Colorado-California Quotes
vs
Wyoming
Sep 20 (Sat)
8:15 p.m.
Colorado Head Coach Mike MacIntyre
General
“That was a fun game for our guys. (California head coach) Justin [Wilcox] has done a really good job with that football team. Our guys played really well. I was really happy with the way Steven [Montez] played. That’s the way I expect him to play all the time, because he can do all those types of things. The offensive line did a good job and helped him. [Phillip] Lindsay does what Lindsay does. He’s pretty special always.”
On If The Purpose Of The QB Competition Was To Inspire Steven Montez
“I can say now that it worked exactly like I thought it would, but my whole thought process in the game last week was we weren’t doing anything in the first half. We needed to try to crank something up. I thought also at the same time I wanted to see how both of those guys would react. What was great to see –this is what you want to see and I was really pumped up Monday after practice when I went home – I was really excited that both of them were helping each other. Both of them were focused. Both of them were competing. Nobody was pouting or hanging their head, so I knew they were going to get better. That was good to see. I would have said that anyway if the results wouldn’t have came out that way, because both of them made improvement. He made a big jump today.”
On If He Knows What The Reaction Will Be After Benching A Player
“I don’t know. I’m almost 100 percent sure that’s the first time Steven’s been benched in his entire career, because he’s always been the best athlete on the field. How he handled that showed a lot of his character and his work ethic. I think it also showed his trust in us that he was trusting us to do the best thing for the team. He’s a very confident young man, but to me that shows me he wasn’t cocky. There’s a definite difference. That’s where he reached down into his soul and was able to push himself to get better.”
On Steven Montez Keeping That Edge To His Game
“I think that his work ethic and understanding that every position you’ve got to play. The Bill Belichick statement that he always says is, ‘Do your job, but do your job well.’ That’s what you have to do. That goes for all of us in our jobs. Do your job well or you don’t keep it long. That’s what he needed to understand. He wasn’t just getting to play because he was the starting quarterback. That’s just like any position. If they’re not doing well, then we’ll make changes. All the guys go through that. Trey Udoffia came back today and played the last game and a half and played his heart out and has gotten better. It’s exciting watching those young men fight through that. That’s what you want to see kids do as a coach. You don’t want to see them tank it. There’s a lot harder things they’ve got to face than a football game in life.”
On If Montez’s Performance Was Bound To Happen
“No, I think the events from last week helped it. I went back and looked at how we were practicing. I was up all night Sunday night. In practice – I definitely believe it helped – is I added more pass skeleton without the defensive linemen and offensive linemen out there. We hadn’t been doing as much of that, because it wears the receivers’ legs out. I said forget it, just rotate every receiver in and put them all in. Steven and Sam [Noyer] needed to see that. We did at least 45 minutes more pass skeleton last week than we did the week before. You get worried about wearying the legs of your receivers, but I just said throw all of them in there. I wanted him to just see the coverages and just throw it, throw it, throw it. I really think that helped. You can’t do that every week as the games go on if they’re getting worn out. We’ll still do a lot of pass skeleton. I still believe the quarterback learns the best 11-on-11, which we do a lot of 11-on-11, but we still needed the timing and he needed more touch and needed to get more comfortable where he was not worried about the rush and can see the coverages. We changed that this week and we’ll keep doing that. I really believe they took to that, because I explained to them why we were doing it and they understood it.”
On The Team Having A Sense Of Urgency At Practice
“I just tried to change up the format a little this week. We were still the same intense coaches we all are. We weren’t any different than we have been. I think if you go over the top or pull back as a coach, they go what’s going on; just be the same guy every day. Then, they start taking on that persona. What we also talked about is we have a lot of old guys, but a mixture of new guys – first-year junior college guys and first year players playing a lot. I just told them, this is the ninth game of the year, so it’s not about you just getting to play anymore. It’s about you playing well and making sure we win. I think those guys were even more focused. I know those guys bought into that. The other thing I liked is – as a head coach you watch the sidelines – everybody on our sidelines today was into it. Everybody. You want to see that, especially after you come off a tough game where it didn’t go well and everybody’s saying you didn’t have heart. Everybody was into it the whole time. That’s something you always want to see. Beau [Bisharat] went in there and Laviska [Shenault] went in there and made some nice runs and came out and played good on special teams. They were throwing it so much, so we had to rotate (defensive) linemen out and they were doing a good job. What a job by James [Stefanou] today? Protection was good; snaps were good and holds were good by T.J. [Patterson] and JT [Bale] snapping it. He’s a pretty good kicker. I think everybody was wondering what we were going to do there for a while, but we got us a good one.”
“That was a fun game for our guys. (California head coach) Justin [Wilcox] has done a really good job with that football team. Our guys played really well. I was really happy with the way Steven [Montez] played. That’s the way I expect him to play all the time, because he can do all those types of things. The offensive line did a good job and helped him. [Phillip] Lindsay does what Lindsay does. He’s pretty special always.”
On If The Purpose Of The QB Competition Was To Inspire Steven Montez
“I can say now that it worked exactly like I thought it would, but my whole thought process in the game last week was we weren’t doing anything in the first half. We needed to try to crank something up. I thought also at the same time I wanted to see how both of those guys would react. What was great to see –this is what you want to see and I was really pumped up Monday after practice when I went home – I was really excited that both of them were helping each other. Both of them were focused. Both of them were competing. Nobody was pouting or hanging their head, so I knew they were going to get better. That was good to see. I would have said that anyway if the results wouldn’t have came out that way, because both of them made improvement. He made a big jump today.”
On If He Knows What The Reaction Will Be After Benching A Player
“I don’t know. I’m almost 100 percent sure that’s the first time Steven’s been benched in his entire career, because he’s always been the best athlete on the field. How he handled that showed a lot of his character and his work ethic. I think it also showed his trust in us that he was trusting us to do the best thing for the team. He’s a very confident young man, but to me that shows me he wasn’t cocky. There’s a definite difference. That’s where he reached down into his soul and was able to push himself to get better.”
On Steven Montez Keeping That Edge To His Game
“I think that his work ethic and understanding that every position you’ve got to play. The Bill Belichick statement that he always says is, ‘Do your job, but do your job well.’ That’s what you have to do. That goes for all of us in our jobs. Do your job well or you don’t keep it long. That’s what he needed to understand. He wasn’t just getting to play because he was the starting quarterback. That’s just like any position. If they’re not doing well, then we’ll make changes. All the guys go through that. Trey Udoffia came back today and played the last game and a half and played his heart out and has gotten better. It’s exciting watching those young men fight through that. That’s what you want to see kids do as a coach. You don’t want to see them tank it. There’s a lot harder things they’ve got to face than a football game in life.”
On If Montez’s Performance Was Bound To Happen
“No, I think the events from last week helped it. I went back and looked at how we were practicing. I was up all night Sunday night. In practice – I definitely believe it helped – is I added more pass skeleton without the defensive linemen and offensive linemen out there. We hadn’t been doing as much of that, because it wears the receivers’ legs out. I said forget it, just rotate every receiver in and put them all in. Steven and Sam [Noyer] needed to see that. We did at least 45 minutes more pass skeleton last week than we did the week before. You get worried about wearying the legs of your receivers, but I just said throw all of them in there. I wanted him to just see the coverages and just throw it, throw it, throw it. I really think that helped. You can’t do that every week as the games go on if they’re getting worn out. We’ll still do a lot of pass skeleton. I still believe the quarterback learns the best 11-on-11, which we do a lot of 11-on-11, but we still needed the timing and he needed more touch and needed to get more comfortable where he was not worried about the rush and can see the coverages. We changed that this week and we’ll keep doing that. I really believe they took to that, because I explained to them why we were doing it and they understood it.”
On The Team Having A Sense Of Urgency At Practice
“I just tried to change up the format a little this week. We were still the same intense coaches we all are. We weren’t any different than we have been. I think if you go over the top or pull back as a coach, they go what’s going on; just be the same guy every day. Then, they start taking on that persona. What we also talked about is we have a lot of old guys, but a mixture of new guys – first-year junior college guys and first year players playing a lot. I just told them, this is the ninth game of the year, so it’s not about you just getting to play anymore. It’s about you playing well and making sure we win. I think those guys were even more focused. I know those guys bought into that. The other thing I liked is – as a head coach you watch the sidelines – everybody on our sidelines today was into it. Everybody. You want to see that, especially after you come off a tough game where it didn’t go well and everybody’s saying you didn’t have heart. Everybody was into it the whole time. That’s something you always want to see. Beau [Bisharat] went in there and Laviska [Shenault] went in there and made some nice runs and came out and played good on special teams. They were throwing it so much, so we had to rotate (defensive) linemen out and they were doing a good job. What a job by James [Stefanou] today? Protection was good; snaps were good and holds were good by T.J. [Patterson] and JT [Bale] snapping it. He’s a pretty good kicker. I think everybody was wondering what we were going to do there for a while, but we got us a good one.”
On How Much The Team Needed A Win
“We needed to win bad, especially at home. That was our first gold game and now we’ve got three more. We’re going to play a really good Arizona State team. I think Todd Graham is a heck of a coach and they found their way. That’s the next one we’ve got to go to. We want to win them all and we’re going to try to win them all, but you just have a better chance at home. That’s just a fact. We needed to take care of that and we did today. I think that’s big for all those kids’ confidence.”
On His Thoughts During Nick Fisher’s Pick-Six
“I was like, ‘Nick’s going to take a knee right?’ Then, he took off running and I said, ‘Maybe he’ll slide at about the five (yard line).’ Then, I realized, ‘No, he’s going to the end zone.’ It was a great play. He caught the ball in the end zone number one, which was big, but I wish we would have taken a knee down the field a little bit. We could have just run the clock out. That gave them an opportunity to have a chance to beat us, because they had no timeouts left. That’s something I’ve got to do a better job of coaching. We talked about it after the game. It was a great play. He’s made some great plays for us. I’m really proud of him. We’ve just got to know the situation better and I’ve got to do a better job of explaining it to him. He does go down in the record books, so 20 or 30 years from now he’ll say, ‘I’m still in the record books coach.’”
On How To Coach Nick Fisher To Take A Knee
“We literally could have run the clock out, so now there’s no chance. Now, they weren’t probably going to win either way, but they could have gotten an onsides (kick) and thrown a hail mary. They had a chance to win. I’m glad he went and scored. I was most worried about fumbling it and giving it right back to them. The score, I felt like we could definitely still win the game, but we were going to play some more and do some onsides kicks. Thank goodness Nick scored and didn’t fumble. ”
On Phillip Lindsay
“I just can’t say enough about Phillip, it sounds like I have a man crush. He’s awesome. He gives his whole heart and soul. He’s the school’s all-purpose yardage leader, which is amazing when you think about all the great players and running backs that have come through here. He’s the only back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher ever, that’s mind boggling to me with all the great players. He’s just special. He’ll be special for the rest of his life. He’s one of those people that come around every once in a while that doesn’t care about peer pressure. They do what they believe is right, they give all they have, they care about others, they’re unselfish, and they motivate through their actions and through their words. Very rarely do you have every one of those qualities in a guy. I give credit to the way his parents raised him. His knee injury, I think, made all the difference in the world to him. When you go into your senior year in high school and you’re the leading rusher in the city, and you have a chance to break the state rushing record and you tear your knee up your senior year. He doesn’t get to play and then his whole freshman year he has to get extra surgery on it. He has to come back and keep fighting, he never took it for granted. I think that gave him an extra understanding of how quickly it can be taken away from you. He’s an amazing young man, I could talk all night about Phillip Lindsay.”
On The Pass-Rush
“They’re getting better and better at it. Jacob [Callier] has a knack for being able to rush the passer. He has a quick first step, he has the ability to bend, that’s what we loved about him when we watched him in high school at Bosco. We thought he could be an excellent pass rusher, and I just think he’s going to get better and better. [Terran] Hasselbach went down, he was a guy that we really liked to pass rush. Michael Mathewes came in. He’s a phenomenal young man that’s paid his dues, gotten better and better. He never said ‘boo.’ He just worked hard and I’ve been pleased with him. Jase Franke had some good pass rush inside, so did Leo [Jackson]. And of course number 20 (Drew Lewis), he flashes in there every once in a while for sure.”
On Tim Lynott’s Play At Center
“Tim [Lynott] did an excellent job today. We had the one fumble on the short yardage play. What was really neat was how our defense rose to the challenge on that. Timmy’s doing good, he’s a really good player and I thought he played well today.”
On Steven Montez Stepping Up In Pocket
“I think what helped him (in addition to the passing skeleton) was our offensive line inside, they didn’t let it get to him as much. He was able to sit in there and step up, so I give a lot of credit to the offensive line there. I also give a lot of credit to him for staying in there and stepping to the side. We work those drills all the time. He’s breaking some old habits, there’ll be some times where he’ll need to roll out but he’s going to be able to sit in there more and more often. He’s learning how to do that which is good.”
On Expectations From His Team In The “Gold Games”
“I expect to enjoy this tonight, and to try to find a way to beat Arizona State. We’ll go from there.”
On Whether He’ll Watch Tonight’s ASU Vs. USC Game
“I’ll watch a little bit of that (ASU vs. USC game) tonight, but I’ll watch it a million times on film. We have tons of family at our house this weekend so that’s exciting too.”
On Whether Today Settles Any QB Controversy
“Steven [Montez] will be the starter, but we’ll continue to give Sam [Noyer] a lot of reps. Steven almost got knocked out today and Sam has to be ready to go.”
California Head Coach Justin Wilcox
General
“It’s very disappointing. We didn’t play well. In the first half, They threw the ball over our heads. We weren’t winning one-on-one battles in the passing game, we were missing tackles. You can’t do that and win. You can’t beat anybody doing that. We all need to be a part of the solution, starting with me. We’ve got to do a better job as coaches preparing them and giving them answers, so we’re finding solutions. That’s what it has to be about because it’s unacceptable to play like that. All due credit.”
On Giving Up Several Explosive Plays On Defense
“There are a number of reasons. One was a missed tackle on a run, one was technique defending the pass, another one a guy ran by us. It’s not usually one thing. We gave up seven explosive. The third downs (hurt us). Third and really long in the red zone, they throw a touchdown on a four man rush coverage (formation). Then we got them backed up on third down again, deep post over the corner. It’s not just the secondary, it’s everybody involved.”
On Preparing For Two Colorado Quarterbacks
“We didn’t watch just last week’s game (when preparing for Colorado). I thought last week’s game was an outlier for Colorado’s offense, I didn’t think it was indicative of who they were on offense. Yeah (I expected Montez to start) and he played well today. He’s a good football player and we didn’t do a good enough job.”
On Offensive Performance Today
“We have to look at the video, but it’s hard to find a lot of positives right now, unfortunately. It shows you we have a ways to go, and it’s going to take everybody being a part of the solution, starting with me and our coaches, are we giving everybody the best opportunity? Then we have to go out and execute, go play. There are times you have to win a one-on-one, blocking, running, throwing, catching, defending, open field tackling, we have to do that. There was not nearly enough of that today, and we’ll go through the tape and find out why and look for solutions.”
On Colorado Pass Rush
“Again, we have to look at the tape, but we gave up some pressures that probably didn’t need to pressure, in terms of some of the protections. We did some things, and shuffled some guys on the offensive line to try and calm us down a little bit. Again, I don’t know if there’s any one phase of the game where we played well. I could look at the video and be wrong, but that’s what it felt like today.”
On Not Being Able To Rally From Behind Like Prior Games This Season
“Things happen, you give up a play here or there and you have to battle back. We’ve shown resilience throughout the year. We went into halftime down again. The first half they had five consecutive drives with points, so we had to get a stop, we had to get our offense the ball and get something going, and turn the tide of the game and we never quite got there. There’s going to be a lot of reasons for that. I’ll have better answers for you on why (after watching it on film) but throughout the game there wasn’t a shift in momentum.”
“It’s very disappointing. We didn’t play well. In the first half, They threw the ball over our heads. We weren’t winning one-on-one battles in the passing game, we were missing tackles. You can’t do that and win. You can’t beat anybody doing that. We all need to be a part of the solution, starting with me. We’ve got to do a better job as coaches preparing them and giving them answers, so we’re finding solutions. That’s what it has to be about because it’s unacceptable to play like that. All due credit.”
On Giving Up Several Explosive Plays On Defense
“There are a number of reasons. One was a missed tackle on a run, one was technique defending the pass, another one a guy ran by us. It’s not usually one thing. We gave up seven explosive. The third downs (hurt us). Third and really long in the red zone, they throw a touchdown on a four man rush coverage (formation). Then we got them backed up on third down again, deep post over the corner. It’s not just the secondary, it’s everybody involved.”
On Preparing For Two Colorado Quarterbacks
“We didn’t watch just last week’s game (when preparing for Colorado). I thought last week’s game was an outlier for Colorado’s offense, I didn’t think it was indicative of who they were on offense. Yeah (I expected Montez to start) and he played well today. He’s a good football player and we didn’t do a good enough job.”
On Offensive Performance Today
“We have to look at the video, but it’s hard to find a lot of positives right now, unfortunately. It shows you we have a ways to go, and it’s going to take everybody being a part of the solution, starting with me and our coaches, are we giving everybody the best opportunity? Then we have to go out and execute, go play. There are times you have to win a one-on-one, blocking, running, throwing, catching, defending, open field tackling, we have to do that. There was not nearly enough of that today, and we’ll go through the tape and find out why and look for solutions.”
On Colorado Pass Rush
“Again, we have to look at the tape, but we gave up some pressures that probably didn’t need to pressure, in terms of some of the protections. We did some things, and shuffled some guys on the offensive line to try and calm us down a little bit. Again, I don’t know if there’s any one phase of the game where we played well. I could look at the video and be wrong, but that’s what it felt like today.”
On Not Being Able To Rally From Behind Like Prior Games This Season
“Things happen, you give up a play here or there and you have to battle back. We’ve shown resilience throughout the year. We went into halftime down again. The first half they had five consecutive drives with points, so we had to get a stop, we had to get our offense the ball and get something going, and turn the tide of the game and we never quite got there. There’s going to be a lot of reasons for that. I’ll have better answers for you on why (after watching it on film) but throughout the game there wasn’t a shift in momentum.”
Colorado Players
TE/DE George Frazier
ON THE OFFENSE COMING TOGETHER- “I mean every week at practice, we just make sure we are doing the right thing and get better as a group. On the offensive side we just executed.”ON THE DEFENSE APPLYING CONSISTENT PRESSURE- “I mean coaches will make sure that all week during practice we’re bringing pressure. Make sure everyone on the field is doing the right things and everyone on the field had energy, and brought their best pass rush.”
ON THE OFFENSIVE GAMEPLAN- “I think everyone was locked in on what they like to do. Guys on the field like to run certain plays and stuff like that. We just made sure we capitalized on those weaknesses and made sure everyone knew their job. So we were pretty confident once it began.”
ON HOW TO KEEP THIS PERFORMANCE UP- “We have to get very critical. Make sure everything we did wrong, we fix it and we keep getting better. We have to keep everybody’s head straight.”
OLB Derek McCartney
ON THE TEAM’S BOUNCE-BACK PERFORMANCE- “Absolutely, I mean we have a lot of confidence as a team and it really showed today. We have a lot of talent on our team and when we play together and have fun, good things can really happen.”ON THE OPENING DRIVE OF THE SECOND HALF- “We just knew that we needed to come out and do our job. Each guy has to do his job on defense and when that happens people will make plays. So it worked out for us. We knew that they were going to come out and be ready for us in the second half.”
ON THE TEAMS CONSISTENT PRESSURE- “Obviously we have ability in terms of pass rush on our team and it hasn’t shown as much as we would have liked so far this season but it really did show today. I think we’re just going to keep getting better.”
ON IF THIS WIN WILL GENERATE MOMENTUM- “Absolutely, we’re right where we want to be, we have three games left and we just have to take them one at a time.”
ON THIS BEING THE BEST PERFORMANCE OF THE YEAR- “You just have to come back to work on Monday. Like I said, we have the ability, we have the effort, and we have the guys need. We just have to keep playing together and it starts with work at practice on Monday.”
DT Jase Franke
ON TODAY’S GAME- “[We put in] a lot more effort. We made all of the corrections. I think we’ve always played the heart. I think we just had to get everything straightened out. The way we practiced reflects how we play.”ON THIS WEEK’S GAME PREPARATIONS - “Going over technique and just working the fundamentals. That’s about it. [We put focus on] just playing hard with a good effort and not buying into hype or anything. It was just another game to us. It’s the Pac-12. Anything can happen.”
S Nick Fisher
ON LENGTH OF INTERCEPTION RETURN- “I have ran 100 yards before between track and football, but when midfield hit I was just thinking, when is this end zone coming? When I got to the end zone, I was so out of breath that I couldn’t do anything. I was just kind of standing there because I was so out of breath. I didn’t want to get caught or anything, and once I brought it out I knew that I couldn’t bring it back in.ON HIS DECISION TO RETURN THE INTERCEPTION-“We didn’t have a turnover yet so everyone was fired up to get a turnover. Once that happened, I was just trying to put an exclamation point on it. But looking back, I should’ve just took a knee in the end zone or slid at the one yard-line. That whole play took about 15 seconds and didn’t really run any time off the clock. So we could’ve gave it to our offense so they could have kneed. Then we wouldn’t have been in an onside kick situation.
ON THE DEFENSE –“For defense, as far as us playing better, Coach Mac has been talking to us about finding out who we are. Our backs are against the wall. We have goals that we want to achieve. And we want to win too. Coach Mac talks about us playing for each other all the time and that is what did this week.”
ON WHETHER COACHES WANTED HIM TO BRING THE BALL OUT- “They are always telling me to be smart about the situation, and to know what’s going on. Almost every coach said, ‘yeah good play, but you could have just as easily given them the ball back, learn from this.”
LB Drew Lewis
ON IF DEFENSE INVOKED FEAR INTO ROSS BOWERS- “I think that we definitely had a toll on (Ross Bowers). We definitely rattled him a little bit. We started to watch as the game progressed that he was wearing down a little bit. His passes weren’t on point, and he wasn’t trying to scramble as much. I think that all of the pressure we brought had a huge role.”ON BEING ABLE TO PUT PRESSURE ON THE QUARTERBACK TODAY – “It feels good. It is something our coaches have been harping on all week. They want to get pressure on the quarterback to help the defensive backs out obviously. It was great to be able to do that. I felt it was past due but I’m glad I finally got it done.”
QB Steven Montez
ON IF BEING BENCHED DURING LAST WEEK’S GAME MOTIVATED HIM TO PERFORM BETTER TODAY – “It fired me up. I was really upset all week. I just really wanted to get back to the drawing board. I felt like I had let my team down against Washington State. I haven’t been playing very well. I felt like I needed to get back and make a statement.”ON WHAT HE HAD TO IMPROVE THIS WEEK – “It was that motivational kind of thing. I knew that I needed to study a lot more and just do the things I have been doing all year. It was really just the motivational that lightened me up and set a fire under me.”
ON THE CONFIDENCE GOING FORWARD AFTER BEING ABLE TO COMPLETE PASSES DOWN FIELD TODAY – “’It is about time we started hitting them’ is what I told Coach Chev [Chiaverini] on the sideline. We have been working them all year in practice. We have hit some. And we didn’t hit a few in practice. Then we would get out in to the games and it was kind of all over the place. We couldn’t hit the deep ball. Then this week in practice, we really kind of focused on it and we knew we need to get serious if we want to be a legitimate force on offense. We need tp be able to throw the deep ball consistently. We were hitting them in practice real well and it carried over to the game.”
ON BEING ABLE TO THROW OUT OF TRIPS FORMATION TODAY – “I think they were trying to zone all of that up and they couldn’t really do it because we have three guys and a whole lot field. They just didn’t have enough dudes that they had as much space to cover. It gets hectic when we get in that trouble formation. We have Bobo [Bryce], Shay [Fields], Devin Ross. Those are dudes that you have a hard time covering anyway. That is a lot of talent on one side of the field for sure.”
ON IF HE GAINED ANY MENTAL PERSPECTIVE- “I think so. I think that I needed to be a lot more focused when I was out there reading the defenses. I think that I was out there and it paid off for us.
ON IF THIS GAME WAS A BLESSING IN DISGUISE- “Yes, most definitely. This was a blessing for sure, just in the fact that I focused what I needed to do and refocused how fired up I was. I kind of felt like I had a huge chip on my shoulder, and I needed to prove to everybody why I should be out there, and why I should be playing. I think that we did that today.”
ON HOW HE THINKS THEY WILL FINISH OUT SEASON- “I think that we are going to take it day by day, and game by game. That’s what we’re really going to do. We’ll go back Monday, go back to the drawing board. We’ll watch Arizona State, I know that they are a good team and they will be ready for us. We’ll just take it game by game. Eventually, if we take it game by game, then hopefully we can finish the season 3-0. That is how we want to send our seniors out. If we do that, then we go to a bowl game too, and anything can happen.”
ON IF THROWING ON FIRST DOWN WAS WORKED INTO THE SCHEME- “We were just calling plays based on the feel of the game, and if we were rolling or not. That’s why there were more first down passes.
WR Shay Fields
ON IF HE WISHED HE PERFORMED LIKE THIS EARLIER IN THE SEASON- “I mean this performance was key. It’s unfortunate that it didn’t come earlier, but I think it’s better now than never. That whole turnaround from last game, that was just a bad game, and we came back and performed well today. I think we needed that jump start.”ON NEWFOUND SENSE OF URGENCY ON OFFENSE- “We were pretty much just sick of losing. We came into this with four wins, and we feel like we should have won more than that. We want to go 4-0 in the gold games, so we have a sense of urgency now.”
ON BEING ABLE TO COMPLETE THE DEEP PASSES DOWN FIELD – “It felt great. It took us nine weeks. But when you get that feeling, it is amazing.”
ON THE PLAY OF LAVISKA SHENAULT, JR. – “Laviska is a great kid. He has potential. He had a great catch today. He should’ve had another one but they didn’t call it for him. He is going to be a great player someday. We told him he should have scored but his legs are too big so he tripped. But he should have scored. He is a good kid.”
California Players
OL Addison Ooms
ON BREAKDOWNS- “They were switching things up when it came down to who they brought and what they did. They were smart, toward the end we started to pick up on it. At the beginning we didn’t really but toward the end we really got it.”ON MISCOMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN RECIEVERS-“ I have no idea, offensive line just sticks to what we got. So that’s all we do, just focus on our jobs.”
ON COMMUNIATION DURING ROAD GAMES- “It really depends on where you are. Over here it really wasn’t that bad. We have hand signals for everything so running backs and offensive line can all communicate via hand signals if they cant hear.”
ON WHAT COLORADO DID DIFFERENTLY- “Just football stuff, just some X’s and O’s. They would bring someone else (other) than we thought. We see a safety rotation and we think that they will stay in the box but they bring someone off the edge and move the linebacker out, it is just little things like that. Smart by them, but like I said we started to pick up on it toward the end.”
ON SECOND HALF AND OFFENSE NOT COMING TOGETHER- “I really can’t answer that becaus it’s all about rhythm. Toward the end we started picking up on the rhythm, we just have to do that from the first half. We have to do that the whole game because once we get in that rhythm we feel unstoppable. It is just a matter of being able to get into that rhythm sooner.”
ON GOING INTO NEXT WEEK- “They say that there is a 24 hour rule, especially after a loss on the road, but there is no 24 hour rule. You have to forget about it immediately and focus on the next game. Oregon State is next week and that is who has all of our focus and this is end the past, That’s all that you can do.”
ILB Jordan Kunaszyk
ON MONETZ- “He is a great quarterback but we need to make sure we keep our leverage while tackling and things like that. Credit to him for playing hard but that was more so on us.”ON LACK OF EXPLOSIVE PLAYS- “I think that goes back to what Ray (Raymond Davidson) was saying, we just need to play better team defense. We have to execute our game plan better and this falls on us players. No matter what coach calls, it is on us to execute the game plan. You can’t give up big plays and expect to win games. We just have to bounce back and continue working we will get there. We have a good opponent next week, so 24 hour rule. It stings and it hurts but we have to look past it and get ready for next week.”
ON COLORADO’S THIRD DOWN CONVERSIONS- “Biggest thing again was communication. I think that is one of the key things when you are on third down. You have to make sure that you know what you are doing and that everyone is on the same page. Again they made some plays but the biggest thing is that we need to make sure we are on the same page when it comes to communication.”
QB Ross Bowers
ON HIS OVERALL TAKEAWAY FROM TODAY- “That third quarter really hurt, the defense got us stops and we just couldn’t execute with the ball. Early in the second half we didn’t play well enough. We just have to step it up in practice and find ways to make each other better and quit feeling like this. It’s not a fun feeling at all. It’s not something that we’re going to accept. We’ve got to get back to work and take it one day at a time.”ON FOURTH QUARTER INTERCEPTION- “The receiver and I were just on different pages and it was unfortunate. Him and I have to get together and work on what we’re going to do to get better.”
ON DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PLAYING AT HOME AND ON THE ROAD-“It’s kind on the same old problems. Sometimes you sputter on offense and we didn’t execute when we needed to.”
ON BEING UNDER MORE PRESSURE IN WEEKS PAST- “Their pressure was a little different but I thought the O-Line worked their tails off today. I know I got hit a couple more times than in the last couple of weeks but they all worked their tail off for me today and I couldn’t ask for a better O-Line. I thought they played well enough for us to win today.”
ON HOW HE EXPECTS HIS TEAM TO RESPOND- “I’m excited to see what happens. This is what everybody talks about adversity, what are you made of? Stuff like that. We get to see whose really going to come to work and whose going to show how much they care. It’s going to be an interesting week of practice. We’re going to see who really wants it and I believe that we have a team full of guy that do.”
OLB Raymond Davidson III
ON HOW THE TEAM PLAYED- “We just need to play better. We need to play smart, play physical, and play like how we know how to play. That just is not acceptable; we know we can play a whole lot better than that. We are missing out on these opportunities we have to win.”ON WHAT TO EXPECT GOING FORWARD- “Just the same thing, we have to respond in a quick way. We have to make sure that we aren’t doing so much talking but more producing so that we do win. This isn’t a feeling that we are trying to feel anymore.”
DE James Looney
GENERAL- “We gave up too many big plays. We put them in some tough third and longs and they converted, at the end of the day that really killed us.”ON GIVING UP MORE EXPOLISVE PLAYS IN WEEK PAST- “It was nothing different, we just have to do our jobs. You have to come out here every week and play, there aren’t any easy walks in the Pac-12. You have to come out here and play your tail off every week. We came out here and made mistakes, and paid for it.”
ON WHICH STARTING QUARTEBACK HE WAS PREPARED FOR- “We play the 11 guys they put on the field. I mean, they played well with the 11 guys they had. They beat the crap out of us today and it sucks. At the end of the day, we weren’t worried about that too much.”
ON COLORADO’S THIRD AND LONG- “They were just converting. Guys were getting open, the quarterback was moving around the pocket using his feet. We didn’t get to him enough, and we paid for it.”
ON LEADING THE TEAM AFTER A LOSS- “I don’t have to say too much after a game like this, we got our tail kicked. We’ll go watch film. I feel like everybody knows the mistakes they made, when you’re out there you know the plays that you messed up. We need to hold people accountable.”
ON HOW HE SEES THE TEAM RESPONDING- “You have to go out and play every week. You have to have a quick memory if you play football, if you mess up one play you have to have a quick mind. You have to play the next play and the game. Right now it hurts, this plane ride back is going to suck, but at the end of the day you have to worry about Oregon State next week.”