Postgame Quotes – UCLA vs. Arizona State
Arizona State 17, UCLA 7
Pasadena, Calif. (Rose Bowl)
November 11, 2023
UCLA head coach Chip Kelly
on what he told his team after the game
“I told them that it was on us, as coaches. We didn’t do a good enough job of preparing these guys for this football game. We will come back tomorrow. We have a game against the team across town and that will get our full attention, and we will meet tomorrow as a team.”
on hindsight being 20-20 and UCLA’s decision to go for it on fourth down multiple times
“To go for it? Yeah, that was my decision to go for it, and obviously it didn’t work out. That is on me.”
on the Bruins’ offense having trouble moving the ball and scoring
“It’s about our job as coaches is to put those guys into positions to make plays. We didn’t do that. That is on us.”
on the status of quarterbacks Ethan Garbers and Dante Moore and if they were available
“They were available in emergency situations.”
on Dante and Ethan going through warmups and what led to the decision for them to not play
“They’re getting better. They didn’t take, really, many snaps at all this week. They are both working through things. And the decision was made by our medical staff that the best decision was to not play those guys.”
on his overall evaluation of quarterback Collin Schlee and his performance
“I think Collin fought. Collin is a competitor. He did some really good things. But I think that it’s on us as coaches. We have got to put Collin in better situations to make plays.”
on having some short outs with the offense and how that can make things difficult
“Well, it always makes it hard. Give Arizona State credit. They did a good job of protecting them, running some different formations and some different things to change where the pocket was, running some unconventional things. We had prepared for it. But we didn’t do a good enough job of containing that aspect of that they did, so they kept themselves on the field.”
on how he had mentioned that they’d expect the whole gamut from ASU, earlier in the week
“Yeah, we had prepared for it. They have done it before. They’ve shown it on film. They had a couple of wrinkles in there. And then, obviously, with a couple of different guys throwing it. Tight end threw it, kind of throwing the ball up and hoping that they could get it. And we got a couple of pass interference calls that hurt us, but it was not a surprise, what they did. We were prepared, because they have done it before, during the season. But we didn’t do a good enough job defending it. We’ve got to do a better job as a coaching staff to put our guys in position.”
on his initial assessment of how UCLA’s offensive line performed
“I’d have to look at it. I couldn’t tell you. I think, sporadic would be a word that I’d look at. But we will take a look at the film and make a better understanding of what it is.”
on two big third down penalties while on defense, including one unsportsmanlike conduct penalty
“I did not see what happened. I just saw the flag down. And then I heard on the headset that we had knocked their player down. But I did not see what transpired before that or after that. I literally, we were trying to get our punt team ready to go, and going over the communication on that. You know, were they going to quick punt it and keep their offense on the field or were they going to put their punt team on the field? I didn’t see the actual play.”
on how tough it is to see two drives for Arizona State extended in those situations
“Yeah, that hurts. That is on us and you cannot do that, especially in a tight football game like that.”
on quarterback Collin Schlee’s durability and toughness
“I mean, Collin is a tough, hard-nosed football player. He can make plays with his legs and his arm. We had a lot of designed quarterback runs, just because that is part of Collin’s strength. He did a good job with a lot of that run stuff tonight. He took some shots. I don’t know what his status was there at the end of the game. I know that Chase [Griffin] had to go in for him. But Collin is a tough, hard-nosed football player and I think that everybody saw that tonight.”
on the path forward and how the Bruins will navigate the upcoming two games
“We just talked about this. We’ve got a one-game season against a team that’s our rival, next Saturday. That is what we talk about, how it’s always one game at a time. We understand that we have two left, but we are not concerned with the second one. We are concerned with the first one and the first one only.”
on if he’s concerned with a snowball effect of having lost two consecutive games
“No. I’m concerned with getting our team ready to play against a really good football team that we played in a shootout with last year. I don’t know what happened with their game tonight, in terms of what is going on with them. But we are not concerned with where everybody is. We are concerned with who we are playing. They have the returning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback. They can score a lot of points. We’ve got to be prepared for that.”
on Keegan Jones getting multiple carries
“Yeah, just getting Keegan back and healthy. He had been banged up a little bit. But I think that when Keegan plays for us, he’s a productive football player for us. He did it in the Washington State game, made some plays for us, made some plays for us in the Oregon State game. But he hasn’t been 100 percent. I think that he’s been 100 percent in practice, practiced really well this week. It was part of the plan to get Keegan involved in what we’re doing offensively.”
on straight ahead running on key fourth down plays
“There were three of them today, yeah. Yeah, but there’s also the school of thought that we’ve got to be able to gain one yard if we need to gain one yard. We will go back, obviously it didn’t work. Like I said, that is on us. We’ll take a look at it as a coaching staff and make the proper corrections.”
on taking the score and time in the game into account, on those fourth and short situations
“Yeah, we take it all into account. We felt like we had the ball, especially down there on the goalline had the ball in there tight. We felt like we could get the ball in. And that is my decision and I was wrong. That’s 100 percent on my shoulders.”
Redshirt senior defensive back Alex Johnson
on assessing Arizona State’s performance and UCLA’s defensive counters
“They played well. They did enough to pull a game out. I think, as a defense, we’ve got to really rally behind each other and focus on making that extra play. I think a big thing for us is making the extra play, going the extra mile for this team. All we can do is pick ourselves up and fight back next week.”
on Arizona State’s 99-yard drive and if it was a backbreaker
“Yeah, as a defense you get them pinned back at the one. We got to hold them there, keep the ball in good field position for our offense and we just failed to do that tonight. That’s something we’ve got to watch the film on and make some corrections and come back next week stronger.”
on ASU’s different offensive formations and if it caused trouble for UCLA’s defense
“I think it caught us off guard a little bit, but as the game progressed, we caught on ourselves. With any game, as a defensive player you have to just wait and react to see what the offense is going to do. You’ve got to give them credit and they came out in a lot of funky formations – a lot of chaos and it caused us a little bit of trouble. Just something we’ve got to work on.”
on Arizona State’s wildcat formations
“Going into a game where you get a team that runs a lot of wildcat, a lot of crazy formations, you’ve got to be prepared for the idea of them possibly throwing the ball. Their tight end played a little quarterback in high school. Their running back is obviously an athlete. He can throw the ball, so just having that in the back of your mind. We were prepared for that. We just needed to make an extra play.”
on the mood of the locker room after the loss
“I mean, it’s tough. You obviously want to bounce back, especially after last week, and you come into this one with another scrappy team, another dog fight. We knew it was going to be a tough game. And the [game] doesn’t swing your way. The great thing about this sport is it’s a complete team sport. You’re down when you’re down. But when you’re up, you’re up. You do those things as a team. I think we really just got to focus on rallying behind one another. Things can be tough right now, but adversity is something that can either make or break you. This team has [faced] a little adversity, but I believe fully in this program and this staff and the players, we’ll push through and conquer.”
on the team’s mindset going into next week’s rivalry game versus USC
“Why not be a clean slate? We’ve got nothing to lose. We’ve got nothing to hold back. Just go into next week and let it all hang out. Just let loose. We’ve got zero to lose. Just let it all hang out.”
on preparing for USC quarterback Caleb Williams
“A lot of film. He’s a great player, makes great decisions on the field. He’s very elusive in the backfield. A lot of film study. Looking at what he’s looking at [and] if he’s seeing my linemen in the slot. Looking at the formations. A lot of widespread formations.”
on unity within the defense, within the team
“I think the defense is alright. We’re a unit. Within any family, there will be strife. There will be fights. But at the end of the day, you come together and you’re a unit, you’re a team. We’ve got a great brotherhood. We’ve got a great family and we stick behind each other no matter what. We’ve got each other’s backs, win or loss. We just try to come out and do our best every day.”
UCLA offensive lineman Josh Carlin
on struggles of offense tonight
“It was tough. We came in with a plan and we didn’t execute it whatsoever. I think there is no facet to the offence that was working properly. I think when our run game was strong our pass game wasn’t and vice versa. We never really got into a rhythm of our capability.”
on fourth down conversions
“We got to play, we thought we executed, and it is kind of one of those things where you block your dude, then you look back and there is a bunch of dudes on the running back. Those are crucial. Those are kind of ones that we needed to continue to get going and needed to punch it in the endzone. I think that was a big upset, those fourth downs for us.”
on having different quarterbacks under center this season
“No. I mean with Collin [Schlee] we knew he was our guy going into the week and we are going to rally behind him and give his as much protection as we can. I think that whoever it is we kind of figure that out at the beginning of the week and we go from there and continue talking with them and seeing what they see and then how we can move forward with that. But nah I don’t think that it’s a big factor if there is a different QB.”
on Collin Schlee’s performance
“It’s kind of tough when you’re in front of him, but we will watch the film and see what we can fix and then move forward and have big a big rivalry week with SC.”
on the environment in the locker room at halftime
“It was kind of tough in the locker-room because we knew it was on us, that game was going to be on us, the game was going to come down to us. The defense did their part, they did their job. The offense did not. We need to continue to keep the energy up and rally out. I think we didn’t come as hot as we wanted to in the third quarter, but unfortunately, we started to pick it up late.”
on UCLA’s game at USC next Saturday
“Yeah, I think that its big. Everyone loves rivalry week. We got to come in tomorrow in practice and throughout the week, we got to understand what is on the line. The rivalry between the two schools, the history of it, and come out with great energy. All we can do is fix what happened tonight and move forward so it doesn’t happen next Saturday.”
on having to do less pass protection
“I would say it doesn’t really change anything. We get to play, obviously, throughout the week we get to establish a good run game. I think that we had quite a bit of drop back passes today. I think we as O-line need to do better protecting him because he is, throughout the past nine weeks he has been a running QB. So, I think it doesn’t really change anything.”
on Collin Schlee’s mentality
“I think that we just needed to keep the energy up, keep the high spirits up. I kept asking him, ‘Are you good dude, are you good?’ He was telling me what he was seeing out there on the field, what the O-line could do better or what he needed. I think it was one of those things where we needed to keep the high spirits, we couldn’t just go down and down and down.”
on a leader on UCLA’s offense that can help to bring the team together in a moment like this
“I would say that’s our center, Duke Clemens, he has started a lot of games here and I think he’s one of those leaders where if he does something, people are going to follow. He has kind of always been that guy that I admire, I follow. He’s one of my best friends. He rallied us in halftime. But I would say him, Duke Clemens.”
Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham
on the team’s offensive creativity
“I felt like our matchups were at the skill positions and running backs. Let’s try to get our matchups in those spots. Ironically, Coach Marv mentioned, just joking around, Jim Fossel was the OC of Utah in 1970-something when Coach Mora was at New Mexico State and they actually ran the swinging gate multiple times. We Googled it and found it on YouTube and they were running normal passing plays with the swinging gate. And football is cyclical. I’m like, ‘Alright, if this guy was an NFL head coach and Hugh Jackson can do it with the Bengals and the Brows, then why can’t we do it here?’ It just put out players in the best position to be successful. Kudos to our players for believing in something unique and goofy and just saying, ‘Oh, coach doesn’t believe we can win.’ But, ‘They believe in what we’re doing’ and go in and execute.’”
on the offensive formations’ functionality
“I thought it did exactly what I thought it would do. I thought it would create a lot of two-on-twos, and we’d be able to get out there and get a lot of their defensive line away from the ball and not have to block them and we’d get all their other players, and I felt like we had a really good matchups with everybody else in the field. … It’s sound. It looks goofy and unique and different, but we didn’t just go out there and run something that wasn’t sound. It’s just different. You can’t be scared to be different. And if you’re scared to be different – I thought I told somebody the other day, a lot of people may not like what I do. It may be goofy, but I could really give a crap because I’m trying to put our players in the best position to win based off where we are as a football team right now.”
on the multiple delay of games in the fourth quarter
“Well, unfortunately, we got delay of games with 23 seconds left on the clock because we were snapping the ball and we were giving our cadence and [the referees] were calling our center for basically a false cadence, an unnatural movement, even though he was doing it all game. I get it. I understand. They thought he was being more dramatic and their guys were jumping offsides and calling it on us. I’ll have to watch the tape, but for the most part I like a lot of the officials on the field.”
on the defense’s performance
“Moments. We talk to our guys all the time. Great teams win moments. You win plays. You have to win plays. Every play matters, but there’s going to be moments in a game that separate winners from losers. Fourth downs are those moments. We converted our fourth and five with the game on the line. If we didn’t convert that, guess what every question in here would be right now? Why did you kick the field goal to go up six? Why the heck would you want to go up six? It just makes the team want to score a touchdown and beat you. But that’s what I’d be answering right now. But our guys made the play and won the moment. And on defense, we made the plays in the critical moments and that’s what I’m proud of. That’s what I’ve been harping to the guys. They’re just competitors.”
on quarterback Trenton Bourguet’s performance
“You’re not going to rattle Trenton. You can spin Trenton around, make him dizzy, throw him out there and he’s going to find a way to do what he’s supposed to and regain his balance. I told Trenton earlier in the week, ‘Hey bud, this is going to be unique. But we can’t put you back there for 65 snaps. (If) we put you back there for 65 snaps not at 100 percent, this isn’t going to be fun. We’re going to do some unique things. We’re going to lineup in wildcat to keep you healthy. We’re going to do some weird stuff.’ He believed in it. That’s a credit to the players, a credit to where we’re going as a program that our players didn’t waver when we had weird ideas. They said, ‘O.K. If you believe this is best for the team, then I’m going to do it.’ And that’s what I’m most proud of. They went out there and executed and worked hard. On defense, we battled, we competed, we won the moments. We responded to an ass whoopin’ – butt whoppin’ – sorry, and we responded. That’s what culture is – response, response and response.”
Arizona State defensive lineman Deshaun Mallory
on getting the defensive stops consistently
“The biggest emphasis we wanted to have this week was to keep an edge. Honestly, we know that we got embarrassed last week, and we didn’t want that to happen this week. So in the short-yardage situations we just had to do our job and play ball.”
on stopping UCLA’s offense
“The style of defense that we have helped. We have guys all across the board that are ready to play and go against anything. We have an entire d-line that’s ready to run and get through the screen. We’ve got guys that can chase down the field, and we have explosive corners and linebackers. Everyone across the defense can add to what we need to do, and I think we are establishing a great defense.”
Arizona State defensive back Jordan Clark
on bouncing back to earn a win
“It’s everything, it’s how we expect to play. We really shouldn’t have given up the touchdown we gave up in the fourth. Ultimately, we played a better game than we did last week, everyone did their job, and it’s a better result.
on stopping the UCLA quarterbacks
“They do some unique stuff you don’t really see very often in college football. It was hard to adjust too at first, but ultimately coach [Brian] Ward has a plan for everything, and if we do what we are supposed to do we will always be okay.”
Arizona State wide receiver Elijah Baker
on catching a pass from Cam Skattebo
“It was really cool. I just saw him roll out and laser the ball, however he got it there he got it there. It was cool how he threw it, and that he’s a dynamic person able to do both.”
on if they had practiced that play
“Yeah, we practiced it all week. He’s thrown it in practice before. He was telling me all week, I’m coming to you. I just had a clue that it was coming my way.”
Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo
on throwing the pass to Elijah Badger
“We’ve been working on it all week. That wasn’t the throw I threw all week, but I knew that was an option. I knew we didn’t have much field to work with, and he improvised and we made it work.”
on the unique playcalling
“It was awesome. I don’t think it was unique to us, we ran it all week. We perfected it as much as we could and our guys paid attention all week. The guys weren’t fooling around all week, some guys probably thought it was silly that we were doing that, but is it silly now?”
Arizona State quarterback Trenton Bourguet
on all the different schemes used on offense
“I think Coach Dillingham does a great job, with all of the offensive coaches, to come up with a scheme that will best utilize our players. Obviously, UCLA has a great group of players and d-line. We’re down some numbers, but our o-line did a great job tonight.”
on coming in and out of the game and trying to get in a rhythm
“It’s difficult. For me, I’m going to do whatever I can to help the team, whatever they tell me. Whether it is throwing the ball five times or 50 times, I’m going to do what the team wants me to do. I thought it was a great offensive game plan.”
Pasadena, Calif. (Rose Bowl)
November 11, 2023
UCLA head coach Chip Kelly
on what he told his team after the game
“I told them that it was on us, as coaches. We didn’t do a good enough job of preparing these guys for this football game. We will come back tomorrow. We have a game against the team across town and that will get our full attention, and we will meet tomorrow as a team.”
on hindsight being 20-20 and UCLA’s decision to go for it on fourth down multiple times
“To go for it? Yeah, that was my decision to go for it, and obviously it didn’t work out. That is on me.”
on the Bruins’ offense having trouble moving the ball and scoring
“It’s about our job as coaches is to put those guys into positions to make plays. We didn’t do that. That is on us.”
on the status of quarterbacks Ethan Garbers and Dante Moore and if they were available
“They were available in emergency situations.”
on Dante and Ethan going through warmups and what led to the decision for them to not play
“They’re getting better. They didn’t take, really, many snaps at all this week. They are both working through things. And the decision was made by our medical staff that the best decision was to not play those guys.”
on his overall evaluation of quarterback Collin Schlee and his performance
“I think Collin fought. Collin is a competitor. He did some really good things. But I think that it’s on us as coaches. We have got to put Collin in better situations to make plays.”
on having some short outs with the offense and how that can make things difficult
“Well, it always makes it hard. Give Arizona State credit. They did a good job of protecting them, running some different formations and some different things to change where the pocket was, running some unconventional things. We had prepared for it. But we didn’t do a good enough job of containing that aspect of that they did, so they kept themselves on the field.”
on how he had mentioned that they’d expect the whole gamut from ASU, earlier in the week
“Yeah, we had prepared for it. They have done it before. They’ve shown it on film. They had a couple of wrinkles in there. And then, obviously, with a couple of different guys throwing it. Tight end threw it, kind of throwing the ball up and hoping that they could get it. And we got a couple of pass interference calls that hurt us, but it was not a surprise, what they did. We were prepared, because they have done it before, during the season. But we didn’t do a good enough job defending it. We’ve got to do a better job as a coaching staff to put our guys in position.”
on his initial assessment of how UCLA’s offensive line performed
“I’d have to look at it. I couldn’t tell you. I think, sporadic would be a word that I’d look at. But we will take a look at the film and make a better understanding of what it is.”
on two big third down penalties while on defense, including one unsportsmanlike conduct penalty
“I did not see what happened. I just saw the flag down. And then I heard on the headset that we had knocked their player down. But I did not see what transpired before that or after that. I literally, we were trying to get our punt team ready to go, and going over the communication on that. You know, were they going to quick punt it and keep their offense on the field or were they going to put their punt team on the field? I didn’t see the actual play.”
on how tough it is to see two drives for Arizona State extended in those situations
“Yeah, that hurts. That is on us and you cannot do that, especially in a tight football game like that.”
on quarterback Collin Schlee’s durability and toughness
“I mean, Collin is a tough, hard-nosed football player. He can make plays with his legs and his arm. We had a lot of designed quarterback runs, just because that is part of Collin’s strength. He did a good job with a lot of that run stuff tonight. He took some shots. I don’t know what his status was there at the end of the game. I know that Chase [Griffin] had to go in for him. But Collin is a tough, hard-nosed football player and I think that everybody saw that tonight.”
on the path forward and how the Bruins will navigate the upcoming two games
“We just talked about this. We’ve got a one-game season against a team that’s our rival, next Saturday. That is what we talk about, how it’s always one game at a time. We understand that we have two left, but we are not concerned with the second one. We are concerned with the first one and the first one only.”
on if he’s concerned with a snowball effect of having lost two consecutive games
“No. I’m concerned with getting our team ready to play against a really good football team that we played in a shootout with last year. I don’t know what happened with their game tonight, in terms of what is going on with them. But we are not concerned with where everybody is. We are concerned with who we are playing. They have the returning Heisman Trophy winner at quarterback. They can score a lot of points. We’ve got to be prepared for that.”
on Keegan Jones getting multiple carries
“Yeah, just getting Keegan back and healthy. He had been banged up a little bit. But I think that when Keegan plays for us, he’s a productive football player for us. He did it in the Washington State game, made some plays for us, made some plays for us in the Oregon State game. But he hasn’t been 100 percent. I think that he’s been 100 percent in practice, practiced really well this week. It was part of the plan to get Keegan involved in what we’re doing offensively.”
on straight ahead running on key fourth down plays
“There were three of them today, yeah. Yeah, but there’s also the school of thought that we’ve got to be able to gain one yard if we need to gain one yard. We will go back, obviously it didn’t work. Like I said, that is on us. We’ll take a look at it as a coaching staff and make the proper corrections.”
on taking the score and time in the game into account, on those fourth and short situations
“Yeah, we take it all into account. We felt like we had the ball, especially down there on the goalline had the ball in there tight. We felt like we could get the ball in. And that is my decision and I was wrong. That’s 100 percent on my shoulders.”
Redshirt senior defensive back Alex Johnson
on assessing Arizona State’s performance and UCLA’s defensive counters
“They played well. They did enough to pull a game out. I think, as a defense, we’ve got to really rally behind each other and focus on making that extra play. I think a big thing for us is making the extra play, going the extra mile for this team. All we can do is pick ourselves up and fight back next week.”
on Arizona State’s 99-yard drive and if it was a backbreaker
“Yeah, as a defense you get them pinned back at the one. We got to hold them there, keep the ball in good field position for our offense and we just failed to do that tonight. That’s something we’ve got to watch the film on and make some corrections and come back next week stronger.”
on ASU’s different offensive formations and if it caused trouble for UCLA’s defense
“I think it caught us off guard a little bit, but as the game progressed, we caught on ourselves. With any game, as a defensive player you have to just wait and react to see what the offense is going to do. You’ve got to give them credit and they came out in a lot of funky formations – a lot of chaos and it caused us a little bit of trouble. Just something we’ve got to work on.”
on Arizona State’s wildcat formations
“Going into a game where you get a team that runs a lot of wildcat, a lot of crazy formations, you’ve got to be prepared for the idea of them possibly throwing the ball. Their tight end played a little quarterback in high school. Their running back is obviously an athlete. He can throw the ball, so just having that in the back of your mind. We were prepared for that. We just needed to make an extra play.”
on the mood of the locker room after the loss
“I mean, it’s tough. You obviously want to bounce back, especially after last week, and you come into this one with another scrappy team, another dog fight. We knew it was going to be a tough game. And the [game] doesn’t swing your way. The great thing about this sport is it’s a complete team sport. You’re down when you’re down. But when you’re up, you’re up. You do those things as a team. I think we really just got to focus on rallying behind one another. Things can be tough right now, but adversity is something that can either make or break you. This team has [faced] a little adversity, but I believe fully in this program and this staff and the players, we’ll push through and conquer.”
on the team’s mindset going into next week’s rivalry game versus USC
“Why not be a clean slate? We’ve got nothing to lose. We’ve got nothing to hold back. Just go into next week and let it all hang out. Just let loose. We’ve got zero to lose. Just let it all hang out.”
on preparing for USC quarterback Caleb Williams
“A lot of film. He’s a great player, makes great decisions on the field. He’s very elusive in the backfield. A lot of film study. Looking at what he’s looking at [and] if he’s seeing my linemen in the slot. Looking at the formations. A lot of widespread formations.”
on unity within the defense, within the team
“I think the defense is alright. We’re a unit. Within any family, there will be strife. There will be fights. But at the end of the day, you come together and you’re a unit, you’re a team. We’ve got a great brotherhood. We’ve got a great family and we stick behind each other no matter what. We’ve got each other’s backs, win or loss. We just try to come out and do our best every day.”
UCLA offensive lineman Josh Carlin
on struggles of offense tonight
“It was tough. We came in with a plan and we didn’t execute it whatsoever. I think there is no facet to the offence that was working properly. I think when our run game was strong our pass game wasn’t and vice versa. We never really got into a rhythm of our capability.”
on fourth down conversions
“We got to play, we thought we executed, and it is kind of one of those things where you block your dude, then you look back and there is a bunch of dudes on the running back. Those are crucial. Those are kind of ones that we needed to continue to get going and needed to punch it in the endzone. I think that was a big upset, those fourth downs for us.”
on having different quarterbacks under center this season
“No. I mean with Collin [Schlee] we knew he was our guy going into the week and we are going to rally behind him and give his as much protection as we can. I think that whoever it is we kind of figure that out at the beginning of the week and we go from there and continue talking with them and seeing what they see and then how we can move forward with that. But nah I don’t think that it’s a big factor if there is a different QB.”
on Collin Schlee’s performance
“It’s kind of tough when you’re in front of him, but we will watch the film and see what we can fix and then move forward and have big a big rivalry week with SC.”
on the environment in the locker room at halftime
“It was kind of tough in the locker-room because we knew it was on us, that game was going to be on us, the game was going to come down to us. The defense did their part, they did their job. The offense did not. We need to continue to keep the energy up and rally out. I think we didn’t come as hot as we wanted to in the third quarter, but unfortunately, we started to pick it up late.”
on UCLA’s game at USC next Saturday
“Yeah, I think that its big. Everyone loves rivalry week. We got to come in tomorrow in practice and throughout the week, we got to understand what is on the line. The rivalry between the two schools, the history of it, and come out with great energy. All we can do is fix what happened tonight and move forward so it doesn’t happen next Saturday.”
on having to do less pass protection
“I would say it doesn’t really change anything. We get to play, obviously, throughout the week we get to establish a good run game. I think that we had quite a bit of drop back passes today. I think we as O-line need to do better protecting him because he is, throughout the past nine weeks he has been a running QB. So, I think it doesn’t really change anything.”
on Collin Schlee’s mentality
“I think that we just needed to keep the energy up, keep the high spirits up. I kept asking him, ‘Are you good dude, are you good?’ He was telling me what he was seeing out there on the field, what the O-line could do better or what he needed. I think it was one of those things where we needed to keep the high spirits, we couldn’t just go down and down and down.”
on a leader on UCLA’s offense that can help to bring the team together in a moment like this
“I would say that’s our center, Duke Clemens, he has started a lot of games here and I think he’s one of those leaders where if he does something, people are going to follow. He has kind of always been that guy that I admire, I follow. He’s one of my best friends. He rallied us in halftime. But I would say him, Duke Clemens.”
Arizona State head coach Kenny Dillingham
on the team’s offensive creativity
“I felt like our matchups were at the skill positions and running backs. Let’s try to get our matchups in those spots. Ironically, Coach Marv mentioned, just joking around, Jim Fossel was the OC of Utah in 1970-something when Coach Mora was at New Mexico State and they actually ran the swinging gate multiple times. We Googled it and found it on YouTube and they were running normal passing plays with the swinging gate. And football is cyclical. I’m like, ‘Alright, if this guy was an NFL head coach and Hugh Jackson can do it with the Bengals and the Brows, then why can’t we do it here?’ It just put out players in the best position to be successful. Kudos to our players for believing in something unique and goofy and just saying, ‘Oh, coach doesn’t believe we can win.’ But, ‘They believe in what we’re doing’ and go in and execute.’”
on the offensive formations’ functionality
“I thought it did exactly what I thought it would do. I thought it would create a lot of two-on-twos, and we’d be able to get out there and get a lot of their defensive line away from the ball and not have to block them and we’d get all their other players, and I felt like we had a really good matchups with everybody else in the field. … It’s sound. It looks goofy and unique and different, but we didn’t just go out there and run something that wasn’t sound. It’s just different. You can’t be scared to be different. And if you’re scared to be different – I thought I told somebody the other day, a lot of people may not like what I do. It may be goofy, but I could really give a crap because I’m trying to put our players in the best position to win based off where we are as a football team right now.”
on the multiple delay of games in the fourth quarter
“Well, unfortunately, we got delay of games with 23 seconds left on the clock because we were snapping the ball and we were giving our cadence and [the referees] were calling our center for basically a false cadence, an unnatural movement, even though he was doing it all game. I get it. I understand. They thought he was being more dramatic and their guys were jumping offsides and calling it on us. I’ll have to watch the tape, but for the most part I like a lot of the officials on the field.”
on the defense’s performance
“Moments. We talk to our guys all the time. Great teams win moments. You win plays. You have to win plays. Every play matters, but there’s going to be moments in a game that separate winners from losers. Fourth downs are those moments. We converted our fourth and five with the game on the line. If we didn’t convert that, guess what every question in here would be right now? Why did you kick the field goal to go up six? Why the heck would you want to go up six? It just makes the team want to score a touchdown and beat you. But that’s what I’d be answering right now. But our guys made the play and won the moment. And on defense, we made the plays in the critical moments and that’s what I’m proud of. That’s what I’ve been harping to the guys. They’re just competitors.”
on quarterback Trenton Bourguet’s performance
“You’re not going to rattle Trenton. You can spin Trenton around, make him dizzy, throw him out there and he’s going to find a way to do what he’s supposed to and regain his balance. I told Trenton earlier in the week, ‘Hey bud, this is going to be unique. But we can’t put you back there for 65 snaps. (If) we put you back there for 65 snaps not at 100 percent, this isn’t going to be fun. We’re going to do some unique things. We’re going to lineup in wildcat to keep you healthy. We’re going to do some weird stuff.’ He believed in it. That’s a credit to the players, a credit to where we’re going as a program that our players didn’t waver when we had weird ideas. They said, ‘O.K. If you believe this is best for the team, then I’m going to do it.’ And that’s what I’m most proud of. They went out there and executed and worked hard. On defense, we battled, we competed, we won the moments. We responded to an ass whoopin’ – butt whoppin’ – sorry, and we responded. That’s what culture is – response, response and response.”
Arizona State defensive lineman Deshaun Mallory
on getting the defensive stops consistently
“The biggest emphasis we wanted to have this week was to keep an edge. Honestly, we know that we got embarrassed last week, and we didn’t want that to happen this week. So in the short-yardage situations we just had to do our job and play ball.”
on stopping UCLA’s offense
“The style of defense that we have helped. We have guys all across the board that are ready to play and go against anything. We have an entire d-line that’s ready to run and get through the screen. We’ve got guys that can chase down the field, and we have explosive corners and linebackers. Everyone across the defense can add to what we need to do, and I think we are establishing a great defense.”
Arizona State defensive back Jordan Clark
on bouncing back to earn a win
“It’s everything, it’s how we expect to play. We really shouldn’t have given up the touchdown we gave up in the fourth. Ultimately, we played a better game than we did last week, everyone did their job, and it’s a better result.
on stopping the UCLA quarterbacks
“They do some unique stuff you don’t really see very often in college football. It was hard to adjust too at first, but ultimately coach [Brian] Ward has a plan for everything, and if we do what we are supposed to do we will always be okay.”
Arizona State wide receiver Elijah Baker
on catching a pass from Cam Skattebo
“It was really cool. I just saw him roll out and laser the ball, however he got it there he got it there. It was cool how he threw it, and that he’s a dynamic person able to do both.”
on if they had practiced that play
“Yeah, we practiced it all week. He’s thrown it in practice before. He was telling me all week, I’m coming to you. I just had a clue that it was coming my way.”
Arizona State running back Cam Skattebo
on throwing the pass to Elijah Badger
“We’ve been working on it all week. That wasn’t the throw I threw all week, but I knew that was an option. I knew we didn’t have much field to work with, and he improvised and we made it work.”
on the unique playcalling
“It was awesome. I don’t think it was unique to us, we ran it all week. We perfected it as much as we could and our guys paid attention all week. The guys weren’t fooling around all week, some guys probably thought it was silly that we were doing that, but is it silly now?”
Arizona State quarterback Trenton Bourguet
on all the different schemes used on offense
“I think Coach Dillingham does a great job, with all of the offensive coaches, to come up with a scheme that will best utilize our players. Obviously, UCLA has a great group of players and d-line. We’re down some numbers, but our o-line did a great job tonight.”
on coming in and out of the game and trying to get in a rhythm
“It’s difficult. For me, I’m going to do whatever I can to help the team, whatever they tell me. Whether it is throwing the ball five times or 50 times, I’m going to do what the team wants me to do. I thought it was a great offensive game plan.”