San Diego State Aztecs College Football Pregame Quote, 09/03/2019

I appreciate everybody coming. We’re moving onto the next game, but I’d like to talk about something that I haven’t heard anything about. For (the) opening weekend(s), our conference teams had an amazing weekend. We had a team in our league beat a team from a Power 5 in four of the five Power 5 conferences. I hear about we don’t play anybody at home and two of those teams are coming here to play (in the future). One of the teams in our league beat the ACC, they beat the Pac-12, they beat the Big Ten and they beat the SEC. Wyoming beat Missouri and if I remember right, that says the SEC. And they’re coming here for a home game. Nevada beat the Big Ten. So I guess our scheduled has gotten a lot better than everybody seems to think it is and our league is a whole lot better than everybody thinks it is. So please don’t tell me about the lack of playing home games against good opponents and the lack of good teams in our league.

On if San Diego State plays with a chip on its shoulder:

I just made a statement because around here we always play the card that we don’t belong. We’re in a league that belongs and we belong.

On playing UCLA:

I think it will be a good football game. This is just my opinion, I think they outplayed Cincinnati. I think they outplayed them on offense and defense every way they could except they turned the ball over four times or they would have won the game. Losing a football game because of turnovers does not mean that you did not play well. Obviously the turnovers are a huge deal because they prevented you from winning, but they moved the ball well on offense. They probably would’ve scored two more touchdowns if they don’t turn it over. They played pretty good on defense. They play hard. They’re very talented. A lot of times you outplay people and lose because of a turnover or two. Well they outplayed Cincinnati and lost because they turned the ball over. UCLA is a very good football team.

I think they have a great coaching staff and they give you a lot of issues that most people don’t. I see personnel groups out there that line up certain ways and shift all over the place in order to try to get a numbers advantage, so they’re hard to prepare for. Especially on defense because they are all over the place. They end up in some unusual formations and they end up in different places than they start in, so your team has to really be sharp mentally. If you’re thinking too much, then you don’t play quite as fast. And if you don’t play quite as fast and the other team is faster than you, you’re in trouble. On offense I think they are big, strong and athletic, and we better block them a whole lot better than we did last week.

On UCLA fans dismissing San Diego State:

I don’t agree with that. I just told you we are not lower tier. Four of the teams in our league beat Power 5 teams in the first weekend(s) of the football season. I don’t consider us lower tier.

On the biggest challenge with UCLA:

Speed. They’ve got a very fast football team. Watching it on film, I think they are faster than we are.

Is it like “Tortoise and the Hare?”:

I don’t think it’s that bad. I don’t think there’s that much difference, but I think they are faster than we are.

On the team’s offensive issues against Weber State:

We didn’t play very well.

On what he wants to see improved this week:

I’d like to score a touchdown or two or three or four.

On if they players have lost any confidence:

I don’t know if our players have lost any confidence. I wouldn’t think so. I mean whenever you start the season and play a first real game at full speed game speed, a lot of things don’t go quite right. The best thing that happened is we found a way to win anyway. But I think everybody is a little disappointed on how they played the first weekend. Maybe there’s two or three teams out there that beat somebody by 50. They’re not disappointed. Even the teams that won, a bunch of them have mistakes that they have to clean up. They lost a player of two to injury that they have to replace. You don’t know what kind of football team a team is until about halfway through the season.

On if running back Juwan Washington will be full strength this week:

I hope so. He’s got an ankle sprain. He practiced a little bit yesterday and is going to practice more today. Hopefully he’ll be 100 percent by game time.