Sept. 6, 2008
Recap | Box Score | Notes | Game Action
ASU Head Coach Dennis Erickson
Opening Statement:
"I thought we were pretty balanced offensively. I thought we ran the football with quite a bit of success. They were doing some things, as I mentioned earlier in the week, if they were going to play two deep and do some of those things to take the pass away, we were going to go ahead and run it, which I thought that we were able to do quite well. I don't even care about the yardage, but I mean efficiently and made some plays. I thought on defense we took their running game away. They made some plays. We kept them in the game at times. We had a couple of turnovers that were a little bit costly but I thought overall we played well. First [conference] game at home, you have got to have that win."
On the defense against Stanford RB Toby Gerhart:
"I thought it was good. You hold him to 67 yards and he didn't break or get any big plays on us. We kept him boxed up in there pretty good and that's what we were trying to do. We knew he was going to get some yardage; he's a good player. But we were able to keep him from making big plays. They had to earn everything that they got, so I thought we played pretty well on defense."
On Rudy Carpenter's play:
"He's throwing it [with] experience, his receivers are playing very well. I think where we're at right now is you have to make a decision on what you want to do against this. He's just throwing it really well, he had one bad throw: the pick. But other than that I thought he played very well."
On the turnovers during the game:
"Yeah it was good. I guess we broke even on turnovers. But that's good. We got a couple. The one that [Gerald] Munns got was really a turning point in the game. We gave one up on the sack on Rudy [Carpenter] when the ball came out. They blitzed us and we didn't have a block, so that hurt. But I thought getting two turnovers made a big difference in the game."
On next week's game against UNLV:
"They'll come in here and play as good as they can play. It's like I tell our players: our word now is three; we have to get that third win. Victories last about 24 hours. We'll come in tomorrow, look at the tape, take a day off and get ready for UNLV."
On how the team seems very well conditioned:
"That's what we talk about all the time. Ever since the first day I got here we talked about winter conditioning and spring football and summer workouts. Every game, you just have to approach it like that. That's how I've always approached it and that's what we have to be able to do."
ASU QB Rudy Carpenter
On Stanford's defensive pressure:
"I thought our offensive line did a great job taking that pressure today. I think our receivers did an even better job recognizing blitz and just looking for the ball. When you can hit teams for positive plays when they blitz, sometimes they decide not to do it. I mean Stanford didn't tonight, but usually teams do, so we have to keep on that same road. But, overall, I thought we did a good job."
On the state of the team's offense:
"I am feeling comfortable and obviously our passing game is one of our strengths. I don't want to sound negative but, it was a good win, I was a little disappointed in how I played. I called a couple plays wrong and threw an interception, and that was a terrible interception. It was good to put those points up, but we have to get rid of those turnovers."
On the running game and return of Keegan Herring:
"Keegan is obviously a back that we need to play because he's got that home run potential every time. He broke some big runs. We also need [Shaun] DeWitty, because he's a true power back, a little bit like [Ryan] Torain last year. With Dimitri [Nance], Keegan and DeWitty, they all bring a different dynamic. When you pass the ball in hot weather you get those defensive guys tired and that's when you can really start pounding them. If we can keep on that same path, we can be successful."
On the danger of overlooking UNLV:
"Not for me. Since the beginning of the season Coach Erickson has been preaching to take one game and one day at a time. We're just going to keep on going with that. I know we have UNLV next week and it's going to be tough. We have to get through that one before anything else."
ASU WR Kerry Taylor
On following up his strong performance from last week with another:
"I hope I keep it up. I worked hard a lot over the summer with Rudy [Carpenter] and got a lot of timing down. It seems kind of easy out there right now knowing where Rudy is going to put the ball. It makes it a lot easier playing with a guy like Rudy. I know where the ball is going to be every time. I hope that I can just keep it up every week and keep getting these wins."
On the first Pac-10 game:
"It was a good win. It definitely showed us where we we're at as a team. It showed us some of the things we need to improve on and things we need to get better at. To beat a good team like Stanford; Stanford's a good team this year. They are going to beat a lot of other Pac-10 schools. To beat them is a great confidence boost for our team and hopefully we can just build off of that and keep working hard."
Stanford Head Coach Jim Harbaugh
On Rudy Carpenter's performance:
"Rudy was very impressive. I gained a lot of respect for him tonight. He took some hits, he was under pressure a lot, but he made some good throws and was very accurate. I feel the receivers did a nice job all night. Credit to ASU; they executed very well."
On Stanford's turnovers:
"We turned the ball over too many times, leading to two easy touchdowns, specifically when Rudy [Carpenter] found an open receiver before the half for an easy touchdown. That right there was the difference between a close game and not a close game."
Stanford RB Toby Gerhart
On how the heat affected the team:
"It wasn't that bad. I expected a lot worse. Once the sun went down it wasn't that bad."
On their mindset when down by 10 at the half:
"We were confident going into halftime. We were right there, 10 points, and we were confident we could overcome the deficit."
Stanford QB Tavita Pritchard
On Stanford's offensive performance:
"We played our butts off, we blocked our butts off and we were able to move the ball down the field, but we need to be able to finish drives and put points on the board if we want to compete."
On their turnovers:
"When the stakes were costly, we made too many mental errors and we need to cut down [on those errors] when we are playing teams like Arizona State."
On competing with an elite Pac-10 team:
"You can always take good things from games. This is a game we feel like we could have won. We are not content in hanging with teams. We know we can win these kinds of ball games."
Stanford LB Pat Maynor
On ASU quarterback Rudy Carpenter:
"He is one of the best quarterbacks in the Pac-10 and in the nation. He is a tough kid."