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Arizona State head coach Todd Graham
On the victory and lack of penalties…
“I feel like this was a big test for us, going up against a Big Ten team, and a very strong one at that. We went out and dominated them. I love the way our guys are playing disciplined. Our goal was zero penalties, and the only person who got a penalty was me, and we took a delay so we could back the punt up a little bit. I’m really proud to go two games with no penalties on defense or special teams. It was a lot of work, and we have a good football team. We have to keep our head down and be able to handle success. It gets harder each week. Now we go on the road against an SEC opponent, but I’m just really proud of our staff and our players. We’re working really hard to deliver to our fans what we said we would.”
On the quarterbacks and improvements on offense…
“We’re going to take what the defense gives us. Our offensive scheme is something we’ve developed over the last decade, and it’s one that is based on attacking what the defense is doing. So the key is to make sure you have a person distributing the ball. What our quarterbacks are doing right now is remarkable. They’re checking and getting us into the right plays, the options, and the things they are doing are phenomenal. Those two are dynamic, and they’re hard to stop. We played faster tonight. Our tempo was better. We’re not fast enough yet, but I’m just really proud of how our guys played. There are a lot of things we can get better on. We turned the ball over a couple of times, and we can’t do that. We should have scored 60 points in my opinion. But nobody cares how many yards or how many points; nothing is said about that in the locker room. All we are focused on is winning and winning the right way.”
On reading and attacking the defense…
“They had a really good pass rusher, and I felt we needed to get the ball out quick and stretch them horizontally. Coach Norvell is doing an unbelievable job, and he came up with a great plan with the offensive staff. Our plan was to stretch the midfield horizontally on these guys, and not let them play in a box, and that’s what they’re used to doing in the Big Ten. We made them defend the field.”
On taking timeouts…
“We’ve taken about six timeouts in two games, and one of them was a good timeout. I wanted to tell them what route was coming, and we got an interception, so that was good. The other two, we had twelve guys on the field, and again it was a lot of Brandon Magee not playing and personnel issues. We’re trying to run about four or five different groupings on defense. I thought Brandon was going to play up until Friday morning, so him not playing really threw a lot off. He’s a guy that quarterbacks a lot of that stuff, so it was substitution reasons why we were calling timeouts. And we can’t do that, it’s going to hurt us in big games, but I’m trying to teach them and we’re working hard. I think I lost about seven pounds tonight, because I had to work a little bit.”
On learning from mistakes…
“It’s the little things that matter. I remember my senior year. Was every second important? You’re darn right it is. And we’re going to coach and teach, teach, teach every opportunity that we can, because maybe these little mistakes aren’t costing us against Illinois, but it might cost us down the road. There is a major sense of urgency about getting better though. But tonight, hats off to my players and coaches. I’m really proud of them, and I’m really lucky to be doing what I’m doing. What a great group of kids. It’s a joy to work with them.”
On Carlos Mendoza…
“He’s going to be okay. I don’t think it’s anything that is going to put him out for an extended period of time. I’m a pretty good doctor in diagnosing each player if they’re going to be good for us. I’m really proud of him. What a player he is going to be. To be coming in there as a freshman and pick off two passes like that is phenomenal.”
On the fans and the student section…
“I want to shout out to the Sun Devil faithful. It was awesome. I want to encourage when we come back home for Utah, I’d love to see Wells Fargo packed. But what an incredible reception, what an incredible tradition we’re starting. The crowd was awesome; it was unbelievable. I’m so proud of them as well. That’s why I throw the game ball in the stands every time we win because they’re our 12th man. I’m so thankful. It was a big time atmosphere tonight, so hands up to the Sun Devil Nation.”
Quarterback Taylor Kelly
On how often he has to go to his second look…
“There is a couple times when the defense will catch us on that but you just have to keep going through the progressions and staying calm in that pocket. Our coaching staff does a good job at scheming stuff and our first option is usually there. The schemes and the positions that our coaches put us in allows for the openness."
On how surprised he his on his offense…
“We put numbers up in the spring and the summer. We have an attack offense and it is very dangerous and hard to stop. As long as we kept getting our run game going our passing game would start opening up.”
On the key to getting the offense started so early and this games pace…
“Just get the tempo going. Making easy reads and getting are guys in the best positions as possible. “It was a lot better this week. We have to keep improving. We had a few downfalls in the tempo, miscommunications but we get better at that.”
On the substitutions between him and Michael Eubank…
“It could give me an advantage but just taking time and stepping back and seeing how they line up and instead of being right there.“
On having Chris Coyle as a receiving option…
“It is really good. He is a hard-nose guy who can go down and block and also put some moves on the DB’s. Plus he has great hands.”
On the position of the team after the first two games…
“It is great. We have to keep handling it every week. We have to come out like it is a 0-0 season. We have to come out to every game and come away with a victory every week and prepare throughout that week. We have to improve every week. We left a lot of points out there due to turnovers or mental errors so we have to continue to gradually improve every week.”
Linebacker Carl Bradford
On the difference between tonight’s game and last week’s game…
“I think it was just first game jitters. I wasn’t very confident in myself, but I had a good week of practice so I just wanted to come out and prove that that position is an attack position, a ‘go-get-it’ position to play. I just tried to show myself today."
On how hands-on Coach Graham is…
“He is really with the defense. He knows every position, so if I mess up he comes straight over to me and tells me what I need to fix. Same thing goes with the safeties, linebackers, everyone. He’ll coach us one by one if he has too. He is a real good coach at that.”
Tight end Chris Coyle
On the game tonight…
“It was a great night tonight. I just tried to catch everything they threw my way. Both these guys (Kelly and Eubank) threw a lot of passes to me and I just tried to make as many plays possible for the Sun Devils.”
On the Sun Devil offense and the lack of errors…
“I think the reason we are doing so well is because the coaches have expected perfection out of us. Every day at practice, they don’t settle for anything less. Any mental errors we make, they make sure we understand what we did and get it corrected by the next practice. I’m not really surprised we’ve done well so far because each week, we take a lot of time preparing in the film room.”
On the success of the offense so far this season…
“It’s a new offense. We just learned everything over this past offseason. It’s just been really great so far how we’ve been able to take that, put it on the field, and be so effective with that.”
On having to sit out last season…
“Last year was really a test of my patience. I prayed about it a lot. I know that everything happens for a reason and I had more than a couple people tell me to just have patience and wait it out. Sitting around I was learning from Gerell Robinson and Trevor Kohl. I just watched the things they would do in their positions. Looking back on it, I think it was a perfect situation because I was able to learn from some great athletes.”
On what tested his patience the most last season…
“I think it all came to a climax at the Boise bowl game. It was a tough season, but at that point, it felt like everything could be washed clean. It was a new start and I was just looking forward to seeing what these new coaches were going to bring in. I’m really enjoying what they’ve brought in so far.”
Quarterback Michael Eubank
On his role on the team…
“I’m just happy to be able to play with my brothers. I’m blessed to have the ability to step on the field. Every game I have a chance to get in the game. I have my own packages. I’m just very blessed. I’m counting my blessings since last year I wasn’t able to play.”
On Chris Coyle…
“He’s a very versatile tight-end. He’s very good to have, especially with this offense. It’s a lot of run-and-gun, very fast and spread out. It’s definitely to have a good high-breed tight-end with us. He does a lot of great things for us.”
On being under Coach Graham and the very few penalties…
“Being under Coach Graham has definitely taught us a lot about ourselves, being men, and being football players. We’re able to take what we learned and use it off the field. That’s why we’re so determined not to get any penalties. Not getting any penalties is just as important as owning the ball for us. We want to make sure we do that every game.”
Safety Keelan Johnson
On the Illinois offense…
“It didn’t matter what quarterback started. Our whole preparation this week was focusing on their strengths and what we needed to take away. Honestly, we didn’t really focus on the quarterback during the week.”
On the difference between past year’s defense and Coach Graham’s defense…
“This year, I’m able to get into a routine. I’m able to get into a flow and play my position. I’m not stressing about making mistakes and just going out there and using the athleticism. I’m able to communicate my other secondary and not worry about giving up big plays.”
On the attitude and speed of the defense between plays…
“That just reflects back to the discipline. We try to line up as fast as we can. The coaches are giving us the calls fast and it allows to do a lot of things. It’s good for our football team.”
Illinois head coach Tim Beckman
On his thoughts on quarterbacks…
“I think they both came in and performed. We have to come in and perform more on a consistent basis but I thought Reilly and Miles both came in on offense and did some things. Of course, it wasn’t near good enough for this opponent for this football game."
On his defense…
“We had a lot of eye violations. We didn’t tackle well as the game progressed. I’m not going to point the finger at just at the players. When we lose we los as a team. When we are going to fix it we are going to fix it as a team. As I told them just a little bit ago, we are going to learn from this, we are going to come back and we are going to practice Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to fix the things that we did not do tonight.”
On Arizona State spacing defense more than he liked…
“The credit goes to Coach Graham and the Sun Devils. They did a very good job of preparing for us. We had a lot of what I said earlier in the week. We had a lot of eye violations. We aren’t keying what we are supposed to key. As you saw there were some wide-open receivers at times.”
On getting their eyes caught in the backfield…
“I think the motion confused them and all those sorts of things. Like I said I’m not pointing a finger at the players. When we lose, we lose as a team and when we win we win as a team. The coaching staff has to be better., I have to be better and the players have to play better.”
On bouncing back…
“This is definitely a learning experience. We will get on the plane and watch the film immediately as a coaching staff. We will be back in the office tomorrow and practice tomorrow night and get it corrected. “
On whether or not Nathan Scheelhaase was an option to play tonight or not…
“He wasn’t ready so we aren’t going to put anything that is detrimental to him or the football team on the line. He just was not ready yet so that is why we decided not to play Nathan.”
On Scheelhaase being ready to play next week…
“I sure hope so. He has progressed dramatically since the injury occurred. He practiced but he just wasn’t up to himself so we aren’t going to put him out there.”
On the success of running-backs…
“I thought both running backs, and the offensive line was blocking some good schemes. I thought our power scheme and our belly scheme was good. Fergusson ran well and I thought Young ran well. Ayoola, when we got him some reps in there, ran fairly decent.”
On running back Josh Ferguson…
“Nothing that we haven’t seen since really day one because he had a great spring. We have to continue to find ways to make sure Fergusson and Young and our playmakers get the ball in their hands if its running or screens or whatever getting the ball to them on the perimeter, those are the things we have to do. “
On losing Darius Millines and Steve Hull to injuries…
“Anytime you lose players as so dedicated as those two guys are you walk out there and you see it in their eyes and you tell them to stay positive and hopefully we can get them back. But this game isn’t about one or two players, its about a group of players. We had 68 players that traveled and 68 players along with the coaching staff didn’t perform today.”
On injury updates…
“I really don’t to be honest with you. I know Steve [Hull] it was the same shoulder. Then Darius, it was the ankle but we will see.”
On Chris Coyle getting open a lot…
“Well I thought that they did a lot of misdirection stuff. They put him in and brought him back behind the line of scrimmage a lot of times, end coverages. I just thought that they had a great scheme. There is no question about it. They were very successful with what they did offensively. They had 500 yards of offense.”
On Miles Osei’s interceptions…
“I think we forced it in there a little bit too much. We had the outlet or the first read was open and we just tried to force it in to the coverage and ended up throwing interceptions.”
On Osei giving them a spark…
“Speaking about Reilly first and taking the first two series and getting everything going his way and then Miles coming in and doing some things, running the football and actually throwing the football. He did some good things but we weren’t consistent enough offensively and we need to be consistent if we want to be successful.”
On Osei not playing second half…
“Yeah I think we just decided we would give Reilly a lot of reps in the second half. He [Miles] did ding up that ankle a little bit but he could have come back in and played.”
On the game being a measuring stick without Scheelhaase…
“I hope not we didn’t play very well. To me as I have talked about it to the team its about how we prepare Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and we have to prepare better as a staff and as a team. I’m not pointing any fingers. I am taking total blame for this game and that’s the way I take losses. We will have to fix it and get it done correctly so we can move forward.”
On Scheelhaase not playing affecting the game…
“Anytime you lose a quarterback that has been in seven games back to back and has been a proven leader for two years you’re going to miss some one like that. That’s not the total reason. That’s not the reason we didn’t cover receivers, missing tackles and throwing interceptions and all that stuff. It’s about a team and its about 22 guys playing. When we get on special teams and playing better on special teams; we did not perform in those areas tonight.”
Illinois Defensive Coordinator Tim Banks
On the game overall…
“Obviously we didn’t play as well as we wanted to play or needed to play for that matter. There were a lot of things that we wish we could take back. We didn’t do a good enough job executing. We didn’t do a good enough job coaching. We have to go back to the drawing board.”
On the defense being hungry to play…
“I think so. I think they were generally excited to play but at the end of the day wanting to play and going out and executing you have to put both of those things together and obviously we didn’t do those things tonight.”
On Arizona State…
“I think you have to give Arizona State all of the credit. They did a very good job and executed in all phases, running, throwing. We helped them some, absolutely, but at the end of the day those guys did a good job.”
Illinois Offensive Coordinator Chris Beatty
On the game overall…
“We throw three picks and then get ourselves back in the game and throw two more picks. We threw one at the start of the second half and that kind of put us out of the game. I am disappointed with that. I think that they did some decent things but as a whole we have to play better.”
On trying to keep it simple…
“I think we were trying to do what we had to do to stay in the game. We ran the ball very well so the running game was working. It was just one of those things if we had to throw the ball we weren’t really as effective as we had to be doing it. “
On having to throw the ball…
“I mean we do [have to] to keep up with those guys. They go fast. They play fast. They get a lot of plays in. They jumped out early. When you have young guys back there playing quarterback you have to kind of change your game plan a little bit. Like I said, the whole thing is a disappointment and we have to go back to the drawing board. “