ASU Head Coach Todd Graham
Opening statement
“We told our guys that we were going to somehow, someway win this game and we did. I think we surprised some people but we definitely did not surprise ourselves. We made a lot of mental errors that made the score closer than it should have been but we dominated offensively. We had a bad roughing penalty that hurt us but we made some key defensive stops when we had to. I am really proud of our guys because that was a heck of a football team. They were the number one offense in the country last year and the top passing offense this year and I thought our guys did a great job figuring out a way to get the win.”
On the win and the team’s championship mentality
“I am really proud of this win and I don’t think I have ever been so proud of this team and how hard they fought. Our whole locker room is ecstatic because our mission is to win and to be champions and I love the character and toughness that our guys showed tonight.”
On Kalen Ballage’s performance tonight
“Kalen is a guy who is just now figuring out how powerful and explosive he can really be and I think tonight he began to scratch that surface really well.”
On the importance of fan support
“I really appreciate our fans. I appreciate the positive fans that are out there because when our guys are struggling and battling our tail off on defense, the cheering really means a lot. I think our guys feed off that and we got the stops that we needed. It was an all-around great team effort and one heck of a win. I will tell you what, I don’t think anyone didn’t get their money’s worth.”
More on importance of fan support
“Our home record is 23-6 and so I am really proud of how our guys defend this place out here. I am proud of our fans, our students and the loyal people who support our program. We really appreciate it.”
On outlook for the season
“We have a chance. We just have to get better, get some things cleaned up, get people healthy and correct a lot of mistakes. There were a whole lot of mistakes tonight that were made because of mental errors. We just have to be more consistent, but we are 2-0 and we just beat a very good Texas Tech team.”
On growth tonight and the team
“I thought we had giant growth tonight and a gigantic performance. We were better this week than we were last week and we still have a lot of things to work on to improve even more. We have to figure out ways to win and this team has the heart and character to make it happen. I love this team, I love our guys and I love coaching them.”
ASU Junior RB Kalen Ballage
On if he’s ever had a night like this before
“In pop warner, it happened a lot. But this is college football and that’s big. I just give all the glory to God, honestly. And these guys right here, the offensive line, every single one of them, they go to work. Every practice, every lift, everything we do they have been focusing and it shows. Tonight, what they did up front was actually amazing and that’s why I decided to bring all five of them up here because they deserve it.”
On how long they have been practicing the Wildcat
“For two weeks or so, we’ve been practicing that, just trying to fine-tune that. I knew it was going to be part of the game plan for tonight, but I didn’t know it was going to be that big.”
On junior RB Demario Richard and his blocking
“He did an amazing job; he’s very unselfish and that showed tonight. When we went into that formation, he threw big blocks and made plays up front. Our receivers blocked their butts off and it showed.”
On whether he knew the records he was setting during the game
“To be honest, I really don’t care about it. You can ask these guys; I really don’t care about it. I want to win football games and that’s what this is about to me and that is what happened tonight. Scoring eight touchdowns wasn’t a part of the plan at all, I just wanted to win the football game and we ended up doing that. I just want to contribute to the team in any way I can.”
On what it’s like to continuously find the end zone
“We kept coming to the sideline and talking to each other saying that the Texas Tech offense is great. They put on a great show but our defense got a couple of stops and we tried to capitalize on it as much as we could. We got out there and said we are going to have to be unstoppable every time we touched the field and that’s what we ended up doing.”
On if he thought a performance like this was possible
“Like I said, I don’t even think about that. I just want to win football games. One touchdown or many touchdowns and that’s the truth. I just want to win football games and that’s what we did. I don’t come out of it thinking, ‘I got eight touchdowns tonight’. I’m not like that.”
On how it feels to be healthy
“This year is amazing and honestly what feels even better is all that stuff is in the past and it’s really thanks to these guys. When you have injuries or illnesses, you get down on yourself, you really do, and your confidence isn’t where it should be. These guys picked me up and helped me get to where I needed to be and I’m there now. They picked me up and told me that everything was going to be ok and now we’re in a position to where we’re a good football team and we’re going to keep winning football games.”
On his relationship with Demario Richard
“He’s my brother. He told me he was proud of me but, really, without him I couldn’t have done what I did tonight because of how tough he was running all night, hitting line backers and making them miss so when I went in, they were tired. They were playing on their heels, so he helped that just as much as the offensive line did.”
ASU Redshirt Sophomore QB Manny Wilkins
On what this win means moving forward
“Every win means a lot. Each week, we have to take it day by day and focus on the next week. We can’t take any team lightly but have to go out there and do what we do and have fun.”
On tonight’s game plan
“It was an awesome game, a fun game. We executed our game plan and we went 1-0 this week.”
ASU Redshirt Senior OL Evan Goodman
On the team’s feeling throughout the game
“We felt it. They came out hot in the first half. We had to keep it going through the game. We had to keep on going.”
ASU Redshirt Sophomore OL Quinn Bailey
On how they were ready for this game
“I think it’s the product of the summer conditioning program with [head sports performance coach Shawn Griswold]. This is what happens.”
ASU Redshirt Senior OL Stephon McCray
On if they thought this would be the outcome of tonight’s game
“Personally, I think we knew it all along. We watched film. We come out and try to have that same effect on every team we play. I don’t think we realized it but we knew that we could do it all along.”
ASU Sophomore DB Kareem Orr
On second half defensive adjustments
“We stepped up and made plays. It was going really fast and we weren’t getting lined up at times. Other than that, we went out and made plays to get those stops.”
Texas Tech Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury
On what happened with the defense
“Offensively, defensively, this team got outplayed. When we gave up eight touchdowns to the running back, that’s when we knew it was not going to be a good night. I’ll have to watch the film to see where all of the miscues occurred. There were a lot of missed tackles, I know that, that is not hard to see.”
On what to attribute the miscues to
“I am not sure. That was not characteristic of what I have seen thus far of this team and we came out and had all three phases with a bunch of miscues. We will have to watch the tape and get back to the drawing board to see why we came out here and had all of those things happen.”
On what happened in the second half
“I needed to call better plays and we needed to execute better. I don’t think anything surprised us dramatically.”
On if fatigue from the time change effected the outcome
“I don’t think so. I just think that we didn’t play well. We had too many miscues; we weren’t focused from the beginning of the game on. We snapped the ball and did things that we haven’t done so we have to figure out why we are not playing as well as we should on the road.”
On whether the team is making progress
“Tonight there is not a lot of progress that has been made. I think when you expect to win the game, which were our expectations, and it doesn’t get done, it’s hard to see beyond it. However, I think we will make progress. I can say we are already a better team than we were. We didn’t play like it tonight, but we have to just get some things straightened out and then we should be better for the rest of the year.”
On why sophomore linebacker D’Vonta Hinton didn’t play
“He had a knee injury last week during the game. We are not sure right now whether it is long-term or short-term. We are just taking it day by day.”
On how to get the team to recover from the loss
“We are better than what we showed. That was a good team that beat us so we have to give them credit where credit is deserved. They outcoached us and outplayed us, but we really are better than what we showed tonight and we need to show that next week.”
Texas Tech Junior QB Patrick Mahomes II
On ASU’s defense in the second half
“They did a lot of good things the whole game. Defensively, they did blitz a little bit more in the second half and it worked out well for them, so they made good adjustments at halftime. We still need to execute better as an offense.”
On wanting to score every possession
“As an offense, we feel like that every game. No matter what the defense is doing on that side of the ball, we feel like every time we are getting out there we’re trying to score. We have faith the defense will make plays. They’re trying to get turnovers, they’re working hard to try to get stops and offensively all we can do is score every time and put them in the best position.”
On being stopped on consecutive drives in the second half
“They make good adjustments. They came out and they put more pressure on me. They tried to disguise their blitzing more, but as an offense, we weren’t doing things we’ve always done. We could tell we were pressing; I, especially, was pressing trying to make plays happen instead of just taking what they gave me. Credit to them for putting me in that situation, but at the same time, we have to execute at a high level as an offense.”
On throwing for 500+ yards and losing the game
“I get frustrated every loss no matter what the score is. I hate losing more than I like winning. I don’t worry about how many yards I throw for or how many points we score; all I worry about is wins. I get frustrated all the time when we lose because all we want to do is win.”
On the safety
“We had a miscommunication between me and the center. The stadium was pretty loud and I guess he didn’t hear me as well. We weren’t supposed to snap and he snapped it. Next time I have to be louder and clearer so they can hear. And at the same time, they have to listen a little bit better.”
On what he tells the team after a loss like this
“I just tell them to keep their heads up. We have a lot of season left and we can still get to where we want to get to. We have a good competition this next weekend against Louisiana Tech; they’ve had a good start to the season. And then we go into the Big-12 and if you win on out, you still can be in that National Championship race and you still have a chance to get to where you wanted to at the beginning of the year.”
Texas Tech Junior WR Cameron Batson
On the atmosphere at ASU
“It was definitely different coming out here to the west coast, having to get accumulated to the climate because it was pretty hot out there. But it was pretty much the same atmosphere. We knew those fans were going to be loud and crazy so we just had to make plays and when it came down to it sometimes, we didn’t.”
On waving off the punt returns
“It was definitely just a judgment call. I definitely thought they were going to go in the end zone. The punter did a great job getting them sealed down there and those guys went down there and made the play.”
Texas Tech Senior DB Justis Nelson
On their defense in the second half
“We just have to take it one play at a time. We need to get off the field on third downs, wrap up and make tackles. We didn’t do that so we’ve got to go back and watch the film and fix those mistakes. I give credit to them, they made us work so it was a combination of both. We’ve just got to get better.”
On improvements on tackling from last week
“It didn’t show up as much tonight, we made some plays and they made some plays, but like I said, it’s an ongoing thing. You have to work on it every weekend. That’s what we’re going to be working on this next week.”
On Kalen Ballage and the wildcat
“They have big backs. They have physical backs and they have speed too. All the running backs, all the skill players, are fast so that’s just on us. We’ll be working on that next week and that’s all we can do.”
On if the one-on-one coverage with Ballage was a mismatch
“The whole defense is on the field so it’s not just one-on-one. Guys do have to make plays but there are 11 guys on the field that have to beat the guy in front of them. So everybody has to get to the ball.”
Opening statement
“We told our guys that we were going to somehow, someway win this game and we did. I think we surprised some people but we definitely did not surprise ourselves. We made a lot of mental errors that made the score closer than it should have been but we dominated offensively. We had a bad roughing penalty that hurt us but we made some key defensive stops when we had to. I am really proud of our guys because that was a heck of a football team. They were the number one offense in the country last year and the top passing offense this year and I thought our guys did a great job figuring out a way to get the win.”
On the win and the team’s championship mentality
“I am really proud of this win and I don’t think I have ever been so proud of this team and how hard they fought. Our whole locker room is ecstatic because our mission is to win and to be champions and I love the character and toughness that our guys showed tonight.”
On Kalen Ballage’s performance tonight
“Kalen is a guy who is just now figuring out how powerful and explosive he can really be and I think tonight he began to scratch that surface really well.”
On the importance of fan support
“I really appreciate our fans. I appreciate the positive fans that are out there because when our guys are struggling and battling our tail off on defense, the cheering really means a lot. I think our guys feed off that and we got the stops that we needed. It was an all-around great team effort and one heck of a win. I will tell you what, I don’t think anyone didn’t get their money’s worth.”
More on importance of fan support
“Our home record is 23-6 and so I am really proud of how our guys defend this place out here. I am proud of our fans, our students and the loyal people who support our program. We really appreciate it.”
On outlook for the season
“We have a chance. We just have to get better, get some things cleaned up, get people healthy and correct a lot of mistakes. There were a whole lot of mistakes tonight that were made because of mental errors. We just have to be more consistent, but we are 2-0 and we just beat a very good Texas Tech team.”
On growth tonight and the team
“I thought we had giant growth tonight and a gigantic performance. We were better this week than we were last week and we still have a lot of things to work on to improve even more. We have to figure out ways to win and this team has the heart and character to make it happen. I love this team, I love our guys and I love coaching them.”
ASU Junior RB Kalen Ballage
On if he’s ever had a night like this before
“In pop warner, it happened a lot. But this is college football and that’s big. I just give all the glory to God, honestly. And these guys right here, the offensive line, every single one of them, they go to work. Every practice, every lift, everything we do they have been focusing and it shows. Tonight, what they did up front was actually amazing and that’s why I decided to bring all five of them up here because they deserve it.”
On how long they have been practicing the Wildcat
“For two weeks or so, we’ve been practicing that, just trying to fine-tune that. I knew it was going to be part of the game plan for tonight, but I didn’t know it was going to be that big.”
On junior RB Demario Richard and his blocking
“He did an amazing job; he’s very unselfish and that showed tonight. When we went into that formation, he threw big blocks and made plays up front. Our receivers blocked their butts off and it showed.”
On whether he knew the records he was setting during the game
“To be honest, I really don’t care about it. You can ask these guys; I really don’t care about it. I want to win football games and that’s what this is about to me and that is what happened tonight. Scoring eight touchdowns wasn’t a part of the plan at all, I just wanted to win the football game and we ended up doing that. I just want to contribute to the team in any way I can.”
On what it’s like to continuously find the end zone
“We kept coming to the sideline and talking to each other saying that the Texas Tech offense is great. They put on a great show but our defense got a couple of stops and we tried to capitalize on it as much as we could. We got out there and said we are going to have to be unstoppable every time we touched the field and that’s what we ended up doing.”
On if he thought a performance like this was possible
“Like I said, I don’t even think about that. I just want to win football games. One touchdown or many touchdowns and that’s the truth. I just want to win football games and that’s what we did. I don’t come out of it thinking, ‘I got eight touchdowns tonight’. I’m not like that.”
On how it feels to be healthy
“This year is amazing and honestly what feels even better is all that stuff is in the past and it’s really thanks to these guys. When you have injuries or illnesses, you get down on yourself, you really do, and your confidence isn’t where it should be. These guys picked me up and helped me get to where I needed to be and I’m there now. They picked me up and told me that everything was going to be ok and now we’re in a position to where we’re a good football team and we’re going to keep winning football games.”
On his relationship with Demario Richard
“He’s my brother. He told me he was proud of me but, really, without him I couldn’t have done what I did tonight because of how tough he was running all night, hitting line backers and making them miss so when I went in, they were tired. They were playing on their heels, so he helped that just as much as the offensive line did.”
ASU Redshirt Sophomore QB Manny Wilkins
On what this win means moving forward
“Every win means a lot. Each week, we have to take it day by day and focus on the next week. We can’t take any team lightly but have to go out there and do what we do and have fun.”
On tonight’s game plan
“It was an awesome game, a fun game. We executed our game plan and we went 1-0 this week.”
ASU Redshirt Senior OL Evan Goodman
On the team’s feeling throughout the game
“We felt it. They came out hot in the first half. We had to keep it going through the game. We had to keep on going.”
ASU Redshirt Sophomore OL Quinn Bailey
On how they were ready for this game
“I think it’s the product of the summer conditioning program with [head sports performance coach Shawn Griswold]. This is what happens.”
ASU Redshirt Senior OL Stephon McCray
On if they thought this would be the outcome of tonight’s game
“Personally, I think we knew it all along. We watched film. We come out and try to have that same effect on every team we play. I don’t think we realized it but we knew that we could do it all along.”
ASU Sophomore DB Kareem Orr
On second half defensive adjustments
“We stepped up and made plays. It was going really fast and we weren’t getting lined up at times. Other than that, we went out and made plays to get those stops.”
Texas Tech Head Coach Kliff Kingsbury
On what happened with the defense
“Offensively, defensively, this team got outplayed. When we gave up eight touchdowns to the running back, that’s when we knew it was not going to be a good night. I’ll have to watch the film to see where all of the miscues occurred. There were a lot of missed tackles, I know that, that is not hard to see.”
On what to attribute the miscues to
“I am not sure. That was not characteristic of what I have seen thus far of this team and we came out and had all three phases with a bunch of miscues. We will have to watch the tape and get back to the drawing board to see why we came out here and had all of those things happen.”
On what happened in the second half
“I needed to call better plays and we needed to execute better. I don’t think anything surprised us dramatically.”
On if fatigue from the time change effected the outcome
“I don’t think so. I just think that we didn’t play well. We had too many miscues; we weren’t focused from the beginning of the game on. We snapped the ball and did things that we haven’t done so we have to figure out why we are not playing as well as we should on the road.”
On whether the team is making progress
“Tonight there is not a lot of progress that has been made. I think when you expect to win the game, which were our expectations, and it doesn’t get done, it’s hard to see beyond it. However, I think we will make progress. I can say we are already a better team than we were. We didn’t play like it tonight, but we have to just get some things straightened out and then we should be better for the rest of the year.”
On why sophomore linebacker D’Vonta Hinton didn’t play
“He had a knee injury last week during the game. We are not sure right now whether it is long-term or short-term. We are just taking it day by day.”
On how to get the team to recover from the loss
“We are better than what we showed. That was a good team that beat us so we have to give them credit where credit is deserved. They outcoached us and outplayed us, but we really are better than what we showed tonight and we need to show that next week.”
Texas Tech Junior QB Patrick Mahomes II
On ASU’s defense in the second half
“They did a lot of good things the whole game. Defensively, they did blitz a little bit more in the second half and it worked out well for them, so they made good adjustments at halftime. We still need to execute better as an offense.”
On wanting to score every possession
“As an offense, we feel like that every game. No matter what the defense is doing on that side of the ball, we feel like every time we are getting out there we’re trying to score. We have faith the defense will make plays. They’re trying to get turnovers, they’re working hard to try to get stops and offensively all we can do is score every time and put them in the best position.”
On being stopped on consecutive drives in the second half
“They make good adjustments. They came out and they put more pressure on me. They tried to disguise their blitzing more, but as an offense, we weren’t doing things we’ve always done. We could tell we were pressing; I, especially, was pressing trying to make plays happen instead of just taking what they gave me. Credit to them for putting me in that situation, but at the same time, we have to execute at a high level as an offense.”
On throwing for 500+ yards and losing the game
“I get frustrated every loss no matter what the score is. I hate losing more than I like winning. I don’t worry about how many yards I throw for or how many points we score; all I worry about is wins. I get frustrated all the time when we lose because all we want to do is win.”
On the safety
“We had a miscommunication between me and the center. The stadium was pretty loud and I guess he didn’t hear me as well. We weren’t supposed to snap and he snapped it. Next time I have to be louder and clearer so they can hear. And at the same time, they have to listen a little bit better.”
On what he tells the team after a loss like this
“I just tell them to keep their heads up. We have a lot of season left and we can still get to where we want to get to. We have a good competition this next weekend against Louisiana Tech; they’ve had a good start to the season. And then we go into the Big-12 and if you win on out, you still can be in that National Championship race and you still have a chance to get to where you wanted to at the beginning of the year.”
Texas Tech Junior WR Cameron Batson
On the atmosphere at ASU
“It was definitely different coming out here to the west coast, having to get accumulated to the climate because it was pretty hot out there. But it was pretty much the same atmosphere. We knew those fans were going to be loud and crazy so we just had to make plays and when it came down to it sometimes, we didn’t.”
On waving off the punt returns
“It was definitely just a judgment call. I definitely thought they were going to go in the end zone. The punter did a great job getting them sealed down there and those guys went down there and made the play.”
Texas Tech Senior DB Justis Nelson
On their defense in the second half
“We just have to take it one play at a time. We need to get off the field on third downs, wrap up and make tackles. We didn’t do that so we’ve got to go back and watch the film and fix those mistakes. I give credit to them, they made us work so it was a combination of both. We’ve just got to get better.”
On improvements on tackling from last week
“It didn’t show up as much tonight, we made some plays and they made some plays, but like I said, it’s an ongoing thing. You have to work on it every weekend. That’s what we’re going to be working on this next week.”
On Kalen Ballage and the wildcat
“They have big backs. They have physical backs and they have speed too. All the running backs, all the skill players, are fast so that’s just on us. We’ll be working on that next week and that’s all we can do.”
On if the one-on-one coverage with Ballage was a mismatch
“The whole defense is on the field so it’s not just one-on-one. Guys do have to make plays but there are 11 guys on the field that have to beat the guy in front of them. So everybody has to get to the ball.”