Aug. 30, 2012
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery
Arizona State head coach Todd Graham
On the win in general:
"Obviously I give praise to my team. I was really proud of them tonight. I told our fans that we would represent them with class, character, and toughness. I thought they did that. We prepared hard and they worked hard. There's been an awful lot of change and I've asked them to trust me. They did that. Obviously we have a lot of things to get better at, but I'm so proud of the effort that they gave, and it was an impressive first win."
On how engaged and focused the players were:
"One thing that was really gratifying was with about four minutes left in the game, the referee came over to me, which has never happened to me in a football game, and he said, `Coach, I am absolutely amazed with your kids, they were absolutely incredible tonight.' That meant as much to me as the win. Our kids were really engaged. I was anxious being on the white line and I'm not on the field and I don't have much control over how they're going to respond, but I'm just so proud of them. The sideline looked very different. We wanted to be very focused and very organized, and that's part of winning, is making sure we have a plan and we're efficient about how we operate. Great team effort."
On depth in the roster:
"We have an arsenal of guys back there that do a tremendous job. There were a lot of guys that did great things. I was really proud of Taylor Kelly and how he handled himself, and Michael Eubank; I thought they did a great job of managing the game."
On what steps to take next offensively:
"We had too many penalties though. We had four penalties, which were four too many, and all of them were on offense, so that's something we have to work hard on. The only other thing we were disappointed in offensively was putting the ball back on the ground, and obviously a few penalties that we have to clean up, but the tempo has got to be faster."
On heavy improvements on the defense:
"Our guys tackled better. One of our goals was we wanted to tackle better. On this defense, which was plagued by penalties last year, to go a game with zero penalties, they really listened and they were really disciplined. I liked how they were engaged. We're doing something I didn't know that we could do, from a schematic standpoint and a calling standpoint, things I thought we wouldn't be able to do until next year defensively, but they're playing smart and with discipline."
On the matchup against Illinois next Saturday:
"They're a very good football team. We've already looked at them, and they have four as good of defensive players as we're going to play all year. The quarterback is a very athletic guy and very dangerous, and obviously it's going to get a lot tougher next week. If our guys will continue to get better every week, work hard, and execute the plan, I'm excited about them. This is step one; now we go to the next one."
On the fans:
"Our student section was awesome. I gave a game ball to the student section and a game ball to the band. We had a great time. The band was awesome. It was great coming in there, and all of our guys getting to interact with our fans was pretty cool. It's something I hope we'll do for a long time."
Quarterback Taylor Kelly
On playing NAU compared to practices:
“It was a little different, just had to go through my progressions and stay on my reads.”
On the rhythm of the game:
“I expected that. We worked on that through practice; just had to be ready whenever.”
On the tempo of the game:
“He (Coach Graham) thought we were a little slow tonight and we need to keep working on that and progressing throughout the season.”
On missed plays with Coyle:
“I think some of it was adrenaline; just missed him on those.”
Linebacker Brandon Magee
On the interception:
“I just jumped and he threw me the ball and I ran with it. I ran it to the end zone just like I’d been there before.”
On how crisp they look for a first game:
“As a defense, we played really well, but we had some minor mistakes we need to correct. We can’t make those mistake because Illinois is a lot better football team.”
Safety Alden Darby
On how sound the secondary was overall…
“We were very sight and sound. Us at the secondary in the off season, we were in the film room making such huge strides to knowing everyone’s job on the field. From the linebackers’ jobs to knowing the defensive line’s jobs, we could tell you exactly what to do and exactly where to be at. Our key today is that we were really on point. We all had one pulse out there tonight and we felt like the world was on our shoulders. We knew everyone was watching us and we showed up.”
On his interception during the game…
“Oh yeah. We have nice coverage designed for me and I almost didn’t get it. Chris Young was lined up on the wrong side and since he was on the wrong side, I was going to take his man. I came, set the coverage back to what it was. I read the quarterback and made a great play. Just like what Brandon (Magee) said, when you get the ball, it doesn’t feel real. Even if we had interceptions before in practice, it still doesn’t feel real. We’re not used to touching the ball. I get the ball and I run on the sideline. The whole time I’m running, I’m thinking “what are you going to do?” Do I want to juke inside or stutter and go? What do I want to do? I was trying to get in the end zone. I saw two guys there and I was thinking about what to do.”
On expectations of the defense…
“I knew what we were going to do out there. I knew the style of defense Coach Graham has established. It’s an attacking style and I knew we were going to bring it. We talked about it in our scrimmages. We started slow in scrimmages during camp, but I knew when the time came that we were going to pick it up. We were going to turn it up.”
Running back D.J. Foster
On his first division I game…
“It felt good. It was a lot of pressure and nerves building up, but my teammates helped me. From the hotel to pregame, I felt relaxed when I came out here. I felt like I could compete.”
On performing as well as he expected…
“I feel like I can always do better. There’s room for improvement at the end of the day. I felt like I played okay and I played how my coaches expected. I can always get better though.”
On comparing his high school play-off game to his first college game…
“It’s just a new chapter. That first touchdown meant just as much as the tenth touchdown. It’s just a new chapter. I’m just excited for it. I’m ready for it. I’m ready to move forward.”
On what Coach Graham told him after his fumble during the game…
“'Never again.' That’s the one thing we preach on the football team, is own the ball. You fumble, you better be prepared for when you come off the sideline. I learned my lesson so I’m definitely going to work on my ball security.”
On being a true freshman and if his team supports him…
“Definitely. From pre-game they saw I was nervous, but Cameron Marshall and a lot of the older guys definitely went out of their way to let me know they’re there for me and we’re going after this as a team. I felt really relaxed for the first game so that’s definitely a good thing.”
Northern Arizona head coach Jerome Sauers
On the running game:
“We really had intent to throw the ball more but they had a tremendous pressure package. The speed of their rush and their ability to cover took a lot of the passing game away. It was unfortunate that we had some turnovers, some interceptions that created some scoring opportunities for our opponent. There are times as a coaching staff that you keep going to that well and it gets worse and so we clearly need to do a better job protecting our quarterback and we need to do a better job at the reciever position winning our one on one battles. I think when we come back out again we have to be a better balanced attack. A one dimensional fighter is a one armed fighter. That’s not what we’re going to be. Zach Bauman’s a good ball carrier but we need to have 11 guys contributing in order to have a successful offense. I know we have it. It was tough when we lost Cary [Grossart]. Good for Chase, Chase needed the development and the growth and I think he learned some lessons while he was out there. That kind of experience helps. We don’t believe Cary to be seriously injured and something that he’ll be able to rehab his way out of.”
On adusting to injuries:
“it was tough because there were a lot of variables our oppoonents were showing us that we hadn’t seen. The model of football is you watch tape, you watch tape, and you build your game plan against what you see and for us to overcome that we need to be more athletic than our opponents, we need to be physically better and we weren’t. We weren’t tonight. We played a very well conditioned team and played a team that executed very well. So when you look at losing those players that early, combined with the variables of the schemes and the new things we’re seeing really was disruptive. It was difficult to find any kind of pattern or rhythm. We came out in the second half just trying to simplify what we were doing and try to execute one play at a time and try to put some series together and thought our guys showed some improvement in that area. Clearly not enough, but tried to show in the second half that we weren’t done yet, we had things to work on. I think Covaughn Deboskie showed some good runs. Casey Jahn is a true freshman that we’re going to activate in the backfield and I think those guys are going to give us additional help. We’re not one team with Zach Bauman. We’re not. We’re a good football team where other guys can contribute.”
Quarterback Chase Cartwright
“As backups our job is to be ready for the game and I thought we did a good job this week perparing and the guys that stepped up this week and got in tonight did a good job and that’s all there is to it.
Covaughn Deboskie-Johnson
“Football. It’s a violent sport. At any given moment someone can get hurt and it’s all about the next person being as ready as the starter and today we gave it our all. I wouldn’t say we were unprepared, we were very prepared for this game and we did a good job, in my opinion. We did a real good job as men and we came together as a group and we never let our heads down one time.”
“We got a great group. Our offensive line, they worked their butts off. I feel like any running back that gets in our scheme is going to do a good job. Coach Bill, he prepares each of us as if we’re the starter, so I think any running back could do good in our system. I believe in our system because we play hard and we prepare like crazy. If you only knew."
Defensive lineman Jerret Bilbrey
“We came out there and put our best foot forward. We just worked and of course, a lot of new dudes and just, stuff happens. They got a couple big plays out on us but our mentality is just go on to the next play. Just keep working, and we got a lot of work ahead of us. I know we got a great team and we’re just going to keep working. This is motivation for the rest of the season and we’re not going to have another game like this at all.”