On play calling: "We haven't won enough games to be satisfied, After every game, after every year I call plays I go back and I look back at the situation I put guys in and the number one thing that you want to do is come out victorious whatever the count. We evaluate everything each and every week, it doesn't matter if we win. After UCLA we evaluate the situation. Those are things we're always going to do and continue to progress and continue to get better.
On scoring a lot and losing anyways: No matter what the circumstances in the game is it's our responsibility to come out one point ahead that's something we got to continue to work on. The big thing is we got to own the football, we got to score touchdowns when we get down into the redzone There are certain aspects of it I'm really pleased with this year the fact that we're running the football as well as we've run the football since I got in here. When you look at what we're facing, the guys we have it's been pretty impressive. We're getting better at third downs, we've had a couple of games where we've been better. Around third down those are things we challenge our guys with, we just can't turn the ball over, we just got to put touchdowns on the board it comes down to each and every guy on that field make sure they're doing their assignments. Make sure we put them in a good position to be successful and we got to get it done.
On having both RB's: Have that 1-2 punch and both guys are very dynamic runners they're doing a great job in both aspects Really proud of Kalen and how he's coming along be able to go in and be an every down type guy with his pass protection is getting better catching the ball out of the backfield. You can't play in this offense and have just one tailback we have two starters we have two guys that can definitely carry the load, I'm excited about how they're playing.
On Washington: They do a great job they have 11 guys playing as one. You look at their defense and there's not any weaknesses that jump out. They're really good at the back end, they're long, athletic, physical can cover and up front you have some really explosive players who can get to the quarterback they play against the run I think they're allowing 3.3 yards per carry which is best in our league so they defend the pass well, they defend the run they've done a good job of getting the ball out. It's going to be a tremendous challenge, we've got a lot of respect for these guys. We got a lot of respect for the job that they do and the way that they play, but we're excited about the challenge and the opportunity.
On character being tested: It's tested every year, it's tested when you have a ten win year. When you're successful at a high level your character is tested. Obviously when you face some adversity your character is tested. One day doesn't define what this program is, one game does not define this program. What does is how we respond to it. That's been part of the challenge of years that we won ten games you look back you see one or two games we didn't respond very well to the success that we're having. This year we've had a couple of set backs and how are we going to respond to that. So this stretch the last three games, three games that we led in the 4th quarter, three games that we didn't finish and a lot of things we've done to self-inflict that adversity. So it's really about us getting that cleaned up, the difference between us being in first place and being where we are right now is little things, details, execution being able to finish off those games, you look back on our first year here we lost I think it was like three or four games in a row and this time of the year we responded, we came back and won four and so all I care about is come Saturday when this thing kicks off being 1-0, make sure that we're improving and getting the things corrected we need to correct.
On scoring a lot and losing anyways: No matter what the circumstances in the game is it's our responsibility to come out one point ahead that's something we got to continue to work on. The big thing is we got to own the football, we got to score touchdowns when we get down into the redzone There are certain aspects of it I'm really pleased with this year the fact that we're running the football as well as we've run the football since I got in here. When you look at what we're facing, the guys we have it's been pretty impressive. We're getting better at third downs, we've had a couple of games where we've been better. Around third down those are things we challenge our guys with, we just can't turn the ball over, we just got to put touchdowns on the board it comes down to each and every guy on that field make sure they're doing their assignments. Make sure we put them in a good position to be successful and we got to get it done.
On having both RB's: Have that 1-2 punch and both guys are very dynamic runners they're doing a great job in both aspects Really proud of Kalen and how he's coming along be able to go in and be an every down type guy with his pass protection is getting better catching the ball out of the backfield. You can't play in this offense and have just one tailback we have two starters we have two guys that can definitely carry the load, I'm excited about how they're playing.
On Washington: They do a great job they have 11 guys playing as one. You look at their defense and there's not any weaknesses that jump out. They're really good at the back end, they're long, athletic, physical can cover and up front you have some really explosive players who can get to the quarterback they play against the run I think they're allowing 3.3 yards per carry which is best in our league so they defend the pass well, they defend the run they've done a good job of getting the ball out. It's going to be a tremendous challenge, we've got a lot of respect for these guys. We got a lot of respect for the job that they do and the way that they play, but we're excited about the challenge and the opportunity.
On character being tested: It's tested every year, it's tested when you have a ten win year. When you're successful at a high level your character is tested. Obviously when you face some adversity your character is tested. One day doesn't define what this program is, one game does not define this program. What does is how we respond to it. That's been part of the challenge of years that we won ten games you look back you see one or two games we didn't respond very well to the success that we're having. This year we've had a couple of set backs and how are we going to respond to that. So this stretch the last three games, three games that we led in the 4th quarter, three games that we didn't finish and a lot of things we've done to self-inflict that adversity. So it's really about us getting that cleaned up, the difference between us being in first place and being where we are right now is little things, details, execution being able to finish off those games, you look back on our first year here we lost I think it was like three or four games in a row and this time of the year we responded, we came back and won four and so all I care about is come Saturday when this thing kicks off being 1-0, make sure that we're improving and getting the things corrected we need to correct.
