Utah State Aggies College Football Pregame Quote, 11/25/2019

On New Mexico:

New Mexico is playing extremely hard. Defensively, they are aggressive. They play man coverage. They are going to try and get after the quarterback, especially on throwing downs. You have to get the ball out quick, catch it and do a good job there. They’re an aggressive defense. On offense, they’ve had a few quarterbacks as they’ve gone through the year. They want to run with the quarterback and were successful last week, and ran the ball very well against an extremely good defense in Air Force. It will be a good challenge for us. Those guys are playing hard. The season hasn’t gone the way they wanted it to go, but they play extremely hard, and I’m sure they’re going to play extremely hard in this last game at home. It’s a great opportunity and what we need to do is go back and understand that this is a huge game for us. It’s a big game for the Aggies, and we need to approach it that way.

On why the New Mexico game is important:

It’s how we’re going to react to adversity, again. We’ve lost some tough ones that went down to the last play. Wake Forest, obviously, was an example with that. Then, we’ve had some games where we’ve gotten beaten badly, and we’ve reacted very well every time. It’s always a character check regardless of what goes on the week prior to. We have six games to get to a seventh game, which is a huge accomplishment, but obviously, we had a lot of adversity last week and we need to bounce back from that. It’s a character check. How you play for your seniors in the last regular season game is also a big part of it. There is a close eye on everybody in this program right now ‚Äì coaches and players alike ‚Äì to see how we’re going to react to this situation and understand it is a big game. The players have made this a big game, and I expect us to go play well. I’m sure New Mexico expects to play well on their own side.

On New Mexico’s passing game:

I know a few years ago, they were more option-oriented. They’ve shown some of that, also. They get into that inverted wishbone. They have that in their package. But again, it’s an aggressive run style. The quarterback that came in, in the last game threw a couple nice touchdown passes on fades. It was in his first drive that he did it, and then he got another one later that was even deeper that was a nice ball, which was caught for a touchdown. They will throw it, but they definitely want to be aggressive with their run game and cause you a lot of miss-direction. They get physical upfront, and they’re not afraid to run with the quarterback. You have to be ready for a lot of things with their offense. This time of year, and the changes have taken place, it’s not abnormal to have teams try to do quite a lot on offense to cause some confusion with defenses.

On New Mexico redshirt freshman quarterback Trae Hall:

He can run. He’s definitely a dual-threat quarterback. He came in with a lot of poise, confidence and belief. If you watch the film ‚Äì I watched the whole TV copy and the game copy ‚Äì he walked in there and the stage wasn’t too big for him at all. He walked in there and had a lot of confidence and did some good things with his team. He threw it and ran it both, and the offense wasn’t a drastic change within the scheme, and I wouldn’t expect it to be this week either, especially with the way he threw the ball.

On New Mexico redshirt senior linebacker Alex Hart:

I like both of those inside guys, with their motors and how hard they play, the aggressive style that they play with. It reminds me of Jake Doughty when Jake was here. A tough guy, who loves to play football, and is physical. Both of those guys are cut right out of that same scenario that you look at with Jake. They’re good leaders, they’re aggressive and they play hard every single snap. They’re good pressure guys when they need to bring them. They’ll bring those guys from a lot of different spots. (Alexander “Moana” Vainikolo) is the same way. They’ll bring those guys from all over the place. They have some pretty sophisticated blitzes that they’ll bring at you. You have to be prepared for that with some guys that are very active and love the game of football.

On how it could be a tough game going into with it being New Mexico’s last game of the season:

We have watched how these guys have played week-after-week-after-week. I’ve focused on all the games, but I’ve really focused on the last two against two very good teams in Boise State and Air Force. Those guys played their tails off. They played hard in all phases. We’re going to get that same thing this week. There is no doubt in my mind. We better get that from the Aggies, too. That’s what needs to take place: extreme effort, play the right way, compete the right way, prepare the right way. It’s all hands on deck. Everybody associated with Utah State football needs to be on their A-game this week, from trainers to equipment guys to film guys to coaches to graduate assistants to myself to every player. That’s where we need to be. Period.

On New Mexico blocking three kicks this season:

I honestly have not gotten to the special teams yet. Coach (Stacy) Collins, obviously, has, and we will get to work on that this afternoon. But, they’ll be ready to play. The special teams side of it, coach Collins will get it into a good spot. Last week, it wasn’t, and we didn’t play well on special teams and we gave up some big plays. We need to be better in that situation. A lot of times, special players block kicks. It’s not easy. You can draw it up to get there, and with most guys, it’s about 30 percent of the time they’ll be able to get their hand on the ball, especially when it’s a punting situation. But, getting three kicks in a year is very good. This team has been well prepared and has reacted extremely well to adversity every single time it’s hit them this year. Special teams needs to react when they get hit in the face a little bit with adversity, and I’m excited to see how they react.

On how the team reacts to adversity on the sidelines:

Very well. With those five games that we won that went right down to the wire, it shows character, toughness, grit, a belief in each other and all those things that come with that. There were times in this last game where we didn’t handle it well. I don’t believe we handled the moment the way we needed to handle the moment against Boise State. Why that is, I don’t know. It’s frustrating, but it’s my job to make sure that doesn’t happen. There were some situations that were uncharacteristic outside of football. No moment should be too big. No situation should be too big. Regardless of if you’re a freshman or if you’re a senior, do everything you can to help your team. We handled it great all year long. There were a couple of moments in the Boise State game where I would have liked to see it handled differently. That’s education. That’s all of us involved to help the guys be in that spot to react appropriately.

On graduate transfer tight end Caleb Repp’s touchdown catch against Boise State:

It was a fantastic play, number one. It was the number one play on SportsCenter. It was a tremendous individual athletic play. Caleb is a grinder, and he is a worker. He can make those plays, but that was a special, special, special play. The last thing I will say is it goes back to recruiting. When you draw it up, you don’t draw it up that way, and he was able to make a special play. He’s a great guy. He’s really enjoyed his time here. He sees his Utah State career coming to a close really quick, and from what he tells me and how he carries himself, he believes this was a great decision. I know this was a great decision for all of those transfers; all of those transfers that came here made us a different team, and we would not be where we are today without those guys that transferred in here. Those grad transfers were a big part of it, and they all had success. Caleb’s touchdown was a tremendous play, but all of those guys were great additions to our program.

On if there’s a better pass-catching tight end in the Mountain West than Caleb Repp:

There are some really good tight ends. His ability to catch passes and be involved in our offense the way we ask him to be involved in our offense, he does a tremendous job. He’s very talented in what he does. There are some other really talented tight ends in this league, also. John Bates at Boise State is a next-level tight end. He’s a great guy. We recruited him hard. But, his job is way different than Caleb’s. He’s down in the trenches, banging around, blocking defensive ends and whatever comes his way in the throw game he takes. Caleb is a wide receiver sometimes, he’s a tight end sometimes. He’s an H-back sometimes. He’s a very talented tight end in this league. We’ll see what people think of him when they go through any type of voting, but he’s a very important player for us.

On how important it is for Utah State to make a bowl game this year:

It’s very important, but in a way, when you get to six wins, it basically says you’re bowl eligible. But you earn your right to get into that bowl game. Somebody has to look at you and say I want that team. So, to get to a seventh win is a big part of that. To play in a bowl game is a tremendous advantage as long as you deserve to get to that bowl game. Getting to six wins doesn’t just magically say you deserve to go to a bowl game. But, what does it do for your program? It gives you more practice. It gives the seniors a chance to go to a bowl game. It gives the seniors a chance to win a championship and a bowl game. You can’t underestimate the power of that. It’s a special time for the guys. But again, you have to earn your right to get into that bowl game. It’s like I always say, six and seven is good, and there’s a reward potentially. With seven wins, there will be a reward. Eight and nine wins equates to a great year, and double-digit wins is an elite year. That’s what college is all about, and right now we’re at six. To get to seven will be one step closer to having something there at the end that means something special to you and a chance to get eight wins, and that’s one step closer. Going to a bowl game is a big accomplishment, but it’s also a program builder to be able to get the young guys, especially as many young guys as we have, more repetitions and practice depending on when the bowl game is.