Colorado-Washington Quotes
vs
Wyoming
Sep 20 (Sat)
8:15 p.m.
Colorado Interim Head Coach Mike Sanford
General“Obviously a challenging game, just really tough from the start. I thought, you know, we came in with the mentality, the game plan that I wanted for us coming in was to try to keep (Washington QB) No. 9 off the field as much as humanly possible and wanting to run the football just kind of play to where we're healthy as an offense and then stop the run, obviously, and then hopefully keep “nine” on the sideline and that's a style that that you can play, if you're marching the ball down the field, and then you're taking care of the scoring opportunities, and we just failed to do that.”
“We wanted to win this game in the trenches, I still believe in the growth that we have in our fronts, in particular, seeing some positives in the offensive line group that we've seen in the last couple of weeks, but hats off to Washington, you know, that was the intent of coming out in the game and you know, wanting to run the football, wanting to establish the run, but they were, they were good up front, to be honest, they move their front a lot there was you know, they were very active and ultimately, you know, that that led to us not capitalizing on the opportunities that we needed to. So that's a really good team. I said it this week in my press conference before the game leading up to it that I think right now they're playing as good a football as anybody in our conference. And having seen Oregon, SC and Washington, where Washington's at right now and the quarterback play they have and the athletes they have then really the O-line, D-line crew they have they're as good as anybody in our conference right now. I'm gonna tip my hat to coach DeBoer and most importantly, those players.”
On Washington Running Game
“I think some of that too, was in response, like some of our coverage stuff that we've been able to shore up. You know, obviously sometimes you do rob Peter to pay Paul in a sense where we obviously know that these guys like Bo Nix, Caleb Williams and Michael Penix in back to back to back weeks and if you just let them just pick apart your main coverage or if you're playing zone coverage with really only seven out in coverage and you're not getting home against these really good offensive lines it’s gonna be a long day, but obviously that's the adjustment they make and you know, I think their backs were good, their line’s good; a lot of respect for their overall plan and how they execute.”
On RB Alex Fontenot
“I liked the way he’s played. That was the game plan going in to, to really try to feed him the ball and that's obviously important for us that we stay on the field. The problem is that we got to convert on the certain mediums and that’s what we knew going in that was going to be the key to being able to continue to feed Alex Fontenot is just being able to stay on the field on those third downs.”
On Missed Opportunities In Plus Territory
“I think early on, I mean, I do think they have really good edge rushers. I think they did what they do, you know, we had some some nudge protections in the problem is, you know, the more you utilize both a running back in and tight end to really solidify the protection, you know, oftentimes you're not getting as many players out in the concept. So, you know, that's the thing about having really good edge rushers, it forces an offenses hand to be able to help the tackles in protection and I think one of them we had we had a nudge to the to the boundary side in the field defensive end got home and forced a throw and so yeah, we knew going in there were gonna be some challenges but the problem with it is when you start utilizing extra players to help in the protection plane it does short you in terms of route concepts.”
On Special Teams Issues In First Half
“That to me was what kind of got the score line out of out of sorts, or more so than it was. Up to that point we're moving the ball, it's a two to three possession game and then all of a sudden snap over our head; safety. And then we give up field position, they score then the kickoff return, they kind of squib it; it was uncharacteristic of how we've played special teams wise this year. It was just error. But, you know, I still think that unit in particular has played well throughout the course of the year through the ups and downs. I think today was certainly not one of their better performances, and obviously was detrimental to the overall score of the game.”
On If Team Was “Checking Out”
“I don't. I think at halftime, that was a time where I really challenged the team that ‘ are we truly what we say we are? Are we going to fight for each other?’ We're going to be a brotherhood and you know, and what I would say is that I think the response in the second half was much better. I think a lot of frustrations were boiling over and that end of that second quarter got emotional. Let's just call it like it is, there's a lot going on with our overall program. Every single person that's involved in the program from the support staff, through the players and, strength staff, there's a lot of there's a lot of uncertainty and obviously it becomes an emotional situation then when certain things happen on a field like that. It becomes even more overwhelming at that point time, but I will say that what I saw in the second half is I saw a team that did not check out. I think the frustrations boiled over at the end of the second quarter. And then I think in that second half, even J.T. (Shrout) himself, he was pretty banged up. Nothing like structurally wrong with him, but essentially, the advice from the trainer's was, ‘Hey, man, his legs locked up, he's stiff, he can't, he can essentially extend his leg.’ So, you know, I was immediately going to get a move on and, you know, J.T. came up to me and before he threw that touchdown to Montana, he had a look in his eyes like ‘I'm gonna continue to fight’ and so I pointed that out in the locker room to our to our team just for them to understand that essentially, there are a lot of guys that it's not just J.T. there's a lot of players on our team that are fighting through adversity the life lessons that we're going to be able to attain from this myself, our staff, our players, you come out on the other end of this thing, knowing that you truly stayed in the fight as hard and as bad as it was, that's gonna set you up for whatever situation comes your way for the rest of your life.”
Colorado Players
WR Montana Lemonious-Craig
ON STAYING FOCUSED THROUGH NEGATIVITY-“I mean, for me personally, I would say it's not too hard to stay focused, because I've learned that I'm here to play football and go to school. So I mean, that's above what I have to worry about. So I believe we have the right people in higher positions to be able to maintain that situation. But for me, it's not too hard to stay focused on playing at all. I love this game. And it's something that I enjoy doing so week in and week out I’m always going to give it my all.”
ON FALLING BEHIND QUICKLY-“I mean, at the end of the day you’re either going to fight or fold, and I'm not gonna fold up so I'm gonna fight to the end so it's not really tough for me. It's just you got to keep coming back keep coming back because at the end of the day, if you give up it's over with at that point once you check out the game. I never believe it’s done until the zeros on the clock until then I'm always keep going.”
ON HIS LONG TD CATCH-“It was a cover zero look. That's what we were looking for, for a double move, and J.T. threw me a good ball and I executed the route and scored.”
ON BEING ABLE TO CONNECT WITH J.T. SHROUT-“It felt great, man. I hope to keep doing it. And he's a great guy, man. He's a great quarterback. It's just we just got to be able to execute the play on all positions. And once we're able to do that we'll be able to hit a lot more.”
ON STAYING UP FOR ONE MORE GAME-“The seniors. This is their last home game coming up versus Utah. I'll go out there give them it all for this team for my brothers on his team. And I feel like that's us as a whole unit. That's what we're all going to do. So that's gonna keep us going to keep us up to go out. there and play our hardest for this last game.”
ON WHO IS BEST, OREGON, SC, WASHINGTON-“We beat ourselves. They're all same to me. We beat ourselves. Too many self inflicted wounds. And that's the resulting with the score with how everything's going. So I will say we shot ourselves in the foot too many times and keep going.”