QUOTING COACH EDWARDS
Opening Statement:
“Obviously we’ve had the comfort of playing at home the last two weeks and now we get to go on the road up to BYU and they’re obviously a very good football team. Last year, if you look at their record last year and this year, they started off good. They’re very well coached and have athletes on all different levels. Offensively, the quarterback, he’s a wild guy, he can make some plays with his legs and he’s got a good arm. He throws really well off schedule and the runners are good. They have a big offensive line that can push you around. The defense doesn’t give up a lot of points and does a good job of bringing pressure and does a nice job under coverage schemes in the back end and they’re well coordinated. Special teams, the punter is a very good athlete, he’s also the holder and has a strong leg. The kicker does a good job as well. They’re a very sound football team when you think about what they’ve accomplished in the last couple of years. Last year, I think they only lost one game and so going up there and playing is a tough task. It’s loud and it’s our first road game, this is what you want to experience as a football team, figure out what you are. I’ve been there as a coach and a little earlier in my career I was recruited there by LaVell Edwards. I was one of the first black athletes to get recruited there in 1972 coming out of high school. I took a visit there and started a friendship with Coach. They have a great fan base, it’s going to be loud and you couldn’t be going to a better venue if you think about college football. They talk about all these other venues, they have a nice venue and they do a great job supporting their team so we better be ready to play because it’s going to take four quarters. I think our guys are excited about the opportunity to play as well.”
On the passing game:
“We haven’t made a lot of explosive plays and I think when you think about passing you want to be able to do that. A lot of times we are a little off schedule. Jayden (Daniels) was in my office today and we talked about it. We had a nice conversation about what we are trying to become. I think a lot of that is being familiar with the people he’s playing with, as I said I’m not making excuses that’s just a fact. He’s played with his receivers for six games now, four of them were last year and two of them are this year. I think that will improve and that will get better. Jayden understands that and I think the receivers understand that as well. We’ve been fortunate since I’ve been here, in the last three years we’ve had receivers drafted. We’ve had two first round picks and Frank made it with the Atlanta Falcons so there has always been a guy and we have to figure out who that guy is. It’s too early to know right now but I think as the season continues to play out we will figure out who those guys are.”
On getting off to a fast start:
“Don’t get off to a bad start when you go on the road. That’s how I look at road games; don’t get off to a bad start. Because if you get off to a bad start then you’re fighting two elements, the 11 guys on the field and the crowd. I think when you go on the road you think differently because you’re fighting two opponents. You’re fighting the emotion of a crowd, the noise, and you’re fighting a good team on the field. So, to me, it’s about, “can get on the field offensively and make some first downs?” You don’t even have to score, just make some first downs. You’d be surprised because all the sudden the crowd goes quiet because they can’t holler for long periods of time. No one can. No human being has the capacity in their lungs and if you just keep going then they become quiet. It will get loud on third downs then when you convert the third down then they get quiet again… So it doesn’t mean you have to score but you have to move the ball. If you go three and out, it’s like, “uh oh, are you kidding me?” Because then they’re excited and all of a sudden their offense has the ball and the energy of the stadium goes up. There’s a difference when you go on the road and play at home. That's just my experience but what do I know? I don’t know a lot but I’ve been to a lot of football games and they don’t change when they go on the road. That’s why they call it the road. There aren’t going to be that many Sun Devils up there, there will be a few but that’s what we anticipate.”
On calming the team down in a road environment:
“I’ll mess with them all week this week. I’ve got some things to do and I’ve already been on the coaches a little bit. I made my voice resonate in the building and it started Sunday. The coaches kind of get where I’m coming from and the players will get it too. I can handle that.”
On what he has learned from the team:
“They are a resilient group of young guys. They really are. It’s good to have some guys that have been here in the program from when we first came together because now they’re the leaders and they have a voice in the locker room. I’ve always coached that way, players have to have a voice and you have to listen to them. It’s one thing to say they have one but it’s another thing when you listen. You have to be a good listener and I think that in life I’ve learned that you have to be a good listener. Everybody has answers but you want to be a good listener because you want to hear the questions and you want to gather the information. These guys understand that, they know that they never have to worry about speaking to their head coach because their head coach is always available, no matter what time of day or what time of night, it doesn’t matter because I’m always available. It’s great when these players feel very comfortable talking to me and you learn a lot about your football team and that’s hard to develop. It takes time and it takes trust. It’s like any business in life, the person that’s kind of running it, no one wants to talk to that guy. You kind of talk to the people to get to the guy. You don’t have to do that here. Anyone can walk in my office and tell me anything they want to say, I’m all ears and hopefully I can give them some answers.”
On Elijah Badger’s status:
“I’m hoping he’s going to be able to participate this week.”
On Elijah Badger’s presence:
“First of all, he has to get in some type of football stamina but he has been running so he’s good that way. He’s very talented, you guys see it, I’m not telling you anything you don’t know. He’s a talented player and it brings another wide receiver that hasn’t played a lot, but is talented and can make the contested catch. He’s good after the catch with running the ball in his hand. It will be fun getting him back in the grove with us. He’s excited about coming back and having the opportunity to participate.”
On running back health status:
“No, they’re all available as far as I know. Somebody could have a tummy ache tomorrow and might not show up. Right now they are all available and staying away from that ice cream. Some people have lactose and it’s not good. I wasn’t born that way, I was a carnation baby. That’s why I have this skin, my mom gave me carnation.”
On Omarr Norman-Lott:
“He will be available, he’s going on the trip and he will be able to practice.”
On fullback’s key to being successful:
“They have a workmans mentality. They don’t want the ball a lot, they’re not needy to want the ball, they just want someone to block. Every once in a while you give them a little crumb and let them score. That keeps them happy, but generally they are tough and they’ve earned the respect from everyone on the football team, on both offense and defense. In running situations when you have everyone in the box except the safety, when you have 22 guys inside the numbers playing football, the players watch that guy play, because they know if we’re running it, he’s going to be a part of the blocking scheme. They enjoy watching what he does because they practice against it every day and they want to see how those guys defend this guy. He earns instant respect. We had a guy, now we had a guy, he ran the ball more than our guy here, Mike Alstott, we had him down in Tampa. He was a full back when he’s kind of a running back, he was a pretty good player. I just think those guys are undervalued in today’s world because of spread offenses, there’s no fullbacks anymore, kind of a lot of offenses. I love a fullback. I just think that it’s a part of your offense, it’s part of your package. With Case (Hatch), you slash full back, tight end, H-back, whatever you want to call him, he’s a tough guy and a good football player. He will do whatever it takes to help his teammates. Fullbacks are like when you buy a fancy car and you have all these things and you’re in the car and you’re looking at the pretty stereo and you go to put your seatbelt on. Fullbacks are seat belts, kind of keeps everything together, that’s what those guys do. They work and they don’t say a whole lot. It’s just fun to watch him (Case Hatch) play because he’s a ball of energy and obviously one of the team captains.”
On Jaden Daniels building receivers trust and avoiding getting rush heavy:
“I think it’s patience but when you’re not familiar with what you guys are going to do..you have this clock in your head when you go back and play quarterback and patterns are being run and there’s a certain look you’re looking at and when you see the look you say; I got to go here or there. Then, when the clock expires, now you’re on schedule. So, when you get off schedule, what are your receivers doing when you’re off schedule? That has to be not a plan deal but you see it and that’s where we’ve got to get better. When it’s all scheduled, how do the receivers adjust and how does Jaden adjust his eyes, he’s looking over here, does he work back over here, because his receiver is going to come open. Those are the little things that...when you watch these guys on Sunday, you watch the Cardinals, Murray (Kyler), I had him in the Under Armour game, I was scheduling plays that he made. I mean you look at the guy from Kansas City, it wasn’t like he went back three steps then threw it, he went back and ran around.. You know that’s all scheduled and those are the guys that present the biggest problem, is the off-schedule quarterback. Because all of the sudden in the back end of your defense it breaks down. Now, if you’re man-to-man that’s one thing but if you’re in zones, those zones get water they get stretched because these receivers are running around and the quarterback is all scheduled and he’s looking and the arm strength will allow him to throw it on the other side of the field, you got a problem. So, those are the things that just happen when you play more with your guys.”
On continued rushing success:
“I think you have to be balanced but when you go on the road, it's just a known fact in any kind of football that kicking game and the defense travels and running the football that's what travels because they can play in any conditions. Sometimes conditions don’t allow you to throw it a lot but you have to be able to run the football and you are right, when we run the ball consistently, we generally win, we are 10-1 when we run for over 200 yards and we know that. Guess what, our opponent knows that too so you are playing against that. We say we have to stop the run, we say that every week, we have to stop people from running. Believe it or not, football is a game where you want to make people one-handed, you want to make the offense predictable. People say, “why do you want to do that?” You want to make them predictable because when the ball leaves the quarterback's hands, it could be good but it could also be bad. When you turn around and give it to somebody, that's easier, just give it to a guy and he runs for five, then you are always ahead of the chains but if you make them throw it and they miss one then its second and 10 and so I think football is a game, we love passing and scoring but if you look at the teams that win or the teams go on to the playoffs or even the teams in the college playoffs, they talk about the quarterback, well watch how they run the ball, just watch it. This BYU team, they run the ball, the good teams find a way to run the ball, they just do and we lose sight of it because we like these pretty passes and they are fantastic, the ball goes down the field and everyone hollers and screams and there's a 20 yard play but in the end look at the yards and you say wow they ran for 100 plus yards or 200 yards and you go oh okay so that's part of it.
On standout NFL performances:
“I don't watch a lot of it, I kinda catch it in spurts because we are playing BYU, I have a real job down here, I used to do that when I was doing what you do. I used to watch all 12 games, Chris Berman would go in and talk about it on Sunday’s and have a good ol time, now I am looking at BYU and everytime I look at them I’m saying he scares me and they scare me. But now I think the NFL what I am witnessing and it’s not hard to believe that a lot of the college system is in the NFL now… I can remember when they drafted Kyler and everyone said woah, I know the head coach, the head coach played for me and I said he's going to put his system in and he did and they throw it around and he makes a lot of plays off schedule and they run the ball and so I just think you see that more in pro football when you have a quarterback that can make a lot of unscheduled plays, you still see the guy in the pocket, I mean the Rams got a guy, Stafford. He is in the pocket, captain america, he aint never left the pocket still winning you know so you still have those guys but when a coach gets a quarterback in today’s world in pro football or even college football you say, “is it the system or the player?”, well it is always the player. It has to be the player you build the system around the player, when you say the system is bigger than the player, you have problems, because that guy is not going to be very good so the NFL has adopted the fact that these are the quarterbacks are coming out, you can’t be afraid to draft them in the first round anymore and say well you know because he's a runner and you want to label them runners. There will be one playing tonight, that Lamar Jackson guy. Even when he came out, he's a runner, he is a good quarterback and that's an excuse and we make the excuse that he's a runner and he's not a passer, he is a winner. “Can the quarterback win?” They do whether he's a pocket guy or a roll out guy, I don't care what he is, “can he win?” I just think when you are able to build your offense around that, give into the player and say hey man this is the kind of offense it is, you got a shot.”
On similarities between UNLV’s Quarterback and BYU’s Quarterback:
“A little bit but this guy is much faster. He’s really fast. I do not know his 40 time but just watching him run, he is dynamic. He runs, and he runs fast. You always tell the fast runners because they run like their feet are on fire, like his feet are hot and he makes a lot of big plays and that's a concern. When you play them, that is the first thing that jumps out on the tape besides everything else they do well but the quarterback is like man, he made another play so that is going to be what we really have to focus on. Can we keep him in the pocket? Don’t let him get out and beat us on the perimeter. He can run it but he can also throw it when he runs it, he is kind of looking to throw but if something opens up, he can go.”
On watching BYU’s film and improvement between week one and two:
“I think they felt what the quarterback could do. I mean they still want to run it and they are going to do what they do, motions and all the things, they have a nice offensive line that does a nice job of pushing people east and west and the runners do a great job of hitting soft spots in your zone but it is the quarterback that is the explosive player. When they played their first game, you watched them and at first the quarterback against Arizona was dropping back and then all of a sudden he made a couple runs and the whole team kind of just lit up, and this weeks rivalry game I mean big rivalry game up there for those guys he made some plays he made some with his legs he made some really good throws too when he was on the run so I think they are developing how he's going to play. This is only first year playing there, and the place he is taking is a guy with the Jets first round pick so you can imagine the pressure on this guy he walks in there and the quarterback that was here last won 11 games right you are coming in here and you are at BYU, we expect to win, we are a good football team. I commend that young man for doing that, he's a good player. He will get better as the season goes on.”
On this ranked matchup:
“I hope not. I just think we have play. I don’t pay attention to a lot of rankings I just don’t you still have to play rankings don’t help you, You have to play and in college football, it's hard to win a game every week.”
On Conditioning for altitude preparation:
“No, I've never talked about it since I have been anywhere, we are going to play a football game, we are in shape to play a football game. I've never mentioned that. My dad won’t mention it, I've never mentioned it since I've been here or when I've been anywhere else, let's just go play, everybody breathe the same air, let's go play.”
On play calling and trick plays:
“When I hear them, I turn away. When I hear it coming through my radio, I don’t even look. I guess when they're going that way I turn the other way. If I hear the crowd hollering and I said it worked or if they are going ugh I say I guess it did not work. My wife hates trick plays. Everytime she sees them, even in pro football, she says stop letting it take place. I think the trick play that killed her that broke her heart was when we were playing Baltimore and we had this reverse it was LaMont Jordan, we told him look, “if you get the ball on the reverse and you are running around the right hand, you got two options. He said “if Ed Reed is in the middle of the field, run it, don't throw it, we were talking about it all week, you see him run, you do the play I am like go around to the right, Ed Reed pops up in the middle of the field I say he’s running, all of a sudden he thinks he’s Johnny Unitias, throws the ball. Next thing I know, I am standing on the sideline, Ed Reed is running past me, he tackled him at the two. My wife was done with the trick plays. I was kind of done with them too but you know its college football, players like it, it gets them energized, you have to be creative because these players, all this stuff when do you use them. Zach has been in a system where they do a lot of this so he knows how I feel about them, sometimes I tell him don’t use them all, save some but you got to get them on tape because people practice this so there is two sides to the coin you know. When is it coming you don’t know formations, personnel you don’t know so that’s fun but I don’t love it I won’t look. I just turn and I just you know, that is what it is its entertainment. It is fun when they work and we’ve had some that work and you guys like that stuff. I mean when it works, when they don’t, it is why did he make that call, I get it it's always a bad call when it doesn't work. It is part of it.”
On Christian Zendejas:
“Well I think just the consistency of it all and you know he missed the point after but the laces got turned the wrong way and Ethan tried to get them back as the ball was on the ground, you could see it and kicked it to the left. We needed some consistency and Tyler, I don’t want to put him in a position where you start missing some and then it becomes wow, right? And so he was available and I had this conversation a month out it's not just two weeks ago I was kind of simmering I am just letting it sit over there and just watching things happen and you know we are going to get into some games where we gotta make sure when we get inside the 30 we gotta guy 90% of the time or more to make it and he’s done it, he’s done it in some big games, he’s won some games with his legs for us. He was happy about the opportunity to come back and it worked out for everybody.”