Arizona State Head Coach Kenny Dillingham:
On what the team can pull from a program’s culture like Oregon’s:
“I challenge our guys at halftime. Let's go in the second half, let's just win the second half. That was it. They went out there and they won the second half and that's not a win, I understand that. You know what it shows, the guys are actually trying to do what I ask, they're trying to compete. That's the big thing, right? They did that and I was proud of them, but for us that’s exactly what championship teams look like. The highest level of teams across the board. Big, strong, fast, good QB play. That's what you strive to be as a program.”
On crediting Oregon with their offensive success:
“I credit them. They're a really good football team, there's nothing to take away. Take away the run, well now you play man coverage and you have to cover three wide outs that are gonna play on Sundays, one who could be a first round pick with a quarterback who could win the Heisman. Take away the pass. Well, they lead the country in yards per carry, all right. They have three O-linemen that are going to get drafted, a running back who's going to get drafted. So what can you take away, maybe we can catch them. Well, their quarterback gets them into good plays. So they have a really, really, really good football team and that's what I told the guys in the locker room. I said we played a lot of games this year that I don't care about our situation at the O line, the guys hurt, what happened in year one that we could have won, but a lot we were in it and we could have won football games. That team right there, that team was better than us. Point blank, significantly better than us. We've got to get better in the off season. That's what I told them. I like you guys shouldn’t hang your head. We did it, we gave everything we got and that's a better football team. Point blank. Simple. What do we want to do to get better for the people coming back, work in the off season, put in the work, get better and better and better after the game.”
On the culture he’s trying to instill in the program:
“You gotta respond to adversity, like that's adversity right now, we're doing a really good job showing up, back to work and getting better. Didn't play well at Utah, responded and found a way to win at UCLA. Well, where we're not responding well is in game, we're not responding well when somebody punches us, right? We can't regather ourselves yet. I faced the same thing, to be honest, when I was at Florida State. We just couldn't figure out when it started to rain it always poured and that's part of growth. You've got to eventually learn and have enough confidence and belief that, ok, you get socked in the face, they convert a 3rd and 15 on the first drive. Relax. You get them to a 3rd and 15 and then you stop the bleeding. Right now when we get on our heels in game, that's when we really struggle and we played a lot of games where teams haven't really got us on our heels. They may have gotten a play or so, but when we get on our heels we have to respond better and that's gonna take time to just be really honest. I wish I could say that I’m just gonna snap my fingers and I'm gonna tell them that and we're gonna respond better if that happens. That's not how it works, right? Good football teams are years of culture, that's years of culture building there…But the best football teams in the country have established cultures of offensive line, defensive line, physicality and toughness, and this is another team that had that and we got to be able to match that moving forward.”
On not running the ball as much:
“They're really good. If we have our six guys try to take 45 snaps of running the ball versus those guys, one, I don't know if we could hold up and we can't afford another injury, you know? Part of the gate is to try to get our guys a break, right? You can't just play five guys, 65, 70 snaps in a college football game, but that's kind of where we're at. So part of that is literally to try to give those guys a rest and to keep our guys healthy, so we can maneuver and there's some scheme behind it and stuff like that too, but you can't just go up there and try to run the ball versus that defensive line. That's one of the best defensive lines in football. I mean, they're gigantic, they're strong.”
On getting ready for next week’s game against Arizona after tonight:
“I don't care if we win or lose, come Sunday, it's gone and you repeat. I know I say that a lot and you're like, oh, how do you do it? Like that's just what you do. If you get lost in the success of upsetting UCLA on the road or you get lost in the failure at Utah, you're gonna live like this, right? We tell our guys all the time, the only people you care about are the people that care about you, the people in the building, not social media, not random people. It's the people that are right next to you. So we're gonna show up on Monday. We're gonna do the exact same thing. I’m going to walk in. They're gonna ask me how I'm doing, I'm gonna say phenomenal, right? They're gonna ask me what's up and I'm gonna say life, right? Like I do it every single day and we're gonna repeat and we're gonna repeat and we're gonna repeat and we're gonna repeat and we're gonna repeat. What's going to happen is Saturdays are going to start feeling better. That's it. The only difference in the process that's gonna change is Saturdays are gonna feel better, but it takes time.”
Arizona State QB Trenton Bourguet
On the up-and-down nature of the season:
“For me it's life. There's going to be ups and downs and it's how you respond. I thought this team did a great job of coming out that second half and competing. It was 42-0, and we very easily could have put our heads down and not even came out the second half to compete. But the offense, we came out. We tried to have some momentum. Defense did a good job. But for us it's football, but it's life. You're going to learn. You're going to go through tough things, but it's how you respond to that. We got one more game left and we're excited for that one. We're going to be looking forward to that one. It's a one game season at this point and we're going to give it everything we got.”
On whether they can see progress being made even if it’s not reflected in the record:
“It's not easy. For me personally, when I came here in my freshman year, to say I'd be sitting in this seat playing against the No. 6 team in Oregon and starting… it's been a journey, but that's how life is. And so for us, being the older guys, we're all a family. We're bought into Coach Dillingham's program. We're bought into working hard and trying to be a good example for the future. But we're gonna give everything we got and obviously it's not what we want. We all want to be winners. I still consider us winners, whether the record is 10-0 or 0-10. We're going to keep doing what we can and we're super excited for next week.”
Arizona State TE Jaylin Conyers
On what he saw in the plays that he was at quarterback:
“They didn’t bring a lot of pressure. So then just kind of standing there waiting to see what's gonna happen definitely played in our favor a little bit. Obviously it's good to get different looks in there, decide whether it's (QB) Trenton (Bourquet), me or (RB Cam Skattebo) Skat back there.It's definitely good to get different looks and the O-line did a great job. They're going against a really good D-line.They did a really good job in the run game getting stuff going and it opened a bunch of gaps for us and we were successful in the run game because of that.”
On whether they can see progress being made even if it’s not reflected in the record:
“Winning is hard. Going into every week, obviously you want to go out and win, but winning is the hardest thing to do. Obviously going against a team like that, you have to do almost everything perfect. And we didn't do that. They're a really good football team for a reason. They did everything. They knew what we were doing. But I think for the young guys, just getting to go out there and play against them, even in the back half of the game, (DB) Keith (Abney II) got his first interception as a true freshman playing. It's just for guys like that. Get on, They get an experience. Yeah, it sucks. Obviously we're losing, but if you're getting out there getting to play, getting to see what it's like. You're gonna see in the next couple of years what we could do. I don't even know if there's a program that's ever had a new head coach in the first season and had a crazy good year where they're winning the Pac-12 and stuff like that, not to say it's an excuse. But, people have to figure out what's going on. We got to get in the bye. It's our first year doing everything new with a whole new offense. We're trying to figure it out. We're all playing hard and we could have quit in the second half really. We could have quit, we could have sat down and ran the ball every play and just did whatever we want. But instead we fought and I think we won the second half actually. That was our goal. It sucks, and you don’t want to be in the situation, but we got one more and it's a team we all hate. So that's what we're going through now.”
Arizona State DT Dashaun Mallory
On whether the struggles come from having a first-year system in place:
“I don't think it's a point of emphasis to point fingers at anybody, whether to say that it's because of the new coaches and everyone is the first year or all the new players or even the young roster. Since I've been here in May, this team has worked tremendously week in and week out. I feel like I've spoken on this a tremendous amount of times. The season just didn't turn out the way we wanted. We spent Camp T (Tontozona)together as an entire team, as a brotherhood, and we had dreams and aspirations of what this season was supposed to look like. We fell up short tremendously, but there's no finger to point on anyone. Like (QB) Trent (Bourguet) said, it's life. We can't control injuries, we can't control missing guys in certain position rooms that are very key. We can't control some of the games that we end up losing. Although you can sit here and say preparation is a little bit more important during the week. But things happen and we just have to learn how to respond and just be better.Trent put it better. It’s life.”
On if there’s anything that they can take from the week of practice after the loss to Utah:
“I think just from the defense perspective, one thing that we did, specifically after the Utah loss, was honestly look ourselves in the mirror. There were a lot of plays that we truly left on the floor and it was honestly very frustrating sitting in the meeting rooms and just watching that. I think we had another good week of honest Monday and we again got to sit there and be real with ourselves. We can't be BS-ing, trying to find a shortcut. People played terrible today. Let's just call it what it is. People played terrible and we gotta be able to sit in the meeting rooms and watch that. We gotta be able to sit in the meeting rooms and watch, hear Coach yell at us. So I think it's just a thing about maturity. We understand that we have to get back to work. The season isn't over. We have one more game left. We can't roll over. Everyone has to get treatment tomorrow and wake up Monday morning, ready to go and go sit in the meeting room and prepare to get yelled at or just prepare to get coached. This is what we do. We're in the business of entertainment. We understand that every game isn’t going to be perfect. So these are the hidden things that people don't really care about. It's not necessarily about wins and losses, it’s how you can regroup. And I think we've done a good job of at least trying to understand what that means here. And I think Monday is going to be another stepping stone of what the culture is going to be in the future here. And we got to be honest with ourselves.”
Oregon Head Coach Dan Lanning:
Opening Statement:
“It felt like Eugene South down here today. Our fans were incredible, I saw so much green in the stands. Really fired me up and I’m glad that we were able to put up a great performance for them. Great job, we talked about playing to our standard. I think the first half is the definition of standard play for our team. I think we’re 6-for-6 on touchdowns, on offense, we’re able to get stops on defense, handle a lot of stuff you’re not able to practice.”
On what made Bo Nix’s performance successful statistically:
“Bo played exactly how you’re supposed to play in this game. You talk about efficiency, you talk about getting the ball to the right people in the right time, protecting the ball. He has a big belief in trust in the people around him and Bo would be the first one to tell you that the people around him make him special. Bo Nix is special and he’s getting better and better by game.”
On Kenny Dillingham:
“We both appreciate each other. It’s not that long ago I was sitting here as a GA at Arizona State and Kenny was a high school coach in the back of that room. It’s great to be able to see what the both of us have gotten and the people around us that have gotten us there. So, I know he’s got big things to accomplish and I know the future’s bright but grateful for him, appreciate him. Hopeful that he’s able to get things going, which I know he will.”
On looking ahead to Oregon State and how last year went:
“This game is our Super Bowl. They’re a really talented team and they’re coached extremely well, I’m anxious to sit here and be able to watch some of their film. I’ll watch some crossover film on what they’ve done this season, but I always feel like Jonathan has those guys playing their best football at the end of the season. It’s a tough team, it’s a resilient team, I’m excited to see what our fans do when they go out to this game.
Oregon QB Bo Nix
Opening Statement:
Feelings after most efficient career game with 6 touchdowns:
“It feels awesome. It's a complete team win. We played really good on offense. They protected great, we ran the ball great early and our receivers just did what they do every week. Efficiency is key in a game like that and it's just good to keep the ball off the ground.”
On Troy Franklin and others
“He's incredible, his approach to the game. He's just so hard to guard. He moves around all game. He's inside, outside, his routes are really good. He's so smart and he just makes plays, he's consistent. He is always there when you need him. And then, he sets a record and then you have Bucky who goes for over 1000 and then obviously shout out to Cam who's probably got the coolest stat of all just going for the record with total points in the history of the program. I'm just extremely happy for him, thrilled for what he's been through, what he's gone through to do what he has accomplished. And then it just allows overall team success, when you have guys like that, doing what they're doing for, individual records. But, it just obviously helps the team out, when each individual is doing their part.”
On playing Oregon State next week
“Well we just got to complete the game. We were obviously up big and just didn't get enough explosive plays or we didn't move the ball well, there late in the game. I've been obviously excited for this one, and it's gonna be a fun way to end the season and, in our regular season. I just know we have to prepare hard for this week because they're gonna be a really good football team. They're probably better than they were last year and we're gonna have to bring it and it's gonna be a really good matchup between really good teams and they're gonna be really good on defense. They're gonna show a bunch of different looks and we're just definitely gonna have to prepare, but I'm excited to play this one.”
On how the team is playing right now overall
“I think we're playing at a very high level. Defensively, we're playing really good. We're tackling in open field, we're getting pressure on the quarterback, we're mixing looks up, we're playing good in the secondary when the ball's in the air. Forcing turnovers and then special teams, we're changing the game. We're doing what we're supposed to do. Executing and then offensively we just do what we do and we go out there and compete every Saturday and we do our best to go out there and put a product on the field that we're proud of and that we can grow from. I just think when you look at our entire offense, there's not a weakness and there's not somebody that you kind of have to guard. As a defense, I think they have to respect all 11 guys on the field and when you do that, you can really expand the field and really do a lot of different things. It's exciting to see where we have come, where we were, and how far we've gone. There's probably even more that we could do better and I think that's what keeps us going back to practice on Monday.”