Post-Game Quotes: Arizona State

MICHIGAN STATE

Head Coach Mark Dantonio

Opening statement…

It is very disappointing. The outcome of the football game had a lot of things going on, some things we could control and some things we can't control. Too many missed opportunities when you look at it, just missed opportunities. You got to keep the quarterback in the box and can't allow any scrambles. I think it's fourth-and-15 or fourth-and-14, you can't allow any scrambles. You got to be able to make the tackle and we should be able to do that for less than 14 and the game's over. As the end of the game approaches, making plays when you are down there, make the kick. We find out that we had 12, then we don't have 12, and then we have 12. I don't know. I guess we will look at that. Extremely disappointed and too many missed opportunities. Missed opportunities in the first half and penalties pushed us back or something else pushed us back. We had some big plays in the game, we had over 400 yards of offense, but we don't have the production on that end. There is not enough production points, so it's tough to win a game. We got that touchdown but then had some lapses defensively and had one big play on us. The ball went over our heads and we got to make it tougher for them to do that. Extremely disappointed and I thought the crowd was outstanding. I thought the environment was outstanding and was disappointed for our fans and I take responsibility for that.

On the coaching standpoint of the last 11 seconds…

Initially, we were going to try and take a shot to the end zone, but the clock was going to run, and we didn't have any timeouts and the clock was going to run, so we spiked it. Then the 40 second clock was running, so initially we were trying a shot down there, then I said let's kick it because if we catch the ball the game will probably be over; If we catch the ball and were not in the end zone the game's probably over, so line up and kick it. Our field goal kicker was a little late, you know, sort of watching, so he runs out and the clock is ticking down and still makes the field goal. I'm not sure, though, how we had injuries on the offensive line, and I think one guy stayed in. I'm not sure, I haven't seen the film. I know that they reviewed it and they said it was no foul, then they reviewed it again, so I'm not sure, maybe you guys have seen it. Then we line up again, fix the field goal and they try to hurdle us and that should be a penalty, they call no penalty and it's not reviewable, but that's just to get to overtime. There's a lot of opportunities prior to that that could have won us the football game. I think that they need to take a good hard look at the officiating and that's all I'll say, because there were some disputes out there. That's all I'll say about that, you got to play the game.

On taking the timeouts at the end of the game…

Well, I thought it was going to come down to that last series and we really didn't need that timeout because we would have spiked it anyway to stop the clock, and we also wanted to make sure about the quarterback scrambling. We were trying to look at the formation that they were running and make them change that formation, so we took the timeouts to make sure we were going to line up correctly. We were just trying to make sure we were lined up correctly and figure out if we were going to press or not, how we were going to handle number three on the screen, how we were going to keep the quarterback in the box knowing that he was going to scramble and that's what he did on fourth-and-13. He scrambles for the first down and that should not happen. There's a lot of different things that we need to look at, but a lot of good plays out there, but at the end of the day, you got to win a football game.

On the officiating and the penalties…

Well, I'm not one to stand up here and criticize officials, I never have, so I'll let everybody take a look at those, especially people who should be looking at those. In other words, the officiating groups themselves, I'll let them handle that. I'm not going to follow up on that. There were lot of things that set us back, some were questionable, we get a fumble recovery and I didn't see a flag and then suddenly a flag came out. There are a lot of different things that you could look at. We have to get on to the next challenge and that will be Northwestern, away, with three out of the next four being away games, we will be challenged and have to get ourselves ready.

On an assessment of the offensive line after the injuries…

It's hard to say. I thought our guys played hard and protected the quarterback pretty well. We said they would put a lot of people at the point of attack and they did. We found a couple of completions, ran for a little over a hundred yards but we want to run the ball a little more consistently. We had a fourth-down stop one time which, you know, stopped the drive. Again, we got no points out of that. We had some different things happen like that where we didn't get points in the first half where we had three opportunities across the 50 I believe, or maybe even across the 40; we came away with zero points and that came back to get us. It happened in the second half too. We have the holding call on a punt return; we'll see. We do end up I think scoring on that series. I don't know guys, you know, sometimes you're on the sideline and you're dealing with it; It's a lot easier to see it from afar. It's up close and you're trying to deal with it. It's happening fast.

On the mood in the locker room post-game…

Somber. It was somber in there. Nobody likes to lose. Nobody wants to disappoint anybody. I thought the enthusiasm was very good on the sidelines, I thought we were playing hard; A lot of things going on. As far as the message to our football team, it's another life message. Man, you've got to get up and get off the ground – that's part of it. We've all had difficult days or things that didn't work out for us and the next thing you know you're sort of trying to climb out of a hole a little bit. That's the nature of life and that's what we do. That's coaching; that's teaching. That's football.

On if Matt Coghlin had struggles pre-game…

No. He hit all the balls clean in pre-game. It was windy out there in the first half. First half maybe a little bit more than the second, blowing toward our bench. You know, you're going to miss some. What was he? Eight-for-eight? He's entitled to a miss or so, I guess. It's tough when they…. They all mean so much sometimes so it's difficult.

On the drive with the fourth-and-13…

Yeah we dropped eight on that one, we spied the quarterback so we'd be able to prevent something just like that. They ran double-seams and he got out on the edge. He broke the… It's not the three-man rush that gets busted out, it's the people back there all facing the quarterback so they should be able to rally back to stop him for a 14-yard gain, but I didn't see… Like I said, I saw it at ground-level, I didn't see it on the film so I'm not sure who, what, where, what happened; did he get blocked, did their back turn, what happened? But you got decisions to make: You want to blitz them? You want to pressure them, which is a little bit less than blitzing? You want to four-man rush them? There's a lot of things are going through your mind right there so got to try to make the best decision you can. But there's no way, I don't care what defense you have, fourth-and-14 you've got to stop them. Again, it happened so we deal with it. I thought the call was very close on whether he got in or not, so got to deal with that one too. But we had an opportunity, we came back down the field, Darrell Stewart had a big game. I thought (Brian) Lewerke played pretty well again; made some throws, some big plays out there.

On if he saw anything different from Jayden Daniels late in the game…

No, you know, I think he just made plays – the quarterback. He was throwing the ball pretty well in the first half, early in the game. But going into the last drive, he had 148 yards of offense so they hit one big long one and we got to play better than that one but the rest of it, they scored a nickel and a dime without scrambling the football down… put a couple across us.

On how to keep the division from growing between the defense and offense…

Well I think that the defense gave up a score at the end of the game; that ought to keep them squared away. There's no problem within our locker room in that capacity. Our guys like each other, they know how hard they work. There's little things that stop you along the way, they've got to be fixed. You got to deal with it. Like I said, that's football. There's no division in our locker room. We'll get ready to play, we'll get ourselves ready to play; Go to Northwestern and sometimes it's good to play in different environments so we'll be excited for that as well.

Senior linebacker Joe Bachie

On frustration after getting the lead…
Yeah, I'm obviously frustrated. We had to close the game out. We struggled with it last year and we struggled with it again today.

On the 40-yard play…
I wasn't able to see it, but when I turned around and saw he was trailing, and watching the film, you can't take that position. Hopefully Josh is all right, we need him the rest of the year.

On how difficult it was not being out there during the ending sequence…
You just hope for the best in that situation. You can't do anything about it. I don't know exactly what happened. I'm sure when I watch the film tomorrow, I'll see it then. I don't know if it was the wind the first time and something happened and we missed but hopefully his heads up and we need him as well.

On what the key is for the team…
We need to make sure everyone's heads up. We're going to put this game behind us hopefully quick and move to Northwestern. We've had trouble with them for a couple years now. We have to have our eyes on them. They're going to be a tough team and we better come with a great game.

On eliminating mistakes…
We have to clean up little things. We've got to clean up penalties. We have to contain the quarterback a little bit. We've definitely got to get that figured out and watch the film.

Senior Safety David Dowell

On fumble and 4th down play…
Coach D preaches that all the time. That's any football game. Football games are always going to be close. Those guys are responsible too as far as their mistakes go. We just didn't find them (inches) today and we're just going to figure out why we didn't find them and what we did to get ready for next week.

On similarities to last year…
This is a whole new team. Arizona State has a whole new team so me mentally, I'm not thinking about last year. I'm just focused on this year and the things we didn't do right in this game, we've got to do right for the next game.

On being on the sideline in the last minute…
Like I said, you can control what you can control. Whatever happens after that happens.

On mistakes that made it tough to accept…
No, just because there's other things throughout the game that we didn't do well as a team. It's about focusing on everything from the first play to the last play and then just go from there.

On wanting this victory for Coach D…
A loss is a loss. We have another opportunity to get that win for Coach D next week. That's my whole perspective on that and move onto next week.

Senior Quarterback Brian Lewerke

On frustrating penalties…
Yeah, you know stuff that is hard to control but we have just got to be able to finish drives.

On tonight's problems with finishing drives…
I fumbled away one that probably would have been a touchdown (drive). We get down there and get penalties and pushed back for third and longs which makes things difficult.

On Arizona State's fourth and 13 play…
Things happen and he (Daniels) is a mobile quarterback. He did a good job of moving his feet and I know a little something about that so it was a good play by him.

On where the offense could have capitalized…
There are turning points in games where the defense is going to stop and we had a chance to score and maybe could have opened the game up, but I feel like today we just kept getting more penalties, which put us in a bad spot.

Senior Defensive Tackle Raequan Williams

On the final defensive drive…
A few of those plays… inside, at least, we lost our footing and he took advantage. We knew that coming in, he was going to be a good quarterback on making plays last long and that hurt us on that last drive. We have got to play a little better on our last drive. We lost two interior guys on two key plays just to losing footing. It is on us.

On possible frustration…
There is no frustration. Like I said, the week before they put up 50 points so we know how they come in and they work just like the defense works. We all come in and play hard and we all come in every day and work hard. There is no frustration other than the loss, but we all are out here working and trying.

On the message to send to the team as a captain…
Definitely. I already have thought about that… as soon as we missed that field goal at the end my first thing was that it can always get worse. I was here when we were 3-9 so I have to make sure we are still up. We are still a good team with good players and we have to make sure no one loses confidence.

On final Arizona State scoring drive…
It hurt. We knew he was going to be the guy. We knew what type of quarterback we had and we had to contain him better to win that game. It is on us.

ARIZONA STATE

Arizona State Head Coach Herm Edwards

Opening Statement…
"Obviously, the game was similar to what it was last year, except we were up three to nothing instead of them. The mindset for our football team was simple, don't allow the emotion of the stadium to get to us early. That's what happened to us the last two games that these guys have played. If we could just withstand that first-quarter barrage from the fan base and their football team, we thought that we could make it a methodical game and we'd have a chance. It ended up turning out that way.

Now, we were fortunate to get a couple of plays here and there, but in those kinds of games, that's what happens. You just go back and forth, and field position is critical. This game kind of played out like last year's game, to be honest. There were a lot of similar things that happened. Fouls were big in this game, fouls were big, boy. They prevented drives and players; giving other people other opportunities. Our kids did a great job of coming on the road and playing a really, really good football team. Coach (Dantonio) has built a heck of a program here and I can't say enough about him and his football team. They're tough and physical. We were going to have to play that way if we were going to have a chance to beat them. The foul at the end and they missed some kicks. Our kicker has been really good, he's made some kicks. It was interesting, it kind of got down to the kicking game. We're fortunate, we've got a lot of work to do. Offensively, we knew that it was going to be very difficult to run the football. We came in with a plan to get it out of our quarterback's hands fast because they can hit the quarterback, they hit him a couple of times. But, the kid did good, boy, the kid did good. He made a lot of plays with his legs, I think that's surprising to a lot of people; his ability to run, and he's a smart runner. On that last drive when I talked to him, I said, "Here it is", he looked at me and said, "Coach, I got us". So, I said, "Ok, let's go" and he did some things with his legs. He basically made a lot of first downs, a big third down, and a fourth down. He's going to be a good player one day. So, we're fortunate we got us a win and now we've got to get ready for Pac-12 play, as they say."

On Jaydan Daniels' performance…
"Well, the more that we see of him play, and he's not a senior, he's a freshman, this is his third game as a collegiate athlete. The first one, he won a game on the road. So, it says a lot about his potential. But, he needs help, he can't do it by himself. We've got to get better on offense, we know that. We started a left tackle as a freshman and a guard, 28 freshman played today. I don't want that overlooked; I want us to understand that. There's going to be some times when errors are made because of a lack of experience. But, I think as you're trying to build a program, which is what I'm here to do. I'm proud of him. This is a tough place to play, I mean this is a tough place. They never blinked, they just didn't. The score was what it was. When they scored, we went "Ok, we'll get the ball back..' I know how our coordinator Danny (Gonzales) feels. You'll hear from him, I know he's mad at them at the end because he just wanted to be done with it and get off the field. They made some plays, they've got some good players. At the end, I'm asking him, "Ok, we're going to overtime, what do you want to do?" and he said, "I want to play defense coach" and I said, "Ok" and low and behold, there's a foul and the kid misses the field goal and we don't go to overtime."

On defensive strategies…
"A couple of things. For one, we felt like our back end could match up with them in man coverage. Danny did a good job of doing some things schematically up front to rush the quarterback. We just felt like we could match up against them. We have a pretty good secondary and we just said this is what we're going to do. We just felt like we had enough guys back there. We didn't always do it right, but that's the strength of our defense, our secondary. We've got some athletes back there. The more situations they play in, the more they'll improve. We got to improve, the guy had 209 yards passing. But, I think in the end, we had to make some plays and we were able to do that."

On if coming off two close wins helped the team in this game…
"No doubt. I lived my life this way in Tampa. Now, we had four Hall of Famers on defense, but it was 10-3, 9-6 and every once in a while we'd score a touchdown and it might be 13-7. But, it's hard to win that way, especially in college football because of the rules and the way guys throw the ball around. But, we've been able to do that. I do know this; we've given up 21 points. I don't know, I've been around a lot of football, I think that's good. If you do that, you have a chance to win football games. Now, it's not pretty, it's nothing that you'd want to pay to watch, but we're going to have to play this way because that's what's appropriate for us. When the offense gets going, maybe other things will happen, but for right now, we got to keep it tight. That's credit to Danny and his staff and players. Those kids have given up 21 points in three games. I'll say it again, 21 points in college football. That's pretty good in my count. Now, some people might say it's not, but I'm the head coach, so I get to say that."

Freshman Quarterback Jayden Daniels

On his mindset heading into the last drive…

That we had a chance to win the game. Really everything was staying calm out there. I told Colton to just give us a chance to go win the game. They trusted in me, I trusted in them; we just went out there and executed.

On the last drive of the game when Arizona State reached the ball across the goal line.

I knew that like he (Eno Benjamin) told me he said give me the ball, I'm going to go win this game. So, just trusting him, I knew once he got hit, I knew that he got the ball across the plane. Where they put the spot, it was right on the plane, so I mean as long as it crossed it; I knew that he was going to score regardless.

On his scramble on 4th down and long and the other scrambles.

It was really just not really trying to force anything in the passing game. If it wasn't there, really just if I was able to make something happen then just make something happen, just use my legs. Like I said it was just being able to keep drives alive, keeping that whole drive alive. Just go out there just making plays and know what I can do with myself and then the whole offense responded with if there's nothing there just keep it live, keep it as a scramble if you can get a yard get a yard and then just working and helping us out in the end.

On what came together on the last drive to get into the end zone…

Their defense did a phenomenal job, the energy, they had a lot of energy the second half, the momentum swing. So, I mean they were playing off of energy and then we started creating our own energy. Defense got big stops, we just go out there and just told them that we got to help the defense out, they're getting us the ball back so we got to go down there and put up points and then just go out there in the huddle, just trust in each other, trust each other to go down and win this football game.

Sophomore Defensive Linebacker Darien Butler

On the defensive effort today…

I feel like it started in practice earlier this week, we just all tried our best in practice to stay sound and just trying to figure out what their feel of the game and we executed.

Senior Offensive Lineman Cohl Cabral

On the shifting of the offensive line and overall performance…

Good, I think we were doing a better job of getting things picked up for the most part, trying to do it and just sticking to our game plan all day. All week we talked about what we wanted to do, and I think we went out and all day today and did as close to what we tried to do all week.

On what the game plan was today…

Just go out and pass the ball a little bit, I mean we knew they were a stop defense upfront with that front seven, I mean all returning guys, big upfront. We knew we were going to have to throw the ball and starting to throw the ball. We knew we were going to lighten up the front, start pulling guys out of the box. When that happened, we started running the ball a little bit more and getting more push. Things were changing throughout the game, we were not expecting to get as much push up front, but those guys went out and played their butts off. I mean you got to congratulate them, this thing came down to the wire, and it's just a matter of how the coin fell on that one.

Junior Defensive Linebacker Evan Fields

On stripping the ball in the first quarter…

During practice we had an emphasis to hit the ball a lot, so I mean it was expected. That's what our coaches coached us to do, but you know we just tried to execute.

Players Mentioned

Joe Bachie

Matt Coghlin

David Dowell

Brian Lewerke

Raequan Williams

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