Oct. 3, 2009
ASU Head Coach Dennis Erickson
On what went wrong in the game:
"First of all were turnovers. We had some crucial penalties that hurt us in the first half and we dug ourselves in a hole. We're just not powerful enough offensively right now to come back from something like that. We just didn't play well. I'm very surprised at how we came out to start that football game. It's beyond belief. We just didn't play very well at all defensively. We're a lot better than that defensively. They made plays on us and had success. Again, I thought for some reason we just weren't ready to come out and play, and we didn't play very disciplined in the first half."
On QB Danny Sullivan's performance:
"I don't know. I have to look at that. It's hard to say right now after we just got done playing. He made some good throws and he made some bad throws. It's something that I need to look at. We have to be more productive on offense. There are a lot of things involved. We fumbled it. We dropped some balls. It's just a number of different things. We're going to have to look at it and see where we're at. I didn't think Danny played bad. We had to throw it almost every down of the second half to try to get back in the game."
On Danny Sullivan getting booed:
"Well the last thing I'm going to do is take him out. I'm not going to do that. I'm going to give him the opportunity to finish the game. When it was fourth down, I just said we have to go out and get this thing and I have to leave him in the football game. That's exactly what we did. It's no fun to get booed, whether you are a quarterback, coach, announcer or whoever gets booed. It's not a fun deal, but I'll tell you what, our fans didn't get what they deserved the way we played today."
On what the major problems were in the game:
"We couldn't get it in the end zone. We were down there a couple of times. We fumbled it and then we fumbled the snap on a punt. We had opportunities, but we just couldn't get it in the end zone. Until we start doing that, we're going to have problems."
On WR Chris McGaha's performance:
"He had a great day. Kyle Williams was hurt and didn't play very much. He had a pulled hamstring. He was a guy we went to. But Chris McGaha, as I've said, is one of the better receivers in the country."
ASU Quarterback Danny Sullivan
On what the offense needs to do to improve:
"We are moving the ball. We just get in one situation where we get stuck and we have to climb that hump."
On targeting Chris McGaha tonight:
"With Kyle [Williams] having his injury, we did not know if he was going to play or not. I tried to get [Chris] the ball more. He was one guy who was going to go out there and make catches, simple as that. There is no question he is our best receiver and we have a bunch of other good guys out there. If we get the ball to him, he is going to make a play."
On whether the game was a matter of missing big plays or big plays not being there:
"There were a couple [plays] that I missed, but I am going to deal with it. We still made a lot of good plays. We just got across the 50 and could not do anything."
ASU Safety Jarrell Holman
On how he would rate the defensive performance tonight:
"I wouldn't judge it as a good one. To start out like that really put the offense in a tough spot. The offense had to score quickly. We didn't play too well. At the end we picked it up, but we needed to come out early and set the tone and we didn't do that."
On if the short field had an impact on the defense:
"If we have a short field to defend, we shouldn't come out any differently. We need to get stops every time. Our objective is to get stops no matter where the ball is, so that's no excuse."
On if the team came out focused:
"We were mentally ready and prepared for the game. Obviously we didn't execute. We should come out with the mentality that we should get a stop and get the ball back. We should be happy to get on the field, because that's why we came to play defense. We should be getting stops."
On ASU's identity:
"Right now we still have to come out with the same mentality. This game can't beat us up. We have to see what we come out with next week. I think we're going to come out fired up. We're going to do our best to come out with a win."
ASU Wide Receiver Chris McGaha
On the lack of big plays in this game:
"To have big plays, you have to be able to run the ball on a consistent basis. Otherwise they are just going to play Cover 2 and we can't go deep. You just can't do it."
On his 15 catches:
"Right now it doesn't mean anything because we lost. I'm sure later on it will mean something, but right now I'm kind of bitter about the loss."
On how much the loss hurts:
"It hurts a lot being the first Pac-10 game. That's why I'm so bitter right now. We needed to start off with a win, and we didn't do that, so it hurts."
Oregon State Head Coach Mike Riley
On the win:
"This was a good win for this team. I think Dennis Erickson has a great team. He has a great, aggressive and experienced defense. We just competed like crazy and we got a jump on them early. We held on and made plays. Our defense made a lot of plays and we kept them out of the end zone. It was a real good team win for the Beavers."
On ASU's run defense:
"They are as good as advertised. They are hard to play against and a very good group. I was so impressed with how they played against Georgia. They only hit three passes and that's it, so ASU should have beaten them. We had to fight for everything we got against them."
Oregon State Quarterback Sean Canfield
On ASU's defense:
"They were great. They were similar to us as far as what they ran. But credit to them; they are a great team. But we just made enough big plays in the end to win."