ASU Quotes
Head Coach Herm Edwards
On the win today
“Well, it started with our fanbase. It was homecoming obviously, and they really got into the game. The crowd got into it and that helped us especially on third downs. But, going in, I thought we had good focus this week knowing that we were playing the 15th ranked team in the country, and coming off a win against USC, how would we handle that. We kept our focus. The congratulation has to go to the coaches and the players, they did a great job of really getting them ready to play this week.”
On the offense today
“We rushed the ball 50 times, and we only threw it 24. We made it count when we threw the football, I thought (Manny Wilkins) was spot on for the most part. He made that one bad decision with the ball but, other than that, we possessed the ball for almost 37 minutes. That’s good football for us when we can do things like that against a team that really likes to run the ball. They did a nice job in the first half of running the ball on us and then I thought (Danny Gonzales) and his crew did a nice job with the players adjusting to the run fits. Once we got a lead, it put them in a position that they don’t like as much and they had to throw the football.”
On Utah QB Tyler Huntley leaving the game with an injury
“Our prayers go out to that young man.”
On the pass protection today
“I kept going and talking to the offensive line about the protection and how (Manny Wilkins) sat in the pocket and had time to throw the football. They’ve done a nice job, and they did a nice job last week against USC as well. The protection is good, and it’s like anything else in football, when you can run the ball enough, it slows those rushers down and they get tired. Then, when you pass, it becomes more efficient when you can run it because it slows those guys down some because they’re always constantly trying to play the run.”
On the key offensive players today
“(N’Keal Harry) had a great day, three touchdowns and 160 something yards and nine receptions. Brandon Aiyuk had a nice day for us, he had six catches for 100 yards so that was nice to see him. He’s a JC guy and he’s starting to learn how to play at this level. The passing game was efficient enough to when N’Keal got the ball in his hands, he scored. Obviously, our running back Eno Benjamin, you can’t say enough about him, two TDs again today and, like you said, 183 yards rushing.”
On converting on first downs
“What helped us was that they get you in those situations where after first downs your behind the chains and we made positive yards on first downs. We had some third downs that we could convert and Manny was very accurate with the ball and made some nice throws.”
On what factored into the win
“I think the longer we stayed on the field, the heat kind of helped us as well. It was hot that first half and you could see was those guys tiring after long drives, so that helped us as well. All of those things played a factor for us and it’s good to win another home game, because the last time we played at home not so much and we didn’t win. So it’s good to win another home game in front of the fans.”
On the three interceptions today
“We really talked about that, we weren’t taking the ball away enough. We talked about that Thursday night actually and I thought tonight (Aashari Crosswell) with the big interception, good for him, he’s one of our fabulous freshmen as we call them around here and in the locker rooms. The takeaways are critical. When you can take the ball away, you give possessions to your offense and with almost 37 minutes of possession time and about 74 plays, you can win a lot of football games when you do that.”
On the importance of wins against ranked opponents
“It helps you, it really does. Beating USC obviously was important when you’re going after California players because they’re recruiting the same players we’re recruiting. When you beat Utah, a ranked team, that helps you because we were the underdog at home and we knew that. It’s kind of ironic, Michigan State was a ranked team as well and we fared well against them. We’ve played two really good opponents when they were ranked very high and we’ve been able to win games like that. Now all we have to do is string some together. We haven’t won three games in a row so far, so that should be our next goal to try to win three in a row and see if we can do that.”
#41 Tyler Johnson
On putting defensive pressure on the quarterbacks
“All week we’ve been practicing keeping the running back and the quarterback in the pocket because you know (Tyler Huntley), he has a history of running the ball. He can make people miss, he’s slippery. Same with (Zack Moss) the running back; he just lowers his shoulder and booms it. So that was the main thing for us and what we were trying to accomplish this week. We just wanted to keep him in the pocket and make him run into his own guys, slow him down and get tackles for loss.”
On their energy and mentality today and what felt different
“That’s another thing that Coach Herm preaches especially after the recent games. As you guys probably already know, we have had trouble in the third quarter, so coming out of halftime we had to stay warm and keep the energy. The fans helped us out a lot, we kept pushing and pushing and the more turnovers that we got, the more tackles for losses, we just kept the energy going.”
On Aashari Crosswell’s pick
“Honestly, I forgot what play we had called, but we got pressure because he started to scramble a little bit. He got nervous and just chucked it down the field, and then I just turned around and I honestly didn’t think Aashari would catch it. But good thing he did because I turned and he had made something happen.”
On how the win feels
“It feels good knowing that we played a very good team and we did our assignments. We had some mental errors but we came back and we stopped them so it’s a good team win. Everyone was doing their jobs and when we work all together, it feels different.”
#16 Aashari Crosswell
On his interception
“The rush was great, everything was going fine and then I saw that the ball was in the air. The sun was in my eye and I couldn’t see at the end so it was just a great play all around to give me my first pick.”
On getting his first pick
“I’ve dropped too many so this first one is something. Manny told me to enjoy this moment, so I’m enjoying it right now.”
Head Coach Herm Edwards
On the win today
“Well, it started with our fanbase. It was homecoming obviously, and they really got into the game. The crowd got into it and that helped us especially on third downs. But, going in, I thought we had good focus this week knowing that we were playing the 15th ranked team in the country, and coming off a win against USC, how would we handle that. We kept our focus. The congratulation has to go to the coaches and the players, they did a great job of really getting them ready to play this week.”
On the offense today
“We rushed the ball 50 times, and we only threw it 24. We made it count when we threw the football, I thought (Manny Wilkins) was spot on for the most part. He made that one bad decision with the ball but, other than that, we possessed the ball for almost 37 minutes. That’s good football for us when we can do things like that against a team that really likes to run the ball. They did a nice job in the first half of running the ball on us and then I thought (Danny Gonzales) and his crew did a nice job with the players adjusting to the run fits. Once we got a lead, it put them in a position that they don’t like as much and they had to throw the football.”
On Utah QB Tyler Huntley leaving the game with an injury
“Our prayers go out to that young man.”
On the pass protection today
“I kept going and talking to the offensive line about the protection and how (Manny Wilkins) sat in the pocket and had time to throw the football. They’ve done a nice job, and they did a nice job last week against USC as well. The protection is good, and it’s like anything else in football, when you can run the ball enough, it slows those rushers down and they get tired. Then, when you pass, it becomes more efficient when you can run it because it slows those guys down some because they’re always constantly trying to play the run.”
On the key offensive players today
“(N’Keal Harry) had a great day, three touchdowns and 160 something yards and nine receptions. Brandon Aiyuk had a nice day for us, he had six catches for 100 yards so that was nice to see him. He’s a JC guy and he’s starting to learn how to play at this level. The passing game was efficient enough to when N’Keal got the ball in his hands, he scored. Obviously, our running back Eno Benjamin, you can’t say enough about him, two TDs again today and, like you said, 183 yards rushing.”
On converting on first downs
“What helped us was that they get you in those situations where after first downs your behind the chains and we made positive yards on first downs. We had some third downs that we could convert and Manny was very accurate with the ball and made some nice throws.”
On what factored into the win
“I think the longer we stayed on the field, the heat kind of helped us as well. It was hot that first half and you could see was those guys tiring after long drives, so that helped us as well. All of those things played a factor for us and it’s good to win another home game, because the last time we played at home not so much and we didn’t win. So it’s good to win another home game in front of the fans.”
On the three interceptions today
“We really talked about that, we weren’t taking the ball away enough. We talked about that Thursday night actually and I thought tonight (Aashari Crosswell) with the big interception, good for him, he’s one of our fabulous freshmen as we call them around here and in the locker rooms. The takeaways are critical. When you can take the ball away, you give possessions to your offense and with almost 37 minutes of possession time and about 74 plays, you can win a lot of football games when you do that.”
On the importance of wins against ranked opponents
“It helps you, it really does. Beating USC obviously was important when you’re going after California players because they’re recruiting the same players we’re recruiting. When you beat Utah, a ranked team, that helps you because we were the underdog at home and we knew that. It’s kind of ironic, Michigan State was a ranked team as well and we fared well against them. We’ve played two really good opponents when they were ranked very high and we’ve been able to win games like that. Now all we have to do is string some together. We haven’t won three games in a row so far, so that should be our next goal to try to win three in a row and see if we can do that.”
#41 Tyler Johnson
On putting defensive pressure on the quarterbacks
“All week we’ve been practicing keeping the running back and the quarterback in the pocket because you know (Tyler Huntley), he has a history of running the ball. He can make people miss, he’s slippery. Same with (Zack Moss) the running back; he just lowers his shoulder and booms it. So that was the main thing for us and what we were trying to accomplish this week. We just wanted to keep him in the pocket and make him run into his own guys, slow him down and get tackles for loss.”
On their energy and mentality today and what felt different
“That’s another thing that Coach Herm preaches especially after the recent games. As you guys probably already know, we have had trouble in the third quarter, so coming out of halftime we had to stay warm and keep the energy. The fans helped us out a lot, we kept pushing and pushing and the more turnovers that we got, the more tackles for losses, we just kept the energy going.”
On Aashari Crosswell’s pick
“Honestly, I forgot what play we had called, but we got pressure because he started to scramble a little bit. He got nervous and just chucked it down the field, and then I just turned around and I honestly didn’t think Aashari would catch it. But good thing he did because I turned and he had made something happen.”
On how the win feels
“It feels good knowing that we played a very good team and we did our assignments. We had some mental errors but we came back and we stopped them so it’s a good team win. Everyone was doing their jobs and when we work all together, it feels different.”
#16 Aashari Crosswell
On his interception
“The rush was great, everything was going fine and then I saw that the ball was in the air. The sun was in my eye and I couldn’t see at the end so it was just a great play all around to give me my first pick.”
On getting his first pick
“I’ve dropped too many so this first one is something. Manny told me to enjoy this moment, so I’m enjoying it right now.”
