Sept. 22, 2007
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Final Postgame Quotes in PDF Format
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SDSU Head Coach Chuck Long:
General comments: "It was a great night tonight. I think we had about 600 yards of total offense and Brett Swain probably had about half of them. It was a great night for him and our offense. The two things that stepped out to me were we created four turnovers on defense and didn't have any on offense. Once again, so that goes along way in a successful season and we want to continue that trend, I was very pleased. Hats off to Portland State. They did a nice job in throwing the ball. I am really proud of our guys.
"It was a good win, good home opening win I like the fact we had a new sideline and it felt like we were on the home sideline tonight with everyone behind us, the band and the students, it really felt good. We have a big opponent, I told them, `Hey let's enjoy it for a moment but we have a big opponent in Cincinnati coming in this week."
On whether the win alleviated the frustration from the previous two games:
"It did, we were frustrated, we felt we had good moments in our first two games, we felt finally tonight we put it all together, especially on offense. And that goes a long way with these guys. They're 18-year old, 19-year old guys and they don't know the difference other than they're feeling good. Kevin (O'Connell) is just really in command right now in everything. He's worked hard to get to this point and he's just a different guy. Of course we didn't have him as much last year but he's a different guy out there and it's really showing up."
Portland State Head Coach Jerry Glanville
On Portland State's offense:
"I thought the offensive side of the ball went well. We saw things a whole lot better."
On its defensive problems:
"The staff infections (on two of their safeties) was a lot worse than I thought it was going to be. Our safeties weren't where they needed to be and we had to go back to our safeties with the staff infections. It was my error, I did not get the other safeties ready in four days. I take full responsibility. We just couldn't get it done. We knew we would have problems, just not that many problems."
On Aztec quarterback Kevin O'Connell: "I think O'Connell is about as good a quarterback as we are going to see this year. He is a good football player. I saw that the last time I coached against him (while at Hawai'i). He is the real deal."
On Portland State's improvement:
"Our goal is to win the Big Sky (Conference). This game won't change that goal. Our goal next time is to be undefeated next week."
SDSU Player Quotes
Senior quarterback Kevin O'Connell
On SDSU's offense:
"I still have a couple plays in mind where I think we could have maybe done better. I have to give it up for the offensive line tonight, they absolutely dominated the line of scrimage protection wise. Make no mistake about it, we have some good defenses on the schedule for the next nine games, and we're going to need to bring our best effort. If we keep playing like we played tonight we'll be competitive and hopefully when we get in conference we'll be successful."
On the wide receivers:
"We have some good playmakers out there, and that's something that I think people can look forward to seeing the rest of the season. That's the make-up of our team."
On Brett Swain's third touchdown:
"He had a great game. He was actually my first option but one of their safeties was around him. I just wanted to scramble and I saw a flash of black out there. Opportunities like that you can't miss."
Junior wideout Brett Swain
On his performance:
"I felt like as the game was progessing, you go out there and you run your routes. You make sure that you're just doing your job out there. You want to give this guy (O'Connell) a good look because he's watching what you're doing down field, and it makes his job a lot easier when you're doing your job."
How hard is it to wait for a his third touchdown catch:
"You just watch the ball and it's up there. All you're thinking is `Please don't drop it. Please don't drop it.' The ball comes down and you can concentrate on it. You work all week on catching balls like that. You just watch it, catch it and turn around into the end zone."
Junior cornerback Vonnie Holmes
On his third interception in three games:
"It's just about reading the quarterback and being at the right place at the right time."
Junior linebacker Russell Allen
On his confidence in the Aztecs' offense:
"The offense was unbelievable tonight. Kevin (O'Connell) was throwing the ball right on the money and Brett Swain was amazing. The whole offense, including the offensive line, was playing great and that really gives (the defense) a lot of confidence. When they're playing that well, we know that even if our opponent makes a big play, that our offense will keep us in the game."
On the performance of the defense in the second half: "I think we showed where our defense is headed. Obviously, we are young and we're still inexperienced. We've only played three games this season and some of the guys have only played three games in their (collegiate) careers. Our performance in the second half really showed what we are capable of doing and what you can expect down the road."
On SDSU's defensive adjustments that led to his interception:
"Our defense had to make adjustments heading into the second half. (Portland State) kept running us on the same route pattern in the first half. They were doing a great job of pushing me out on the flat and then hitting the open spots. Coach Elliott made a great adjustment that ended up putting me right there to make the play."
On the impact of his interception:
"It was definitely a big play. Forcing takeaways is the biggest emphasis on our defense. We call turnovers `takeaways' because it's an active word. We take the ball away from the (opponent) and its never given to us. "