Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards
On the win today:
“Players can’t help but look at records and I think as a coach you never get caught up in the record of an opponent. It’s always about the opponent and what they are trying to do. Chip Kelly is one of the better college football coaches, especially offensively, and they put some numbers up on us as you can see. I thought our offense for the most part did a nice job as well. When we needed them to move the ball, especially at the end there when it got sticky, they went on a nice long drive and really closed the game out. When you get them back like we had them, and then the crowd started roaring - it was unbelievable. They had two false-starts. That’s 22 seconds off the clock just on false-starts, and that was all from the fans.”
On preparing for close games:
“I think we really look at that. We talk about that all week. We actually practice it. There are always situations when it comes to situation football. I wish we had really closed the game out with the offense taking a knee, that was my vision for all of that but that wasn’t quite the deal. Then I’m sitting over there like ‘Oh now here we go.’ I called up to the box and said ‘Hey man, if we go to overtime we don’t want the ball, correct?’ And they go ‘Yeah we don’t want the ball.’ I said, ‘Now Danny [Gonzales], can we please stop these guys just this last time?’ And they did, and that’s great for the defense and great for the kids. I’m happy for them more than anything. They have come a long way since the beginning of the season and to find themselves in this position where they are eligible for a bowl, it’s fantastic.”
On UCLA’s offense:
“They did a nice job. The tight-end - we still haven’t covered him, he is still running free somewhere. He’s a good player, but I mean we got to stop him. We did everything to try to try to stop that guy and he just kept catching the ball and good for him because he’s a good player.”
On the significance of this being the senior’s last home game:
“I mentioned that all week and talked to the team before we went out. I told them ‘We need to do this for these guys.’ I talked about it in the meeting last night. If they have aspirations to play at the next level some of them will have opportunities, but as you mentioned most of them will not. I told all the other guys ‘Look at them and watch them when they walk out of here when they get introduced. That’s going to be you one day.’ This happens. This is part of football.”
On the freshmen playing:
“That’s great coaching by Danny [Gonzales] and his group. We played even more freshmen. I tell you their eyes were so big on that sideline. They all said they wanted to play and then they have to go in. It’s fun when you go in for mop-up duty, when you know you’re two or three scores up and they have about five minutes left. This one was a game that you have to make a play. It’s a part of maturity. The more times you get in this situation the uncomfortable becomes normal, and that’s what these guys have to learn. The uncomfortableness of competing has to become normal to you so you can play within your skill level.”
On the importance of these wins for the program:
“I think we’re playing for a lot of things. Don’t lose sight of this: we’re playing because we’re trying to build something. Everytime you play a game you learn a little bit more about your team and they learn a little bit more about their head coach and I learn a lot more about my coaches as well. It’s a process and the good thing is that we’re doing it in a way that we think we’re headed in the right direction. There’s still a lot of work to be done but I can’t thank my coaches and players enough for their effort thus far.”
Arizona State DL #41 Tyler Johnson
On how he feels:
“I feel good. It was a great team win. You couldn’t be prouder of all the seniors. I just got done telling them I love them and even though it was our last home game together, I told them they all made me play better from the o-line to trash talking in practice. It’s great to come off the last home game with a win.”
On whether he was motivated by LB Merlin Robertson’s ejection:
“Yeah, because we know how valuable he is on the defensive side. Coach always tells us the next person is up when something happens. He got ejected. You Have to be ready to come in.”
On UCLA’s final drive:
“I just had to keep going. The previous play before that, I wasn’t in the right spot where I should’ve been. Next play, coach made the next call and I just kept going and going and then came free.”
On what the game plan was defensively:
“We just had to shut down the middle and make them run side-to-side. That was our main goal. We had some breakout plays and we learned from mistakes. We just had to keep going and stick to the game plan.”
On the holes he saw today:
“Knowing it’s our last game and we need what we had to get done, you know we had to get that win. With the defensive we have and the offense we have, we want to be dominant on both sides and everyone understands that. That’s the message were trying to put out there and make that image clear. We’re going to keep going, keep fighting. We need to get it done and we got it done today.”
On the win today:
“Players can’t help but look at records and I think as a coach you never get caught up in the record of an opponent. It’s always about the opponent and what they are trying to do. Chip Kelly is one of the better college football coaches, especially offensively, and they put some numbers up on us as you can see. I thought our offense for the most part did a nice job as well. When we needed them to move the ball, especially at the end there when it got sticky, they went on a nice long drive and really closed the game out. When you get them back like we had them, and then the crowd started roaring - it was unbelievable. They had two false-starts. That’s 22 seconds off the clock just on false-starts, and that was all from the fans.”
On preparing for close games:
“I think we really look at that. We talk about that all week. We actually practice it. There are always situations when it comes to situation football. I wish we had really closed the game out with the offense taking a knee, that was my vision for all of that but that wasn’t quite the deal. Then I’m sitting over there like ‘Oh now here we go.’ I called up to the box and said ‘Hey man, if we go to overtime we don’t want the ball, correct?’ And they go ‘Yeah we don’t want the ball.’ I said, ‘Now Danny [Gonzales], can we please stop these guys just this last time?’ And they did, and that’s great for the defense and great for the kids. I’m happy for them more than anything. They have come a long way since the beginning of the season and to find themselves in this position where they are eligible for a bowl, it’s fantastic.”
On UCLA’s offense:
“They did a nice job. The tight-end - we still haven’t covered him, he is still running free somewhere. He’s a good player, but I mean we got to stop him. We did everything to try to try to stop that guy and he just kept catching the ball and good for him because he’s a good player.”
On the significance of this being the senior’s last home game:
“I mentioned that all week and talked to the team before we went out. I told them ‘We need to do this for these guys.’ I talked about it in the meeting last night. If they have aspirations to play at the next level some of them will have opportunities, but as you mentioned most of them will not. I told all the other guys ‘Look at them and watch them when they walk out of here when they get introduced. That’s going to be you one day.’ This happens. This is part of football.”
On the freshmen playing:
“That’s great coaching by Danny [Gonzales] and his group. We played even more freshmen. I tell you their eyes were so big on that sideline. They all said they wanted to play and then they have to go in. It’s fun when you go in for mop-up duty, when you know you’re two or three scores up and they have about five minutes left. This one was a game that you have to make a play. It’s a part of maturity. The more times you get in this situation the uncomfortable becomes normal, and that’s what these guys have to learn. The uncomfortableness of competing has to become normal to you so you can play within your skill level.”
On the importance of these wins for the program:
“I think we’re playing for a lot of things. Don’t lose sight of this: we’re playing because we’re trying to build something. Everytime you play a game you learn a little bit more about your team and they learn a little bit more about their head coach and I learn a lot more about my coaches as well. It’s a process and the good thing is that we’re doing it in a way that we think we’re headed in the right direction. There’s still a lot of work to be done but I can’t thank my coaches and players enough for their effort thus far.”
Arizona State DL #41 Tyler Johnson
On how he feels:
“I feel good. It was a great team win. You couldn’t be prouder of all the seniors. I just got done telling them I love them and even though it was our last home game together, I told them they all made me play better from the o-line to trash talking in practice. It’s great to come off the last home game with a win.”
On whether he was motivated by LB Merlin Robertson’s ejection:
“Yeah, because we know how valuable he is on the defensive side. Coach always tells us the next person is up when something happens. He got ejected. You Have to be ready to come in.”
On UCLA’s final drive:
“I just had to keep going. The previous play before that, I wasn’t in the right spot where I should’ve been. Next play, coach made the next call and I just kept going and going and then came free.”
On what the game plan was defensively:
“We just had to shut down the middle and make them run side-to-side. That was our main goal. We had some breakout plays and we learned from mistakes. We just had to keep going and stick to the game plan.”
On the holes he saw today:
“Knowing it’s our last game and we need what we had to get done, you know we had to get that win. With the defensive we have and the offense we have, we want to be dominant on both sides and everyone understands that. That’s the message were trying to put out there and make that image clear. We’re going to keep going, keep fighting. We need to get it done and we got it done today.”
