Colorado-Eastern Washington Quotes
September 06, 2008 | Football
Colorado Head Coach Dan Hawkins
General
“I told you guys that they were a good football team, and they are. We always try to tell our guys not to get caught up with the decal on the side of the helmet. It's hard a lot of the time when you have young guys. I give them a lot of credit. They came out fast, made plays, got it going and got some momentum and we didn't. But despite being down by a bit of a margin and not having some things go our way, we were able to come back and find a way to win the football game. There is always a lot of teams that are on the backside of a loss on a weekend; fortunately we came out with a ?W'. Again, like I said with
On Coaching The Team, In Light Of Mistakes
“I never expect mistakes. We know that given our circumstances in certain areas that you have to be able to deal with it, and understand it. You have to be able to coach on the run and make corrections and redial. You have some issues were the veterans make mistakes that you're disappointed in. With young guys, you just have to keep working with them and keep coaching them. You don't expect anyone to make a mistake, but when it happens, you just have to teach them.”
On Darrell Scott's Performance
“He did some really good things, obviously, and so did [Rodney Stewart]. He's such an aggressive runner and a powerful runner. As he continues to develop, he'll be more patient at times. But he's very powerful and elusive when he gets in the open field, and it's tough to bring him down one guy at a time. Again, its hard because you have a lot of things cranking in your head and if you didn't have to think about so many things, and everything was simple, then he could go a little more full throttle; but as he continues to get familiarity, his mind will slow down and he'll be able to hit those things better.”
On Making Defensive Third-Down Adjustments
“Ron [Collins] and Greg [Brown] kind of changed up some of the techniques and parts of our covererages a little bit, based off of how they were getting us with one little ?rock' combination. That changed up how we handled that and it helped us a little bit. Again, it was just a case of some guys settling down. They hit us three times with that ?rock' combination, so we changed up our techniques based on what they were doing there.”
On Winning The Game, Despite Not Playing Well
That's obviously a great sign. We're seeing some of that over the last three or four games with this team, having resiliency, and we're going to need that down the road. Anytime you get a ?W', you walk away and are a little more happy than the other team. It's the little shavings that make the difference in wins and losses, and our guys have to take stock in that.
On Colorado's Defensive Mindset On Eastern Washington's Final Drive
“We played some man-under that time; rushing four guys, trying to keep the ball in front of us and in bounds. With one or two plays left, we just didn't want to give up a big play.”
On The Play of Cody Hawkins
“He came back. Obviously with the pick he threw for the touchdown, he'll tell you that was bad. He was under fire a lot and had to move around; he had to make some throws that way and take some hits. He sat down afterwards and evaluated that. I thought he made some good throws and some classic throws at times. But when you throw a pick for a touchdown, the best thing you can do is shake it off and come back, and he did.”
On The
“The more snaps they get, the more comfortable they're going to be. Jalil [Brown] did a nice job. He was in great position to make a play, but they're guy made a great play, took off and we couldn't get him tackled and he scored. Coach [Greg] Brown coached him up, told him to redial, and he came back and made some plays. I think that's important, because when you play on an island like that, that's going to happen. If you don't have a short memory and take things personal, it's going to be a long day.”
On Defending
“I think the big thing you saw with their no-huddle is that it gave us some problems, and we're a no-huddle team. If you are a huddle team, the no-huddle is going to give you more issues, because of the tempo.”
“He's had a great camp and he's really played well. I've been really fired up about his leadership on the team and our team knows that he's one of the hardest workers we have. Not only that, he makes a great catch and grinds it out there on special teams as well. Patrick is having a good year.”
On Josh Smith's Fumble
“I looked over at [Kent Riddle] and told him to get Josh out. Then it was a long, long time before we had another punt return. So my temperature had gone back down there. He asked if I was sure, because that would have been another touchdown if he hadn't fumbled. I said ?ok', and then he had a huge return after that. But we'll come up with something heinous for him to do on Tuesday, I'm sure.”
On playing back-to-back BCS Division opponents ( “We found a way to keep competing for 60 minutes. You have to find a way to make plays in the fourth quarter no matter who you're playing.” On matching up with On the close game On moral victories? QB Matt Nichols ON FOURTH QUARTER INTERCEPTION-“We were doing the same things we had been doing all game. On the pick, I thought they were in man coverage and I lost track of the player in the flat. The receiver ran a deep route, he didn't run the route I thought he was going to run. Obviously I wish I could take it back.” ON ON OUTLOOK FOR REST OF THE SEASON-“I think this team's so special. It's a real family experience. We have a team bond other teams don't have. We're truly a family. These past two weeks don't mean anything, they don't count towards our conference. We can still go 9-2 and have home-field in the playoffs. I'm really competitive, I don't want to lose at tennis to my girlfriend, but we have two weeks to get back and prepare for our next game.” GENERAL-“ DB Ryan Kelley ON CONTAINING COLORADO'S OFFENSE-“They were a power offense, they run the football. The secondary needed to step up and make tackles and they did.” GENERAL-“We had it in control but it wasn't enough. We didn't give it our all at the end. It's a four-quarter game, we should have stepped on their throats and we didn't. It's tough losing two games that you feel you should have won. Our conditioning wasn't an issue at the end. We just didn't have that little extra umph to clinch it. We only played three and a half quarters, we have got to play four.” ON NEXT OPPONENT: ON
ON HIS INTERCEPTION-“All the coaches tell me to go out there and make a play, don't wait for the offense to make a play. The coaches told me it was the perfect time to get a pick so I just read the quarterback's eyes and made a play. It was a Cover 2 and I just did a better job of reading the play.” ON ON HIS PROGRESS-“I can't change myself, I just like to get out there and compete and do my coverages right and do what the coaches tell me. I just go in there and try to make plays for the defense and it was my job to make the play and I did it.” LB Brad Jones ON EASTERN ON THE DEFENSE-“It's like the old saying ?Defense wins championships' and the defense won us the game today.” ON PRESSURING EWU QB MATT NICHOLS-“It's a little exhausting, chasing after the quarterback out there. So once you start getting pressure on him it made him think a little bit more and that was the key.” ON CHA'PELLE BROWN'S INTERCEPTION-“Of course it turned the game around. I just hope Cha'pelle gives me my credit because I blocked two people when he scored. He wouldn't have scored if it wasn't for me.” FB Jake Behrens ON HIS TOUCHDOWN CATCH-“It felt great to have the ball thrown to me because I don't get it very often but I try to take advantage of every opportunity they give me. It felt great to make things happen and get this team back in the game.” ON EASTERN ON SECOND HALF PLAY-“We came out with a sense of urgency to get the ball in the zone and the confidence we gained helped us win this game.” WR Josh Smith ON GREAT SPECIAL TEAMS PLAY-“That's the reputation I'm going for, I want to let teams know that if you kick it my way I'm going to hit it hard. As long as I can get that respect that's what we want. If you're going to kick it away from me, we're going to take it at the 40 yard line and the offense will be happy with that or you're going to have to risk me taking it to the house.” ON BALL SECURITY-“I really trusted my cuts and my breaks and definitely my speed but I need to show a little more confidence in my speed on the sideline. Once I start seeing color the ball gets away from my chest and that's not good. I just have to keep the ball high and tight. It was a big learning experience. I'm learning a lot by coming back and staying level headed. In my head I know I'm even-keel and ready to go.” ON PASSING GAME-“We're showing teams that I can go deep but if they're going to continue to double me over the top then we're going to continue to have Scotty [McKnight] coming underneath and getting grabs. As long as I'm opening up other things I'm not concerned about getting the ball deep. If I'm covered I'm covered. As long as we have a counter-attack when people double off me then I'm happy with that.” SS D.J. Dykes ON DEFENSE-“We knew they were going to be tough. Coming into halftime we just decided to stick with our game plan and doing the things we know and doing them right. We just needed to start executing our techniques- running the ball and that is what we did in the second half. We played together more as a defense and stepped it up.” ON TEAMWORK-“Cha'pelle [Brown] made a great play, he had a great read on it and you have to give him all the credit in the world for that. We were playing great defense as a whole.” ON ON CHANGES MADE IN THE SECOND HALF-“I think it came down to we had to make tackles, this game isn't very crazy. Teams that run the spread, if you can tackle it, you can stop it, but if you allow them to break tackles and gain extra yards it is gonna hurt you a bit.” ON HIS HALFTIME SPEECH-“I got a little bit excited, but I'm a guy who's been around for a while, I've seen some things and I just wanted the guys to know how I felt, the passion I have for this program and for our team. I just wanted everyone to come out in the second half, and not play tight, not play not to lose, like we did in the first half and just go out there and play to win.” ON FANS-“We love the support either way. We just want people to come out and support us and today we needed it a lot. I think on defense at times we could have had some more support we could have done better, who knows.” TE Ryan Deehan ON TOUCHDOWN-“We lined up and they changed the play, I noticed no one was over me and I was like ?wow, I might be wide open on this.' It turns out that me and Mo (Maurice Cantrell) were both wide open. When I got the ball I was really excited, it made us that much closer to winning.” ON WHAT WAS SAID AT HALF-“We needed to step it up. We weren't playing with heart right now. In the second half we definitely came out and did that. We played a lot better. Our seniors definitely said the right stuff.” FS Ryan Walters DEFENSE-“They drove on us once, we were put in a couple tough situations, where they scored. So we're all right. We felt confident coming out in the second half, and we did what we needed to do” ON CHANGES MADE IN SECOND HALF-“We made some communication adjustments, but no major adjustments. ON IMPROVEMENT THROUGHOUT GAME-“I think it shows a lot of maturity, we're a young team and to not look at the scoreboard. We fought back. Coming in we knew they were a good team, and I think maybe some of the other guys weren't ready for that. But we were able to rally and battle back. ON CHAP'ELLE BROWN-That's always helpful, coming into a situation like that, obviously he came in and did a good job. That was huge.” MLB Jeff Smart ON DEFENSE-“We started off really slow, they kind of hit us pretty hard in the mouth. We gave up a few plays here and there, and we just had to bounce back. We knew they were a good offensive team, they have a lot of playmakers at the skill positions and they have a good quarterback. It was a good test to us.” ON ON EWU'S SPREAD OFFENSE-“A lot of teams just stay the line. That doesn't really bother anybody. A couple times we had miscommunication we have to adjust to that. We did a good job of doing that during the second half. QB Cody Hawkins ON INTERCEPTION-“We tried to throw a slant to Cody [Crawford] and I took three steps and I wasn't supposed to. I kind of just reset to the right, when you take a lot of steps college football is a fast game and guys are going to come at you fast. I saw them out there. On our slants we don't take any steps, we work on it a lot in practice.” ON SECOND HALF-“We got a young team, its' very impressive, but it was probably equally unimpressive how we executed in the first half. We did a better job in the second half, tried to keep the guys going and take care of the football. In the second half we did what we had to do and a lot of that came from our special teams and defense.” ON OFFENSE-“The first half was pretty radical. I wasn't doing a lot of things I was supposed to do. I threw an interception. It's always going to be my fault when the offense screws up. I just got to make sure that everybody knows their assignments. If there is a miscommunication between me and someone else, I got to make sure the guys are on the same page. I got to do a better job, make sure all the guys are lined up and they are confident.” ON 24 YD PASS TO PATRICK WILLIAMS-“They were trying to double team Josh a lot. Why wouldn't you if you watch film? We saw early in the game, and we tried to get it. I tried to come back to Josh. We had a miscommunication on the route. So I threw it on the right. If we could have gotten them in that formation, we thought we could beat them deep. My first read was to Scotty. We had the same concept earlier in the game, but out of a different formation to Cody Crawford.” ON HEALTH-“I feel good. It will be interesting tomorrow. I landed awkwardly a couple times and got hit in the back one time when I tried to jump over a guy. I will be fine tomorrow. Mentally I am good. I am just glad we came out with the win. That's always going to help your body condition.” ON YOUNG TEAM-“I think we sit back and think about it. We got a lot of young guys who don't have a lot of experience so you are going to have some bumps and bruises along the way. We just got to keep overcoming that, we can't use it as an excuse.” ON OFFENSIVE LINE-“The Eastern Washington guys did a great job of mixing things up. They did an awesome job of picking guys up and the quarterback is going to get hit sometimes depending on what the protection is. I just got hit standing there on mid throw. The offensive line did everything we asked them to do today.” ON BEING ON THE FIELD LATE IN THE GAME-“It's an honor being the freshman and being on the field when its close. I am kind of used to it. I am going to try to do my best.” ON FANS CHANTING HIS NAME-It's high school all over again. Once again it's an honor. I am glad I am a play-maker, if you will.” ON LEVEL OF COMFORT-“I was hitting the holes a lot faster. You've got to have some confidence.”
General
"I give
"We've left it out of the field for the last two weeks against some big-time opponents. It's tough and it's hard on their bodies and hard mentally. They are worn out a little bit. The bye comes at a good time for us. We just need to re-charge ourselves for
“They were taking us seriously, we have a good team, and we were making more plays (in the first half). We weren't doing anything special (in the first half), we had good tempo on offense.”
“We will have to learn how to finish an opponent. Our team was a play or two from being where we needed to be. I'm proud of our players again. It's frustrating because you want to win and we were in great position to win. But I have nothing but proud feelings toward our team. They competed until the end again."
“The reality is we're 0-2. The players believed we could win. There are no moral victories.”
