Arizona State Head Coach Herm Edwards
On the team’s overall performance:
“There was some kind of consistency with our football team. When you think about how we played, we were pretty good. On third down situations we were good, offensively and defensively as well. In the red zone, we were really good as well. We scored touchdowns in the red zone. There were still a couple fouls on some big returns, and special teams hurt us. I think we had like four penalties just on special teams alone that really negated some big plays. But, for the most part, I think this was a pretty complete game for us, from the start to the finish. We knew playing this team was going to be hard. They were a good defense, it was going to be hard to move the ball. We were steady, and we were able to score points, which is always good.”
On the necessity of having a good overall game:
“We needed to get our confidence back as a football team, and keep our poise. The whole thing I talked about all week was, when you play a game like this, after coming off a game like we had (vs. BYU), we needed to play a clean game, but we didn’t want to play a cautious game. I didn’t want them to be cautious, worrying about making mistakes. I just said, ‘play free, free yourself and just play football, and see what it looks like’, and I think, for the most part, we were able to do that.”
On Eddie Czaplicki
“When you have a punter like that, it gives you comfort knowing that a lot of times when you have to punt from the 40, you want to punt it down to the end zone and pin them down there. We have been able to do that, even against BYU we pinned them back there a couple times.”
Arizona State Linebacker Darien Butler:
On consistent pass rush
“I would say earlier in practice the coaches had a good idea of what they were going to do with their protection, so in practice we did everything we could to prepare-- how we’re going to attack their protection.”
Arizona State Running Back Rachaad White
On how to execute despite tough run defense
“I feel like Coach [Zak] Hill has a good game plan. We always want to run the ball, but in reality as an offense we want to be 50/50. You know our mentality, we got the win and that’s all that matters. I think it was great that our passing game got going and everyone got a rhythm and things like that; if they want to sack the box, we trust the receivers. We did some key things this week to fix things up and Jayden led that group. We trusted the receivers and they got us home, the passing game got us home, that's all that matters.”
Arizona State Quarterback Jayden Daniels
On the focus of minimizing penalties
“It was a big focus and the whole team knows we can’t win football games having that many penalties and it showed last week. The main focus with the leaders of the offense, defense, and captains, was to come here and focus up. We know what we’re capable of and we played a clean football game.”
On the improved consistency and adjustments after halftime
“There weren’t any adjustments made. In the first half, we had sustained drives, but we didn’t capitalize. That was the main thing. We just finished drives and that’s what we harped on all week at practice, and we harped at halftime and then we went out and executed it.”
Colorado Head Coach Karl Dorrell
Opening Statement
“Well, what a shame. It was a competitive game for at least the initial quarter and a half. I think things were going decently defensively. I thought we did some really positive things in the first half. Those things were negated with the penalties, the personal foul penalties that extended drives and they ended up getting points. Those guys played hard and did some really good things in the first half. In the second half it was a little bit of a challenge. I think offensively, the first half there were some struggles as we all know. I was really encouraged that we came out of halftime with the ball and we went down the field and scored. That was kind of more reminiscent of what we saw a year ago with how we played with the rushing game really leading the way so to speak. I thought Brenden (Lewis) played okay. I thought he had a couple steps of progress this week. We need to continue to bring him along with our passing game. I thought he hit some opportunities for some throws and a couple receivers dropped the ball so that was something that negated some of that productivity on the passing game side of it. We have to keep bringing this team along. It's a lot of young players that are playing and a lot of new players playing and it's challenging each and every week now that we’re in season. There are no preseason games. All these games count, unfortunately. But we have to keep working at getting better each week and hopefully that light bulb starts to glow a little bit brighter for us to be much more productive and score more points next week and do as well as we need to do defensively as well. So, we'll keep plugging at it.”
On difficulty of fixing multiple issues:
“I felt from a pass protection standpoint, we did okay. We did better than it was the previous week. I thought Brenden (Lewis) held the ball a couple of times there that made it a couple sacks in there. I thought he threw some good passes today. I thought a couple drops in key third down situations hurt us, where I thought he was on target and we didn't come finish the play. I think the biggest thing was… I think we had eight penalties, another one of those things where they had seven and we had eight, and a lot of those were critical penalties on both sides of the ball because offense had their share. But defense, we had a stop on third down but it was a late hit or something like that that caused an extension of the drive. And a lot of those extensions of the drive led to points and that's unfortunate.”
On halftime adjustment:
“I think things just kind of started working. We went to the stuff we think we do well, and I think those guys are motivated to come out in the second half and put some points on the board. So, that was a glimpse of what we talked about at halftime and they orchestrated and made it work, so that’s a positive step. So those are the things that we really have to gather from this game, all the things we did in a positive way and try to build on those things as we go into the next week. There’s still plenty of work to do in every phase. We almost had a punt block today, we missed a field goal, we had a lot of return yards by their returner against our coverage teams, so that’s special teams. And defense… it’s a lot of work that we have to work on, and we’ll get back after it on Monday.”
On focusing on progress:
“Progress doesn’t keep you stable. We’re all frustrated. They’re frustrated, coaches, everybody is, but that is kind of the nature of the beast and is something signed up for in this profession as coaches and playing college level football. We have to be big men and grow up and try to get some things fixed in a hurry so we can be productive. I think we’re pretty close, I don't think we’re that far away and I just told them that in the locker room. We have to play smarter and we have to make sure we’re locked in on what we need to do. I told those guys… we've made some mistakes. They have to own up to their mistakes and get better, so those things don't happen again. We’re all going through that trial by fire right now. And we’ll come out of it okay if we keep our head and our attitude the way it should be. We’ll come out of this okay.”
Colorado Safety Mark Perry
On how tough it is to go against ASU with veteran quarterback and talented skill players
“We knew going into it they had a three-year starter at quarterback and had talented skill players, we just have to focus on what we’re doing and we have to execute better. I felt like a lot of the drives would come out good, but then penalties extended the drives which later ended up in scores. We showed a lot of flashes of getting off the field. but we just have to clean up penalties and clean up our eyes because there were a couple of trick plays they ran that popped for big yardage and we just gotta keep going back to practice and improving.”
On staying positive in the locker room despite losses
“Losing is always tough, especially being the competitors we are. But that’s what drives us. We’re not just going to lay down. We are going to keep fighting, keep scratching, keep clawing and get out of this. The only people we can look at are the people in that building and we’re the ones that have to fix it. We’re the ones that have to deal with it.
On what Head Coach Karl Dorrell said after the game
“Just keep our heads up. We just need to keep going back to practice and improving because you could easily get caught up in we are losing and we’re not doing as good as we would like to. We can’t get caught up in that because that’s how you go from losing two to three games to losing a lot more, so we don’t want to get into that mindset.”
Colorado Tailback Alex Fontenot
On their progress since the beginning of the season:
“It’s nice to see progress, but it’s not enough. We need the drive to be better for what we’re trying to do”
On staying positive throughout the season:
“It’s never hard to stay positive, there’s always a new opponent and new people so it’s really just going into next week with a clear mindset”
On the team’s overall performance:
“There was some kind of consistency with our football team. When you think about how we played, we were pretty good. On third down situations we were good, offensively and defensively as well. In the red zone, we were really good as well. We scored touchdowns in the red zone. There were still a couple fouls on some big returns, and special teams hurt us. I think we had like four penalties just on special teams alone that really negated some big plays. But, for the most part, I think this was a pretty complete game for us, from the start to the finish. We knew playing this team was going to be hard. They were a good defense, it was going to be hard to move the ball. We were steady, and we were able to score points, which is always good.”
On the necessity of having a good overall game:
“We needed to get our confidence back as a football team, and keep our poise. The whole thing I talked about all week was, when you play a game like this, after coming off a game like we had (vs. BYU), we needed to play a clean game, but we didn’t want to play a cautious game. I didn’t want them to be cautious, worrying about making mistakes. I just said, ‘play free, free yourself and just play football, and see what it looks like’, and I think, for the most part, we were able to do that.”
On Eddie Czaplicki
“When you have a punter like that, it gives you comfort knowing that a lot of times when you have to punt from the 40, you want to punt it down to the end zone and pin them down there. We have been able to do that, even against BYU we pinned them back there a couple times.”
Arizona State Linebacker Darien Butler:
On consistent pass rush
“I would say earlier in practice the coaches had a good idea of what they were going to do with their protection, so in practice we did everything we could to prepare-- how we’re going to attack their protection.”
Arizona State Running Back Rachaad White
On how to execute despite tough run defense
“I feel like Coach [Zak] Hill has a good game plan. We always want to run the ball, but in reality as an offense we want to be 50/50. You know our mentality, we got the win and that’s all that matters. I think it was great that our passing game got going and everyone got a rhythm and things like that; if they want to sack the box, we trust the receivers. We did some key things this week to fix things up and Jayden led that group. We trusted the receivers and they got us home, the passing game got us home, that's all that matters.”
Arizona State Quarterback Jayden Daniels
On the focus of minimizing penalties
“It was a big focus and the whole team knows we can’t win football games having that many penalties and it showed last week. The main focus with the leaders of the offense, defense, and captains, was to come here and focus up. We know what we’re capable of and we played a clean football game.”
On the improved consistency and adjustments after halftime
“There weren’t any adjustments made. In the first half, we had sustained drives, but we didn’t capitalize. That was the main thing. We just finished drives and that’s what we harped on all week at practice, and we harped at halftime and then we went out and executed it.”
Colorado Head Coach Karl Dorrell
Opening Statement
“Well, what a shame. It was a competitive game for at least the initial quarter and a half. I think things were going decently defensively. I thought we did some really positive things in the first half. Those things were negated with the penalties, the personal foul penalties that extended drives and they ended up getting points. Those guys played hard and did some really good things in the first half. In the second half it was a little bit of a challenge. I think offensively, the first half there were some struggles as we all know. I was really encouraged that we came out of halftime with the ball and we went down the field and scored. That was kind of more reminiscent of what we saw a year ago with how we played with the rushing game really leading the way so to speak. I thought Brenden (Lewis) played okay. I thought he had a couple steps of progress this week. We need to continue to bring him along with our passing game. I thought he hit some opportunities for some throws and a couple receivers dropped the ball so that was something that negated some of that productivity on the passing game side of it. We have to keep bringing this team along. It's a lot of young players that are playing and a lot of new players playing and it's challenging each and every week now that we’re in season. There are no preseason games. All these games count, unfortunately. But we have to keep working at getting better each week and hopefully that light bulb starts to glow a little bit brighter for us to be much more productive and score more points next week and do as well as we need to do defensively as well. So, we'll keep plugging at it.”
On difficulty of fixing multiple issues:
“I felt from a pass protection standpoint, we did okay. We did better than it was the previous week. I thought Brenden (Lewis) held the ball a couple of times there that made it a couple sacks in there. I thought he threw some good passes today. I thought a couple drops in key third down situations hurt us, where I thought he was on target and we didn't come finish the play. I think the biggest thing was… I think we had eight penalties, another one of those things where they had seven and we had eight, and a lot of those were critical penalties on both sides of the ball because offense had their share. But defense, we had a stop on third down but it was a late hit or something like that that caused an extension of the drive. And a lot of those extensions of the drive led to points and that's unfortunate.”
On halftime adjustment:
“I think things just kind of started working. We went to the stuff we think we do well, and I think those guys are motivated to come out in the second half and put some points on the board. So, that was a glimpse of what we talked about at halftime and they orchestrated and made it work, so that’s a positive step. So those are the things that we really have to gather from this game, all the things we did in a positive way and try to build on those things as we go into the next week. There’s still plenty of work to do in every phase. We almost had a punt block today, we missed a field goal, we had a lot of return yards by their returner against our coverage teams, so that’s special teams. And defense… it’s a lot of work that we have to work on, and we’ll get back after it on Monday.”
On focusing on progress:
“Progress doesn’t keep you stable. We’re all frustrated. They’re frustrated, coaches, everybody is, but that is kind of the nature of the beast and is something signed up for in this profession as coaches and playing college level football. We have to be big men and grow up and try to get some things fixed in a hurry so we can be productive. I think we’re pretty close, I don't think we’re that far away and I just told them that in the locker room. We have to play smarter and we have to make sure we’re locked in on what we need to do. I told those guys… we've made some mistakes. They have to own up to their mistakes and get better, so those things don't happen again. We’re all going through that trial by fire right now. And we’ll come out of it okay if we keep our head and our attitude the way it should be. We’ll come out of this okay.”
Colorado Safety Mark Perry
On how tough it is to go against ASU with veteran quarterback and talented skill players
“We knew going into it they had a three-year starter at quarterback and had talented skill players, we just have to focus on what we’re doing and we have to execute better. I felt like a lot of the drives would come out good, but then penalties extended the drives which later ended up in scores. We showed a lot of flashes of getting off the field. but we just have to clean up penalties and clean up our eyes because there were a couple of trick plays they ran that popped for big yardage and we just gotta keep going back to practice and improving.”
On staying positive in the locker room despite losses
“Losing is always tough, especially being the competitors we are. But that’s what drives us. We’re not just going to lay down. We are going to keep fighting, keep scratching, keep clawing and get out of this. The only people we can look at are the people in that building and we’re the ones that have to fix it. We’re the ones that have to deal with it.
On what Head Coach Karl Dorrell said after the game
“Just keep our heads up. We just need to keep going back to practice and improving because you could easily get caught up in we are losing and we’re not doing as good as we would like to. We can’t get caught up in that because that’s how you go from losing two to three games to losing a lot more, so we don’t want to get into that mindset.”
Colorado Tailback Alex Fontenot
On their progress since the beginning of the season:
“It’s nice to see progress, but it’s not enough. We need the drive to be better for what we’re trying to do”
On staying positive throughout the season:
“It’s never hard to stay positive, there’s always a new opponent and new people so it’s really just going into next week with a clear mindset”