Sept. 7, 2010
San Diego State Football Weekly Press Conference
Aztec Athletics Center
Head Coach Brady Hoke
Opening Comments:
"It was good to win. We said that last Saturday night. It's always good to win - it's better than the alternative. As we looked at the tape and looked at where we were, there are some things on both sides of the ball that we need to do better. There are some things in the kicking game that obviously, we can't miss a field goal and miss an extra point. But in all areas, the improvement that we have to make if we want to win the championship, we have to make a lot of this week. We look forward to going to Las Cruces. They are a much improved football team. Not seeing them (play) last week there are some unknowns, because they have a lot of new faces on their roster when you look at their junior college transfer guys. They have a new coordinator on offense, who has been a very good coordinator at four different spots and does a great job. (NMSU) Coach (DeWayne) Walker is a tremendous defensive coach, so we have our work cut out for us as we head down there."
On NMSU offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar and what to expect from his offense:
"He coached with (Aztec assistant) Dan Ferrigno at Cal. They were on the same staff together. You look at a lot of things that they did at Minnesota and some things from his Northwestern days. He's had his system in place, but he's also a guy who looks at the personnel he has and make some decisions there."
On if playing against a 4-3 defense for the second consecutive week will help the offense:
"We had practiced all fall camp on what we thought Nicholls would run out of the 4-3 and they ran a totally different defense. You (have to) go back to your fundamentals and techniques. From an offensive and defensive perspective, there are rules ingrained in every play and certain fundamentals that you want to take when you look at your footwork, your combination blocks and when you're doing all those things."
On making adjustments to a new defensive scheme by an opponent in the middle of a game:
"It tells you a lot about what was done on the sideline to a certain degree. Darrell Funk, our offensive line coach, and his communications with Al (Borges) and Jeff (Hecklinski) upstairs, Brian (Sipe) and Mac (LeCharls McDaniel) on the sideline with the receivers was something our guys handled very well."
On if he pointed out to the players the negative things that happened last Saturday:
"When we met on Sunday and looked at the film, we talked about this missed assignment or your fundamentals here were wrong or whatever it might have been. (We talked) about the disappointment of kicking field goals when you get in the red zone instead of punching the ball in, you can't do that and win championship games."
On who the standouts were on Saturday:"I think (defensive lineman) Neil Spencer really played well. It was nice, because he hadn't played football for two years in a game. It was nice for him and nice for us. It really gives us a good body defensively up front. Offensively, Nico (Dominique Sandifer) had a really steady game in what he did and I think Gavin Escobar is a guy that you can see his athleticism and his ball skills as a tight end and the potential he has. I thought our kickoffs were tremendous, which we thought that Abel (Perez) would give us, which in turn made our coverage better."
Senior Defensive Back Andrew Preston
On New Mexico State:
"Looking at the film, they have a new offensive coordinator. We're looking at Minnesota's film from two years ago. It looks like they spread the ball around quite a bit. So defensively in the secondary, we are definitely looking forward to the challenge. Last week, we were almost disappointed that we didn't get tested because we were really looking forward to showing what we've been working for all offseason and all during camp. We're excited."
On getting the first game out of the way:
"Any time you can get the first game out of the way, it's good to kind of get the first-game jitters out and get a feel for how everybody is defensively in a real-game situation. Getting in any live tackling is good for us, but yeah, we weren't really test that much, the (Nicholls State) quarterback didn't throw the ball down field. We're just looking forward to showing what we`ve been working for."
On his first game at the Aztec position:
"It was good. I didn't get as much action as I wanted. I wasn't in on as many plays I think I should have. Coach Long coached me up on some things that I need to work on and next week, hopefully, I can show some more things. I really think our defensive line and linebackers did a great job last week and they really bottled a lot of things up. A lot of things didn't get back to me."
On the defense:
"When we came into the locker room at halftime, Coach Long got on us for not making plays like he knows we are capable of. He's watched us all offseason and he really expected to see something different and we know what we are capable of and we know we can show better things than what we showed on the field out there. Any time you shut a team out, no matter what team it is, whether they're Division I or Division I-AA, it's a good thing. But I really think you'll see some improvement within in each position and guys are really going to go after New Mexico State."
Junior Quarterback Ryan Lindley
On Nicholls State's defense:
"We were actually preparing last week for a base set and they came out and showed a little more 30 stuff than we thought we'd see, but it was good. The guys adapted and we kind of went with the flow as the game went on and kind of transferred things over. I think it just depends. You have to prepare every week for what a different team brings. I am sure Coach Borges will dial up some different stuff that we can use against (New Mexico State)."
On continuing to get better:
"I think it's something, like you said before, we can be happy about winning the game and the things we did right, but at the same time, we don't get complacent at all, especially not the first game of the year. You want to continue to improve every week. I think it's one thing where you look at the film on Sunday and it's never as bad as it seems and it's never as good as it seems. I think there are a lot of things that we looked at that we left a lot of yards and a lot of points on the board. Even though we played pretty well, I think there are some things we can execute better and become more efficient as an offense."
Senior Wide Receiver Vincent Brown
On if he expects man-to-man coverage:"Yeah, we watched film and they had a lot of man-up coverages. They do press a lot and that's something we'll be working toward this week."
On the offense:
"I think we flowed pretty good. We came out and showed some things that we've been working on during the offseason. I think the offense picked up a lot. We got the running game going and got a lot of good passes too. We've just been picking it up.
"We were able to show what we can do on both sides of the ball. Ronnie (Hillman) did a good job. The line, everybody, did a good job. With the DeMarco (Sampson) we got his big plays and that's just something that happened within the offense. That's something we can show and improve on and just keep going to work."
On the importance of being able to run and pass the ball:
"It shows that we can be more dynamic and we can have a two-dimensional offense. We don't want to just be able to pass the ball. We don't want to just be able to run the ball. We want to be able to do both and attack defenses from both sides and that's something we were able to show during the game."