Arizona State Interim Head Coach Shaun Aguano
Opening Statement:
“Before we start, I wanted to make sure that I thank the fans, it gave me chills walking out hand in hand with our guys and seeing the fans and just very appreciative to them because it was a big deal for our coaches, our players, the administration, for everybody to see that our stadium can be packed again and just wanted to thank them. I appreciate it guys.”
On takeaways on third down conversions by UCLA:
“It was pretty bad, 82 percent on conversions, 14 explosives. They threw the ball three times in the second half not really good. I think our guys were trying to do more than they should and they’re not doing their job. The run fits, they were surpassing their run fits and they weren’t doing the job once they wrapped up and so we gotta clean all of that up, so it’s either it’s someone in the box or an extra person in the box or making sure we do our jobs. I didn’t think we did our jobs. Now did they play hard? Yes, they saw the offense scoring back to back in the third and fourth quarters and I think they’re trying to make plays instead of just doing their job.”
On types of conversations with defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson:
“At the second we’re thin, so we knew we were gonna struggle out there. We’ll be healthy this week but the conversation is we need to make a change. We need to make sure that this is addressed, I got with the defensive staff yesterday and understood that they have my attention in regards to things that need to be done and we need to make sure that we’re aggressive. That UCLA dictated to us and now again, No. 1 (linebacker Ale Kaho) is a heck of an athlete and it’s tough for us to cover that guy because he’s that extra guy but we need to make sure we stop the run and that’s a whole conversation that we had.”
On the offensive side and its positives plus running back X Valladay’s performance:
“I thought their linebackers were quick to drop and turn their back so I wanted to make sure we took advantage of that. I thought it’s difficult from a quarterback’s standpoint when there’s bullets flying at you and we’re in 3rd and long situations and he’s waiting for the deeper cuts. Then when you have people you face then the check down becomes a possibility of taking a sack, so I think that’s accumulated to a bunch of his catches, too. I would put my money on X with the ball in his hands, again we want him to run outside, he’ll always come out from under with a positive gain but the 10 catches were both of them. Schematically we scheme that and also just checking the downs.”
On quarterback Trenton Bourguet’s performance and what he saw:
“I thought he had a good performance, in the second quarter I said and I told the team that it was my fault not getting ahead of the chains. We missed a couple of throws that I thought early in the second quarter then our guys got back in the rhythm and I saw myself get back in the rhythm too. I know how bad these guys want to play and what is the most successful, so I’ll stay with that as well. But in the second quarter, I took the blame for not getting us in a position where we had two three and outs, not putting them in the positions to be successful. So, I’ll make sure that I evaluate myself and account myself, too.”
On what he’s learned as a play caller after two games:
“You have to play toward your personnel. Again, trying to get the ball to your play makers and try to do that as well. Making sure our guys are in a rhythm and sometimes I felt that I was too mythological in trying to schematically beat what they had out there instead of just playing with my feel and gut. I knew that we were going to be aggressive no matter what. On fourth down I knew that we were going to be aggressive, that’s just the way I call it and on two-point plays too. So they understand that. Sometimes it’s sequencing calls and sequencing third downs in order to understand we’re going to go for it on fourth-down and make gambling calls. We have nothing to lose, we’re going to go out and try to win the football game.”
On evaluating his success as himself as the play-caller:
“I think our kids have done pretty well with the change. Anybody can call the plays but I think they have confidence in what i’m calling. But the kids go and execute it. So I put all the emphasis on them and then executing what can be done. I don’t think it’s the play-caller but I think it’s the kids executing the plays.
On focusing on Washington State:
“We go back to making sure they play hard. Yesterday when they came in for their lift on Sunday, I do the same thing and I go around and hug every single one of them. The energy was still there and they understand how close we are. In every single game that we’ve played we’ve been competitive until the end. They understand where we are and we have to make sure that we take care of our side of it. But they came back Sunday and their ready to be prepared. We had our family dinner last tonight and when we come back on Tuesday we’ll be out there getting prepared for Washington State. They understand it’s going to be cold and miserable and they understand that. But we’ll be ready to go.”
On mentally preparing for the weather in Pullman:
“Yeah, it’s not snowing or it’s not raining. It’s going to be frigid. I’m probably am going to be bundled up out there. But we won’t bring it up to them and we’ll go out there and take care of business and however, you want to dress and feel comfortable but I won’t bring it up at all during the week.
On Trenton’s growth as the starter:
“He’s done a heck of a job in regards to people pressuring him too. He’s making the check-offs under pressure and he’s moving in the pocket to avoid the head-on pressure. He got hit a couple of times but he bounced back. He’s a tough guy. Overall he’s done a great job delivering the football. His percentage is around 78 percent (Completion percentage), I think the last game against UCLA his percentage was 76 percent. If you can have a quarterback around that 75 percent range I’d take that all day. He’s done a heck of a job preparing. I think he can get better and better. Of course, you get after him because he missed a couple of throws but that’s just a couple of throws and he gets it. When he makes a bad throw he internalizes that. I think he’s done an incredible job.
On Trenton’s game management and involving ASU Running Back X Valladay in the pass game:
“That's managing the game. He’s not forcing things. I think he does a great job. He threw that interception at the end of the game. And that's something that we got to go in and go get. But other than that, he's managed the game well with what they've given us. And he's done well. He's also taking shots down the field and put the ball in the right places. But if you see from an anticipation standpoint Elijah Badger makes a one handed grab, that ball was out after the cut was made, or I mean, right when the cut was made, and so he puts a good soft-ball out there for our receivers to catch.”
On the offensive line’s performance:
“I think they did a good job. I think it is a combination of a couple of things. They're battling out there. And the other thing is we're trying to get rid of the ball quickly. And so that helps them a ton. And so even on our longer downs, the third-and-long downs we tried to still get the ball out quick and not taking those five, seven step drops just because that puts this disadvantage with those guys coming off the edges and so I thought they've done a great job handling the twist and pressures inside. Of course, they're not perfect, but they have done a good job.”
On the injury updates:
“We'll find out if LaDarius can go this week. The other two (Omar & Nesta) they battled their sickness, they should be ready to go on Tuesday. There's still a couple of people all around not feeling as well. Little bumps and bruises. But overall, our health sheet came back from our trainer really good from my operations meeting this morning. I was surprised about everybody being healthy. Again, you never know when that hits you last Thursday, Friday, I'm in the hotel. Oh, gosh, please, nobody go to the infirmary. Because that's not good news. Oh, everybody comes out of it. But as of right now, we should be pretty healthy.”
On the first impressions of Washington State:
“Yeah, they're a stingy defense, they're a very stingy defense. They fit well in the run game. And they bring pressure and they bring all sorts of pressure up front. And you have to manage that in the passing game. And so our guys have been in the film room last night and in early trying to figure that out, but they're playing really good defense, they're in there. Their head coach has been a defensive guy. So I think the emphasis is on the defensive side, but then on the offensive, they ran the ball well against Stanford. So we have our job cut out for us this week. But we're just going to go back and plan and get these guys ready to go.”
On being able to secure defensive turnovers:
“A couple of plays … a couple of big hits that caused those fumbles, one just so happens popped up right into number one's hand and he runs. I mean, sometimes there's luck, but our guys are trying to get to the ball. I thought Chris Edmonds did break on the ball real well, and on that first one, and that guy got us going. And we should have capitalized. Anytime we had to go kick a field goal for three, I get disappointed because should we capitalize on that. But our guys are trained. And we understand that being on the plus side of the turnovers is a huge advantage. Like I said before, when you're on the plus side, it's 72%. And when you're in your plus two, we're in the 82%. And so all of those percentages go up all the time and we need those turnovers.”