Arizona State Postgame Quotes
Head Coach Todd Graham
Opening Statement
“I’m really proud of our guys. First of all, hats off to Coach Wilson and his team. Wow. They really came to play. Obviously you have to come ready to play every single game. It doesn’t matter what you did last week. I’m telling you, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt better about a win that was so hard. That was as hard of a win as we’ve had. We showed great character. We did as many things wrong to hurt ourselves as we could, but man this team has great character. I love the poise. You’ve really got to give a lot of credit to UTSA. What a great job. What a great energy they had. Hats off to our fans for being here. That was nice. I could hear them in the fourth quarter and that was a big deal. That was a big, big win for us especially moving into conference play. We showed a lot of youth. We made a lot of youthful mistakes. De’Chavon Hayes made the mistake on the punt, and then he played unbelievable down the stretch in this game. Defensively he played lights out. We bumped up most of the game. I thought our secondary played well. I thought they did some really good things. Just really proud of our guys.”
“Just really proud of our guys. Proud of the leadership. Again, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you win and we figured out a way to do it. I was gratified as I’ve been to win that game because that game was really, really difficult. It showed a lot a heart to come back.”
On the two muffed punts
“I didn’t like them. It wasn’t very good decisions.”
On why it was so bumpy for the offense aside from UTSA’s defense
“I don’t know. It’s just the difference between executing and not executing. We were executing on all cylinders last week, but doesn’t matter. You have to come out and execute on all cylinders this week. Obviously as you move through the season people will plan different [defenses] for you, but obviously we weren’t at our best. Especially in the first half. We faced a lot of adversity, but to overcome it and win it like that I’m really proud of our football team. But now we got to go to work and keep getting better. But when you can win like that…that was a lot of adversity to come from there.”
On what they did to limit Sturm in the second half
“We started keeping two linebackers in the box. He’s a good quarterback. He hurt us more with his legs. We went into the game and said that the number one play they were going to run was the quarterback draw and the quarterback pull-it-down and scramble. We were very prepared for that, but we were just making some errors early on. Just little things that you can’t do.”
“[UTSA] did some nice things though. I’ve got to give [Sturm] a lot of credit. He was heads up. They had a solid plan.”
DJ Calhoun, Jr., LB
On what the team learned about themselves
“Never give up. We came thinking we weren’t going to run past this team and we never gave up.”
On whether or not this was a hangover game after the Texas Tech game
“At the end of the day we are still the same team. We are still going to get better, we were just a little cocky tonight.”
On playing against a mobile quarterback and chasing him around
“He was a good quarterback and we have to get better on tackling.”
On whether they are ready for conference play
“Without a doubt we are ready.”
On how the defense is given all the injuries
“It’s just ‘next guy up’ and how hard we study in the film room.”
Manny Wilkins, So., QB
On what was said at halftime
“Just keep working. We had to eliminate turnovers and have accountability. Go out there and make plays and keep getting better. Just keep working hard.”
On whether or not they were over-confident
“No.”
On the first half hit and if it altered his play
“I’m going to keep getting up, I have a fighter mentality.”
On the key plays of the winning drive
“They came with a blitz, I rolled out and I saw Cam open and he made a great play. Then Kalen did a great job pushing the ball when we went into our sparky formation. I was really proud of our guys.”
Head Coach Todd Graham
Opening Statement
“I’m really proud of our guys. First of all, hats off to Coach Wilson and his team. Wow. They really came to play. Obviously you have to come ready to play every single game. It doesn’t matter what you did last week. I’m telling you, I don’t know if I’ve ever felt better about a win that was so hard. That was as hard of a win as we’ve had. We showed great character. We did as many things wrong to hurt ourselves as we could, but man this team has great character. I love the poise. You’ve really got to give a lot of credit to UTSA. What a great job. What a great energy they had. Hats off to our fans for being here. That was nice. I could hear them in the fourth quarter and that was a big deal. That was a big, big win for us especially moving into conference play. We showed a lot of youth. We made a lot of youthful mistakes. De’Chavon Hayes made the mistake on the punt, and then he played unbelievable down the stretch in this game. Defensively he played lights out. We bumped up most of the game. I thought our secondary played well. I thought they did some really good things. Just really proud of our guys.”
“Just really proud of our guys. Proud of the leadership. Again, it doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you win and we figured out a way to do it. I was gratified as I’ve been to win that game because that game was really, really difficult. It showed a lot a heart to come back.”
On the two muffed punts
“I didn’t like them. It wasn’t very good decisions.”
On why it was so bumpy for the offense aside from UTSA’s defense
“I don’t know. It’s just the difference between executing and not executing. We were executing on all cylinders last week, but doesn’t matter. You have to come out and execute on all cylinders this week. Obviously as you move through the season people will plan different [defenses] for you, but obviously we weren’t at our best. Especially in the first half. We faced a lot of adversity, but to overcome it and win it like that I’m really proud of our football team. But now we got to go to work and keep getting better. But when you can win like that…that was a lot of adversity to come from there.”
On what they did to limit Sturm in the second half
“We started keeping two linebackers in the box. He’s a good quarterback. He hurt us more with his legs. We went into the game and said that the number one play they were going to run was the quarterback draw and the quarterback pull-it-down and scramble. We were very prepared for that, but we were just making some errors early on. Just little things that you can’t do.”
“[UTSA] did some nice things though. I’ve got to give [Sturm] a lot of credit. He was heads up. They had a solid plan.”
DJ Calhoun, Jr., LB
On what the team learned about themselves
“Never give up. We came thinking we weren’t going to run past this team and we never gave up.”
On whether or not this was a hangover game after the Texas Tech game
“At the end of the day we are still the same team. We are still going to get better, we were just a little cocky tonight.”
On playing against a mobile quarterback and chasing him around
“He was a good quarterback and we have to get better on tackling.”
On whether they are ready for conference play
“Without a doubt we are ready.”
On how the defense is given all the injuries
“It’s just ‘next guy up’ and how hard we study in the film room.”
Manny Wilkins, So., QB
On what was said at halftime
“Just keep working. We had to eliminate turnovers and have accountability. Go out there and make plays and keep getting better. Just keep working hard.”
On whether or not they were over-confident
“No.”
On the first half hit and if it altered his play
“I’m going to keep getting up, I have a fighter mentality.”
On the key plays of the winning drive
“They came with a blitz, I rolled out and I saw Cam open and he made a great play. Then Kalen did a great job pushing the ball when we went into our sparky formation. I was really proud of our guys.”