San Diego State Aztecs College Football Pregame Quote, 10/08/2019

I think there’s a chance to be a very exciting game this weekend because Wyoming is the most complete team we’ve played to this point. They’re physical, they run the ball, they stop the run, they rush the passer, they cause turnovers (and) they don’t turn the ball over. There as athletic and talented as we are. They’re well-coached and play hard. We like to think that’s what we do too. Whether we do or not, I don’t know, but we’d like to think that’s what we do too. It’s two teams that have similar philosophies and play the game the same way and it ought to be a really good game.‚Äù

On what he thought when Wyoming beat Missouri earlier this year:

It didn’t surprise me a bit. Our league this year is so close from top to bottom. We don’t have a dominant team in this league and we don’t have any weaklings in the league. And we’ve proved it by a whole bunch of our teams beat Power 5 teams this year so it didn’t surprise me one bit.

On where he wants to see improvement from this team:

We can improve on everything, but I’d like to see our offense more consistent. We make some really good plays, but we seem to stall out sometimes. The last game (at Colorado State) we won because our quarterback was throwing it better and our receivers were catching it better. That’s a good sign, but we’ve got to consistently be able to run the ball a little bit better than we have been.

On if the Aztec defense is better than he thought it would be this year:

I thought that we played well last week and I take it week-to-week, because there’s no reason talking about it until the end of the season.

On if this is the most athletic and fast back (8) he’s had here:

No, I don’t think so. I think it’s very similar to some that we’ve had. We’ve had a lot of potential NFL guys back there. I don’t think this is our most talented team by any means or fastest team by any means.

On if he has any concerns about playing another team coming off a bye week:

I don’t there’s anything you can do to make sure that happens. I think everybody that has a bye week has a real advantage. They get themselves healthy, they get themselves fresh. Their players are going to be excited about playing. Yesterday we kind of had a hangover since we didn’t get home until 4 something in the morning. Our players weren’t really energetic yesterday. They didn’t practice very well yesterday and I promise you that Wyoming practiced well yesterday because they had the whole week off. They’re excited about playing another game. They’re rested. They had some guys hurt in their last game, which if you look at the score they smashed UNLV. They had several of their good players hurt. Now I’ve read that all their good players are healthy and fresh, and it’s the healthiest Wyoming team that’s getting ready to play us. I think there’s huge advantages to the team that has been on the bye week. I thought we had a huge advantage last week (against Colorado State) coming off a bye week.

On if he saw that San Diego State received two votes in the Coaches Poll:

We did? I do have some thoughts. I’m surprised. I vote, but I didn’t vote for us.

On if he had ever seen anything like Luq Barcoo did with three interceptions in three straight plays vs. Colorado State:

Never. I’ve been lucky enough to have been in a couple games where a guy had three interceptions for the game, but not back-to-back-to-back. That’s very unusual, I’m sure.

On the secondary’s play and ability to force turnovers so far this season:

I think our whole team in inconsistent. They did that all last week (at Colorado State) but the week before (vs. Utah State) we didn’t cause any turnovers, so we might have won the game (if they forced a turnover). Every week is a new experience and, I keep saying this, when you play in our league right now, the athletic ability and effort of the players is so close no matter who you play. All you’ve got to do is look at the teams that our league beat this year and you can figure out that this league is tough from top to bottom. (The) athletic abilities are about equal so every week is a new experience. Last week we won because our defense caused all those turnovers and gave our offense some help. The week before that we lost because the defense didn’t cause any turnovers and didn’t help our offense.

On where he would compare this defense to past defenses at San Diego State:

We’re not even halfway through the season yet. You can’t tell if we’re any good on defense yet or not. I think our defense has played well last week.

On Wyoming’s rushing offense:

I call it that they’re in a wildcat (offense) all the time, because their quarterback, who can actually throw the ball very well, too, is a big, strong guy that they use in their running game quite a bit. More so than most (teams) use them in the running game and that’s because he’s a big, strong, talented runner with the ball. So every time he’s back in the shotgun, there’s a real chance that he’ll be the guy carrying the football and what that does is give you one extra blocker. That makes it more difficult to stop the run, which nobody has stopped the run against them yet or even slowed them down. The last game they were at 374 yards rushing. Any time teams throw in a wildcat and they put a tailback back there in shotgun like the quarterback position they have a huge advantage because they have an extra blocker. The difference is you see that come into the game. You know what’s going to happen when it comes into the game so you can call the defense accordingly. Well, when the quarterback is their normal quarterback and they’re running those plays with a normal quarterback it doesn’t give you any advantages on defense. In fact, it puts you at a huge disadvantage. You don’t know if he’s going to hand it (off), you don’t know if he’s going to throw it or if he’s going to be the tailback. It gives them all kinds of advantages and puts you are a real disadvantage.