Interim Head Coach Shaun Aguano's full transcript previewing ASU vs. U of A
On playing for pride in the senior’s last game:
“I told them today. This is a one game season right here. This game probably means more to them and the state of Arizona more than anybody imagines. They understand that. We have to come back from yesterday, and a quick turnaround on Monday they had a good practice out there. They’re focused. There is no time to worry about what happened. We didn’t even worry about what happened on Saturday, we’re just moving forward. I spent probably about five or six minutes this morning and the video department did a great job explaining the “why” of this Territorial (Cup). We have so many transfers that come in, they talk about the Territorial Cup but they don’t know the reason why and the history. So, we spent about five to six minutes just watching a video on the history of the Territorial Cup so those guys can understand exactly what we’re playing for.”
On game planning and prep with one less day:
“This Sunday coaches didn’t get out of here probably until 1:00 in the morning. Usually we have that Monday to game plan the whole weekend and get ready in practice for Tuesday. That didn’t happen last night. We had our Ohana dinner and we had a letterman’s jacket giveaway and then we went straight back to work. We’re here with a little sleep and condensed our practice a little bit. We just went with helmets and not full pads because there are still the bumps and bruises from Saturday, but tomorrow we’ll go about being in full pads and a regular Wednesday practice.”
On what he sees in Arizona’s schemes and personnel:
“They have a dangerous quarterback. The kind of quarterback we’ve faced the whole year. We have to contain him in the pocket and they’ll probably throw the ball 40, 50 times. He makes great off schedule throws and we’re going to have to make sure that our eyes don’t get dirty and that we keep a hand on the receivers and watch our man. There are a lot of things that we have to do defensively to keep him contained. Then offensively, we have to make sure that we can run the football on them and make those conversions on third down and not be a yard short. All of those things to extend our series and play fundamental football.”
On the energy in practice:
“Today we had great energy out there. It all lands on the coaches and the kids will follow what the coaches do. I asked our coaches from the transitions, from the warmup, from the stretch, you have to be on it every single day. I know you guys got three hours of sleep but we gotta get ready to go. It all depends on what the coaches run and the kids will follow and today we had a good practice.”
On running the ball but still mixing plays:
“When you run the football, explosives come off the play action pass. We have not had the explosives that I would have liked the last couple of games. One of our best players is our running back, and we’re going to get him (Xazavian Valladay) the football as well and see if they can stop him. We’ve been successful running the football and we’ll keep doing that but then we will have to make plays down the field and have probably between 12-15 explosives (plays) in order to keep up. They have a really good offense that they score a lot as well, so we’re going to have to keep up and try to dominate them from an offensive standpoint.”
On bringing in guys to speak on the rivalry to educate the transfers:
“Yes, we did at our letterman’s jacket last night. Juan Roque came in and spoke. Kevin Miniefield spoke. Jean Boyd spoke. I’m bringing in alumni (to share) what this game means to them… I sat back last night before I came in this morning and thought “do these kids really understand what it is?” So, I had to give them an educational lesson today and I thought it worked out because they were engaged and watched and kind of understand what this Territorial Cup means.”
On the motivation the Territorial Cup brings:
“You shouldn’t (have trouble being motivated). You never know with kids nowadays. It is our job to make sure that that happens and bring the intensity every day at practice. We will have a Thanksgiving dinner put together and that will be our last time. It’s about holding these guys together. We talked about playing to the last whistle and sometimes subconsciously you say, “well, you played until the last whistle. That’s enough for the game. You did your best.” But shoot, we want to win and dominate from the beginning and that’s the mindset that we’re going to take this week.”
On his defense giving up explosive plays:
“We haven’t, I don't think, contained the quarterback like we should have. When they’re making off schedule throws we are having dirty eyes looking in the backfield, looking at the quarterback. I think sometimes we are playing a little too soft to tell you the truth, and not coming up and competing. There’s a 3rd and 14 and everybody in the stadium knows they’re going to run it at the sticks and we’re in bail technique. It’s just things from an understanding standpoint, but we have to get better at containing the quarterback, we have to get better at competing, and we have to get better at just being more physical from a defensive standpoint.”
On his conversations with Donnie Henderson:
“Yeah. It’s situational. Of course you don’t want to get beat over the top in those long situations because that hurts you, but you have to understand from a conceptual standpoint what they’re trying to do on the offensive side and then compete for it. Sometimes I don’t think we come up and compete using our football intelligence.”
On using last year’s WSU game to prepare against facing Arizona’s QB:
“Yeah. They played last week and we have all the film so we’re working on the ways in practice from a drilling standpoint from the cage techniques and making sure that we’re taking the right angles on outside shoulders and angles. A lot of times defensive lineman get so aggressive that they take wrong angles, and they’re not as athletic as the quarterback and they think they are. Sometimes they’re taking wrong angles on inside shoulders and the quarterback gets outside of them when their job is to contain him and let others help. So, it’s about doing your job and making sure that we contain the quarterback and then put pressure on him.”
On what he’s learned the most stepping into the interim role:
“That inspiring the kids has not changed. I look back at the past nine weeks and nine weeks are heavy. You left this place, or continue to leave this place in a better spot. Especially internally. From the accountability standpoint, for caring for the kids and all of that. I can go to sleep knowing that I did that. We’ve done the best job with the hand we were dealt. I can go to sleep. Hopefully this moving forward, I am still confident that Arizona State can be a really good football team.”
On the pressure he feels for the Territorial Cup, and how he manages it:
“A win, especially in this Territorial Cup, there is pressure on a head coach. From the standpoint that everyone is watching. There’s pressure to win, but I embrace that. That’s just the game of football and I’ve been doing this for a long time. Do I feel anxiety and my stomach turns before? Heck yeah. It’s just the same way that I’ve played football. If I didn't, trust me I’d be on the golf course golfing and home with the wife and kids but I embrace this. I look for that challenge. Now it’s my turn to inspire these kids to play for this Territorial Cup and we’re excited.”
On A Mountain being painted blue and red:
“Trust me, we did (see). Two days ago they painted it blue and red and I made sure that our kids saw that. I also made sure that our kids saw their little scuffle on the sideline, and all of those things. Anything that I can use from the advantage. We played the Arizona fight song today during stretch that they weren’t happy about and that’s good. There are a couple of things from an engagement standpoint and a motivation standpoint I like to throw in. They really need to know that we just need to execute at practice, but I’ll throw those little tidbits this week just to keep it interesting.”
On keeping emotions in check during the game:
“We’ve talked from the day I got here about playing with passion and not emotion. If you play with emotion you get yourself in trouble. When people start talking, the crowd gets in your face and you’re emotional, you get yourself in trouble. When you’re emotional you make bad mistakes and 15 yard penalties. It’s about playing with passion. You love the football game. You love the atmosphere, and you love the challenge. That’s what I need to make sure that our kids play with. Emotions will hurt your football team, and that’s the last thing that we want to do is hurt our brotherhood, so that’s kind of the speech that I give them every single day.”
On ending on a positive note and what a win would do for the program:
“It’s absolutely amazing that you can win one football game and almost half of the season will be forgotten, to tell you the truth. The legacy of this 2022 class is to make sure that we carry over that Territorial Cup for six years because it’s never been done before. There’s a lot of positives to that. It makes people forget a little bit about all the struggles that we’ve had in the previous weeks. It’s just like playing golf on that 18th hole. Sometimes they make it a par 5 so you birdie it and can come back the next day… and you forgot the whole round that you shot 105. Just making sure that we take care of this game, it rides momentum into the next year and it’s a legacy for this class. They didn’t win on senior day and that puts a bad taste in their mouth, but they won the Territorial Cup, that is huge for them going forward from a memory standpoint.
On his emotions personally against Arizona:
“Just sitting back and knowing that I am going to be a part of a great history in Arizona, that’s huge for me. When I walk on that field just taking that all in, and then helping our kids understand that. It’s an honor because there are a lot of great coaches before me, and there will be a lot of great coaches after me that will play in this game. For 100 something years this game has been played, so just to be on the sidelines with my football team is a huge feather in my cap. Just an honor for me to represent Arizona State and coming away with that win would be a huge honor too.”
On the importance of this game from a recruiting standpoint:
“Absolutely it matters. You walk into that place and especially if you’re fighting with a kid and their motto (is) 'it’s personal', well it’s personal to us, too. Winning this football game gives us another notch from a recruiting standpoint that it’s six years that we're winning this game. We’re a better football team and program than they are. There are a lot of things that you can use in a recruiting speech that you can get, but it is huge. You want to win the Arizona battle of kids. That’s my goal is to win and keep the best kids and just having that in your speech is something that I think is a huge advantage.”
On Trenton Bourguet’s performance against OSU:
“From a progression standpoint, I thought sometimes we came off too early. He’s not 100% healthy as well, so I thought sometimes our footwork wasn’t right in order to make some of those throws. A couple of times we were on that 35 when we should have put the ball right on them and follow forward for a first down, but he’s trying and he’s leading that team. I thought he played pretty good. He needs to play a lot better this week in order for us to win.”
On Arizona’s offense and the approach when facing them:
“They do have a three headed monster. Two of them have over 1,000 yards, and the other has 600 something yards. They throw the ball a lot too, so you’d imagine that. They are great route runners. I think they’re good athletes. I think that our secondary is going to be up for a big challenge, and the way that we can defend that is to hopefully put pressure with the front four and five. It is going to be a huge challenge and we have to make sure that we contain not only the quarterback but contain those receivers because they’re going to make plays, and they have been making plays the whole year.”
On any conversation with Trenton Bourguet playing in his hometown:
“I try not to bring it up to him because I don’t want to put the added pressure on him, but he knows. I’ll walk by him and say ‘hey, we’re going down to your neck of the woods,” and he was like “coach, we’re going to win.” So I put a few nudges here and there with him, but he’s a competitor and I know what it means to him to go down there and come away with the win. I won’t have that conversation, I’ll just give him a little teasing nudges here and there during the week. He’ll be prepared, and he’ll be ready.”
On discussions about his future and where he stands:
“This could be the last game. We haven’t had that talk yet. I am going to go in wanting to finish this season and if the decision is made after this week, it’s probably made after this week. I am going to go in as if I am the head coach in this game and treat it with my players that way and then we’ll see what comes out at the end of it, but no, we haven’t had that conversation yet.”