Utah State Aggies College Football Pregame Quote, 09/02/2019

On the Wake Forest game:

It was disappointing that we didn’t get the win. It’s the first game, and both teams are going to sit back and say they had a lot of opportunities that they could have taken advantage of, and all the stuff that comes with that. So, we’ll look to improve, continue to work, to grind, to get better in the spots that we need to get better. I thought there were some highlighted areas which were a huge positive. David (Woodward) played extremely well, Siaosi (Mariner) played well and made big plays for us consistently, which was great to see. I thought the defensive line hung in there, especially in the run game with what I think is a very talented offensive line from Wake Forest. I thought we did a good job in those situations. Short-yardage defense was a big positive.

On the flip side, short-yardage offense was a negative. The turnovers in critical areas of the field were big for us in a negative way and had a big negative impact on the game. We lost the turnover battle. There’s a lot of give and take, back and forth, the key is to learn from our mistakes, focus on what we did good and try to get that even better, and what we didn’t do good enough, we have to get better and get the best kids on the field to give us a chance to win. Our pass defense needs to improve. We don’t dream of playing 105 reps in a game on defense, that’s a bunch of reps to be able to play, and you’re going to get that sometimes with the way we play offense.

We didn’t have many long, sustained drives. What we did was scored quick, or we were off the field quick, so that’s not how you draw it up, but sometimes when you play fast and play with pace, those things are going to happen. Defensively, we have to be able to react to that in a positive way and get ourselves off the field. If we get better on third downs, there will be a lot less reps, so we need to improve on third downs. It was a challenging game against a quality opponent, and we were a play away from making it and we need to make one of those plays in that setting against a Power 5 team on the road and get a victory, because it’s been a long, long time since that’s happened.

On Stony Brook:

I’m excited about an opportunity to play at home and I’m excited to get back on the practice field. I’m sure our kids will be the exact same way. We reviewed the film this morning and will come back this afternoon and practice. We’ve had a couple of days off and we’ll actually get more of a usual Monday morning practice. Stony Brook is a team that shows you different personnel groups on the offensive side of the ball and it will be something we haven’t seen this year. Substitutions will be key in that setting and they go from a spread offense to a smash you around with bigger people with a couple of tight ends in the game. Adjustments to that will be huge today in the first practice. On the defensive side of the ball, the schemes seem to be fairly similar to what we played against an aggressive Wake Forest defense. They like to move the defensive front around a lot. As we continue to evaluate and scout the film, this week, as any Monday’s, are so important in reviewing and adjusting yourself more so than truly your opponent. That’s what Monday is about today for us.

On reviewing the offense from last week’s game at Wake Forest:

There were huge momentum swings in that game, where the offense would go down the field and the next time they would get stopped. At the end of the day, both teams are going to sit back and look at themselves and say we should’ve had more points. We stopped them short of the goal line a couple of times and we had some opportunities to score more points. If you have 600 yards of offense and you look to say we should’ve had more than 35 points, those are things you sit down and evaluate and discuss. We need to be better on third downs on both sides of the football. There are a lot of things we could look at. The challenge is to not look at all of the negatives, but also look at the positives. At the end of the day, we lost the football game, which is a gigantic negative. We need to work to see how we can find a way to close that game out.

On some of the injured cornerbacks returning this week:

That’s up in the air. We’ll have to see where that all lies. We’ll know more in the next couple of days. Right now, we’re prepared with the healthy kids we have. That’s a tough drill for a young man to come in and play. There are no excuses in football. They have to step up and play in that spot and battle against what was a very talented and strong, physical receiving corps. They looked big on film and bigger in pregame They did a nice job catching contested balls and made plays. We’ll play better and we need to play better in that spot. We’ll challenge ourselves as coaches and a group of young men will challenge themselves to continue to get better.

On Cameron Haney’s health:

He wasn’t able to go (at Wake Forest) and he didn’t get any snaps. Hopefully, we can get him back and get him out there this week.

On Utah State’s running backs:

We want three backs that can go out there, and, hopefully, we develop that as we go. Gerold Bright is going to take the first snap. He deserves that as he’s in that spot to be able to continually work through those reps. Those guys are going to play a ton and their skill-sets as you can see are both very good and different, which I love that part. I love that part for us as an offense and it’s great for those kids to play within their own skill set. Jaylen (Warren) had a great game. There is a lot of unselfishness for both of those kids and that room is full of unselfish kids. When those reps come to them, they’re going to make those reps count when they get an opportunity to get the ball in their hands and do something positive.

On David Woodward’s performance:

I knew he played well watching from the sidelines, but his stats are off the charts. We had a strip-sack touchdown taken away from him also on top of those stats. He’s a tremendous player and he’ll get better when he’s in shape. There is a timeframe as he is obviously not in game shape with him missing what he missed in camp. He is a guy we’ll continue to work to put him in positions to make plays. We didn’t do a lot to put Woodward in special plays in that game. He’s a baller, a playmaker and makes a bunch of tackles. He’s a finishing tackler and he doesn’t miss tackles very often. He had a tremendous game and it was great to see. Hopefully, there are a bunch more games like that from him to come.

On the offensive line playing with each other for the first time as a unit:

It was a positive. That last series, you don’t want to sit and stare and only focus on the negatives. Jordan (Love) was running around on the last series a little bit more than we wanted him to. They blocked some edge pass rushers and that gained confidence from them as a crew and individually as an offensive line. We had some breaks in the run that were some big runs coming out of there. On the flip side of that, we want to get better in short-yardage running situations. We need to continue to decipher and understand who we are as an offense. When we got into the four-minute situation, we wanted to kind of try to pound the ball. We had an opportunity to make a couple of plays there that we didn’t make that we’ll hopefully learn from in all positions to be able to finish and get that last first down. I thought the offensive line performed well against a Power 5 team that does a lot on defense. There are a lot of moving parts to that defense. They just don’t sit there stagnant and say, ‘Here we are, come and get us.’ They want to move around quite a bit and they have good players. It was a good start, but not good enough to win the game, so it wasn’t good enough.

On the performance of the wide receivers last week:

Siaosi (Mariner) had a great game. DT (Deven Thompkins) has pure speed, as you saw when he caught that ball. Savon (Scarver) had a couple of nice plays when he got the ball in his hands. It was good to see Caleb (Repp) involved. We had a lot of guys catch balls and do some things, which was nice to see. You have to do that in this offense. You can’t just be a guy that catches it and gets two yards. We have some guys that have true speed in space. This is a gifted crew of skill players on offense. We have a gifted quarterback and that in term, allows us to be very productive on the offensive side of the football. I expect that to continue to grow and develop. They should have some confidence, but they should not be even close to satisfied, because we didn’t do enough to win the football game.

On Jordan Love’s performance:

He threw the ball well. No one is going to be harder on himself for those situations and those picks than Jordan will be. That’s not what he wants in any way, shape or form, nor what we all want at the end. We did some tremendous things and made some unbelievable throws. Jordan Nathan’s catch in the end zone, that was a quarterback and a wide receiver being on the same page. I don’t know everything on the offensive side of the ball, but I know that’s a tremendous play by those two kids in that setting and situation. The ball is right there, and Jordan made a nice play. Jordan (Love) gave a lot of receivers an opportunity to catch the ball and make some plays. He played very well, and he wants to be flawless. He’ll work to be flawless this week. I’m sure he’ll have a little bit of a chip on his shoulder and some excitement to get back throwing on the football field.

On having a bye week after the Stony Brook game:

Our focus this week is on us. Stony Brook requires a ton of film study. They do create some problems with what they do. The big thing after game one is looking at yourself, evaluating yourself as a person, as a coach, as a unit, as a special teams unit and functionally, going back over that quickly, then moving back to Stony Brook. You have to evaluate to make sure that you have the best 11 kids that are healthy. After game one, it’s more important, probably, than any other time of year to be able to do that. We’ve gone through that process and we’re full-steam ahead to Stony Brook. That’s the only thing that matters, is winning the Stony Brook game, then we’ll deal with the bye week when we get to that point. That point is the focus on ourselves for a couple of days there, and then getting onto the next opponent to gain an advantage on San Diego State.

On Stony Brook’s rushing schemes:

Stony Brook’s backs are very physical. They have no problem coming through that hole a thousand miles an hour. Once someone is in front of them, they’re going to take it head on. They’ve done a very good job with that. The offensive line is efficient with what they do. They run different types of personnel groups at you. You’re going to see old-school football. There are actually two running backs in the backfield sometimes. It’s a tight end that’s back there, but there are actually two running backs in the backfield. It’s still mostly from the shotgun position where the back is right behind the quarterback. It’s old school, they do some of the away zones and running schemes they use. They want to be physical and they have a very athletic quarterback (Tyquell Fields). The main running backs have done a nice job. They’re physical kids that aren’t afraid to run hard and they’re going to get every extra yard, similar to the kids we played last week. With Wake Forest, if it’s one-on-one, they’re not really excited about trying to make you miss, they’re more excited about trying to knock your teeth out than they are trying to make you miss.

On Stony Brook’s defense:

There is a lot of correlation and ties between Wake Forest defensive coordinator Lyle Hemphill, who used to be at Stony Brook. He knows some of the coaches there at Stony Brook. Those ties are evident on film and they’ll get a quality scouting report on us for an offensive breakdown. They have a lot of moving parts, they’re sound, run to the football and play hard. That’s what I’ve seen so far on tape.

On Stony Brook’s defensive backs:

They have a lot of opportunities to change plays on the other side of the field. They harass quarterbacks, record tackles for loss, hit the quarterback before he throws it and do a nice job digging in and understanding where they’re going to sit and play. Whether it’s the run or throw, you’re going to get a lot of different looks from these guys. I’m sure the offense will come up with the schemes to be able to play at a high level against them and that’s the plan.