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On the reps between Emory Jones and Trenton Bourguet:
“We're going to handle it in exactly the same way that we prepared all the rest of the games. Emory's fully cleared and he's back. So within our (practice) periods, we give the first guy framework, primarily most of the reps and then the next guy has four or five reps. So it's pretty equal, but we're gonna go about it … my philosophy is: we're never going to penalize a injured player. So it's every job back, and we'll see how it all plays out.”
On how he used the bye week and what he learned about the team:
“We used it to better ourselves. Our coaches went and had a couple more days to gameplan for Stanford, and then waited for the Notre Dame game, but we used it as a self-scout, like you said, for ourselves, to get better on deficiencies that we thought we made in the two practices, go back and look at ourselves on mistakes that we've had things that we need to work on things that we forgot about in spring ball that we need to make sure it doesn’t resurface from a schematic standpoint. But overall, it was a good chance for us to look back and see what we're good at. And how we're going to go and play the next half of the season.”
On what changes could be possible after the bye week:
“I went back and looked at both sides, like you said, on the offensive side aggressively, I want to make sure that we keep that going. The tempo of that be more aggressive. And if we can, on the defensive side, the same thing, we need to make sure that we get in people's faces and challenge them and compete and be aggressive. The coordinators are here for me every single day. That's the style of play that I want to play and so, but also making sure that they're comfortable with the play calls and that sort of what they're hearing it from me I want to be aggressive and take the game to our opponent; not sit back and play that bend don't break (defense). That's not my forte, My forte is making sure that we go and attack people. That's how I would like to see it play out.”
On the injury updates:
“Ladarius (Henderson) is going in for his final evaluation today with his finger. And so we will probably know this afternoon if he's going to go or not. But it looks like he probably won't. Everybody else we’ll probably have back. And so they are probable. So we're as good enough shape that we've had been in the past couple of weeks.”
On recruiting efforts and challenges seen:
“You’re always going to fight the question: ‘Coach Aguano, if you’re not there what’s gonna happen? We want to come here but we don’t know what’s gonna happen.’ Those are the legitimate questions they face, I told them we’re recruiting as if I’m here and how that plays out. It might be they wait until that decision is made and make their decision. We’re happy with what we’ve gotten in response to guys that are very interested in coming here. Probably wait and see a little bit on their part and I’m comfortable with that. Especially with the parents and those talks I’ve been having with their parents, you’ll be very surprised when it doesn’t play out. ”
On reaching out to alumni and his message:
“I spend a few hours each day trying to reach out to the alumni and there’s a broad base of alumni. To me and building a successful football team, you need everybody on your side. You need everybody, you need administration on your side and backing you up, you need the community. You need everybody to make it all work. For me, knowing the alumni and how important is for them being a Sun Devil. That just plays a part in and I want to make sure they’re invited to all of our football games, any practices that they come to, any event, so they’re a part of that Sun Devil for life mentality. So me reaching out to them is just letting them know that they’re welcome back in their own moment and they’re welcome at anytime. It’s not a ploy for anything, they need to make sure they’re comfortable and happy with what we’re doing with their program and it is their program, too. I’m just reaching out and letting them know that I understand where it has been in the past and I want to make sure they’re comfortable with our program now.”
On mindset of potentially splitting time up with quarterbacks:
“I’ve never been a fan of splitting quarterbacks just because of the rhythm that somebody goes in now if somebody’s not getting the job done, I’m here to win football games, too. So if somebody’s not getting the job done, I can make those decisions really quick but I don’t feel that splitting reps or splitting series, I just think the continuity of the game doesn’t hold well in my experience, but whoever is going to give me the best chance to win the football game and our team win the football game that’s what I’m gonna go with.”
On looking back on quarterback Trenton Bourguet’s performance was against Washington as a backup:
“He did an incredible job. I wasn’t surprised, the team wasn’t surprised and I think that’s why the reality around it is because he goes about practice as the starter every single day and he goes about his preparation as a starter every single day. He’s here watching film at 6:30 every morning as if he was a starter, so he prepares that way. I don’t know if anybody knows he wants to be a collegiate coach and so he goes about studying film and does that, so nobody was surprised at what he did. That’s why you didn’t see anybody with their heads down when he was warming up they were all gonna rally behind him because they understand exactly what he does in preparation. But for him to come in for limited reps and did what he did is extraordinary.”
On how Bourguet’s success can lead to more in-state recruiting:
“Absolutely, there’s been a ton of quarterbacks in Arizona that have been extremely successful outside of Arizona State. I’ve had some of them too. But we need to have elite quarterback play at Arizona State, I’ve always built the philosophy that you build your team around elite quarterbacks. There are elite quarterbacks in Arizona so I want to go back to recruiting those guys, the most elite quarterback and if it’s an Arizona guy then absolutely. For him to do what he did speaks volumes for what Arizona State football is about.”
On Stanford’s schemes and play; their improvements against Norte Dame:
“They play good, fundamental football, they're always pretty good in the interiors. Their front seven is pretty good, their offensive line is pretty good. They will try to control the clock on you and keep the score at a minimum and see what happens at the end of the game. Coach David Shaw does a good job and has done a great job with the type of athletes that he’s had but we want to make sure we’re not playing that game of who’s going to attack first. We want to make sure we bring the game to them. They’re a talented group, they beat Norte Dame this past weekend, I watched the game from my hotel room and it’s going to be a good game when it comes to them. I think Stanford is getting back to running the football and they have big receivers out there and always had. They're going to play that matchup, but from a defensive side, they play really well as a team and ran to the football really well, in your face on third downs that I thought they weren’t prior. They play good team football and took it to them (Notre Dame).”
On Stanford’s tight ends and quarterback Tanner McKee and the challenges they present:
“We’re going to have to put pressure on Tanner and when he sits back in the pocket and has time he’ll pick you apart. We got to make sure that he’s moving in the pocket and make him uncomfortable. With The tight ends, we’ll make sure that people are on them. They’re always used to a 12 or 13-man personnel. They’ve always been very fortunate to have great tight ends and they use them effectively, especially on third downs. So we need to make sure that we understand who they’re going to on third downs, but we need to make sure that we get as much pressure on Tanner as possible.”
Defensive coordinator Donnie Henderson
On stopping Stanford’s tight ends and quarterback Tanner McKee:
“Stanford always has great tight ends, no doubt about that. They got the one guy coming back this year, so quarterback’s the same guy., hands in the pocket, delivers the ball. Got some weapons on the outside, three receivers. Hopefully we can match up with the one tight end just because we had three of them this time. Last year they had a few good ones that were really good so looking forward to the challenge to be honest with you.”
On how he feels defense has grown from a communication standpoint:
“There’s times when we play really well and there’s times when we don’t play as good as you’d like. As far as the communication part, I think we’re get better at that I do believe that. Our biggest issue is the explosive plays, keeping the ball in front and make sure you’re in your gaps and make sure you stay on top of your man, those are the things that’s really hurting us so far. But as far as the communication down by down, I’m okay with that. We just got to make the plays that we got to make.”
On perspective of taking a look at defense during bye week and man coverage:
“After looking at us like you said with self scouting, we do see that there’s part of the game that we have to increase, there’s no doubt about that and some of that is pressure. Let’s be honest, we have to bring a little bit more pressure than we have but at the same time we’re not gonna go overboard trying to be somebody that we’re not. It’s just not me at this particular time, so after we looked at where we’ve been we have made some adjustments for sure. That (man coverage) was part of the strategy as far as going to a little bit more man. You get a little nervous at times because they always find that one guy that’s not on top of his guy and I always say it’s only one ball. So we’ve got five other guys, four other guys as long as you’re taking your guy you got a chance but you always have to worry about that one breakdown that could hit you. I think the biggest thing is down in in distance so that you got to make sure you’re in tune with your guys on down and distances and making sure that you’re not showing so much. When you self scout, most people say it’s third down, but that doesn’t mean you have to blitz all the time, that doesn’t mean you have to play man all the time. But when you look at your self scout, you got figure out what that ratio is, so I’m inclined to make sure that going forward that we have enough ammo in there to make sure that we can change it up a little bit.”
On working with interim head coach Shaun Aguano and being aggressive:
“Shaun’s aggressive and he wants you to understand that and he says that all the time. He says go be aggressive and as a play caller you like that from the head coach and you got to think about the other part of it. Like if it its first down, get ready because he’s going to go aggressive that way also, so you can appreciate him because he’s that way. Let’s not sit back and be scared, you can lose being scared you might as well win being scared, too. He’s made me really comfortable about calling the plays.”
On taking anything from last year’s performance against Stanford:
“It was so long ago, they’re not the same team that they were last year so to speak. They’ve done some things to change up their offense a little bit. Like I said, last year they had all of the big tight ends and you see a little bit more of three wide receivers now. But again, you still got the skill guys, that’s what’s important. They still got the same guys they can get down the field and make the catches and he sits in the pocket, he’s got the running back, little number two is in there and he falls forward all of the time. So trying to compare to two, there’s some things he did do last year but it’s a little bit of change this year.”