Arizona State Coach Herm Edwards
Opening Statement
“Short week for you folks, for us, for both the teams, Stanford as well as ourselves. Don’t get a lot of sleep on weeks like this but it’s part of the deal. I think our coach has done a nice job of trying to formulate a game plan with the lack of sleep, but that’s what makes it fun, especially when you’re winning, you have a lot more energy. We play a really good Stanford team; they play well in Pac-12 play thus far. They lost a tough one against UCLA, found their way coming back from that one but they beat USC and Oregon. Watching that game, I caught a little bit of it at the end and they took it down the field and got it tied up and ended up winning that thing in overtime. They’re a very sound football team, good on defense, and don't give you a lot of big plays. Offensively, they use multi personnel groups, a lot of tight ends, and constantly changing. They will keep you on your toes, they’re very balanced on offense. The young quarterback really has a nice arm, he can throw a football, he’s got a nice delivery, and can touch anywhere on the field with a throw of the ball. They’re very balanced, they have some big time wide receivers, big guys that have some size and some length. They throw the ball up with a lot of jump balls and they come down with a lot of them as well. This will be a big test for us, because they’re a complete football team in all three phases, they compliment each other. They’re very tough and we anticipate it being a physical football game.”
On the shutout in the second half and what he tells his team at halftime:
“You have to give a lot of credit to our staff and to the players, because the players....football is always about teaching, what you see on the field and how you look at it, deliver it to our players on the sideline. Then at halftime, because college football you get 20 minutes it feels like forever, but they’ve done a nice job of adjusting and the players are tuned in to some things we might do a little bit different or some things we saw the first half that we would like to just counter on and that’s football. You have to make good halftime adjustments and we’ve been able to do this thus far.”
On not having Evan Fields and Kejuan Markham:
“I think Evan will be available for this game, he was kind of right on the edge of almost playing but we just decided not to and we allowed a lot of our young guys to play. I think AP’s (Antonio Pierce) done a marvelous job of creating personnel groups, defensively, trying to get players in and matching what the offense is doing. It’s hard sometimes when offenses won’t allow you to do that but he’s done a nice job of allowing a lot of young guys to play. We’ve always said we’d do that around here and that’s still the case. I looked in there at the fourth quarter, we had a walk-on defensive-end, there was a freshman, we had another freshman, and then Stanley (Lambert) showed up! He got his first sack and I tell you what, you talk about a guy that was excited, he ran over to me and said, “Coach I got a sack!” and I said, “Stanley you got a sack!” He was so excited, the joy on his face was just unbelievable and he was running everybody on the sideline telling everybody he got a sack. I said, “Stanley we still got to play, the games not over,” but he did a good job of getting in there and helping us win that game.”
On what Marvin Lewis brought to the table during halftime:
“Well, Marvin can’t speak, he can’t do any football, he’s just an observer. During the course of the week, he can visit with the coaches, but when the game starts, nothing. He can’t do anything, he’s just a guy looking at things and evaluating information and evaluating how we’re doing things which is important, but he can’t speak to the players.”
On what he liked about Ricky Pearsall when he recruited him
“It’s funny you say that, we were in the bubble and he was running, we were timing the kids, and he was one of them running the 40, and I watched him run and I looked and said, “that son of a gun is fast,” and the guys on the watch said, “well we’re not quite sure” and they said, “let him run another one” and I went over to our guys and said “he don’t need to run, I know what fast looks like, he’s fast.” That was kind of my first introduction to him and just to watch him grow as a player, it’s been fun to watch. His confidence as a player from being a freshman to where he’s at now, he’s the most consistent guy we have and he’s a big play guy. He can make things happen with a ball in his hand and we saw it Saturday night against UCLA. When he’s running with the ball, you better be fast because he can run and he runs fast with the ball. Some guys are fast track guys who can’t play fast, he plays fast. It’s been fun to watch him.”
On Zak Hill on how the weekend started for him and the game he called for him on Saturday night:
“We’ve dealt with a lot around here and all of a sudden I see him before we leave and he’s walking in here like he’d been in a car accident. I said “what’s wrong with you?”He said, “My back went out,” and I said, “oh, that’s not good.” So now he’s getting treatment and all that stuff during the day. The next day when we got to LA, he got better, he started walking a little bit better and then I said, “well, you can’t go do this, you gotta go to the box right?” and he said “yes”, so now… there are only so many people that can fit in that box, and so now we had to move him up there and we had to change everything we were doing as far as him dealing with the people on the field. Tre did a nice job, I had to be a little bit more involved, speaking with Jayden. The coaches, (Sean) Aguano, got them together before they went on the field so we had to change everything we’ve done before and now the big question is, after that performance, I don’t know yet but I said, “what are you going to do? Is your back better?” He said “yeah, a little bit,” and I said, “well, you can stay hurt if you want. You can stay up there if you want.” We’re debating on what he’s going to do but I think he’s probably going to be in the box. He can see a little bit different, now he can't touch the quarterback as much but I thought Tre did a good job with Jayden. Jayden was focused, he was really focused in on this game. It meant a lot to him for a lot of different reasons and it was fun to see him and I know after every series, I’d visit with him and he could just tell he was dialed in. I told him, “now Zak’s not going to be out there, when you bring the guys in, you have to do this now, you have to be the guy. I’ll stand back but you have to speak to them and keep them going” and he did that and it was fun to watch.”
On the game plan in general:
“It was one of … given Jayden a couple options at the line of scrimmage, to see certain looks, whether we could run it or maybe take a couple shots down field because of the coverage. It’s one thing to get into the right call but it’s the next thing to execute it. I thought our offensive line did a really good job, this is a team that can really get you on your heels with the pressure they bring and Jayden was very active in throwing the ball down the field. That was fun to watch, it was fun, it was just fun to watch him throw it down and complete some big balls, and that always helps you when you can make some explosive plays. I think we averaged about 22 yards a catch, and that’s some real estate. I think one of the drives that was really impressive where it was complimentary football for us was when we were able to stop them on the 1 and went on a 99 yard drive to score and that was fun to watch. Just to go down the field methodically, he rolled out on the 1 and threw it to Hodges (Curtis) on the run, hit him with a strike and we got out of there, and we kept going and eventually we scored. The momentum really changed then for us, because that was one of those games that was tight, and they have an explosive quarterback too and every time he goes back you’re like “uh-oh, is he going to run, is he going to throw it, what is he going to do?” But, that was a big drive, I thought, in the fourth quarter.”
On how he brings the players back down to focus and not be overconfident and how Stanford is in the same position:
“Sure, they had a big win over a ranked opponent and they did a marvelous job of coming back in that game. They made some plays in the fourth quarter with no time, they’re a football team that never panics, they just kind of keep their poise and they kept their poise in that game especially in the fourth quarter. They kept themselves alive and they ended up winning it. I’ve always told our players...it’s funny when you’re in the arena and there’s a different mindset you have to have than the folks that aren’t in the arena, that are outside the arena. I think sometimes I learned this as a player, probably one of my coaches told me this, high school coach actually. That every game is an important game, and every game is a big game because that’s the only one you play. I learned that in high school that if you always have that mindset, that every game is a big game, especially when you win. Then, when you have these supposedly bigger games, the game never got bigger, it’s the same amount of time, it’s just a different place, but they all become like “okay, i’ve done this before” it just becomes the world you live in and that’s kind of the world I try to live in. That every game is a big game because it’s the only one you can play, it’s the only one you have an opportunity to win, and if you win it’s important because you know the next week somebody's going to say “oh, this is a bigger game”. I sat in that chair with the microphone, I get it, that’s what you tell people...they’re all big. If you win, you’re big because you want to keep winning and once you understand that and you look at it that way and you don’t look at it any other way, it’s just the game and you just play it that way, you’re comfortable in that environment. My history of being in football, that’s why I always tell you folks that I treat them all the same. The only one you can win is the one you’re going to play, it’s not the one’s down the road or the ones you might have let get away, it’s that night that day, here and now it’s the game you have. If you look at it that way it sets your mind as a different way to look at things, process things. We’re going to do what we do, that’s what we always tell guys, just do what we do, don’t change, just do what we do and we’ll be okay. That’s how I look at it.
On D.J. Taylor’s performance:
“There is this fine line when you are a returner, you know you feel like you have to touch the ball and make a play and I think the best play is know the situation, we talk about that a lot, know the situation in the game and when you understand the best play is just take a knee in the end zone and take it to the 25, and that is the process of it all but I think when you are a guy like him, you want to help the team, you want to make a play. Sometimes the best play is the safe play, just make a safe play and the good part about it is we survived it, he will survive it, he will learn from it and we are going to move on. I gave him a little hug after the game because you could see he was a little bit down you know, didn't say anything, just gave him a hug and let him know we are good, just learn from it and move on and that is what we are going to do.”
On the flight back:
“Looking at Stanford, I got here at about three, I was here until around 4:00 or 4:30 and then I went home. If I don’t go home, my wife doesn't sleep, I told her I was home and then I left again at about 5:30. Just made sure my daughters were sleeping, my wife was okay and the dog was sleeping and came back over here and that’s what you do, it’s part of being the coach. I mean that is all NFL days, that is what you do, it's not just me it is what all coaches do, I am just glad I still have energy, that is important and you have energy when you win a game, you have this energy about yourself, you are excited and you want to make sure you give your players information. When they come in today, we will go out in the yard, its at 5, we will have a team meeting at 5. We won’t talk about our last game a whole lot, just kind of showing some things on tape real fast and then we will move on to Stanford so that is the most important thing.”
On the growth of the offensive line:
“LB and Donovan have been here since the beginning, it is really a good group of solid players, two transfers and three guys we recruited that have been here. It is fun to watch them work, coach Cav has done really nice job, he really has and they bought into the way he coaches, when you get a change from one coach to another coach, it's always how is he going to deal with the guys, and that is a funny group, the offensive linemen, they don't say a lot, it is just a lot of moving around, they are a funny lot but do a really good job of blocking and protection and this was a tough game for them because of what UCLA brings, you know they bring a lot of pressure and they really had to hone in on that and they did a nice job for Jayden and they can’t say enough about us being able to run the ball with those guys. We made some game running the ball around here, those guys know it, they took a lot of pride in that so it's a good unit, it's fun to watch.”
On the disadvantages of late night games:
“I don’t know, I don't get into that, that is an excuse you know, just like when players get injured, its like well I got this guy hurting, next guy has got to fight, that's just how I have always looked at it, I just say you know we are going to play the majority of our games at night that’s how it works, it is a long wait, I know that, I mean UCLA was a night game I got to the stadium at like three o’clock, i am staying at like 3:00 in the afternoon, the workers are coming in saying coach what are you doing here, I am just here, I started staying at the hotel and I just came over here. It is a long wait but you get used to it, we are used to playing at night that’s what we do and I don't mind it, it's the players, can the players recover and our guys are used to playing at night as well, this is a shot week but hey, we got to deal with it, we will be fine.
On Quarterback trends:
“Just some life experience and all of a sudden you don't have it anymore in your life for a couple years and you see how much you really missed it and we all miss it, there is nothing like playing at any level. It always ends and I think for those guys, when they leave and do their worldly missions, it helps them with their purpose and then I think they like it more because they don’t do it, it's taken away from them for the right reason but then they get the opportunity to come back and those guys are good to have on your team because they can reflect when guys think its hard, they go hey man, I have seen hard, I have been somewhere where it's hard where people are living like, when you look at, it gives a lot of perspective for guys. When you can get an older guy like that, that has stepped away from football, they can be a voice for you, the don’t have to get up on stage and talk, I just think there's times in the locker room where those guys can say something to a player that is feeling down and say hey look, no no no, and that helps you, I like having those guys on the football team. “
On the production of both lines:
“They are playing well, defensively, there have been a lot of guys that have been missing you know, we lost our best defensive linemen early, that was a shame but there has been some guys that have had to fill in, coop probably played his best game, he was really good he played his best game by far since he has been there. Maybe because I had him in the video the night before, on Friday, Friday funnies, I had him on the video, he was a rap artist in high school so I found it because I always find that stuff, I told him I am glad you are a football player you would have been broke being a rap artist and maybe that inspired him, maybe it got him fired up, it got the whole team we were laughing you know, it's been fun to see a guy that been really a hard working guy have some success. That is what you want, anytime you can have success, he had what, two sacks? He was in the backfield numerous times, he made a bunch of players and I think that gives guys confidence, when you can do something on a big stage like that against a really good football team, it gives you confidence and that is what you need because we have got a bunch of young guys and they are playing due to the fact we don't have anybody, that is all we got and so they have to play.”
On dealing with emotions before the Stanford game:
“There is emotion and there is passion, I don't like us to be emotional because you generally make errors because you are not in the right state of mind when you let your emotions take over. I have always said, you want a passionate player, you want to be a passionate football team and there is this fine line between passionate and emotional. When you get emotional, all of a sudden you lose your train of thought for a second or two and something bad could happen right? So I think our guys are learning how to handle that especially the young ones, he has got some young guys, a lot of them have been really good high school players and they are here now and they are not playing as much as they’d like to and they feel like if I can make a play, I can play more, you cant do that, you got to play within the framework of what is aksed of you, you got to play as a team, when we play as a team, we are pretty good, and that is what I continue to say and continue to stress, its team ball, it is we not me.and because of the world we live in, everybody wants to click and hit on their deal right? And they gotta feel like I gotta do something to do that, just play within the framework of what is asked about you and plays will come, you will make their plays.”
On his relationship with Danny White:
“I have a really good relationship with Danny, I have always said you know sometimes in pro football, college football as well, you play a position and replace a legend and sometimes that is hard, can you imagine the guy and I think we saw it Monday, you know the guy that is gonna replace Tom Brady, he is going to be a good player but that is Tom Brady right? And Danny White had to replace Roger Staubach and I know, I played against him and then Danny White became the QB with the Dallas Cowboys of all the teams and played with Dallas the big star, the whole deal and I think Danny handled it in a great way and had some success but its always the guy that followed, is he that guy and he might not be that guy but he was a really good quarterback, I know that, I respected him and it'll be fun to see him with that team because that was a really good football team. I remember that team, the 71 team, because I was a junior in high school and I remember that because I was getting recruited here by coach Kush because I graduated in 72, I remember that team had a lot of good players.”
On the “one at a time mantra” at ASU:
“ I didn't know Bruce said that I knew coach Schnierder as well and he recruited me coming out of highs school, that is just what we have always said, I have always said that, one at a time, the only game you can win is the one in front of you and when that one is done, it's the next week and that is how we do things around here, it's always process it then get rid of it and move on, like i have always said, being a head coach, it is a funny proposition because when you win it is a relief and then I am thinking about the other game and then if you lose I am just trying to figure out okay, lets fix it, what do I do to help the coaches and the players so we can fix it and move on but it’s no up or down with me, we win and it is like alright its a relief because we put in a lot of work and the joy is from watching the players, anytime I win a game, I always sit back in the locker room after I talk to them, I watch them, I want to see the joy they have that makes me feel good, that they put in a lot of work and the coaches as well and they were able to win a game, that's the joy I get.”