“Well our guys had our first meetings today, getting ready for Washington, the guys had a great attitude. Hoping to be healthier this week to get more guys to practice. A couple of things on the game, I mentioned N’Keal (Harry), we have some redshirt freshmen guys up front on the offensive line that are really going to do great thing. So, there were a lot of individual things in that game that were really impressive. Our guys are focused on Washington. One of the things that these group of seniors are very, very important to us, like I said after the game and we’re disappointed because we feel like we could have won and we wanted those guys to go out with their last game at Sun Devil Stadium as winners and we were disappointed in that. In the same regard, we’re motivated and fired up to go play Washington and hopefully we’ll get some guys back. What’s tough is we got some guys back last week, but when you can’t practice, or very limited on practice, it makes it difficult. We’re hoping to be a little healthier and looking forward to go up and play probably the best team in our league. Looking forward to that. We have an opportunity to go up there and play another game against one of the best teams in the country this week.”
On N’Keal Harry’s progress...
“He’s been phenomenal. You look at the play he made the other night, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a freshman make a play like that. He’s made progress in his blocking, he’s made progress in his route running, he’s still learning a lot. I think Coach Norvell’s done a great job at developing him. He’s a guy that has a lot more tools that we can use. You can’t ask anymore as far as his development. He’s really developed and done really well. He’s a guy that has great promise, that whole receiving core, they have great promise looking forward. Our skill positions have a lot to look forward to. Even the offensive line, Steven Miller, redshirt freshman, Cohl Cabral, true freshman, Zach Robertson, redshirt freshman, Quinn, sophomore. Most of those guys have three years left that are going to be really, really good so there is great promise there. As well as our tight end position. We have great young talent. But N’Keal is a guy that I’m really proud of and how he has improved his fundamentals of the game as well as his physicality.”
On things Washington does better than anyone in the country...
“Explosive plays, would be one. Ross is probably the best player, the most dynamic player in our league. They play really good defense I mean they’re really physical against the run and they’re really good in the back end. So, I would say explosive plays and defense are the two things that I think of that describes how they play the game. They’re very well coached, that would be the third thing is they’re very, very well coached.”
On defensive strategy during the game...
“I thought as far as what we wanted to do, shut down the run, they had 40-something yards at halftime until they broke the long run on us, I thought we had that in check. Obviously, the story of the whole game, when you go back and look at the film, are the big plays. We got beat. They had four one-play touchdowns. The last run was desperation; we were trying to make something happen. But really, we’re still in the football game until we throw the interception. That was critical to us, of all the things that happened to us. We’ve not pressured as much and our plan was to keep it in front and inside and we didn’t do that on two occasions and that resulted in two touchdowns there and then we gave up two touchdown runs. Other than that, that’s been the big deal. It’s just frustrating because, obviously, when you don’t pressure as much your ratio of TFLs and sacks and that, all go down and turnovers and take-aways. But we had two turnovers within the first three series on their end and only got three points out of it. In the end, reviewing the film, we turned the ball over twice and that was the huge difference. If you take that away and then giving up big plays that was the biggest issue defensively. As far as the strategy of it, that was something that we went into this year feeling like we needed to do less of and it’s what it is.”
On the attitude in the locker room …
“Our attitude is very good. Just like after the game, there is not any hopeless feeling by me or the players. My energy level has been as high as it has been because I love these players and I get a little emotional after having these guys for five years. We are a young football team with a massive amount of injuries and we have played some pretty good teams down the stretch, but we aren’t going to make any excuses. We still have two more games to play and we will evaluate the season after that. I am really proud of our team because there is not any ounce of give-up. You can see the character and development in all of the players. Are there things we need to get better at? Yes, we know that. Injuries have been the most difficult factor to deal with—especially at quarterback. It has been tough for Manny because he hasn’t been able to practice and that is really difficult for someone at that position. Football is a physical game, so injuries are expected, but we have had an usually large amount of them. Before those injuries happened, we were doing very well, but we still have great attitudes and we continue to work extremely hard while facing adversity. In our first year, we faced a really similar situation without all of the injuries. I am proud of this team and their attitude, but the guys know we have work hard every day to get better. We have a great opportunity to go play Washington, arguably the best team in our league and the seventh in the country. Then we obviously still have the Territorial Cup, so we have a lot of things left that we want to accomplish and build upon.”
On a correlation between top ranked teams and turnover ratios…
“I think that the number one priority is to take care of the football and earlier in the year, when we were 5-1, we were doing that. Obviously, when you stop attacking, you lose a good amount of TFL’s and sacks. I think the number one key for a successful team is the turnover ratio and then followed by the rush defense and rush offense. Every year, if you look at the top four or five teams, there will be a direct correlation with their turnover ratio. That is something that we need to improve upon. We need to create those turnovers, which we did this week in the first half. Our own turnovers have hurt us and that has largely been due to our inexperience at the quarterback position, because it has been more interceptions than it has been fumbles. There is nothing we emphasize more than turnovers. We start every practice with ball security and attacking the football. We felt that if we pressured less, we wouldn’t give up as many big plays, but that isn’t always the case.”
On Manny’s performance…
“All I can say about Manny is that he is very courageous in the way he has overcome his injuries. I am very proud of his leadership and toughness. He has had more than his fair share of adversity.”
On the difficulty of dealing with injuries…
“That’s part of coaching. We have definitely had more than our fair share, but you have to deal with injuries every year. There is nothing you can do about it, so you can’t worry about those types of things. Our guys have a great attitude and we know that most of our issues are issues we can correct. We just have to get to work, practice and correct those mistakes. For the last month, we have not been able to get a consistent amount of practice because of all the injuries. This week, we should be able to get more guys out there on the field and that is a major key to getting better.”