenge. Arizona State is a great team. That will probably be the best, or one of the best, defenses in the Pac-10, and offensively, they've got some guys. We knew it would be a challenge. Unfortunately, we did a lot of things to beat ourselves tonight, and those are the things we've got to get fixed by next weekend."
On what mistakes they made:
"We just had a lot of miscommunication errors, and some things that didn't even happen in practice, that we've got to make sure never happen again."
On kicker Zach Brown:
"There's a reason the guy is a preseason All-American. He wasn't feeling very well tonight either, and he still was dinging a 53-yarder."
On lack of execution:
"No. It was execution of basic defense problems. It was very disappointing. I'm extremely disappointed, because I know we're much better than what we showed. If I had an answer, it would have been fixed a lot faster. We'll go back to the film and see exactly what each young man that made him do something different than we had done for three weeks. But there was nothing that was rocket science or something we felt like they weren't prepared for. We didn't see anything new."
Portland State quarterback Connor Kavanaugh
On how the offense played:
"For the most part I thought we played alright. We just didn't capitalize when we needed to capitalize. We got down to the red zone a few times in field goal range, but we didn't get first downs and had to settle for field goals. When you're playing a good team like Arizona State you can't kick field goals. You have to get touchdowns out of those drives."
On the speed of ASU:
"They are definitely faster than me. I learned to throw the ball away a little bit more then I've been doing in the past. They are fast as heck."
On adjustments:
"They started bringing some pressure and I had to get the ball out of my hand. The offense line played good, but it's up to me to get the ball out of my hand as quick as I can. I have to get it to our playmakers. A few plays happened where they did different things and we didn't make the right check downs."