Oct. 22, 2016
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San Diego State-San Jose State Postgame Quotes
October 21, 2016
Postgame Quotes
SDSU head coach Rocky Long
On the play of the defense:
"I think all three aspects of our team played pretty good tonight. I thought the defense played well. It showed a lot of intensity down there when the game was out of hand that our players did not want them to score. I thought that was kind of neat. I want to emphasize this: when the offense does well, it's because the defense has put them in a good field position. We were allowed to play pretty good defense here number one because the team doesn't have the ball as much as they do when you're a defense with a different type of offense that's one-two-three and punt. I think it all goes together. We'll play some better offensive teams as the season goes on but (the defense) has played pretty good the last three weeks."
On how players have adapted to changes on defense:
"We try to put our players in the best position possible to make them successful so the defense we're running this year, it has some slight adjustments to take advantage of certain people's talents. It also has to do with what kind of offenses we're playing against, too. We're not playing any triple option teams so you can adjust your defense differently if you're playing triple option teams. It'd be different than it is right now because you'd have to get ready for those kind of teams. But we try to take who our best players are and we try to work our defense to take advantage of the talents."
On junior tight end David Wells:
"I think he was pretty good last week, too. I think what's happening is that in play action pass, you have to give them credit, the other teams' DBs are concentrating on the wide receivers. The tight ends are getting lost because the tight ends block down so much to somebody that might covering him, it looks like a block then he runs downfield and by the time the DB realizes he's running a pass route, he's five or six yards behind. Us being able to run the ball as well as we do allows the tight ends to sneak a bootleg and then sneak back across and they're open a lot of the time. I think the defenses we're playing are not looking in the backfield as much. The tight end blocks down so much in our offense that they can't tell the difference between a down block and a crossing route. David catches the ball well. Then he turns around and finds the nearest tackler and tries to run over him. It's not all bad. But every once in a while, you'd like to see him make somebody miss."
On sophomore safety Parker Baldwin's role since Na'im McGee's injury:
"He played quite a bit last year as a true freshman and this year, we alternated him and Na'im quite a bit. Na'im played probably two-thirds of the snaps and Parker played a third of the snaps so we already had confidence in him so (his play) is not a surprise. He's playing in more plays so he has to be in a little better shape and we're doing some things now with him that we didn't do before. If you say him, he blitzed off the edge two or three times tonight and we hadn't done that with him before. We'd done it with Na'im but we hadn't done it with him before, so that was a little new to him. But he's getting a lot more reps in practice, too."
On the targeting penalty assessed with relation to Donnel Pumphrey:
"I think that we can sit here and discuss the rule all we want. I don't like the rule because I think that's part of football. But by the rule, that was targeting. The ball was already hitting the ground before the guy took three steps and went helmet to helmet. If you're going to have a rule, you've got to call that one. I'm really happy they overturned the other one because the kid was just trying to make a play and then it was a bang-bang deal and their helmets ran together. That wasn't targeting; it has to be on purpose. The one on DJ looked like it was on purpose to me. They might've called a personal foul even way back but they wouldn't have kicked the game out of the game."
On the team's improvement as of late:
"I think the last three weeks, we've improved every week. I think that our team is a confident football team. They can't get too confident."
On SDSU becoming bowl eligible:
"I've been places where you were begging to be bowl eligible. I've been places where it came to the very last game; if you won it, you got to go to a bowl game. If you didn't, you didn't. Just because we happen to be bowl eligible now and it's early and everybody around here doesn't think that's a big deal, it's a big deal to me and it's a big deal to our team, that we've qualified for a bowl already."
SDSU senior running back Donnel Pumphrey
On the hit he took that led to the targeting penalty:
"That was really all my fault, because once I beat the corner off the break I am supposed to stack on top of him. The ball is supposed to be outside, but I did not stack on top of him, which led to the ball being inside, and went up for the ball and it was a big hit. That was a great hit on his part; that's football. I would love for him to be in the game still, to be honest. It was just a big hit, that's all. That's why we wear helmets."
On being fired up after the targeting penalty:
"Not really; I was just excited. That was one of the first big hits that I've had since I've been here. I was able to score on the next play actually, thanks to my awesome lineman, fullbacks, and everybody else that blocked."
On offense taking step forward from last game:
"Oh yeah, we were definitely able to finish this game. There was a lot more passing. We started out 9-for-10; that's great on our part. That means me and Chapman were able to sell great fakes, and get guys open. That's going to help us a lot in the long run, being able to have a balance of each."
On David Wells' success:
"That's my roommate so I love that he is able to make big plays for us. That's two weeks in a row that he's leading receiver. Good job for him. He got his first career touchdown, congratulations to him."
On junior running back Rashaad Penny having a big game:
"Makes my job way easier; we are able to stay fresh. Whenever I'm tired he's able to leave off right where I left off. He had a big game today. That long run shows what type of player he is, and that's Penny for you."
On San Diego State's defense:
"They're very aggressive. Just seeing them in practice is unbelievable. To see how they get after the ball, because on their side of the ball it's like a scrimmage at practice for them. Our offense is just out there hanging out and running plays, and they're out there really scrimmaging. It shows in the game. (San Jose State's) quarterback was having a hard time being able to see guys get open and taking sacks all game."
SDSU senior linebacker Austin Wyatt-Thayer
On San Jose State only scoring three points against SDSU:
"As long as they don't get a touchdown. Zero points is always the way we want to go. We haven't had a touchdown scored on us in conference, so that's one of our goals we look forward to every week and we accomplished that, so that's a big deal for us."
On defensive pride now compared to two weeks ago:
"We take a lot of pride in that. It's not something we obsess about, but it's something we talk about. In the game, even when they're driving down the field or something like that, we talk about how we have to stop them. I'd say our defense is really coming together. Like I said, in conference we haven't been scored on, but I would say it's more of an attitude adjustment. We came out a lot more fired up trying to put teams out."
On becoming more comfortable with defense:
"Randy Ricks was a big part of our defense, especially with the pass rush and things like that. I am coming in a lot on third-downs for pass and things like that. But each of us linebackers have things that were really good at, so I'm just glad that I could plug in somewhere."
SDSU junior tight end David Wells
On early success in game and first touchdown:
"It was awesome. I love catching the ball, I love doing my job. It just so happened that I was blessed enough to be able to go ahead and catch, I don't know how many I had, maybe 4 or 5, and the touchdown. But you know, it was awesome. It was a lot of fun doing that."
On approach to this game:
"We were kind of talking this week more about how I can get lost when we're doing those play-action passes, when [sophomore quarterback Christian Chapman]'s rolling out and stuff like that. So, I was just trying to make sure do my job and I was just able to get over to the middle of the field, and get into his line of vision so that he could possibly get me a ball. It's awesome, I'm very thankful I was able to catch those balls today."
On senior running back Donnel Pumphrey scoring after big hit:
"That's just something DJ does. He's a playmaker, and if gets hit he loves it, he embraces it and he goes out and makes plays. So getting hit probably sparked him up a little bit, and made him get going a little bit. So it was nice to see, and nice to see him get another touchdown out of that."
San Jose State Head Coach Ron Caragher
Opening Statement:
"Frustrating night for the Spartans. I thought we had a good week of practice preparing for (the game) and I wouldn't do it differently. I thought we got after it. We had a quick turnaround; we played Saturday night and Sunday we had to prepare our game plan for a Monday morning practice. Guys came out and had good energy, good attitude, and I thought we had a good Tuesday and Wednesday. That's 'Part A', that's laying the foundation for success. 'Part B' is we have to come out and we have to play on game night. I thought the defense; early on there was some opportunities to take advantage of and I think that early on we didn't. Defense did a good job, three-and-outed them and so forth, but offensively we didn't move the chains enough that you have to do to be successful. They're a good team, they're very solid. They'll be competing for the conference championship, but I don't think the discrepancy should have been what it was. I thought we shot ourselves in the foot from an execution standpoint, so that was frustrating. They're a good team and I told the guys we have to be able to move on next week because we can't let that linger and drag on. You have to be able to bounce back."
On San Jose State's defensive effort:
"They had some long runs and that's a shame, that's a crying shame. Defensively we did a good job of containing the ball. The guys tackled (SDSU running back Donnel Pumphrey) and hit him pretty good and stripped the football. Other than one loose seam, I thought we played pretty good against him. He's going to get his yards when you give the guy the ball 30 times, but I thought we played pretty good. We tackled, we swarmed, just sometimes there was a crease there that he got a couple runs and (Rashaad) Penny had a couple of runs as well."
On San Diego State running back Donnel Pumphrey:
"He's a good player, I thought we did a good job tackling him. He had a couple squirts through there for touchdowns, but there a lot of tackles for losses or zero gains and he's one of the better running backs in the country."
San Jose State sophomore linebacker Frank Ginda
On San Jose State's defensive effort:
"I thought the defense came out good, they came out ready to play. I thought we did a good job stopping Donnel (Pumphrey) for a while, until he started breaking out. We just have to stay in our fits a little longer and not allow him to squirt out."
On trying to tackle San Diego State running back Donnel Pumphrey:
"He's a good player. It's hard tackling him because you never know where he's going to cut. You have to play smart and play low so that he doesn't make a quick move on you."
San Jose State senior quarterback Kenny Potter
On San Jose State's offensive execution:
"We didn't execute early on, got ourselves in long down distances early and shot ourselves in the foot a few times. We took ourselves out of the game. As quick as that happened it was 21-3 and we just couldn't dig out of the hole. Props to them, they are a really good football team, obviously as they shown throughout the year, but that score doesn't show how good of a football team we are."