Oct. 25, 2008
Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery
SDSU-CSU Postgame Quotes
Colorado State at San Diego State - Oct. 25, 2008
SDSU Head Coach Chuck Long
Opening statement:
"I'm very proud of our effort tonight, especially coming off of last week's loss. The team really showed some heart and some guts tonight. Ryan Lindley, Atiyyah Henderson and Tyler Campbell had an excellent game tonight. I liked the way our team answered the bell each time. It's been a while since we've done that."
On the defense:
"We still need to learn to close the deal. We have not done that yet with this team, but I'm encouraged about what I saw tonight."
On the loss:
"It's a tough loss. It's a tough pill to swallow. I told the guys in the locker room that we're going to get up tomorrow and come back fighting again. We're going to have another good week of practice, like we did last week. The credit goes to the captiains and leaders of this team for getting us ready to play tonight after the loss last week."
On the future of the team:
"I just love this football team and their resolve. I know we're going to get better and better and start closing deals. We haven't answered the bell like we did tonight in a while. We've fallen behind and we've stayed behind. I just like the way our guys kept coming back when we did get down. It's a sign of growth especially because that hadn't happened too much. This is a new team and a young team. I'm very encouraged. I know this team will eventually turn a corner for our program. We're going to build these guys. I'm looking forward to next week's practice."
On Lindley's interception:
"Ryan had a nice night. I always tell the guys that it doesn't come down to one play. There are a lot of plays in a game that can win or lose a football game. Lindley certainly had an excellent night. He answered a lot of bells tonight when we were behind. But Lindley took it hard, as any quarterback would. We've all been in those situations and the best thing for Ryan is to grow from that. Tomorrow he'll come in with his head held high and we'll move on to the next game. That's a sign of leadership."
SDSU Player Quotes
Senior offensive lineman Mike Schmidt
On SDSU's rushing attack:
"Going into the game we had a good game plan to run against them. The game plan said we were going to run against them. As an offensive line we took that as a challenge. You have to credit to those (running) backs. Atiyyah (Henderson) was running well and Tyler (Campbell) was running well, too."
On running up the middle:
"It was opening up in the middle a lot because of all of the perimeter stuff we do with our offense. All we had to do was lock up on our guys and we did a pretty good job of that.
"As a player, you do what's called. Every play is supposed to work. Running the ball is nice. I think we had a good balance tonight and I think that helped us out."
Senior linebacker Russell Allen
On the game:
"I think we showed some great resiliency tonight, obviously some great heart. Coming off a tough week, we showed that we have no quit in us. We fought hard for 60 minutes tonight. That's something we have failed to do all season long. I think that as tough as it is after a game like that when you feel like you have a chance to win and you don't, there are some positives to take away from this (game). I think we definitely showed that no matter what, we are going to keep fighting. We have four games left and we're going to play hard. It's tough and that's football. A game is 60 minutes long and they had more points than we did at the end. That's the way it goes sometimes."
Redshirt freshman quarterback Ryan Lindley
On SDSU's offense:
"I didn't misread. I just kind of forced it in there. I mean, we were taking a shot. Just with the momentum, I felt excited. I thought we could've made something happen. But, you know, it's a lesson learned. You just have to take what they give you, and we did most of the night. We did a good job, it's just getting a little too anxious. I need to come back down and get an immediate route.
"It's rough. We had a very good chance of winning the ball game. Tyler (Campbell) made a nice play, the play before with the catch and run. But coach told me, you have to look at everything else. There were about 59 positives in that game and about one negative. You have to look at the positives and how they outweigh the negative and go on and learn from there."
Junior Running Back Atiyyah Henderson
On the positives of the game:
"It gives us a lot of momentum going into next week. Like coach said, all we can do is get ready tomorrow and get ready to look at film, at all the mistakes that we made and put this loss behind us and move forward."
Colorado State Head Coach Steve Fairchild
On the game:
"Defensively we hung in there. We gave up a little more than we like with the run. We did give up a few big plays. We'll take a look at the tape. The thing I'm most proud of is this, we won this game defensively. We were on the field at the end of the game on defense and kept fighting, and they found a way to make that play and turn the ball over."
On running the ball:
"(San Diego State) had no success running the ball. I didn't think their rushing stats going in was close to what they got tonight. So obviously we have to look at it. A little of it was tackling, a little of it was alignment. Give them some credit, they blocked us, but we'll go to work on that. But we played well enough to win, and that' s the only thing that counts."
On next week at BYU:
"I haven't watched much of this week's games. But I'll let them them enjoy this a bit and then we'll get back to work on BYU tomorrow."