Sept. 15, 2009
SDSU Weekly Football Press Conference Quotes
Aztec Athletics Center
SDSU Head Coach Brady Hoke
Opening Statement:
Obviously it's good to win. That's why you've worked so hard since January and the kids have done a great job with that and the work ethic. The ball game was probably a little off-balance to some degree. You can't turn the ball over and we don't expect to turn the ball over. We had 8 penalties in there, a couple of them aggressive penalties that we can deal with. But those procedure penalties, and those kinds of penalties, holding penalties to some degree when you're not moving your feet, are things that we've got to get corrected. Overall I thought our guys played with effort and we had better intensity. Idaho's a much better team than the one we just played. We've got our work cut out for us.
On whether he felt the played a better game at UCLA despite the loss than against Souther Utah.
I think there are some indicators that maybe we did in some respects. We missed 6 tackles against UCLA. We missed 11+ right near 14 against Southern Utah. Southern Utah had some good football players, but at the same time UCLA has some pretty good football players. We just have to have a better intensity in getting hats to the ball.
On what he see's is the difference between playing with effort and playing with intensity.
I thing there are a lot of different factors: Number 1 when you're intense about something that you do, you're going to have a real focus and a real energy towards it. I thought when you are watching at the point of attack, a couple of times we didn't finish blocks and when we had holes there, they filled too quickly. So that's a matter of either intensity or how your habits are, how you're going to focus and finish. Defensively, as we looked at it, we thought we have to get a few more guys to the football. We didn't do that as well as we'd like to. The penalties before the ball snap are things that, that's paying attention to detail. That's doing a good job of really focusing and then having that intensity.
On the lack of push in the fourth quarter as opposed to earlier in the game.
One of our team goals is to win the fourth quarter. When you don't do that you've got a higher percentage and a chance to lose. What we did on Sunday as a defense is Rocky took the drive right before the end of the 1st half and looked at the 7 or 8 plays that were in there as they moved the ball down the field and then you look at the 4 plays from the 2-yard line and there was a drastic difference in our minds of the intensity that we played with. That's all part of it, and winning the fourth quarter is a huge goal for us because when you do that, you have a good chance of winning.
On his impressions of Idaho after watching film.
They're a good football team. Robb Akey has done a tremendous job and they have a tremendous staff. A lot of those guys have been coaching a long time. They've done a good job of recruiting. You look at the New Mexico State game from an offensive perspective, and they run for 171, and then at Washington they throw for 349. You talk about a team that when you look at the quarterback, I think he is a very good football player, big strong-arm guy who does a nice job of throwing the ball down the field, getting off the launch, pointing some, and some of the boots and nakeds they do, he makes good decisions. You look at the offensive line, who is a really big physical group and you go back from last year and look at you know how they're coached, and you know how they want to own the line of scrimmage and change the line of scrimmage. They're athletic at the wide receiver and at the tight end, Hardy, Number 88, is a really productive tight end, very athletic and can get in the seams. Defensively, they've got 2 tackles that I think do a nice job of doing their job of eating up blocks and getting after it. When you look at the secondary, Number 10, he makes all the tackles and he plays and he's also a great punt returner. I think you look at them as a football team, they're well coached and they play with a real physicalness to them on both sides of the ball.
On what they can take from last year's game vs. Idaho and put into this Saturday
It's a different offense. Obviously Vince[nt Brown] had a pretty good day and he's had some pretty good days this year. We're going to be who are; we're not going to manufacturer things that were done a year ago because the style is different. We've got to be able to run the football, obviously. When you look at time of possession and the ability to run the ball and how it opens up some other things that you want to do offensively. So that'll be a big part of it.
On where the line is drawn between celebrating after a win and getting back to work on mistakes that need to be corrected.
Win or lose, that's what our Sunday's for. Obviously, you don't want a team to beat you twice when you do lose. It's always better to correct mistakes after a win. It's just nicer for everybody, but at same point you have to, as a team, improve every week. If you don't improve every week, you're gonna stay the same or go backwards and both of those aren't acceptable. We've got to improve on how we play in many areas, have to improve our kick game, we've got to improve in how our kickoff returned, you look at part of it. We've got to do a better job. You look at the defensive line, we've got to do a better job reacting to some 3-step routes, and take on blocks. You're never going to play perfect game, as much as you want to. But no one's ever done it and no one's going to do it so we just got to keep chipping away and the mentality we want to play with, the accountability we want to play with.
On whether he was happy on how the team reacted towards the game.
Sure. I think as we got in the locker room, they had a sense that we didn't play as well as we're capable of and we have to keep making improvements and I think that they really felt that and they really understood that on Sunday.
Sophomore quarterback Ryan Lindley
On whether timing will be affected by the crowd noise in a dome and how important nonverbal communication will be.
I think with the receivers it's actually a lot easier. They're in a position where they're kind of the ball out wide where they can really just look off ball and not really have to worry about timing, and getting off and they can get off at the snap of the ball. Where I think it will be tough if anywhere will be at the lines, with the tackles making sure tackle to tackle they can all hear the cadence. That's the only thing I think that we make sure we do.
On Idaho's offense.
They're a much-improved team. They've made a lot of improvements in the offseason. They're a lot better team than we faced last year. I think Corey can go in and Coach Borges definitely has some good stuff dialed up for us. We just need to execute, practice, and be ready for Saturday.
Senior linebacker Luke Laolagi
On how the defense played against Southern Utah.
It's always great to win, but we didn't feel like . . .we could have done a lot more. We're just going to take that into this week's preparation and we're just going to build on that.