On the holding penalties after watching film:
“In the second half, I think sometimes, we were bouncing balls that we shouldn't and when your interior lineman are a tackle and your hands are inside and the ball is supposed to be an interior run or an interior draw and it bounces outside then you’re deceptive to more holding calls. Then, when you're talking special teams, you just can't be grabby when you're out on the perimeter. When one person is watching you just can't be as grabby, you got to move your feet better so, I think a couple of those were not really as much on the guys that got the holding calls, as they were on the guys that didn't hit the run where it was supposed to hit which put the left tackle in a bad situation. We just got to move our feet.”
On the importance of getting Jaden into a rhythm early on:
“It’s vital. That's something I firmly believe in is getting quarterbacks in rhythm so we gotta get him in a rhythm and get them comfortable early. Huge.”
On ASU TE Jalin Conyers status:
“He's fine. You know, he was going to come back out and play but the length of the break, you know, when you get something stiff and then you break for two hours and 45 minutes, it makes it harder when you have those initial wear and tear things to then return. So, we made a decision to hold him because of that break. He stiffened up a little bit so he'll be back, he'll be fine. There's nothing wrong.”
On Coach’s perspective from sidelines versus the press box:
“Well, yes, there were some things, you know, we weren't getting the push crack to the field and some of our game should have been blocking some safeties. Someone looked, so we didn't see, so we were actually running not great plays at times, but they weren't by default. They were either a miscommunication of a signal, which is why we weren't getting something so, we gotta clean that up, which we will, we've talked to the guys about.
On what he learned about the team from the break:
“In terms of what we learned about a break is and we had guys doing homework at halftime because they had assignments due and they were banking on doing it in the morning. So it's all right. Make sure that everybody has all their homework done for the next day. I know it sounds like stupid little things. So, that would be a learning experience for me, is to make sure every homework assignment is complete on a mid week game on a Thursday game just in case you get a delay and they have to turn something on Friday because normally that doesn't happen. Normally, you have all your homework complete on Thursday for a game on Saturday because you do it before you travel Friday. But I never thought about that on a Thursday game in terms of delays. So that's a learning experience for me. And then I think we got the guys or I got the guys overly hyped for the second half. I think I was so concerned that we would have a lack of energy that I probably overly energized them and that's on me as well. And that probably is why we had more penalties in the second half, is we are a little more energy than substance on one side of the ball. The defense kept their folks, but I think the offense had a little more energy than true substance. And part of that is the situation we're playing as well, the weather. But I think those are the things that I could do better at reflecting on myself.”
On Offensive Line playing and the battle of Left Tackle:
“Yeah, I see things kind of, you know, trending in the same direction, but the battle is still continuing. I thought the O-Line did a really good job in pass protection. I thought up front, I thought we scared them a little bit but they were a big movement and twist team and we scared them a little bit off, firing off the ball because we wanted to play movement and twist well. But I think in hindsight, if we could go back, you know, playing week one games, you never quite know what you're going to get. So we would be a little more aggressive up front, creating vertical movement because we didn't really create a lot of that until later in the game. So I think that would be something that that's their challenge this week is creating more vertical movement and that's not on them. That's on me.”
On team resilience:
“Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, you have to get the job done. You know, we got a punt blocked. Not a good situation. We're up 10 points, right. We got a punt blocked. Well, our defense gets 2-to-3 to win the football game. Our offense, who was struggling mightily in the entire second half, gets the ball back with a little over four minutes left and we run the game and we end the game. So, I think for those guys to end the game with a successful four-minute drill for the defense in the game with 2, 3 and out through all the adversity, it shows that we have, you know, we didn't completely crumble in those moments that we did finish the job and there's a lot of teams every week, happened this last week, that couldn't get the job done in some situations like that.”
On Oklahoma State QB situation and game plan:
“Yeah, I think they are all three somewhat similar players. I think they're just trying to figure out they have 30 new scholarship players and I think they're trying to figure out who can do what with the live bullets and you can say practice is going to simulate that, but there's a reason veteran quarterbacks have success. There's a reason in year two of starting quarterbacks, the jump is so drastic. So, I think part of that is them trying to figure out their own roster. And I think the only way you can do that is to practice multiple players in the game. So I think that's just, you know, coach Gundy being, I believe, a 19 year vet knowing how to win football games, knowing what's needed to be done down the road to win football games and putting his team in the best position to win football games in the future.”
On Oklahoma State Defense:
“Yeah, they're big, they're extremely big when you talk up front. I mean, their average weight is 290 pounds roughly with the three down linemen. So they're very, very big. Their safety’s, obviously they are a monster defense or whatever you want to call it. Three eye safety defense. So, they play with 3, 2 safeties and a ‘monster linebacker’. They remove their mic from the field and put them back 8 yards to 12 yards on the call. So, they have three guys that are like big, jumbo athlete safeties back there and then longer corners so big long physical team. That's how you can play them on defense. On offense, their interior guys are big. They want to run the football. There's an emphasis on that. You can see the difference from last year this year that they want to run the football, be more 12 personnel. They recruited more tight ends in the transfer portal, so it shows up and then they want to get you in tempo calls and they want to isolate a player to the field in one on ones and FIB formations trying to create those one on ones.”
On ASU Defense:
“Our defense played well in the football game. I thought they were really resilient, like I said in the first half, other than that penalty, we were really, really clean in terms of getting off the field. A few miscommunication errors that we got to clean up and they converted third downs because of it. But other than that, I thought our defense played pretty solid. We made an adjustment midway through the game and we didn't quite get it accomplished. It was a good learning experience for us that we made an adjustment., we're now out on the field, right. We now have to make the adjustment on the field that we made on the sideline which that adjustment was made during the halftime, so, maybe we, we rego through it multiple times during that period of time, which is a little bit unique but, but no, I was in terms of match up them, I feel like our D Line is talented and athletic and they're big. So, it's going to be a battle of can we hold up up front and can we create enough chaos inside to prevent them from running the football. And I think that's going to be one of the keys of the game.”
On if he has a better understanding of his roster after one game:
“A little bit to say a lot, No. But you can see the guys trying. You can see a little bit of ‘okay something bad happened’ and then you see the other guys where something bad happened and say ‘Oh we got you.’ Like different mindsets and we have to get everybody with that second mindset in the game. Then, in-game you can see guys that sometimes people get too aggressive. So it’s really moderating how to motivate in the balance of your team. Some guys you have to get them hyped up and then some guys you have to slow them down. So I think we did learn a little bit on the demeter that some of these players need to have going into a game and I think that game was actually a great opportunity for us to learn different demeters. SInce we have two completely different demeters coming out of half and coming into the game. So it was a really good learning experience for us and myself.”
On if there’s any added pressure to win after the Pac-12’s perfect record:
“No. We want to win every week. It doesn’t matter what everyone else does. I could care less what any other team in the country does. Ever. I’m 1,000 percent concerned about us winning football games but more importantly, playing to our ability. Tentatively that’s our number one goal.”
On his overall confidence of his offensive linemen ahead of this week's matchup:
“I think it’s definitely a challenge but we have to keep it simple enough for them to know who’s on who every snap. They do a really good job disguising looks, they do a really good job not tipping looks, bringing pressure from all over. So we have to be very sound schematically to not confuse our players and put too much on them. Also, put enough on them that we can create some leverages in the run game and get players to grasp whether if that’s trading FIT formations or wherever that is. Similar to what they do things offensively.”
On if there’s any added value to the game with a game with a future Big-12 opponent:
“No. Once again a game’s a game. We’re going to take every game the exact same very week. None of the outside stuff matters. Nothing else matters but us being better every day. Us going to play our best football on Saturday.”
On the key’s of QB Jaden Rashada being successful on Saturday:
“Film study. I think they’re (Oklahoma State) going to do something they’ve shown at one point in their career. We only have one game. We have a freshman quarterback who’s played one game to watch and he gets to watch film from his last school. And you get to watch 12 games of different people and that’s the challenge of playing new coordinators early in years is you’re watching different people running the scheme. Is he running this scheme because the people he has at his last school? And the schemes he’s facing at his last school compared to how much he is going to change at this new school? So for us, Jaden has to know what he want’s us to be and has to know what his answers are to problems. You don’t have to master them all but you have to have a very good clue on this is his answer, we’re beating him with this and this is his answer to stop that. So when we go on the sideline and they say ‘Hey they’re counter-punching with this.’ It’s something that you can at least go back into your memory bank and be like ‘Oh yeah I watched that.’ That was week two of last year for him. All right I remember that clip now. Okay, that makes sense, so we’ll counterpunch with this then.’ So I think it’s his confidence of what he knows, through the work of the film study and that’s with a lot of guys on offense this week because of the variety of looks and the uniqueness. This defense hasn’t hit the Pac-12. That’s the reality is that this defense isn’t in the Pac-12, that's the reality. This defense is in the Big 12. I don’t even know if it’s a candid process, I’ve never faced it in any other league other than the Big 12. So this is a predominantly Big 12, American Conference defense. I Faced them in the American too. So those are only the two things that we run this, and you can’t simulate it until you played it in a game. It’s like the triple option. So it is very difficult from that standpoint.”
On if it’s difficult making a game plan:
“100 percent. You don’t have a lot of film to go off of so you don’t know how he’s going to use his specific players that are different. That always makes it a challenge of facing a new style of scheme. He does a really good job and you combine that with new players, a new level and there’s a lot of middle ground. He didn’t bring his entire staff with him. So you have the D-line coach may say ‘I want to coach this way’ but his last D-line coach said I want to be a switch hand guy. I want to switch my hands when he spikes the front. This D-line coach may say, No, we have the same stance every time. So you may have a tip on him in game but you don’t have a tip on him here. So you really hit really hurts you in creating some competitive advantages when you have those new staffs. Combining a new staff with an old staff fundamental teaching, you really can’t put it all together to create as good of an advantage as you’d like in week 4,5,6 and 7.
On preparing for non-conference teams:
“You guys are going to hate these answers I give, but I only care about us. I don’t care about anybody else ever. It’s not about anybody else, its about our football team. We go out, we get better, we work and we slowly grow. We’re a team that’s a better week 12 team than a week 1 team. That is the goal. That is the mission. Now what it’s like is, we may’ve set a record for students for a week 1 opponent. But we had 14,000 students show up. Can we sell this place out? Can we create a home-field advantage. Because that is what this is really about. We have a chance to play a game, it could be 102 degrees, we can kickoff at 7, we could have 14,000 students, we could sell out and we can really create a competitive advantage for our guys and I think people underestimate the value of that. I think that’s what these non-conference games really show up, is people get to watch a team that they normally don’t get to watch play, coming to you. Let’s get everybody in this city, in the valley out to this game and have an unbelievable atmosphere for our players.
On the evaluation process of himself and coaches after week 1:
“Just watch more film. To be honest you watch more tape and go through ‘Okay, what happened on the punt’ and how can we get better. What’s the detail? Okay, can we rewind this guy out? Can we tackle better, whatever that detail Is. All football is, doesn’t matter if you go at your offense, defense or special teams. You have 11 people on the field and there are always gaps. People are finding ways to get into gaps or prevent people from getting into gaps. All that is is leverage. So offenses and defenses are naturally just fighting leverages. Same thing on special teams, you’re just naturally fighting leverages and you’re trying to get angles to create blocks. Or you’re trying to get bad angles to be blocked? So its really just the same game, just flipped. So you watch it from the other perspective and say okay well, I wouldn’t want to run this play vs. this and this is a good call. Where I would want to run this play vs. this, what are we going to do when teams aren’t doing this? What’s going to be our answer. So I think for me its more just watching more film and mid game, obviously managing the situation we have. Do we have enough time to throw the ball with five seconds left? Do we want to go for a fourth-and-eight? Or do we want to punt the ball there? All of those situations. Can we end the half with the ball? Starting a four-minute drill with four minutes left to go in the second quarter. Can we make this the last possession of the half? All of those things you manage more, but I usually managed those, when you’re an offensive coordinator you manage that more. So that wasn’t as new.”
On Oklahoma State’s Collin Oliver on playing linebacker:
“I think that's the question mark is last year. He brought a lot of blitz from the boundary, which if you're bringing a lot of blitz from the boundary. You want that position is a hybrid linebacker defensive end. In his last game. He did not. But why would you move a defensive end to a linebacker if you're a blitz to the boundary team and not put something from the boundary in week one, maybe you don't want to show it. Those are the ghosts that you got to chase of. Did he play as much pressure, boundary pressure like he did again? And no, is he going to? Yes, let's just be honest because he moved a defensive end back and an athletic defensive end back. So I think you have to be able to read between some of the tea leaves to understand why they're making these moves, even if they didn't call it in week one. And that's where the challenge comes in. Like I said, in early weeks, new coordinators is you have to kind of not guess but make really, really educated guesses on why they're moving certain people places and how those movements are gonna affect, how he calls the game because this game is about people. It's not about the scheme, it's about how you use the people in this scheme. “
On what’s the biggest thing to change this week to improve:
“I think communicating, seeing signals from the sideline on offense communicating the motions and the shifts on defense. Getting in and out of different coverage calls.
So two different types of communication. One is mid-play on defense, and the other is pre-snap on offense, but both communication issues. And for the most part, we played a clean game from a substitution, getting guys in the field and all that. But the communication pieces made us run about 7-to-10 dead plays in a football game and when you're running 60-something snaps and that percentage is a dead play. Roughly. What is that? 16 to 18% 17% is a dead play, right? You have no chance to be successful. When it's a communication error, It's frustrating and then defensively on key downs, communication errors waste 1st and 2nd down, third down communication error, you know, you get two good downs who cares is first down. So you really 0-for3. So four communication errors on third down is 12 ways because you were it 1st and 2nd. So if we can clean up those two things in the football game, I think it'll be a lot cleaner.”
On the mentality of the team after the game and watching the film:
“Winning is not the goal. Winning is a byproduct. If you are the best you can be, Most games are when you have the talent to win the game, if you're the best you can be, you will win. It is a byproduct of putting in the work. So our guys rightfully so were frustrated with how we played in the second half and I would be upset if they weren't rightfully so frustrated. Now, does that mean it's hard to win in college football? People lose games, they should win all the time. I was part of a team that started 0-to-4 and lost to a school similar, right now. We responded the rest of the year finished 5-3 and now they just beat LSU on the road. That was a turning point for them, but the point is winning is hard and you should be excited about it, but you should never be satisfied if you don't play the best game. And I think you saw guys up here that were not satisfied. You saw guys watching the film and trying to find their favorite mistake. So I always tell them, I always put my mistakes on the board. We watched the tape as a full unit We watched a few clips I put up mistakes I made should have called a timeout two seconds sooner on the first round at the end of the half. So we would have had seven seconds, not five seconds left. So that wasn't quite as tight. I was trying to run it down but we got a penalty, learning experience, play the penalty, the personal foul into your clock management at the end of the first half to kill it. The adjustment we made that we didn't get it communicated from the signaler to the field. I'll take that as a mistake. So find your favorite mistake and learn and grow from it. Don't watch the film to see you play. Well, that's a cowardly move. Watch the film to see your favorite mistake.
On Xavion Alford’s tweet on not playing:
“That is accurate. Yeah, it’s very disappointing to have multiple guys on our team who didn't play football last year. Not to be able to play again, who both battled things and not be able to play again. It's just ridiculous in my opinion. And there's other teams throughout the country who play guys who shouldn't be able to play and I just don't understand it but it is what it is.”