San Diego State Aztecs College Football Pregame Quote, 11/05/2019

We get back at it this week. We’re playing a team that is as talented as we are that has as much incentive to win the game as we do. They still have a chance to win the West Division of our conference. There one game away from bowl eligibility. So it should be a highly competitive football game.

On the incentive of both teams coming into the game:

I think both of us have the same motivation factors.

On Jesse Matthews being nominated for the Burlsworth Trophy (for top walk-on):

Walk-ons seem to have a lot of incentive. We’ve had several of them around here that have started for us and (have) earned scholarships for us. I think he’s probably the biggest surprise on our team this year. I think going into the season we had no idea that he would be as productive as he is or as good as he is, and he has been a real strong receiving guy that has made big-time plays in big-time situations and helped us win several games. I think going into the season we didn’t expect that and that’s a big time surprise. But now we expect him to do those kind of things.

On when he saw that Jesse Matthews could be a contributor:

I think during training camp. He had a great training camp and during training camp a lot of ones go against once and he did well against our starting DBs. So I think we thought he had a chance to be a pretty good player in training camp, but didn’t have any idea that he would have the success that he’s had so far this year.

On not playing and moving up in the national rankings:

It’s always nice to be ranked but it’s really funny that you don’t play and you get to move up. That’s an interesting deal. So I just as soon not play this week and move up again, eventually move up into the top 10, right?

On which Nevada game he is studying the most:

We’re studying them all since we had an extra week. We got to watch them all. We don’t always get to see everything they do on film. And they’re like everybody else. They’re just like us. There are days they’re really, really good and there are days they struggle. Same as we do. I mean right from the start. They’re one of the teams in our league that beat a Power 5 team when they beat Purdue on a last-second field goal. They beat Purdue. The one that’s the closest to just being played is when they beat San Jose (State). And we had watched a lot of San Jose and San Jose’s one of those teams that is getting better and better and better, and Nevada beat San Jose. So you look at the games where they played well, obviously because you expect them to play well against you. They played well against us last year and beat us.

On if it would make a difference if the Group of 5 schools started their own playoff:

I don’t know if it would make a difference or not. I have no idea. Obviously, the resources are much, much better for the Power 5 schools than they are in the Group of 5 schools. But speaking from our point of view, we just assume play them whether they have all the advantages or not. We like the challenge of playing them. We don’t think they are any better than we are. They have fancier stuff. They have 15 uniforms, we have one. Those kind of things, but we like playing them. I don’t think it’s necessarily time that we have our own division in our home playoff system. I think it’s all going to work out in the end anyway.

I think that TV is going to decide. With a playoff system, TV is (going to decide) since most of the revenue that they get comes from TV, and we don’t get the same kind of revenue today. TV is eventually going to mandate an extended playoff system.

On how he would assess the team at this point of the season:

I’m at the point now that I know we can be better than we are. We’re inconsistent in a lot of areas and I think that we can be a really, really good football team, but we aren’t yet. And we’ve got four more games to become a really good football team. And if we become a really good football team, then we have a chance to win the championship if we keep playing like we’ve been playing. It’s hit and miss whether we can win enough games to get in the championship game.

On if there is any discussion about playing in a New Year’s 6 game:

There is no discussion about that.

That never comes up?

Nope. That takes care of itself too. You don’t have to talk about it.

On how the bye week helped the team work on technique:

Yesterday, they seemed like they had a little more juice, a little more energy. They seemed a little quicker, a little faster. Where I saw most of it was on the scout team. At this time of year the scout team starts getting worn down and they seem to be slow. You can’t get the real look that you get for a game from your scout team because they’re kind of beat up a little bit and they’re tired of being the scout team. The scout team was fast yesterday. Either that or our guys that were going to play in the game were slow because the scout team receivers were running by our DBs, which kind of makes you a little bit nervous. But I think the scout team benefited more than anybody else from the time off.‚Äù

On scheduling home-and-home games with Power 5 teams:

I think we’ve done a good job around here. Not selling ourselves, not going to play those Power 5 schools just for a paycheck. We’ve done a nice job around here making sure that the Power 5 schools that we play are home-and-home, which makes it fair instead of the other way around where they give you a big paycheck, so you have to go get beat up at their place.

On why the other Mountain West schools don’t schedule many home-and-home games with Power 5 teams:

I think all the non-Power 5 guys all need the money. So everybody makes a choice on whether they’re going to go for the money or not. I think that’s a thing where we were strong enough around here and figured we could do it without selling out, making those guys who want to play us at least come play us here one of the two times. There’s a couple out there that I’d like to play home-and-home that still won’t do it. Maybe we’ll get them sooner or later.‚Äù

On Juwan Washington’s health:

He practiced all day yesterday. He looked pretty good and he was asked after practice how he felt. He said it felt good. I think he’s going to be all right for Saturday.