Football Postgame Quotes vs. UCLA (Nov. 5, 2022)
Arizona State Head Coach Shaun Aguano:
Opening Statement:
“It was a tough one tonight, I talked to the team and I told them the couple of things that I asked them to play until the last whistle. But I take all the blame. Not preparing us defensively and offensively for this game. It’s not on them, it’s on me. So I want to make sure that everybody understands that and we’ll get it fixed. But our kids played until the last whistle. The fans showed up tonight and we didn’t take care of it in the first half. We did get back in the game at the end but I wanted to thank them, too, for trying to be there for us. We wished that the outcome was a little different but our kids played their heart out.
On the main factors of allowing 400+ rushing yards tonight:
“First of all, Number one on UCLA (QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson) is tough. Whenever he gets going he’s probably one of their best athletes out there and we didn’t run fits. We didn’t wrap up like we should’ve and that’s inexcusable. You can’t win games when you let teams run for 400+ yards, that’s just unacceptable. I'll get back into my office and watch the film before I go home and figure out what needs to be done before next week.”
On the personnel challenge and depth tonight:
“For personnel, we were a little light-handed tonight to tell you the truth. I’ll never make an excuse for that, but we have guys that are on scholarship that’ll step up but we didn’t have a couple guys ready to go. The thing is that we need to play better in the interior. They were a pretty good O-line and they got on us and we didn’t separate, we didn’t strike and separate and didn’t wrap up when we had the time. It’s tough when somebody runs on you for 400+ yards and you try to play catch up the entire time. It was my fault that we had to play catch up because I didn’t think I did a good job for three series to stay with them and then we played catch up the entire time. I’m happy with how the kids played but it was my fault that we didn’t take care of those three series.”
On what may be wrong with the defense:
“We were a little short tonight. They’re playing their butts off and I thought UCLA did a great job blocking us and we didn’t run fit a couple of times. We had the quarterback but we slipped onto our read toward the running-back and then the QB slipped out the back. So we need to make sure that we are better in the run fit category and we haven’t been in the last couple of games. I think they average ten yards a carry and that’s unacceptable.”
On getting off the field on third downs:
“We’ve been having trouble all season with that. We get them in third-and-12 and they’re running stop routes 14 yards and we’re in the area but not attached to somebody and that’s a problem. We need to go back and get with the defensive coaches and see what we need to do about that. They’re working hard on first and second down, but on third we’re not getting it done. A lot of times, those stops we could’ve gotten puts us in the lead. I’m disappointed in how we played in the second quarter and I'm disappointed with how we played on offense in that quarter, and how our defense played when trying to stop the run.”
On if the defense adjusted better in the second half with UCLA Tempo:
“Yes, I thought they brought a little bit more pressure. I thought they brought a little bit more pressure so the linebackers filled the gaps a little bit better. When they go into tempo and those defensive linemen have to stay on the field and go one after another and it’s tough since we’re thin at that position. It’s still no excuse.”
On the personal foul call at the end of the game on ASU DB Khoury Bethley:
“He comes up and makes a great play and then gets excited and stands over somebody. I tell those guys that we’ll play with passion and not emotion. When emotion gets involved then you make mistakes and then it costs your team. We were second-and-six and we get a 15-yard penalty and they move the ball. He feels bad because I had that conversation with him but at the same time we have to learn the emotional part. We have to take out the emotional part out of it.”
On the teams’ confidence that they’ll make a bowl game:
“We’re going to play as hard as we can. One thing you know about this football team is that we’re going to play until we can’t anymore. It doesn’t matter if we have 20 guys on our team, or 50 guys. We’ll play hard. In these next three games, we’re going to play hard. We understand we have to win out to get to a bowl game. These teams that we are going to face, Washington State had a good game against Stanford, then we have to face Oregon State, then Arizona at their place. We’ll be ready. When I say ready, I’m going to make sure that the coaches are prepared and preparing the kids to be successful. I don’t think we did a good job at that tonight.”
On UCLA’s blitz packages and the pressure on ASU QB Trenton Bourguet:
“They’re bringing six, or seven, especially when we were second-and-long. We knew that and that’s why we didn’t want to be in second-and-long, because that’s where their pressure packages come up. I thought the offensive line did a pretty good job. Of course, the thing with Trenton is that’s the way to stop him - you’re going to have to bring that pressure. He does a good job hitting the hot routes, but I put him in the situation to get hit because I didn’t take care of the efficiency on the first downs. I made the mistake as a play caller.”
On ASU DL Norman-Omarr Lott leaving the game early:
“He was out all week because of an illness. He wants to go and he got frustrated because he can’t (play). Again, we’re thin with a lot of guys in that situation. He was just frustrated with himself that he can’t help the team in that situation, because he’s not feeling well. He made the decision that he was going to go today, but he couldn’t be productive because he just couldn’t be on the field.”
On the two-point conversion to cut the deficit to six points:
“When you read the analytics it is recommended if you can be aggressive and you score and get the two points, then a touchdown wins the game. I don't want to be in a situation where I kick it, then we’re seven and seven and then you'd have to go for the two out. I want to make sure that if I don’t get it we’re down by eight and I would have to go for the two anyway, so I want to make sure from an aggressive standpoint, and I always tell our kids that we’re always going to be an aggressive team and go for the win. That was me going for the win. So, now we’re down six, and we score and win the football game. That was my train of thought. I’m always going to be aggressive in regards to those situations.”
On how ‘Ohana’ stays put after losses, such as tonight’s:
“That is the most important part. Right after this, I got them all together, and made sure we put our hands together, that’s the part about families. When there are hard times, how can we back each other up and not point fingers at each other. I told them that I love them and we’re going to take care of it. I took the blame, so when they go to talk to the media, you let them know that it was my fault, and I’ll take the blame. But, those guys understand when there are hard times you have to stick together even more, that’s a huge emphasis. When we win we will celebrate the wins. It’s hard, but we will come back Sunday and do the same thing. We’ll have our family dinner on Sunday, and it’s a tough one, since we lost, but that’s where more and more family make it even better.”
Arizona State Defensive Back Chris Edmonds:
On confidence to make a bowl game:
“Very confident that we can win out. … We are going to get back tomorrow and lock in watch tape and see what we can fix. We going to win out and keep it rolling”
On tonight’s run defense:
“As a defense as a whole we have to be better. You said we let up 400 yards on the ground, we just can't let that happen. We pride ourselves as a defense as being fast and physical so we just can't let that happen. We just have to go back and watch the tape and see how we can correct things.”
On how they tried to fix the run defense on the sidelines:
“We just have to have pride and fight back and not get pushed around. Just fight back and have the standard of defense we want to set”
On confidence going forward after UCLA defeat:
“I’m still very confident, like we said we just have to go back and watch tape and see what we did wrong, see what adjustments we did wrong. And just fix that and build up on that and get ready for next week.”
Arizona State Running Back Xazavian Valladay:
On thoughts on how the game unfolded:
“Like Trent said, coach Aguano preached on fighting and finishing to the last play. I definitely think we did that, I feel like our team played their hearts out and unfortunately, between these two teams guys are going to make plays. They have good players and we have good players as well. The ball unfortunately wasn't in our court throughout the end of the game. That's all I can ask from our guys, just play your heart out and give it your all.”
On Confidence going into next week after this UCLA loss:
“I feel like our confidence has always been there. It just comes down to execution and having your guys make plays. When you continue to make plays and not shoot yourselves in the foot you find good things happen all the time. I feel like we didn't play that bad of a game but every game there things you can clean up for you to come out victorious in the end. I definitely feel like we have a lot of confidence, you just gotta keep playing and working and we'll have good results at the end of the tunnel.”
On making adjustments during the game:
“Like I said, Whenever my number is called I love to make plays. Coach Agauno trained me to do whatever he needed from me and from other guys on the field to create space for playmakers not even just for myself. Just being able to split defenders in between the tackles and sharing in the versatility.”
Arizona State Quarterback Trenton Bourguet:
On the atmosphere of the crowd tonight:
“I thought at the beginning of the game the crowd was rocking. It was electrifying; super awesome to see the crowd light up and just get super loud. We didn't start the way we wanted to, but I'm proud of the guys. We bounced back and (in the) second half, we made some adjustments and at the end of the day it stinks that we didn't come out victorious but I was glad the way we followed way until the end.”
On the defensive adjustments UCLA made throughout the game:
“I thought they did a great job of bringing some pressure and trying to get me out of my game. A couple of times they got some good licks on me, but I just have to stay in the pocket and trust my reads, but they're a really good defense. I thought the second half we came out with, with some adjustments, were able to drive down the field. In the second quarter, we kind of stalled and they kind of pulled away but like I said, I was happy the way we were able to fight the whole game and we made some adjustments and we're not going to quit.”
On the three timeouts used in the second half:
“It was a little bit of everything. There were some times where the defense made some subs late, so it was messing us up. And then just just trying to figure out what play we wanted to get to run. We thought, we thought we’d run one play, but then we kind of second-guess ourselves. But I think we're okay, we're just trying to get everybody on the same page. And it'd be one of those timeouts that you wish we would have had him at the end. But it is what it is and you just got to learn from it.”
On the energy on the sideline after scoring 18 unanswered points in the second half:
“This whole week coach Aguano stressed to us that we're gonna play to the last whistle … whether we're up, whether we're down. And I think we just proved to everybody that we're not going to give up and we're going to fight until the very last whistle. So it was very exciting; get everybody back into the game. We're one stop away from taking the lead so we’ve just got to execute a little bit better earlier in the game. So it does have to come to that point. But at the end of the day, I was proud of how everybody competed to the last whistle.”
Differences between the first half and second half offensively:
“I missed some easy throws that I wish I could take back. They came out with a couple more blitzes than we anticipated. But at the end of day, I got to play better and not allow them to separate that much. I thought we came back in the second half, made adjustments and competed until the end, and definitely gonna learn from it. We got three more games left this season and we're excited. We're gonna take it one week at a time and get ready for Washington State.”
UCLA Head Coach Chip Kelly:
On running 400 yards without Zach Charbonnet and relying on other running backs:
“You know, we were fortunate that we’ve used Kazmeir Allen a little bit, we used him at the Stanford game, and it was good to give WR Colson Yankoff a chance, the fact that we had a firm back made the guys tighten up a bit, we were starting to get a little thin there. When Allen went down, what were we down to? And I think that with the front on Dorian Thompson-Robinson is really beneficial because he took off today and he had a really good day rushing the football, too, and I think our guys up front understand our scheme and understand what we can do, and it took every one of those guys to finish out that football game.”
On running back Dorian Thompson-Robinson making great plays:
“He had a lot put on his shoulders tonight with Charbonnet not being able to play, but when you have a player like that who can step up and do whatever we need. We need him with legs, we need him with arms at certain times, and he made some incredible plays. He was a huge part of us getting back in and finishing this game off.”
On the drive and gain down at the sixth:
“Yeah we’ve been working on that, we had an exchange problem in the back field and that’s what fumbled, but we were moving the ball. We talk about it all the time, competitors respond, and I think that’s what our offense learned. Whether we continue to hold onto the ball and run the clock out or score and make it a two-score game, that wasn’t going to be an option, we had to make it back in. We had a lot of contributions from all three of the running backs and Dorian. When you can run the ball and they know you’re going to run the ball, that’s critical. But, I think our guys understand that to be a really good football team, we have to be a good and formative offense.”
On ASU defense getting control in second half of the game and if there were any new schemes:
“No, they were running the same things they were running in the first and second quarter. They do a good job with handing the ball off and getting it done quickly. We knew that coming in knowing how they played against Colorado last week. Bourguet was their quarterback when they beat Washington, so I’m going to give them a little bit of credit. I thought we generated a better pass rush in the first and second quarter than we did in the third and fourth quarter; it’s a lot easier when we can get the quarterback off his spot. I’m going to give him credit, he took some shots tonight and was still able to stand there and throw the football. We’ll have to look at everything when we watch the tapes.”
UCLA Defensive Back Mo Osling III:
On ASU coming back later in the game:
“Just a little momentum swing, they’re a very good team. They play very well together and they put some drives together having a good game trying to come down and score touchdowns. I feel like what we did well was just stick together as a defense, as a team.”
On last drive and defensive back Jaylin Davies big play:
“We were in a corner, corner half defense that we could probably do a little of box coverage for. They were in a bunch of formations, they just kind of ran a little corners when he was already out there so it was already on the leverage.”
On 75 yard touchdown by wide receiver Kazmeir Allen:
“I’ve seen it but they had the monitor change it and it had a dude doing pushups but I’d kind of seen it on the field, so I caught a glimpse of it. They were doing some adjustments on the sideline.”
On Trenton Bourguet’s completion rates and challenges his defense saw:
“Very poised player, he came out there with a mindset that he just wants to get the ball out fast and just try to pick up our defense. I feel like he did a pretty good job doing that. At the end of the day, we just have to come over and try to get some stops and make turnovers. Missed tackles sometimes are going to happen, again full volume everyone came in at every tackle and as long as 11 people ran to the ball we have a good chance of getting a guy down.”
On defensive line getting sacks and work in backfield throughout season along with injuries:
“I feel like they’ve been doing a very good job but we lost one of our guys Martin (Andrus Jr.) early in the season so it kind of hurts a little bit but we got a lot of guys down there Gary (Smith III), the twins (Grayson and Gabriel Murphy), Carl (Jones Jr.), Bo Calvert. So they did a very good job tonight just containing the run and getting back.”
On missing Montgomery and the way the game plan is run:
“We are just putting the pieces together but the ship is going to keep going regardless of whether he’s on or off but I know he’s probably watching us back at home, so he’s been around at practice but once we get him back in, we’ll be full go with everything.”
UCLA Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson:
On approach of the game without running back Zach Charbonnet:
“We’re always looking for the next man up anyway, full confidence and faith in the guys behind Zach. So for me, it was really easy to just go out there and bring my keys and execute the plays that are called.”
On what allowed him to succeed with running:
“We prepared really well, we knew what we were going to get and we got what we expected. So I think guys just did their jobs really well and it made for big plays that popped at times.”
On “hurdles” in plays:
“The touchdown, we had a miscommunication in protection and full sprint to the right in the boundary and left the end free. But again we know all of my keys and what I have to do based off their call and who’s going to be free and they were in man coverage so just being able to be around outside. We had talked about it on the sidelines with the receivers and the tight ends. If you have a route in man coverage just run down the field and they’re going to stare at you in the face. So great job by Logan (Loya) taking his man into the endzone. And same thing with the second one, they’re in a big air front so for them I know that’s going to be a man coverage all of the way. As soon as No. 34 tested back, nobody in the middle of the field threw for the quarterback so again just trying to get a first down and then turn to more than that but again just trying to do my job.”
On running backs’ performance:
“We have full confidence and faith in all of those guys but they put the work in on a constant basis just like Zach does and it shows on Saturdays. So, I think that’s the one good thing, you have everybody’s offense on our team. You can put it in any different spots and you know they can make it happen for you.”
On what he saw on Allen’s 75 yard touchdown:
“From my perspective, I didn’t realize he broke until after I did my play fake and tried to take us down the box. But by that time, I obviously have a better view than the receivers down there that are trying to run their man’s off. So I figured I could try and bring down there and catch a blocker, too but super happy for him. If he gets out on the field he makes a first defender miss, it’s lights out for him.”
On putting game away:
“We got to go back and watch the film but there were multiple reasons you could say for why we weren’t producing points like we should, but those are things we can work on and correct on Monday. So, then again we have all of the faith in the world that we’re going to win the game. That’s the confidence that we have instilled Mondays to Fridays and the work we put in. So, I didn’t personally have any doubts.”
On the fumble recovery that got into his hands and what he was thinking in that moment:
“That’s coming from back in the summertime, we go through improvement periods. Offense does defensive work like tackling, and defensive guys try to do offensive stuff, and one of the main things when we’re going for the ball is to see the ball or catch the ball, and I was able to pick it up and do what I wanted with it. But again, that’s just me going back to my fundamentals and what I’ve learned and all the stuff that’s accumulated up to that moment.”
UCLA wide receiver Kazmeir Allen:
On 75 yard touchdown:
“We just ran inside and were patient at the line and took it for a touchdown.”
On big moments returning to the running back position:
“I’m just a baller. I just like the ball in my hands, I barely knew Zach was unavailable until the beginning of the game. I played running back before so the O-line encounters were pretty normal for me.”