Colorado-Texas A&M Quotes
vs
Wyoming
Sep 20 (Sat)
8:15 p.m.
Colorado Head Coach Karl Dorrell
On The Loss-“You can imagine some disappointment about that. But there's no reason to hang our head low for anything. We had a chance to win a significant game, and our locker room is more disappointed in us for not finishing the game. Defensively we played really well, offensively we, had some good moments and struggled at times; couldn't put anything together in the second half. Special teams played solid. We missed a field goal that was the one thing that we missed in terms of special teams. We had our chances, and unfortunately it didn't work out. We'll get back to working on the things that are going to help us finish games better. We got to have better performance on the offensive side and I'm sure we'll continue to grow and mature with that, with the new quarterback and everything so there's definitely some encouraging signs of this team is better than people think. So hopefully the people have saw that today. And we'll keep moving forward. So we're going to do, you know, we have to learn from this loss coverage from Minnesota, and move forward. Crushingly disappointing that it is disappointing. Next question.”
On Second Half Drives – “I think so, you know, defensively where they were taking a lot of snaps in the second half. And we weren't engineering enough offensive drives to give them the rest. We didn’t score any points in the second half. So, we have some things that we need to definitely work on and improve and that locker room knows that right now, you know they had chances and obviously didn't get to go in our favor.”
On Making No Excuses Despite Missed Opportunities – “We had opportunities in the first and second half. We didn't do what we should have done. We didn't do well enough offensively. Defensively, I felt (our players) played their butts off, very proud of that. We got to get better. There's no excuses. We've got to get better. We're not where we need to be right now. You guys know me well enough, I don't make excuses, right? I'm not making any excuses to you guys. We got to get better. And for us to be the team that we need to be, we must get better in a hurry.”
On Decision to Go for It On 4th Down From A&M’s Five-Yard Line in First Half-“I’ll do it again. When I was a play caller, I encouraged that. We're going to be aggressive. We're going to be the type of program everybody is going to be excited about when it's all said and done. Part of it is that they have to understand our mindset as a coaching staff. We’re going to be aggressive. We want to be aggressive, particularly in games like this where you need touchdowns more than field goals. I've learned that lesson in the NFL. Field goals, when you're playing against a really good team, don't amount to anything because you need touchdowns to win. We knew that in this game, we needed touchdowns. I'll probably do that a lot. You'll see it. We're down that deep and it is 4th and 1, I have a lot of conferences this offense can get (the first down).”
On How the Defense Covered A&M’s Passing Offense Today-“I thought it was great. Their best receiver was running back today. We had great coverage, most of the day. Their running back (Isaiah Spiller) made a couple nice plays and that was a difference in the game. I think they were just as tired as we were. I don't think it's an issue about being tired. They executed a little better than we did.”
On Not Second Guessing the Two Consecutive Quarterback Sneaks in First Half-“I'm not going to second guess that. We got yardage on the first (play). We felt confident. We’re going to scrutinize this loss because of those two calls. I'm going to (go for it) again on 4th-and-1. You're going to see it again. It might not be the same call, but you got to understand, that's our attitude. We're going to be aggressive, so I don't want to scrutinize that as the difference in the game. It really wasn't. There were a number of plays that could have been a difference in (the game). I know you guys would try to use that whatever way you deem it to be. But men, ladies. We lost a tough game. We should have had a great chance to win, that's really the bottom line. That's the way that I expressed with this team. I don't want to look at it any differently than that. We got a lot to fix in every area. I'll be the first to tell you what that is. There's no excuses. We’ve got to perform better to win these games.”
On Being Optimistic for the Season Despite the Loss-“You’re right, I am optimistic. I think everybody thought that we wouldn't be close to this team. I told a lot of you that we are a better team than you think. I told you that. I still believe that. We still got a lot to fix, but we were in the game for 95% of it today. Unfortunately, we didn't win. That's what we got to learn from. That's how you guys have to look at this. We're getting better and we’ll work (to get better). We'll get there. I promise you.”
Texas A&M Head Coach Jimbo Fisher
Opening Statement-“First and foremost, Colorado played a heck of a football game, and they got a very good football team. They were a lot of the reasons why we had issues today, I mean we can sit and say we blame it on ourselves, but they did a really really good job, physically and schematically doing a really good job of playing and coaching and played hard and played every play and we were fortunate to come out of that one.”
Same time, our kids. I give them credit for one thing we didn't always play well but we played hard, we played tough, we stayed together, we never gave up, kept making the plays you had to do, it's on you, you got to learn to do those things you have to learn to fight through on days like today. I always say I measure people on their bad days, not their good days. That team kept fighting and scratching and clawing even after we went down and had a chance to score and we had a fumble on an effort play, you don't need to reach it out, but at the same time, I understand why you're trying to do that. But then to come back and have the poise to do it again.
“We made plenty of mistakes, I think we were 1 of our first 10 on third down, then made 7 of our last 10, so we flipped that around but have to find ways to run the ball better. They did some good things there, just got out of rhythm and could not get in it. Missed passes, missed protections, different things defensively.”
“I thought we were outstanding in the game early, they had a nice drive, and they moved to place in there for about a quarter, quarter and a half they moved the ball pretty good. They missed a field goal and then they got down there on the five I think they had a 3rd and 2 on the six and a 4th and 1 on the five. It was probably less than that and that was huge in the game that kept it to a one score game.”
“They were able to come back and get a field goal 2 minutes before the half, you get to a 7-3 game and got to one possession and then it became a dogfight back and forth. They couldn't move it, we would get it moving and we had one big play there, we had a penalty, a holding play, I think we had a chance to drive there. And the other drive we get down and score a touchdown, and have a fumble, then we come back and do it again. You're glad about these things by winning, but at the same time you got to realize everything's not okay.
“There's a lot of issues we got to fix. We got to get the offensive line, quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, we even got to get the secondary we got to get that defensive line, and keep getting better there. Our kicking game issues, if there's anything that we got to do we got to dot I's, cross T's and understand the urgency. Everybody's trying to make a name for themselves, you get up here and you get ranked, which I hate. All that rank and stuff don't mean diddly to me, but we were supposed to be a good football team, so people are going to mark it. You got to understand the burden that carries and how you prepare and how you play and how you compete each and every week, and you're gonna get everyone's A game, right down to the end, and we have to do a better job, and I have to do a better job coaching. At the end of the day, you're a product of how you're coached and we got to do a better job with myself to get these guys ready to play. We'll do that and hopefully move on. “
On Zach Calzada after the fumble-“To have the character to do that and make the plays, to start to scramble, start moving his legs and sometimes you get thrown in there, things get going too fast. He had guys open and he missed them and he called flash read. I've been there man, I played quarterback. When I call flash read and you see it, but you're going through it too quick. And finally the more reps, you slow down and I think you know he realized he had to do it and there's something to that now when you realize you got to do it and you're able to put two drives together and scramble and make throws and plays when you had to. And the throw he made to Spiller was a great play at the end. He got to a player and a great throw on a scramble to a third receiver on that route.”
On Zach Calzada Today-“Very encouraged. You're concerned and encouraged, you're both because you got to fix things, but at the same time to be able to make plays when you got to make plays, you can play great. I've had guys play great, but then there's certain times in the game, you got to go make plays and can't make them. They have other guys that just find a way to make those plays when it matters and the one thing you say, he made the plays in those drives when it mattered right there at the end and on both drives so we'll build on that and we'll fix the other things and move on. And we got to play better around. If you have young quarterback, a freshman quarterback, and you got another young quarterback, it's not his job. His job is for the guys around him to take care of him while he grows and what he has to do. He'll do his job, but they got to grow and we got to play really well around him.”
On The Last Defensive Stop-“Just heart and guts and soul. That's culture. That's culture of an organization and hopefully we can build on that.”
On First Half Defensively-“They were outstanding, they couldn't breathe. We did a great job of condensing our rush lanes. We did not give in to scrambles, and that guy's really athletic. We batted 6, 7, or 8 balls, and there was 2 or 3 on the last drive. I can think of about 6 off the top of my head. There's other ways to affect a quarterback besides sacking him and running up the field and creating those lanes. They were outstanding today. The second half was perfect, and it was what we needed because it was the only way we could win the game.”
On A&M comeback-“I think the end the day we ever make one more play than they did and we kept believing we could do that. We realized no matter what we kept pointing out, no matter what, you got to play the next day. We talked about what I talked about all the time: you're measured on your bad days. Today, I told our guests, today's Judgment Day. I wasn't happy with us last year. Now, we found out that we have fighting heart, but we got to find out if we can get execution and precision. We got to understand that how to do it coming out of the bat and practice that way, but as we did find out who we were as far as a competitor.”
On Zack Calzada-“There's not a physical thing he cannot do. There's not a mental thing he can’t do, he is highly intelligent, he just needs time. We need to play well around that.”
On Running More-“We did try to run more and we couldn't. We weren't making it, we're getting behind it, and we're on third and long, and that creates a turnover. We were trying to be more aggressive and get the ball to our guys on pitches, on swings, on screens, on trying to get the ball out in a flat one time. I know we missed Spiller out there on the right side; that would have been a big play. Colorado was causing some problems inside, we weren't blocking those guys real well in the room. If you go back and look at it we blocked them, but they were minimal runs, we weren’t knocking holes in there. So we had to create space.
On Zack Caldaza and Half Time-“[I told him] he has a great job coming back, keep your poise, you've got that half on your belt and go back to your fundamentals and your basics. Keep doing ordinary, and remember me in your ear. This is the play, here's my read here's my eyes, here's my protection. Go through it and stand in the pocket, and make them knock you off the spot. Sometime when you start flash looking, I call it that, when things are going just a little bit fast. You'll get to your boat, but you got to slow yourself down. It's a process of learning how to play, and I thought I did a better job in second half.
On Rushing-“Just some twist gains physical, and some twist gains and got some push on some things and, you know, just created and condensed holes and play very physical for a long time. When you go back, some things you think were happening weren't. And it’s something fundamental or it may have been something schematically that we missed it. We weren't picking up on it.
On Play Calls-“Yeah, we tried to mix up the calls, and as we were trying to make adjustments for what they were doing up top constantly trying to change for the coverages and tried to create some different matchups, and we did, but you know I could have done a much better job, a much better job. I didn't do a good job.”
On The Significance of An Early Win-“I always say this, you know, all the great teams I've ever been on, no matter what, there's game or two that you find a way to scratch, claw, and pull them out. Yes, you understand why it’s hard, and you go fix those issues and move on and get better, but you got it. There's gonna be games like this, you got to pull them out, you got to be able to find a way to win and that's one thing this team has done, and one thing over the organization keeps learning how to do.
On Concerns On Zach Calzada after the fumble-“When he came to the sideline, no. After I talked to him on the sideline, I think that part of the game had already moved past him. I think he'd been in the game enough to realize, alright let's go play the next play. Early in the game, it might have bothered him more than it did late in the game as crazy as that sounds. And I think the confidence he got knowing he could at least move the ball down the field, and he responded the next drive. You got to build him up and just make sure with all young players first time in a game, you got to make sure and get the look in their eyes and try to get him back on track and give them something they can do to find some comfort place.”
On Defensive Success-“They kept us in the game. You're going to win games offensively, and you're going to win games defensively. This game was a defensive game. They hung us in there and we were able to score two times, and I'll use it for example like Florida last year. We never got a stop, offensively we scored every time. Our guys never pointed fingers, the defensive guys were coming over and encouraging Zach, hey it's alright just one drive we're going to hold him, you make us one drive. We're going to hold them; you give us one drive. That's all we need. I loved the interaction of our football team today toward each other instead of saying hey offense defense, it was nothing like that. It was, we'll be together we're in this together, I know it's new, it's hard on you, it's tough, you guys are having a tough day. We're going to hold him. You guys go make one drive, we'll be alright. I love that interaction and that leadership from the offense was great today too.”
On Zack Calzada-“There's not a physical thing he cannot do. There's not a mental thing he can’t do, he is highly intelligent, he just needs time. We need to play well around that.”
On Running More-“We did try to run more and we couldn't. We weren't making it, we're getting behind it, and we're on third and long, and that creates a turnover. We were trying to be more aggressive and get the ball to our guys on pitches, on swings, on screens, on trying to get the ball out in a flat one time. I know we missed Spiller out there on the right side; that would have been a big play. Colorado was causing some problems inside, we weren't blocking those guys real well in the room. If you go back and look at it we blocked them, but they were minimal runs, we weren’t knocking holes in there. So we had to create space.
On Zack Caldaza and Half Time-“[I told him] he has a great job coming back, keep your poise, you've got that half on your belt and go back to your fundamentals and your basics. Keep doing ordinary, and remember me in your ear. This is the play, here's my read here's my eyes, here's my protection. Go through it and stand in the pocket, and make them knock you off the spot. Sometime when you start flash looking, I call it that, when things are going just a little bit fast. You'll get to your boat, but you got to slow yourself down. It's a process of learning how to play, and I thought I did a better job in second half.
On Rushing-“Just some twist gains physical, and some twist gains and got some push on some things and, you know, just created and condensed holes and play very physical for a long time. When you go back, some things you think were happening weren't. And it’s something fundamental or it may have been something schematically that we missed it. We weren't picking up on it.
On Play Calls-“Yeah, we tried to mix up the calls, and as we were trying to make adjustments for what they were doing up top constantly trying to change for the coverages and tried to create some different matchups, and we did, but you know I could have done a much better job, a much better job. I didn't do a good job.”
On The Significance of An Early Win-“I always say this, you know, all the great teams I've ever been on, no matter what, there's game or two that you find a way to scratch, claw, and pull them out. Yes, you understand why it’s hard, and you go fix those issues and move on and get better, but you got it. There's gonna be games like this, you got to pull them out, you got to be able to find a way to win and that's one thing this team has done, and one thing over the organization keeps learning how to do.
On Concerns On Zach Calzada after the fumble-“When he came to the sideline, no. After I talked to him on the sideline, I think that part of the game had already moved past him. I think he'd been in the game enough to realize, alright let's go play the next play. Early in the game, it might have bothered him more than it did late in the game as crazy as that sounds. And I think the confidence he got knowing he could at least move the ball down the field, and he responded the next drive. You got to build him up and just make sure with all young players first time in a game, you got to make sure and get the look in their eyes and try to get him back on track and give them something they can do to find some comfort place.”
On Defensive Success-“They kept us in the game. You're going to win games offensively, and you're going to win games defensively. This game was a defensive game. They hung us in there and we were able to score two times, and I'll use it for example like Florida last year. We never got a stop, offensively we scored every time. Our guys never pointed fingers, the defensive guys were coming over and encouraging Zach, hey it's alright just one drive we're going to hold him, you make us one drive. We're going to hold them; you give us one drive. That's all we need. I loved the interaction of our football team today toward each other instead of saying hey offense defense, it was nothing like that. It was, we'll be together we're in this together, I know it's new, it's hard on you, it's tough, you guys are having a tough day. We're going to hold him. You guys go make one drive, we'll be alright. I love that interaction and that leadership from the offense was great today too.”
Colorado Players
QB Brendon Lewis
TAKE AWAYS FROM GAME-”It was a good game, and playing I thought that was quite amazing. We didn’t execute so we got to take that and look at the film on Monday and get better.”ON A&M’S STRONG DEFENSE- “Yeah, they were a really good defense. I think they did a great job running to the ball and tackling. You know they were big upfront. They did a good job disguising blitzes and pressure.”
ON HIS PLAY-“I felt like I played better but you know, still not good enough. That wasn’t good enough to get the win so I got to get to continue to get better and watch them get better.”
ON MOVING FORWARD-“We don’t say consolation so I feel like we all felt like we should have won that game and we could have won that game.”
ON GETTING BETTER-“I just got to continue to get to make good decisions, which seems to get better being more accurate.”
ON OFFENSE-“We need to execute better you know. I’m saying we have all the tools and all the weapons and those save calls to the game so we just got to execute more.”
TE Brady Russell
LOCKER ROOM POSTGAME-“Yeah, that was tough, but it was tough because our defense went out there and played so hard, and we put them in so many bad positions as offense. So it’s tough when you’re a leader of that offense and we can’t put anything on the field, if it’s worth anything. So I think we showed a glimpse of greatness, especially in the first half. But we should be a second half football team. We’re better conditioned than them. We’re better shaped than them. We should be able to run up the score in the second half and we didn’t do any of that, so yeah it’s a tough pill to swallow.”SECOND HALF STRUGGLES=“I just think they’re beaten us one guy at a time. I don’t know who was losing it, probably me sometimes. But we couldn’t come and have eleven people working on the same page all the time. Yeah, I don’t think there’s any one thing you can blame it on.”
ON LACK OF OFFENSE-“I mean I was trying to keep the offense up. I was trying to be positive. I was trying to help. We had to keep a good mindset the whole time and I think we had one, I just think we couldn’t put it together on the field. So, yeah, that’s pretty miserable watching your defense sell out for like that. I mean it felt like we were barely on the field in the second half as often. So, watching them struggle and watching them fight and claw the whole game, like Nate (Landman) when you had to play on the goal line and force the quarterback fumble, he’s there playing their butts off and we have nothing to show for it so we got a lot to work on this next week.”
ON BRENDON LEWIS-“He’s good. He’s really good mentally. He’s a warrior. I know I was talking to him on the last drive and he was composed and calm. He has great poise. Even though he took some shots, he was still battling the whole time so I think as a freshman quarterback he was doing everything that was asked of him and we need to help him more protecting and not letting the people get to him in the pass rush, and even when he was running the ball he took a couple of shots so we can’t let that happen to our quarterback.”
ON POSITIVES FROM THE GAME-“You definitely can. We’ve come a long way since I’ve been here. But it’s tough when you’ve been putting in the work for five years, and this is everything you work for. God Bless. This was such a huge opportunity and we had taken advantage of it for so much of the game and don’t want to just slip away like that. It’s tough but you can take a lot of positives out of the moment.”
ON OPTIMISM GOING FORWARD-“I mean I feel confident. I feel real optimistic. I know we’re somewhat better than we put out there, and I mean we lost by three points. But I think we’re a lot better than we showed, so that speaks for itself, but I think there’s a lot of positives. I think we’re going to come back. I think we’re going to fix them and I think our offense is going to show greatness throughout the rest of the season.”
S Isaiah Lewis
ON CONFIDENCE-“It’s a confidence booster for us for sure. We never want to lose a game and we were expecting to win this game, so we're taking that same mentality at every single matchup that we get, You know we're going to come back stronger.”ON ENDING RESULT-“Yeah, I mean you know it's not what we wanted, so it's not going to be celebratory but we're gonna take you step by step we're gonna get the process going back next week, and, you know, we're not we're not hanging our heads, that's for sure. I trusted in both sides of our offensive and defense. I'm thinking no matter what we got going on we're gonna prevail. It's just unfortunate that it ended the way that it did. We think we could have won, but we're gonna get back, we're going to fix our corrections, and then, you know, just move into next week. Like I said we're not going to hang our heads we're going to make improvements or make corrections, and you know we’re ready for the next competition.”
DL Carson Wells
ON DEFENSIVE PLAY-“Yeah, we did a good job in the first half, first downs and the last drive. We just got to do a better job finishing here late. Keep the quarterback in the pocket and rally up to those flat rows.”ON A&M’S CHANGE OF QB-“They have to run a little bit more, instead of up to the pocket but they weren't doing too much, as they had to do. “
ON REBOUNDING FROM LOSS-“Texas A&M is a great program, come back game, start getting the buddies rights for Minnesota. Got another good week.”
ON CONFIDENCE FROM GAME-“Going forward, can build on that. That's a good offense. Got a lot of weapons all over the field. We had a big spread going into the game. I know we held them under that. So, We did our job. . We left it all out there we could have finished better. But, I mean at the end of the day, we just got to make the most of our opportunities, and a couple opportunities every first half. Just got to just got to finish and come back with a better mindset as we watch more film, and more stuff in the weight room, even on practice field hold yourself to a higher standard, close it out next week.”
ON DEFENSE HELPING OFFENSE-“Those are our brothers, I mean at the end of the day we got to pick them up and we know if they're having a rough day, we'll pick them up and same thing with us if we're having a rough day they'll pick us up the same way. “
DB Christian Gonzalez
ON DEFENSE-“So great, though obviously it wasn't the result we wanted, but just to come out and play defense like that like we knew we were capable of it, obviously, everybody else in the world didn’t, but it was no surprise to me. I knew we were going to go out and execute the game plan.”ON A&M QUARTERBACK CHANGE-“I mean obviously it's not like he goes out and we think we're gonna win, it's college football there’s going to be somebody that can step up and play and obviously he did what he had to do but it didn't really change our game plan, we still played it just as if it was the starter and nothing really changed.”
ON END RESULT-“Obviously we don't want to lose but it shows that we're not a team that people just look at and cross off their schedule. If you come to play us we're gonna come. No matter who you are it's just you play football, we play football, same thing.”
ON CONFIDENCE-I wouldn't really say it's a confidence boost, but I feel like we already have the confidence that we know we can play with anybody in the country. And it was a tough loss but it definitely helped us out.
WR Daniel Arias
ON THE GAME-“It didn't go the way we wanted. We were playing with the hearts out there. We’ve got to keep working. It sucks we couldn’t (win the game), but we’ve got to keep working.ON SECOND HALF OFFENSE-“It’s execution. We had the right plays. We had them where we wanted them. We just have to execute. This week we're going to lock down on film, get better and keep working.”
ON CONTRIBUTING – “It’s been really good. On that one deep pass (in the third quarter), I should have caught that. I’m going to keep working, getting better, and making plays.”
ON BRENDON LEWIS – “You can see a lot of growth with him during practice. He’s taking charge and making us better, telling us what is going to happen (on a play). He looks more relaxed. He looked better today. We got to keep working and executing the plays.”
ON USING MEDIA CHATTER AS MOTIVATION – “I saw a lot of people saying that we were supposed to lose badly. You guys know what we can do. That’s more momentum for next week (against Minnesota).”
TB Alex Fontenot
ON TEAM MOOD-“Main word is probably just disappointment just cause of how close we were. It was really our game to win but you know we just couldn’t put any more points on the board.”ON OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES-“I couldn't even tell you. I don’t wanna put the blame on nobody.”
ON STRUGGLING TO SCORE-“Yeah it's frustrating just going three-and-out three-and-out. But that's something that we just have to push through and just keep driving. Get better next week.”
ON OFFENSE MOVING FORWARD-“Probably just the fundamentals, you need to just get back to the basics and just be good with what we're good at.”
ON IF THIS IS A CONFIDENCE BOOSTER-“Yeah, definitely. We prove to ourselves that we can hang in the big leagues, but we need to we need to learn how to finish and that's like bottom line.”
ON DIFFUCLUTY TO SEE FELLOW RBs GO DOWN-“It’s not really difficult it’s always next-man-up, you gotta be ready, you can’t lose a step.”
ON MOVING FORWARD-“Oh yeah, definitely we definitely set the bar high for our team. We just, we just have to finish that's literally the only thing.”
ON PUTTING GAME IN REVIEW MIRROR-“I mean we have no choice, you had to put in rear view you can't just dwell on the past. So, we got Minnesota next week that's all I'm thinking about.”
LB Nate Landman
ON BALANCE OF DISAPPOINTMENT & ENCOURAGEMENT-“Yeah, you gotta look at the positives. I think we have a lot of good things on defense, left a lot of plays on the field. But, I think it's a good learning experience and a good confidence booster for our defense going into next week.”ON LACK OF OFFENSIVE SUPPORT-“I mean you always want to play complimentary football, play a complete game. We were up 7-3 So, you know that's just really on us if we don't let up another touchdown we win the game. Offense with the ball, they did some good things. At the end of the day like I said we love some plays on the field.
ON A&M’S SECOND HALF OFFENSE-“I mean, you can only stop an offense like that for so long, they made some good plays they're a great team and you know credit to them. They figured some stuff they made some adjustments we made some too. I mean you can't stop you can't three-and-out a team for a full four quarters of the game. So, you know props to them they made some plays and like I said we left some plays out on the field.”
ON FEELINGS ABOUT THE TEAM-“I love this team. You know the scoreboard doesn't reflect what we wanted but it doesn't shock this team. We knew the team we were coming out with and, you know the ability this whole team has. Like I said it didn’t shock us we're looking forward to next week and getting this one behind us.”
ON DEFENSE CHANGES WITH NEW A&M QB-“Nothing changed. Defensive-wise we still came out there and ran our same game plan and ran our base defense and added some pressure to that but no nothing changed.”
Texas A&M Players
DL DeMarvin Leal
ON THE DEFENSE-‘The defense stands up, stands tall, had our backs all game. We practice things like this and situations like this so just being able to apply what we practice during practice and bring it to the game was amazing.”ON FOURTH DOWN IN THE ENDZONE-“Having a big fourth down stop, that's crucial and very momentum changing,”
ON HUDDLES-“We came together, we talked to each other, we encouraged each other we know exactly what we had to do. We know our assignments; our alignment and we just knew that we had to play our technique and get after it”
ON FRUSTURATION-“I wouldn't say it was frustrating. I know that it's tempting to get frustrated in the situations like that but, you know, like Coach Fisher says, we came together, we encourage each other, defense encourages offense which offers a good defense so we know what type of day it was coming out of the second half and we just knew we had to get after it.”
ON COMING TOGETHER TO FINISH THE GAME “We came together. We preach love, you know one love, and we came together because we knew that as a whole we can get the job done. And if we are separate, if one sides frustrated the other sides just have an off day. It wasn't going to happen. So, we came together during half time and we talked it out. We figured it all out on offense and defense we just knew that we had a plan and we were going to do it.”
ON THE LAST 30 MINUTES OF THE GAME “After they scored and got the first down we were like okay. Go back to your technique, go back to what we need to do where everything would go over and practices, go back to everything we need to do and to stay poised while we're doing it.”
ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WIN “It’s a big one, you know, we showed a lot, even though we it wasn't the game that we expected. We came out on top and we came out on top together.”
ON ZACH CALZADA-“I just told him you been waiting three years for this. He had the same face, he tried to stay poised himself, even though you know you can have an off day. And you know, not everything can go your way, he knew that. So, he just got kept his head up and just kept moving forward”.
ON THE MOMENTUM CHANGE “It was a big play the momentum change, and we preach that during practice, everything goes back to practice so it's just something that we expected in.”
ON THE FANS. “Love the 12th man. Gotta love them, they came out all the way to Colorado, and just, you know they did what they do, even it doesn’t matter if it's home or away and caught Aggies. We will come.”
ON ADJUSTMENTS TO THEIR PLAYS “Nothing changed. It was just a minor adjustment we had to make, but it's okay. We got to fix that for a minute. We got it.”
DT Jayden Peevy
ON THE OUTCOME-“It was a big win on the road, any win is a great win for us. I want to know every week is our main mindset. It doesn't give us any question on how good this team is. It’s showing us how bad we want to win this game. We came out, second half wanting to win this game we talked in the locker room say hey guys we got to pick it up, and we that's what we did on a defense and offense.”ON CU’S FOURTH & 1 – “Sneak, sneak, sneak. Get low. Get your pads down. We already knew what I was doing. We execute.”
ON QB – “He’s fast, he's a nice guy. I love how he runs, and he's a great quarterback. We had teammates on the sideline hyping him up, so it boosted his confidence.”
ON DEFENSE HELPING OFFENSE-“All I can do is just move, I got to control what I can control. Trying to stop the run and stop the pass. “
ON CONFIDENCE-“You’ve got guys like me, Michael Clemens, and a lot of guys that have been here for a while, have been through situations like this so we all we could have did is encourage the guys and tell them and explain, we got to go make this stuff, the defense wins championships, there's something we learned as a kid. Defense winning championships and that's what we did.”
ON FANS-“I mean it was amazing, I travel, I'm glad they came out and supported. I was lit. I was lit on a defense of end man, so thank you guys.
ON ZACH CALZADA-“He's been here for a while, he understands what's going on in his organization. So, he knew every play call, he's ready for this opportunity. He's been given reps with the ones all count, reps with the ones all through the season. So, he's ready for this opportunity. Zach Calzada is a great quarter back. He’s going to be one for the future too.”
RB Isaiah Spiller
ON HIS CATCHES-“On the 3rd and 8, linebackers were playing over top so I had to sit it down and I had to make the catch. it was third down. No other way around, and also put in the touchdown. I had to make the catch. That’s my job, just doing my job, going out there every day, doing the right things, and you'll see the results.”ON ZACH CALZADA-“He was positive, we all kept a positive vibe. Nobody was pointing fingers because we don't do that. It's not the standard, and we all just wanted to win. Zach still showed that. Zach got comfortable towards me in the game. Zach’s going to be really good for us down the line. You don't get more comfortable, more practice time so you're going to be ready.”
ON QB THROWS-“Yeah, that was a great pass, I had to do nothing but hold the breadbasket and I’m so grateful for that I'm grateful for him. You just got to hone in your eyes, you know, hone in your eyes so, you know, you got to catch everything.”
ON COVERSATION WITH ZACH AFTER HIS BIG PLAY -“Nah, no I was really just kind of focusing on winning and finishing the game. After the game I definitely talked to him.”
ON HOW THEY STEPPED UP-“I think that's just coach Jimbo instilled in us. Just our pride, our grit, the will to not give up, and that's what he has come in and done to this program, and we are just enforcing it, so you know I'm glad that we got the dub and we're going to be better next week for sure.”
ON ZACHS COMFORT THROUGH THE GAME-“Oh yes for sure he got way more comfortable. He was very confident in his ability. Yeah, I definitely got way more comfortable too.”
ON THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE WIN-“It’s definitely significant. It gives us an identity. Its kind of challenged us our first diversity game. So, I guess it was a great challenge for us. We made a lot of mistakes, but I'm going to clean it up really quick and we'll be back next week.”
ON OVERALL GAME-“Yeah, you know, just, it's a rough game you know some games like that, you know you can't complain can't get down on yourself about it. Just got to keep moving forward, never given up.”
ON CU’S DEFENSE-“They play great. Best defense in the league in my opinion, they scored one time they didn’t score the rest of the game so grateful for them guys. They did so good.”
ON THE FANS-“That was crazy. Yeah, it was crazy man. I mean, all the A&M fans came out, shout out to 12th Man love y'all man, we got the Dub.”
ON WHAT IT WAS LIKE BEING ON THE SIDELINE DURING DEFENSIVE 3RD DOWNS. “Oh, it was crazy. The emotions, all the emotions going to the game. Hanes getting hurt at the beginning and kind of shifting our momentum. So we couldn’t get a 1st down for a minute. So I feel like that fourth down really just the defense, getting the stop on that really just give us a relief and you can move on next week.”
ON THE SCORING MENTALITY “I was telling everybody we had to have it on our mind to score it was no other way around. We just had to score. We everybody had it in a mind. And, you know because Jimbo called the right plays and made it happen.”
ON THE FUMBLE “Oh, yeah, we stayed positive during that Nobody got down on each other. Throughout the whole game nobody got down on Zach. We understand the circumstances, and we understand the situation. And that's just raises our player skill.”