POSTGAME QUOTES: ASU 21, EMU 30
Arizona State Head Coach, Herm Edwards
Opening Statement:
“Obviously, it’s a very disappointing loss from the way we played last week, and basically, it all came down to one thing: running the football. We went into halftime, trying to get that solved, they did a good job stopping us from running, and they ran the ball. First half, they had 40-something plays, and I think we had 20, or something like that. It was odd. They converted a lot of third downs on us, a lot of third-and-ones. They kept the ball methodically. Second half, we said we had to go down and score some points and make it a game. We have to tighten it. Then, they made a couple of big plays with the run game. The quarterback got out of the pocket one time, got on the sideline, and made a big play on the scramble. They physically got after us- bottom line, both sides of the football.”
On the difficulty of making adjustments to their offensive line:
“It’s about gap responsibility. In the gap, there were some seams. The runner did a nice job at times, cutting it all the way back, winding it back and then puts it on the safety in the box. But they did a good job. The runner did a nice job and their offensive line did a good job.”
On where the confidence is to turn the season around:
“We have to fix it. We have to fix it with the players we have. That’s how you have to fix it. No one else is coming in the building. We have to find a way to fix it, that’s what I told the team. We have to figure out who we are now, what you want to become, and what we’re going through. That’s the bottom line. It has to get fixed with the players we have.”
On the review at the end of the first half:
“I thought we made the first down on the fourth down. I was across and I wanted to get the timeout. I probably called it too soon, but to me, it looked like we had the first down. We wanted some plays in, a play or two, move the ball down the field and maybe get a field goal.”
On if there was urgency at the end of the first half:
“We were trying to move fast, believe it or not. It may not have looked like it, but we were trying to move fast.”
On the timeouts in the second half:
“One was about to be a delay of game. We got a delay of game call in the first half. It got under three seconds, so I thought I better call a timeout.”
On the penalties:
“At the wrong time, especially the last drive. We were going and we had a couple of them that just went backwards. We got in the mode. We had to throw the ball. We had to get it down the field. Then, we got a couple of holding calls. That’s hard. You don’t want that to happen, but it happened. It hurts- all of it. All of it combined. Penalties, all of that stuff, it hurts.”
On the tone of the team’s leaders at halftime:
“They talked about what we needed to do in the second half. And I thought we moved the ball offensively when we stalled out, and then we got it to within a score. And then low-and-behold, they make a couple runs, they hit us on a couple of running plays again and made some big yards on run plays. It wasn’t passing. It was a run game. And you got to give them credit, they stuck to it. And the runner did a good job and that’s the ball game at the end of the day. That’s where the ball led them to.”
On the missed opportunities in the passing game:
“Obviously when you’re throwing it down the field and you have an opportunity to make big plays, you need to capitalize on those. You’ve got to catch them. You’ve got to catch those balls. It’s a different score if you catch those balls. They were hard catches, but when you’re in a game like this, you’ve got to make those catches.”
On if the team felt ready heading into the game:
“We were ready. I just kept telling this team that you better be ready for these guys because they’re a physical, tough football team. I said they’ve lost in the fourth quarter and they’ve had some leads so be prepared. All week, that’s all I kept preaching: be prepared. Then in the first half, they were showing up and they tried to come back a little bit but we couldn’t slow them down, couldn’t stop them from running – bottom line – they ran the ball on us. And if you can’t stop them from running, you’re going to run into problems. And that’s why they converted so many third downs, a lot of third-and-ones. That’s why they converted them.”
What made it hard for the team to stop the run:
“They found a crease in the defense. You’ve got to have gap integrity when you play on defense. You’ve got to stay level if it gets out of whack one way or the other. He did a good job of being patient. The big lineman did a nice job with him and he just found little seams and just kept going. He’s a big back, he didn’t go down, you’ve got to hit him low. He bounced off some tackles, he did a great job running the football.”
On team’s attention to detail heading into the game:
“Yeah, there was there was some things, but here again, you clean those up during the course of the week. But they just physically dominated us on the offensive line. They knocked us off the ball and they ran for a lot (of yards).”
On Herm’s message to unhappy fans:
“We’re all disappointed. I’m probably more disappointed than anybody. I talked about it all week. I did as much as I can do in my power to reach the team and say “Man, you can’t fall into this trap”, and we did. And I’m not taking anything away from Eastern Michigan, they did a great job. They deserved to win the game. They knocked us off the ball, and they ran the football. I don’t know if it’s coaching, I just think it’s everything, it’s all of it. It’s everything. As coaches, players we all… when we lose, everybody loses.”
On if the offense got down (morale) after each missed play:
It wasn’t consistent. We weren’t consistent. We gotta be consistent on offense. We’d go in spurts. I think the first half we only had like 3 possessions. They had 4 possessions, I believe it was. They might have scored on all of them except for one. You can’t do that, I don’t care. Because you give them more energy and more life, and that’s what they did, and they capitalized on us. Those kids played hard. They played better than us. They deserved to win, bottom line. That’s it. That’s football. You gotta give them credit. They did a great job."
On rallying the team together for the upcoming Pac-12 matchups:
Well, I think we gotta get over this one. Gotta look at the tape. That’s a ways down the road, so we’ll worry about that when we gotta face it. Right now, we gotta get their heads up, and they gotta go to work. We’ll come in tomorrow, and we’ll start back at it. It’s a tough loss for everybody. For everybody involved: fans, players, it’s not good."
On adjustments that had to be made when their mobile backup quarterback came in:
“Well, you made the point: he can run. He’s a good runner, and he made a couple plays, one on a draw, third and long, he got it right up the middle on us. When he RPO’d it, sometimes he kept it, sometimes he didn’t, but he’s a good runner. He has speed too. He got on the edge a couple times, and hurt us from running. Gotta give him credit, kid came in and did a really good job. He didn’t turn the ball over, and did a really good job of running the offense. They were gonna run the football until we stopped them, and we didn’t stop them.”
Arizona State offensive lineman, LaDarius Henderson:
On what this game feels like:
“This feels pretty bad, I’m not going to lie. Everyone else feels pretty bad. This one definitely feels bad.”
On what sets this game apart:
“It’s just about losing games that we didn’t have to lose, and we lost.”
On adjustments that can be made:
“I felt like we were shooting ourselves in the foot a lot and it really affected the outcome
On what would be his message as captain to the team would be:
“We need to come out hard tomorrow, next practice, actually starting tomorrow and figure out what team we are going forward into Pac-12 play.”
Arizona State Quarterback, Emory Jones
On what kind of adjustments should be made:
“I think it really all boils down to us executing, doing what we’re supposed to be doing on what ever play is called. Just executing that play. We did that for some plays, and for some plays we didn’t.”
On “improving cheap shots that didn’t connect” and improvements for the future:
“I guess it didn’t connect, it didn’t do it how we wanted. It is what it is, I can’t even think about it right now. Just gotta move on and put in the work.”
On shortcomings when prepping for EMU:
“I kind of feel like the whole week, for the team overall, we…. I feel like they really showed up today and that’s something that we have to realize.”
On if he thought the team was complacent coming into this game:
“I wouldn’t say that. I don’t think we took the opponent lightly. It’s just something that we have to work on moving forward.”
Eastern Michigan Head Coach, Chris Creighton
Opening Statement:
“I don’t think I’ve ever played or coached football at two-thirty in the morning before. But it sure was an awesome first time. Obviously super super proud of our football program. You talk about a football program, it's the people that are in it. I’m really proud of them. Part of the message was when you get the play such a prestigious school and prestigious conference with phenomenal coaches and super talented players, just reminded our guys that logos and what other people think are not what truly defines you. People aren’t inheritably better than other people or what not. I’m proud that our guys believed in themselves and wanted to play at a high level and coming out victorious is a big deal for us. We didn’t win the turnover ratio, the fourth-down stop felt like taking the ball away. We were just so horrible at that last week, we needed to improve and so we were obviously a lot better on that but didn’t win it. This was a tall task and I think this is a really good program and a really good team. I’m proud of our guys and I’m excited.”
On quarterback Taylor Powell:
“I think he’s going to be okay. It bothered him to throw the ball, but the initial prognosis is that there’s not a major issue so thankful for that.”
On Running Back Samson Evans’ Performance:
“He’d be the first one to say that the offensive line and the tight ends were getting significant movement. But Samson is the real deal. He really is. He runs really hard and when you look at him at first you may not think he has the speed that he does. I’m just telling you I’m not overstating it with our guys that none of us are perfect but he’s just an incredibly outstanding young man.”
On Austin Smith and how he affected the game plan:
‘It didn't take him a play or a series or anything like that to feel comfortable out there he just went out there and ran the offense like has been doing the last couple of years and just hasn't had much game opportunity, I thought he did a fantastic job making really good decisions, he really did and you know we do shoutouts in the locker room and the place erupted when they brought him up you know cause everyone – his attitude – I’m not making this stuff up, it’s hard not to be the starter. Have a transfer come in you know what I mean and all of that, he just has never waivered, his character is top notch and then you have a magical night like this and everyone knows who you really are and there's a lot of love for him inside that locker room and a lot of it comes from Taylor too. So it’s good.”
On being first school in the MAC to beat a Pac-12 team in the regular season:
“I have no idea, must have not played the Pac-12 very much. Yeah, coming out west I’m from California and Seattle and all that but it makes for a long trip and a short week next week but this will be a night that we will never forget.”