Arizona State Sun Devils College Football Pregame Quote, 09/25/2023

First thing I’d like to say before is I just want to say thank you to the fans. That atmosphere was electric, our players felt it. That’s what college football is about, so thank you to everybody who showed up and was loud and supportive of the football team.

On wearing the two hats of being head coach and calling plays:

I thought our staff around me did a very good job communicating offensively, defensively and special teams. So credit to the offensive staff and their communication throughout the game. Coach Baldwin in the box, coach Samples, coach Aguano, coach Mohns, all of those people did a phenomenal job communicating what they’re seeing.

On any additional thoughts he had on Saturday’s game after watching film:

I thought there was a few emotional calls, I kind of mentioned it after the game and I felt where I rode the wave of the emotion. I responded with emotion, not an as sound of response that I would like. So, I would like to have a few calls back and I’m always going to be my biggest critic. So whenever I watch a game, I’m looking for ways I can improve and be better and I think there were a few plays, could they have worked? Yes, but could I have maybe put our guys in a better position based off that scenario or that situation in the game? Could I have sequenced better on a 2nd and 11 after we throw a screen for a TFL? Yes, all of those scenarios I look at how I could’ve been better. So I think taking the emotion out of it at times when we have those big moments that maybe don’t go our way, setting more poise is something I gotta improve on.

On how the team executed:

Execution was average. We’re going to be better. That’s what I told our guys is we play a lot better but there’s a difference between playing better and playing good. You can’t be satisfied with just mediocre. Were we better? Yes. Were we drastically improved? Was there growth? Was there this? Yes, yes, yes. But better is nowhere to be confused with good and we’ve got a long way to go to get to where I feel like this standard of an offense is. We’re going to go back to work this week, it’s a fine tune to some details. Like I talked to the guys, couldn’t be happier with how the guys, that effort and the want to and the commitment to the process. I couldn’t be happier. Now, we got to be able to sustain our detail throughout the game and that’s the real challenge and we gotta do a better job as a staff keeping guys fresh and rotating more guys early in the game so we don’t get so tired at the end of the game.

On what his post-game routine consists of:

My wife’s my hardest critic. I say I’m my hardest critic ‚Äì my wife, I go home and she’s competitive. She’s a Sun Devil. She’s always asking ‘What happened on this? Why did you go for it? What is this? Why is this?’ She is my toughest critic and that’s what makes us work is her passion for the game. She’s passionate about the game, just like I’m passionate about the game. I go home and, and it’s right back to work from that perspective. Usually, I try to watch the game either up here at night, you know, two, three, four times, whatever it is. Then I go home and watch it again, usually lying in bed. It usually goes to the questions of the why from the wife and then it goes to me watching the game pretty much until my body lets me sleep.

On how important it was to show resiliency No. 5 USC:

I think there are two sides of it. I think the victory side is one conversation and the growth side is a completely different conversation. How I compartmentalize it is ‚Äî the victory side is how you feel Saturday night and you should never feel satisfied on a Saturday night if you don’t win the football game. But you can still understand the growth that happened when you wake up in the morning and when you understand you got better and that you’re closer to where you want to be. I think there’s a fine line between those two things and you have to have a team that’s not satisfied with losing football games, but that want to then make even more of a change to get better and better and better. When they can feel a little bit of their growth, like you alluded to, I think it shows more of a buy-in that, maybe, maybe this crazy guy yelling at us in practice, you know, maybe it’s real. Maybe if we just keep working, the work does work. There’s no easy way in life. You got to work. It’s that simple. Nothing is built overnight. You got to work and if you want to build something that’s sustainable, you got to work daily to build it. It’s not just a flip. You don’t just flip the switch.

On the preparations going into the first road game vs. California:

Just the travel and the organization will be the first time it’s a travel game with me. It’s an early day game with me. Our Friday night will actually be a little bit different as well. So there’s a lot of differences there. Obviously, this coaching staff, I have the utmost respect for Coach Wilcox. I think he does a phenomenal job defensively. They’re one of the most sound defenses in all the country and they, they, they don’t MA (mess around). You have to physically beat this team. We’re going on the road to play a defense that’s elitely sound in what they do. They don’t care if you know what they’re doing because they’re going to do it better than you and they’re going to make you earn everything you give. And then an offense with coach who became one of the youngest head coaches in coaching football because he’s an elite offensive mind. I believe the last time he was at Cal, he had the number one pick in the country, at quarterback and they are explosives. So this is a great challenge for our guys and it’s a great staff we’re going versus, so it’s going to be a great challenge.”

On the teams injuries and updates:

Not right now, to be honest, we usually get our updates later today, once people get to go to the doctor and stuff like that and get their returns back. So as of right now, no, I would expect (ASU QB) Trenton (Boruguet) to be back. (ASU QB) Jaden (Rashada) is still out and then (ASU QB) Drew (Pyne) is obviously a little banged up still and the game didn’t help that. So, you know, it’s fun.

On what California’s strengths are:

They’re explosive on offense, they’re about the big play. This guy is going to be aggressive, offensively. He’s not going to just call inside zone 12 times and get 3.5 yards and say you know what we can do this all the way down the field and take nine minutes off and go to the next play. And I think that’s a testament to coach Wilcox who made a change in his philosophy this year offensively, he went from a conservative mindset of playing defense, good defense, good special teams, control the ball, to really wanting to attack. And it’s a testament to why Coach Wilcox has been there so long and done such a good job, he’s willing to adapt. Then defensively, like I said, they’re super sound, their four down quarters that can become odd quarters, that can become odd three weak, that can become odd quarters and they have a really good, you watch them play a game, and what I always watch is if you watch a full game, do the calls change on defense based off of what an offense is doing. When you watch them coach a football game, you can see somebody make them early or they may get somebody early and they are constantly throwing counter punches with their adjustments. If you think you’re going to run one series of plays, one drive and come back and hit it again and they’re not going to make a change, you’re delusional, because these guys know what they’re doing and they have a system in place that’s been there, I believe what, seven years now, six years now since he’s been there and they know exactly what they’re doing. They know exactly how they want to stop different formations, different sets and they’re very sound doing it. So I think the aggressiveness offensively combined with a defense that doesn’t want to give up big plays, it’s a really tough challenge.

On what he’ll expect from California after losing to Washington:

I don’t think you can look at that game as a reflection of them If you watch that game and watch that quarterback, Penix (Michael Penix Jr.) throw the ball, he throws a delayed hitch almost underhanded on a rope like it was hit by Alex Rodriguez to the field two yards outside the numbers for a gain of eight. So I don’t think that game is any reflection of the defense. Go back two games and I believe they gave up 14 points to Auburn. So this is a defense that limits explosive plays and is elite-ly sound. If you hurt yourself, you’re not going to move the football and it’s an offense that’s explosive and you saw that versus UW (University of Washington) as well scoring the point. So they’re like us, they’re trying to put it all together, trying to put both sides of the ball together because they’ve had really good defensive games, really good offensive games and we’re kind of in the same boat trying to put it all together and going to win a football game.

On the low amount of penalties this season:

Yeah, other than the second half in week one, we’ve been a fairly disciplined team. You know, we haven’t committed many penalties. Also they aren’t aggressive penalties, knock on wood, and we haven’t jumped offsides very many times. Now, we haven’t played on the road yet. So maybe we’ll see what happens. We haven’t jumped offsides on defense. We haven’t had many stupid personal fouls. We’ve been playing a brand of football that can win from that standpoint. We just have to elevate our details and we can’t take plays off when we get tired, we have to get ourselves out of the gate.

On how he’s seen the team improve since Camp T:

I think you’re never satisfied. Do I think there’s been growth from spring ball from a physicality standpoint to now? Yes. Unfortunately, we’ve been banged up.So we haven’t been able to build up on that. I’m used to lining up good on good and doing a team run, period and call inside zone out and I’m used to lining up and doing two minutes together and lining up and do some things together. And so I think our guys are buying into that to say where I want to be at is not accurate. We’re building there and I think the next step is perimeter and then late in games, can we keep that focus on physicality. And are we conditioned enough to play that hard, that alone? Because that’s hard. People don’t realize it’s not the running that always fatigues you, it’s pushing on people, it’s playing hard. It’s like wrestling somebody for 60 minutes and you’ve got to be conditioned to do that and that takes time in the middle.

On the Quarterback room’s managed adversity so far:

It’s been a fun one from that perspective, The one thing I can say about that room is, regardless of who’s taking the field, everybody else has shown support and that’s really what you’re looking for. You’re looking for when you’re not the guy, when your number is not called, how are you going to respond and how are you going to act to your teammates? Do you say that you’re in it for the team and then when it’s not your number, you know, does that mindset change or do you actually mean it? So I think that’s the biggest thing that I’ve been pleased with so far with that room is whoever’s taking the field has had the support of the other guys in the room and those other guys in the room have helped him and backed him.

On if he’s had a close relationship with (California Offensive Coordinator) Jake Spavital:

I’ve never met him. The only relationship I have is watching his tape, he used to love his motion stuff that he would do when he was at West Virginia. I thought he did some good stuff with some quick emotions just being the guy that has gone down a similar path.

On studying Spavital’s Path and his offensive scheme:

I study anybody I think that does a good job. I think he does a good job. I think he was one of the first people along with Lincoin Riley who we just played to take the air raid, and really add more elements of the running game to it. And really bring people into the box a little bit more. So he took those air raid principles and really added a little bit more run game. He was part of that tree with Daniel Holgerson and Lincoin Riley a little bit, and connected to that tree that did that earlier. It’s very common now, but it’s definitely something that I studied because i’ve never been a part of the air raid so its something that I’ve tried to pick up on why they are doing certain things.

On if there’ll be any different strategies for the teams first road game:

No. I don’t know if there’s a perfect way to do something right the first time. So regardless if how well I tell them to be here at this time and we’ll be there at this time. Or we’re going to move to this meeting room and that meeting room, and we’re going to do this meeting on Friday instead. There’s still going to be differences than how I operate right now. So I think the key is that none of that matters. None of that stuff matters. Show up to the meetings. Be on time. Don’t worry about when we board the plane, take your shoes. Right. Get ready to meet. Eat your breakfast and lets go play football and I think that’s the biggest thing. All that stuff and the routine stuff is great, and its easy to say its our first road game, a great challenge to face all these changes, and changes to practice for a road game. Go play football. Go play football, prepare like you’re playing football. Everyone’s playing a road game except the true freshman. It’s going to be very similar. Go play football.

On ASU Running Back Cam Skattebo’s Performance Saturday:

I thought our offensive line did a really great job with the movements. That defensive line is good. Very good. They have multiple NFL players on that defensive line that were added to their team this year this offseason from really really good programs. (USC DL) Anthony Lucas was in the rotation as a true freshman in the SEC and then you have (USC DT) Bear Alexander who was going to start for a national championship team, so you have really good players that you’re going to go against and our guys handled it really well. At times we were a little too passive and we tried to die slowly instead of win and that came back to bite us. It was a good learning experience for the guys. I was super impressed by our offensive line and how Cam ran. He ran his heart out, he ran with a great passion, a great level pad level. He ran with better tracks. He ran downhill rather than bouncing everything. Early in the season, he liked to jump cut a lot. I think that’s him adapting to this level, is he used to be one of the fastest athletes on the field. He was used to out-strengthing people and I think this was the first game he really trusted his tracks, stayed tight on double teams and you saw him be able to run off double teams and keep his pad level. It was really good to see his growth and to see our offensive lines growth.‚Äù