On feelings after Cal game vs. USC game:
“I think it was disappointing because I think our guys know we were so close to victory. What I showed the guys today was when you win most statistical categories, what the most important things in football are owning the football and then winning situational football. When you look at third downs, you look at redzone scoring and you look at the turnovers and that’s the game. The other 85, 90 percent of the game we won. But we didn’t win the areas that mattered. That’s what I told them was winning football looks a certain way. In those moments in the third downs and the fourth downs in the low red is where we made our biggest mistakes and they played their best. So that’s what we gotta do if we want to win football games.”
On similarities between first year with Arizona State and his first year with Florida State:
“A lot of similarities just in terms of, that was the COVID year so a lot of guys were out as well and we’ve been battling some injuries up front and some injuries now on defense and at quarterback, kind of all over running back. So being able to adapt and change may be not doing exactly what you did in the spring or the fall but being able to try and change and adapt. I’m a run game guy, that’s what I’ve always done and I think we ran the ball four times in the second half but that was to the strength of our football team versus that team in that game, which is different. It may be uncomfortable for staffs to do but it’s something you need to do, so I would say that. I would say the ability to face tough losses and have to respond and understand that this is a process and you have to learn how to win again and I think that goes back to the last question. We have to learn how to win and what is learning how to win? The key aspect of winning is responding. Our guys are responding. From earlier in the year to now, there’s a drastic different look in kids’ eyes and the team’s eyes. Our defense on 4th and 1 yard line and the response. But now it is in the big critical moments, those big situations, we have to start taking pride and winning those situations. That was something we didn’t do early on at Florida State that then we slowly continued to fight, continued to work, continued to fight through these tough Saturdays and tough Sundays. Go back to work and get better at the things that matter in the football, that’s the effort, that’s the detail and that in game situations that decide winning and losing. So that would be in comparison.”
On linebacker Tre Brown’s recovery and where to go at the linebacker position:
“He’ll be out, length of time unknown right now. But he’ll definitely be out this week and we’ll reassess after the bye. That position we’ve definitely lost some guys there, so other guys are gonna have to step up. James came in and we had some guys come in and do a nice job in that role, so we gotta have some guys step up. This is a prolific offesnse that we face this week, they challenge you on the edge and in space so we gotta be ready to play a game in space and linebackers are a big key to that because they try to isolate your linebackers in coverage and man and weakside safeties in man coverage with some FIB formation.”
On ASU linebacker Caleb McCullogh and how he played:
“Caleb was awesome. Caleb came in and Caleb has been an incredible teammate, incredible team player for us playing spot minutes at linebacker. So for him to come in and play to the level he played was a huge positive for us and we’re going to lean on him and need him in this next week and next few weeks throughout the year.”
On setting the tone early and getting momentum:
“We have to have a good opening drive. We started pretty on the opening drive this week but obviously when we started the drive it ended in an unfortunate way that I would not count on it that we get a penalty, get the first, third-down conversion and get a 1st-and-15 and then we couldn’t get back out of that funk going into the game. I told the guys you can’t play really sound defense’s behind the chains. They’ll be some defenses that you can play at 2nd and 18 and respond to it because they’re aggressive. You can’t do that to really sound defenses who are built upon making you take 6-yards a pop and built upon you to make your own mistakes. That was disappointing because we haven’t been a penalty driven team this year. But those penalties showed up in the first drive and they showed up in the most critical moments in the game.”
On being able to focus on the team and not the ranking:
“We’re always going to be about us. It’s never about an opponent. Its never about anything else. We have to educate ourselves on the strengths and weaknesses of our opponents. What they do well, what they don’t do well. The style of play. Like coach them. But other than that we’re focused on us. I’ve watched us offensively and what players do what well and how do we put our players in the best position to be successful. And that’s what the best offenses do, that’s what the best defenses do. It’s not scheme driven directly, but its your opponent. Every coordinator is going to be able to hopefully produce the most sound scheme versus your opponents. The most important thing is the effort, the detail and making sure you’re putting your players in the best position possible to be successful over the whiteboard being successful. And if you can combine both, that’s great. But not every week does a defense allow you to combine both and that’s what defenses jobs are. Not letting you do both.”
On ASU DB Jordan Clark’s Status:
“Honestly that is up in the air. I really don’t know. Jordan is a competitor. So, if you ask him he’s always fine, that’s his mindset. He’s always tough, he’s physical. He’s what you want. It’s questionable, that’s the easiest way to say it.”
On putting together a game plan against tough defenses:
“You have to be super efficient. That’s something that I’ve looked at specifically. I mean our longest rush is 17 yards on the season. So when you can’t run the ball and hit explosive runs like that. When you’re more of a consistent run, and you can be consistent in that world, you’ve got to be more explosives and luckily our backs have had explosive passes to negate that. But we still need to be more explosive. And that’s a challenge. We’ve got to be more creative and I have to be more creative getting our guys in space, trying to be creative with a few tricks and been trying to pop a explosive play. But we and myself have to be more creative in creating those because in reality explosive plays if you look at the win rate for teams with explosive plays who have explosive plays compared to those who don’t have explosive plays is the number one correlation to winning in the game nowadays and we’re just not having enough explosives so I have to be more creative offensively and we’ve got to find ways to create those. And get our guys in explosive situations.
On addressing his play calling against California.:
“When you face a defense like that, it's kind of a boring game to call, to be honest. They're going to do what they do, they're going to mix up their calls and they're gonna keep counter punching. So it's really not as much about the call because they're so sound, you're not gonna get them per se. Some games, it's like, oh, we got them, we're field blitz in here, we’re gonna check four verticals angle and send a five man slide and the defense is going to have the angle out. We got them right? You're not going to really get them, so you can't have the “get him” plays, right? The only one we tried to get him on was the throwback to Trenton, which was super close. The defensive end who's the edge player sprints and recognizes it and great play by that kid. If he doesn't recognize it, we have Trenton running down the field by himself trying to create that explosive. So that game is kind of a boring game to call from that perspective. Obviously, we got to be better in the red zone and I got to do a better job designing plays in the red zone where we can still run the ball or get our best guys open.
On the defensive performance this past week:
“They're doing a phenomenal job defensively. Even when they've been, they're doing a really good job in red zone defense, not breaking and limiting points. Even when teams have elongated drives, they're still limiting the points. So they're doing a really nice job there. So I've been really pleased with our defensive coach board is phenomenal. Our defensive staff is phenomenal. They are attacking and being aggressive. Still got to create more takeaways. I mean, being through five games and one takeaway, I would bet we're 132nd or 130th in the country in creating takeaways and that's an explosive play for defense. So right now if you look at us, we're not explosive on offense and we're not explosive on defense because of both of the explosive categories. Offensively, we're turning it over too much, which we didn't as much last game, but we're not creating the explosives. On defense, we're getting sacks, but the most explosive play on defense is a turnover and we're not getting turnovers. So we're making it really hard on ourselves to win games because once again, the areas of the field that wins games, the situations that win games are turnovers, third down, red zone scoring where offensively we're struggling in some areas and defensively, we're great, except the explosive players, which is the turnover rate.”
On going for it on fourth down:
“Our third drive of the game, we go forward on fourth and two and get it and then score seven points. So there's a seven point net that feels like we have a good call. We're on the 38 you're not going to kick 57 yard field goals, so you have to go for that fourth and one and then you're on the minus 38 on a fourth and and one and a half, right, which you should convert over 75% time. We converted the last one of the other fourth and ones you don't convert and it sucks. But right now with our punt game and the transitions in the punt game, a 35 yard net punt on average right now is not conducive to the risk of not converting a fourth and one or two. You know, that was an area that we're going to improve on this week, we've got to have better nets and our special teams have been playing really, really well these last four weeks other than the net punt battle is where we're losing and we got to fix that. If we fix that, then yes, the aggressiveness can tamper a little bit because now I know when we can stop defensively, we're not minus 20 yards. Right now, a punt battle is minus 15 to 20. So you may as well go for the fourth and one and a half.”
On comparing the QB situation to when he was at Florida State in 2020:
“That's actually a really good comparison because Jordan actually got hurt early in the year. It may have been week three. He got hurt week three or four in the year. So that's a good comparison similar to Jayden and then Jordan came back at the end of the year and started to flash again going into the next year. So, I see Jayden is battling to come back and it's a very similar structure. I think Jayden has all the tools to be elite. He's got a good mindset. He's got the work ethic. Everybody knows he's got the tools and he's got the care level. He loves his place. He loves football. So I think there is a ton of parallel between those two comparisons.”
On ASU WR Elijah Badger’s Impact the last two weeks:
“I think he's got a lot of talent and he's really good with the ball in his hands. So when looking at him, I have to find ways to get the ball in his hands more. I know now, being here five games, that getting the ball in his hands is the key.I think getting the ball in his hands and moving forward is going to be a huge priority for us in different ways, shapes, and forms and then trying to keep him on the field when he's fresh and not making him play if he's not fresh is going to help.”
On his success as a primary kick-return:
“He's still a kick returner, especially with what he did last Saturday. As long as you can to keep him fresh, I’ll still keep him as a primary kick returner. No question, no question. I'm not big on stats. I never check them but we’re the top 10 or 15 kick-return teams in the country right now. So that's something we got to continue to build on.”
On focusing on themselves going into the Colorado Match Up:
“The same thing I say every week, I'm focused on our football team and that's always going to be the answer. We showed up today and we're going back to work. We are going to find out what we need to get better at and we're going to go get better and we're going to keep getting better. And this week, hopefully, we're better in situational football and hopefully we get some takeaways and win the turnover battle for the first time all year which we haven't done yet, and win a football game.”
On ASU TE Jaylin Conyers Progression this season:
“Jalen (Conyers) is an unbelievable pass catcher. When the ball is in the air he does a phenomenal job. Great body control. Once again, he's great after the catch. One of the best in the country, especially big bodies after the catch. So finding ways to get him in more positions where he's in space and detached and moving around to try to be that big body pass, catcher collision, catch guy I think is a strength. So I've been pleased with his ability to catch the football and make plays with the ball in his hands and we will try to capitalize on them moving forward.”
On the biggest difference between Colorado compared to last year:
“They're more talented for sure. Their defensive line is good. Their skill positions are fast. They play really, really hard. They're fundamentally sound, but I think just watching them play the biggest difference aside from the talent is the effort in which they play. This team plays extremely hard. This team runs to the football on defense and they sprint up to the football on offense with tempo. These wideouts sprint to block. The schemes are drastically different and it's the culture that's being created. There is one that is we're going to play competitively, we're going to finish every play and we're going to play with a passion and you can see it on the table.”
On Colorado's Quarterback Shedeur Sanders:
“I actually recruited him out of high school when I was at Auburn. So I got to meet with him on a whiteboard and he was phenomenal. Super smart as a 16-17 year old. I mean he’s just out there having fun, having conversations. I was super impressed on the field. An unbelievable throwing session out in the indoor field for a camp session. It was unbelievable. Seeing him put it together here in college doesn’t shock me. He’s an older version of what that 17-year-old was. He’s servial, smart. He has a great poise about himself. So I think that’s one of his greatest skills when you watch him back there. He’s similar to Caleb (Williams) is that he’s always poised. He’s very hard to get uncomfortable. He’s always comfortable. Even if you hit him he gets up and the next play is the next play. He doesn’t get rattled. He’s very poised, very confident and can make every throw, extends plays. He’s a really really really really really good football player.”
On where the offense is at physically:
“That's something we gotta get better at. We ought to be more physical, we have to give more effort. I think right now as a football team, our defense gives more effort than our offense, in my opinion. Maybe that's me being in my mind as an offensive guy. So I'm always going to grade that probably a little harder, but I'm always looking at ways we can improve and what plays did our effort cost us. And I think there were a few plays in the game that could have been an eight-point difference on two drives in the red zone where effort wasn't there. And if the effort isn’t there it's an eight points difference and that's on me. I told the guys today, that everything in this program is a reflection of me. If somebody shows up late to a meeting, it's not your fault, It's my fault. Why are you showing up late to a meeting? Like what is the standard that's being set in your position in a program that makes you think it's okay to do that? And then I have to reassess how do we end that. So that everything in the program is effort-based.
What are we doing to make kids give more effort or chase the ball? Well, this week all of our coaches, you know who have a little juice to them on offense are going to sprint 10 yards after every single play with the guys after they catch it because we need to burst after the catch. So that's what we're going to try to do to change that a little bit. But that's my job is to try to see these problems and try to fix them.”