Oct. 11, 2016
Coach Long | Student-Athletes | Quotes | Gameday Central
San Diego State Football Press Conference Quotes
October 11, 2016
SDSU head coach Rocky Long
Opening Statement:
"With the short week and playing in a rivalry game, it's a little different than it has been over the last few weeks. We're only having one padded practice this week; we normally have at least two. We have to get a game plan in in one less day and we're traveling to where I think is one of the better home field advantage stadiums in our league. It's going to be a challenge, like always."
On this game being the Battle of the Oil Can:
"We have it right now so we'll take it with us. I'm sure it'll be some place on the sideline and the team that wins it will pick it up. I think the players take pride in having it. I know our players were excited about getting it last year and I'm sure their players are excited about getting it back. We showed it to them. They don't know the story. We tell them the story that it's supposedly the oil can of when they took busses over the hill and had to fill it with oil to get back over the hill to Fresno. We tell them that story. I don't know if they believe that or even care but they care about the oil can. They care about trophies and it's a trophy. It's just a little different looking trophy, that's all."
On what the team changed from the South Alabama game to the UNLV game:
"I think we played harder. We made fewer assignment errors and made more plays in coverage. It's just about players playing. I don't think it had anything to do special with game plan or anything else. I think our players played at a higher level than they did up to that point. It's players playing better."
On using both Donnel Pumphrey and Rashaad Penny at running back:
"I think that's what we do every week. We go into the game anticipating running the ball most of the time and usually with more than one running back. (Offensive coordinator) Coach (Jeff) Horton has done that since he's been in charge of the offense. They've always used more than one running back. Since the two different players' styles complement one another, I think it makes it difficult on a defense. I don't think we've changed our philosophy. We're going into the game with the exact same philosophy on offense."
On SDSU's special teams:
"I thought the two field goals were very important in us maintaining momentum. Even though statistically we were winning the game on the scoreboard, it was very, very close. In fact, I was very concerned at half time because we had played so well in the first half and we were only ahead by six, that's kind of worrisome. Obviously, (John Baron II's) kicks were important. We had a couple pretty nice punt returns that gave us some field position for the offense. Whenever you win, normally, it's a total team effort. It's hard to win and overcome one side of the ball. When the special teams play poorly, it's hard to overcome that."
On what sophomore John Baron II's 48- and 50-yard field goals meant to his confidence:
"I think it'll help his confidence but I don't think he was hurting for confidence anyway. Anybody that can kick a 48-yarder and a 51-yarder, they're pretty confident guys when they walk out there. They're obviously anticipating making it and they've done it in practice so they have confidence. I think, and I've said this before, I ought to find out the exact facts. He's not just a kicker, he's a competitor. He only started kicking in high school because the coach saw him playing soccer and asked him to come out and kick some extra points for them. But he was a soccer player so it's not just that he's a kicker; he was a competitive soccer player in his younger days."
On junior punt returner Quest Truxton and the difference between punt and kick returns:
"I think he's done well. It's an interesting deal with kick returners. The good ones have a natural feel for doing it and they're comfortable doing it. Rashaad Penny is very comfortable doing it and he's got a natural feel for doing it. Quest has a natural feel for punt returns. There are very few guys that do both because it's a completely different situation. You can actually drop a kick off and pick it up and go 100-something yards. You drop a punt, you're going to get hit and everybody is going to be mad at you. It's a different philosophy and mental preparation and there are very few guys that do both. Quest has a natural feel for it and likes doing it and he's got some athletic ability so it gives him a chance to be pretty good at it.
"The most important thing about being a punt returner is catching the ball. It's like being a deep snapper. The most important thing about being a deep snapper is getting it to the punter. It doesn't matter if he can cover a punt or make a tackle. All that matters is if he can get it back to the punter. Well, punt returner doesn't ever matter if he has a return, as long as he catches it every time and prevents them from getting extra yardage by letting it hitting the ground and rolling or letting it drop. All that other stuff comes into effect if you have a great deep snapper and he can tackle and cover, that's a bonus. If you have a punt returner who can catch it and make some extra yards after he catches it, that's a bonus."
On the similarities between punt and kick returners and receivers:
"I think receivers are very much the same. If he can catch the ball, that's darn good because where he's catching the ball can give you plus yardage or first downs and all that. If he can do something after he catches it, that's a bonus. It doesn't matter how many yards you get if you fumble and give the other team the ball inside your 30-yard line, that hurts success."
On the development of Rashaad Penny's first quarter touchdown:
"There are plays that work once or twice and don't work in the same game and there are slow developing plays. A slow developing play only works when called in the right situation because there are so many things that can go wrong with a slow developing play. On the touchdown, we thought they were going to be in man coverage and if you play man coverage and don't blitz with it, you've got time to do that. If there would've been a blitz coming, that ball would've never gotten off. When you have those kind of plays you have to call them in the right situation and they have to be executed correctly but you better call them against the right defense. If you're playing two deep zone defense, that play doesn't work either. That's where all of the studying and computer work comes in where you can kind of predict what you're going to get on defense and offense in a certain situation. Same on defense. If you can be pretty sure of what play they're going to run, I promise you, we'll stop it. It's the same deal. You try to study the film and you get a feel for what kind of plays they're going to run in certain situations and then you can come up with kind of the right defense most of the time. Those kind of slow developing plays, you've got to call those plays at the right time where you can anticipate what the defense is going to do. They work when you're right; they don't work when you're wrong."
On redshirt sophomore quarterback Christian Chapman:
"This week, we went simpler with Christian and he played better. It wasn't as simple as the game plan was last year in his two starts but I think our coaches decided we were giving him too much to think about and he didn't play well in two games. Not that it's as simple as it was last year but they made it simpler this last game for him and obviously, he played very well. You can make it way too difficult on the defense, too, where they have to adjust things and I catch myself doing that at times. We try to call 'the perfect defense', which is by formation, when you line up in here and you motion this guy, we change a defense. You flip a back from one side to the other, you change the defense. With college players, sometimes you confuse them and they don't play as well and you're better off with them not being confused, even if the other team knows what they're doing."
On playing a Friday night game:
"This is a short week but it's a short week for them, too. After this week, since our Friday night games are back-to-back-to-back, the next two weeks are a normal week, just different days, so it actually works out okay."
On associate head coach and special teams coordinator Bobby Hauck:
"I think it's important to have a great special teams coach. Special teams coaches will say it's a third of the game. It's not. There aren't as many plays on special teams are there are on offense or defense in a normal game. But there are more momentum shifts in special teams than there are in any other part of the game. A kickoff return for a touchdown is a huge momentum shift. A blocked punt is an unbelievable momentum shift. A punt return that takes them down for a touchdown or gives great field position to the offense, those are huge momentum shifts. A dropped punt is a huge momentum shift. There are more momentum shifts in the kicking game compared to offense and defense, especially compared to how many plays there are. A guy that runs the special teams is very important for a lot of reasons. If you don't give the other team momentum, anything you do extra helps you win."
On Fresno State:
"Their biggest problem has been in consistency. They're a really talented football team that plays really well at times and sooner or later, they're going to put a game together where they play an entire game to their ability and when they do that, they could beat anybody. But they've been inconsistent in things. Fumbles have hurt them, turnovers have hurt them. They want to be a 50/50 team. They have a couple really good running backs. Their offensive line is pretty good. They've got the best set of receivers we've seen since we played Cal. Their quarterback at times misses receivers and at times throws darts. At defense, they're big up front, they run pretty good at linebacker. They have a pretty talented football team that hasn't played well to this point. We just played one two weeks ago the exact same way: a very talented football team that did not play very well until they played us and then they played well and we didn't play well and they beat us."
On penalties against UNLV:
"I thought we did a better job with penalties. There was no question about any late hit penalties or any of those kind and that's all a player can control. There were times when we got an interference call that wasn't an interference but there are times when you're going to get calls like that. There are times when you'll get a holding call because the official happens to see it and thinks that maybe it had something to do with the outcome of the play. If those are the penalties we're getting, we have to overcome those and live with those. The ones where a guy loses control emotionally and makes a dumb penalty, we've got to try preventing those from happening. I think it's unbelievable when you watch the film that UNLV did not get at least one penalty. They got at least 10 of them. Now, we got seven and I can show you at least 20 more that we did, if you're going by the strictest sense. My idea of the best official is one that keeps the game under control and lets the players decide who's going to win."
SDSU junior cornerback Derek Babiash
On his interception against UNLV:
"As a secondary, we knew we had to pick it up 100 percent. We knew that our first couple games, the secondary and the defense wasn't playing to the best of our ability so we got together and talked about playing harder and just making the plays that we're supposed to make."
On the Battle of the Oil Can:
"I'm excited about that. We're excited to have a chance to keep it here and hold on to it from Fresno. It's a trophy and we love competing for trophies out here."
On the impact of associate head coach and special teams coordinator Bobby Hauck:
"He has a great impact on this team, especially in special teams. He really takes control of the special teams room and make sure that everyone knows that special teams is a big part of the game and you can't win the game unless you play great special teams. He has a lot of energy and holds us all accountable for what we're supposed to do. He's a great guy."
SDSU redshirt sophomore quarterback Christian Chapman
On how the game plan changed from the South Alabama game to the UNLV game:
"The coaches made the offense a little more comfortable: plays that I was comfortable making. Me and (SDSU quarterbacks) Coach (Blaine) Morgan just sat down and said, 'what do I have to do to feel comfortable throwing? What do I like the most on third down?' We went over that and I was just more comfortable going in with the game plan and was more confident with what we were doing. Against South Alabama, we were doing a lot of new things, a lot of stuff we hadn't shown before and Coach Morgan thought it would be best for the offense if I was more comfortable and confident."
On playing in a Friday night game:
"Back in high school, you're playing a Friday night game and then on Saturday, you're watching college football so in some ways, it's kind of like high school again."
On how he reacted to the fumble against UNLV:
"I was frustrated. You never want to turn the ball over. It was carelessness on my part. I need to protect the ball more. I just got on the phone with Coach Morgan and he said that I need to leave that in the past and I can't let that affect the next plays we do and I have to come back from it and can't let that affect my future play. When that happens, it's a terrible feeling. I just need to protect the ball better and make sure when I'm in close contact like that to tuck it and take my losses."
SDSU junior tight end David Wells
On the play of the offensive line:
"I think that we got back to running the ball how we wanted to. It took a while to get us going back again. Against NIU and against South Alabama, as a tight end group, we didn't do our best job. It was a focus of us and our coaches this week to make sure we're getting back to what we're doing. We needed to be good in our fundamentals, make sure we were perfect at that, and just coming off the ball with our hair on fire and coming out and hitting them."
On the impact of associate head coach and special teams coordinator Bobby Hauck:
"He coaches hard during practice and that's what we need to do. He makes sure that we know what we need to do each down that we're out there. We have to realize that special teams is a big part of the game. It's a huge momentum shift, especially if something wrong happens so we practice a lot on trying to make it as perfect as possible."