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Transcribed quotes from ASU coaches and players

Head coach Herm Edwards:


Opening statement

“First of all I’ll tell you what I told coach- coach Whittingham- I told him I’m embarrassed with our football team when it came to the fouls. We were out of- we lost our composure, and I don’t believe in doing that kind of stuff, I just sit- it mares the football game, and I’ve never been involved in a game where a team had 12 fouls. For some reason, we just lost our composure, and I don’t know if I can figure that out why, I don’t know, but that’s not the way we play, and I apologized to him for that. With that being said, I think you’ve got to give these guys a lot of credit, they put a lot of pressure on our quarterback. They found ways to get to him, he was under duress most of the day, Eno ran at times- pretty rough. Defensively, we kind of held in there for a while, and then I think at the missed field goal it got some air out of us, thought we’d get it to one score, then they hit a big run on us and that was about it for us, I mean we were pretty much done, it was going to be very difficult to come back from 18 points against a defense like this on the road. So, we got to give these guys a lot of credit. I told our football team that ‘we’re going to find out a lot about ourself,’ we’ve got the rest of the season left, and we’ve got to find a way to regroup, and go down to Los Angeles and play a football team that won this Thursday I believe it was, won a game, so they’ll be ready for us as well. So, I think the second half of the season will tell a lot about us, and where we’re that. They hit us in the mouth, and they beat us up, and credit to them.”


On what he made of the missed opportunities to get back in the game in the second half

“Missed opportunities, we couldn’t convert third downs. Looking at third downs, we were 2-for-13, so that doesn’t- if you can’t move the ball, you’re not going to score. And that’s the game, we didn’t move the ball a whole lot. When you look at our offense, we didn’t even have 200 yards of offense, had 136 yards of offense on 51 plays. So, we’re going to have to do a lot better than that. We ran the ball 33 times for 111 yards, but we couldn’t do anything in the pass game, we were under duress most of the night.”


On what made Utah effective after ASU forced turnovers by their offense

“Just stopped us, got us in some third-and-longs, penalties. A couple of times we had some drives going and we had a penalty, or something happened. It was a game of- you know we got turnovers too on defense early in the game, did nothing with them. I think we got three turnovers and we didn’t do anything. You know, so it was one of those games where you got to give these guys a lot of credit, they have a fantastic defense, and they didn’t allow us to score, and that’s been their whole deal this year, they don’t allow a lot of points.”

On the difficulty of expecting so much from two true freshmen on the offensive line against such a strong defense in an environment like this

“Well, we don’t want to make excuses, we’re not going to do that. But a lot of our youth showed on both sides of the ball showed up tonight, it just did. You were waiting for that to happen, hoping it wasn’t going to happen, but I’m not naïve to not know that it’s going to happen, it just does, and this was a big football game, and you want to be in these moments where you find out a lot about your football team, and hopefully, we can get ourself in position again and be in some moments like this before the season ends.”


On lessons he wants the team to take away from this game

“Well, I think the lessons are when you play in a game like this, you can’t let your emotions take over, you know. And we’ve been pretty good with that, but tonight was one of those nights, I was like ‘what are we doing?’ I couldn’t believe what I was watching, like what are we doing? And with all that being said, we’re still in the game. That’s what made it so crazy, which is like if you kick a field goal, you feel like ‘ok, we’re down one score and a lot of things can happen.’ But I thought the Chase interception would get us into position, and we didn’t score, we should’ve scored a touchdown. We get an interception, we get it down that close and then we had a penalty, and you go backwards. I mean we just did a lot of things to hurt us and we’ve got to clean it up.”


On of all the talk around this game, or if the early hits on Jayden Daniels played a factor in the game

“I think anytime you get to the quarterback early- he’s a young quarterback, and he sees it, and I said all week ‘we got to protect our quarterback, we have to,’ and I told them going into the game be smart, just be smart, and we just got to, they’re a good football team. They proved it tonight, I mean they were fantastic. They came at us defensively, and offensively did a couple of things in the run game. You know, we didn’t execute on defense a couple of times on third down, I mean we get a stop on third down and we get two penalties. We just kind of self-destructed ourselves, but I don’t want to take anything away from Utah because they beat our tails.”


On the keys for the defense playing, as well as they, did in the second half, especially the third quarter

“I think we calmed down and felt like we could make it a defensive game. If we could just keep it 14-3, if we could just get some kind of score to make it a one-score game and get into the fourth quarter, anything can happen. Because one thing we were doing, we were taking the ball away, we took the ball away, and we prevented some scores, and so we just felt if we could get to one score, anything can happen, and it didn’t work out for us.”


On how the team is health-wise

“Well, we’ll see. We got the one guy ejected, obviously. (Senior linebacker) Khaylan (Kearse-Thomas), we’ll see where he’s at. We have a couple of guys that are a little bit nicked, we’ll see. Now, the good thing is that after UCLA we have another bye (week), so maybe some guys will get healthy soon, and we have another bye week so that should help us.”


On the status of starting redshirt freshman safety Cam Phillips, who did not play

“Cam, yeah no he didn’t even come on the trip. He had- his hamstring was hurting, so he was- so we played a lot of young guys back there. We had to put Kobe at rover [sic] a couple of times, so we were moving guys around.”


On if the team thought about being more creative on offense

“Yeah, we tried to roll them a couple of times, and a couple of times they came off pressure on their side, you know, we tried to move the pocket, they just, they beat us to the punch, they were- we would do something and they would get to us, so you got to give those guys a lot of credit, they beat our tails.”

Offensive coordinator Rob Likens:

On the challenge of protecting Jayden Daniels

“Yeah, it turned out to be real challenging. Number six, man is he a really good player. You know, we didn’t execute as well as we need to, obviously. But it put us in a bad situation too, not being able to run the ball effectively, and that kind of lets them just kind of pin his ears back and come after you. They beat us two times on a chip, we had a running back and Ladarius Henderson blocking him, he still hit our quarterback and put pressure on the quarterback, needed pressure so the play was unsuccessful. So, that was a big part of the game.”


On if there’s any plays or calls he wants to have back

“You know, I thought we had- we were going to call a couple of shots, and then two times- the one time we go the interception by the defense, perfect setup for us and then we go out on the field and get a five-yard penalty, like that killed us. The two- and this is where to me the game just started going the wrong way for us on offense, is we had two 2nd-and-1’s, and didn’t end up getting the first down on that drive. It’s just like- that’s just- I mean I can’t even tell you how unexcusable that is and just awful. So, definitely got to fix that. One of them was a bad- I think it was a bad or dropped snap, I couldn’t tell, I didn’t see it, I was looking at the defensive structure and I look up and we’re kneeing the ball, and then the other one, we just kind of got beat upfront and then we didn’t convert the third-and-three, so that, and then I think we started two drives first-and-fifteen, you’re not going to win, you’re not going to beat Utah doing that, I mean you’re just not going to, no matter how many turnovers the defense gets you, you’re just- you’re not going to doing those type of things.”


On if today was the day the youth in the team showed up

“Yeah, it will, and it did- and that’s where we’re at, and I know one thing that I love about our quarterback is that he learns at a high level, and he’s going to learn from this, and I fully expect for us to be a lot better next week.”


On the issues with protecting Daniels made it hard to call plays

“So, the chip (block) sometimes wasn’t working, and when you have to ‘max-pro’ everything that you do, and then they, you know, they’re already good in the secondary, and then they’re dropping- I mean you’ve got three guys going out for a pass and they’ve got six guys covering them, that’s hard, and sometimes seven, so I mean we just got to figure some more things out, and it all starts if you’re able to run the football, and be balanced, and mix things up and things like that, it doesn’t show up quite as bad, and then today it just did because we couldn’t run the ball.”


On how Daniels handled the game given it’s the most adversity he’s faced in his young college career

“Oh, he was fine. We talked throughout the game; he was very calm. You know, and I would get him on the phone and I’d ask him what he saw, and he gave me great answers, and one thing I love about the kid- most freshman would have thrown picks that, you know he did have one bad decision I thought, but most of the time he was protecting the ball. He’s going to protect the ball, protect the ball, he’s going to throw it away, I know it might frustrate the fans and all that stuff. But I’ll tell you what, I’ve seen a lot of freshmen just throw pick-sixes and just throw the ball up, and he just doesn’t do that, and that’s what makes him special, and he’s young, and we are young, and things are going to get better and, like I said, I fully expect to be good next week.”


On all the penalties they were called for and how uncharacteristic it is for a normally disciplined team

“I don’t know what happened, we just got to talk about it and get with everybody, and that was very uncharacteristic of a Herm team, and I’m sure he’s upset about it, we’re all upset about it, and we all should be- the whole team should be upset about it. That’s not how you represent everybody, yourself, your university, all that stuff, and so we need to do a better job with that because you can’t help a team- a team that good, you give them any help, I mean good luck, you know, you’re done, and we gave them a lot of help tonight.”

Defensive coordinator Danny Gonzales:

On lessons learned from the loss

“You can’t have 122 yards in penalties. 12 penalties for 122 yards don’t win those kinds of games. I mean this is essentially a championship game for the South, and we keep winning we have a chance to- now we have to rely on somebody to help us. We can’t afford to lose again, and we got to rely on people to help us. The first half, I mean we- I thought our game plan did stop them from running the ball, it was working. We didn’t get off the field on third down, let a couple long third downs, and then they get the touchdown and we should’ve got off the field on the first drive, but the second one, I’ve never been on a drive that had four penalties that were 15-yard penalties.

One of them, the first third down, we sack him and we’re re-routing the receiver and, I mean that was- it’s the same thing as all the blind-side blocks that they’re calling now, you just- you can’t do it away from the ball anymore, that used to be football, the ball wasn’t in the air you could knock em out, we can’t do it anymore, So, we got to make sure they understand off the tape this weekend so we don’t make those mistakes going forward, because it happened twice, and then Evan on the targeting, got to go near foot, near shoulder, you can’t ever lead with your face, and he hit his helmet trying to keep him from getting the first down.

So, I mean we got to learn from those things. I thought they fought their tails off in the second half, when we got some turnovers, created some short fields. Really, really disappointed with the touchdown though. That’s one of those deals where we got to keep building because we turn the ball over, (junior cornerback), Jack (Jones) is trying to make a play, trying to get us back in the game, somehow, and he gets the ball- we got to make sure we take care of it there. But we can’t give up a one-play score, I mean we got to go out there and get them on the ground, I mean it was the first time I saw somebody dive, and they chased and dove at his ankles, instead of trying to run through his legs.

And then, I mean the very last series, they were just running out the clock, I mean you can’t let them get yards. I mean that was kind of call them up on the sideline and we got to keep fighting, I mean that- it’s a really good football team on the other side of the field, but we had plenty of opportunities to win the game. I mean sometimes when the offense is struggling, we need to score on defense. Junior cornerback) Chase (Lucas) has an opportunity, he tried to get down there, we got down there. A couple of those fumbles, I think one of them we might have had a better chance if we just pick it up and run towards the end zone. But, we got some short fields for them, we got a couple of turnovers early to keep them out of the end zone, but it wasn’t enough.”


On why the defense picked up its performance in the second half

“I think they were trying to run the ball, I thought we had a good game plan against it to keep- we didn’t want it to come down to (Utah running back Zack) Moss and Tyler Huntley. He threw it a little bit better in the first half, and we had just played- we were playing from zone. And then the touchdown that they got on the fly sweep on the penalty, they got us. We had a couple of our guys try to substitute, they ran up to the line of scrimmage and ran the play. There was a couple, I mean I thought they did a pretty good job with their slots, tackling our guys and not getting called for holding. So, we got to punch them in the throat to get off the block, they can’t breathe, they can’t tackle- I mean they can’t hold, so we got to be a bit tougher there. Second half I thought we played- I mean we created some turnovers and we were aggressive downhill, and that was- we didn’t really do anything different, we just continued to be aggressive.”


On thoughts on the nature of the game and how the players handled it

“I didn’t think we handled it very well. I thought in the first half we were playing with a lot of emotion instead of passion. We talk about it all the time, you got to keep yourself in that temperament, and they play hard- Utah plays really hard, I’m pretty good friends with their d-coordinator, and I think they do a great job. They play until the guy’s not twitching, I got no problem with that stuff, and that’s how we want our guys to play. So, we need to understand that you just keep going and you can’t get chippy, you can’t let those things bother you. Now, none of those penalties that we got on that drive were of the chippiness version.

We have the one on D-Black that we’re trying to eliminate a crossing route, we get Merlin for a late hit on the quarterback, that’s a pretty close judgment call- they’re going to protect the quarterbacks- the targeting penalty, I mean those are ball plays, but we’ve got to overcome them, and we can teach D-Black how to stay away from them, I mean the blindside block, but I already said, they’re going to call it every time, the one that they had on Elijah, they’re going to call that every time. So, our guys need to be smarter- you can’t just clean somebody up in this game anymore, so they have to learn that, and the chip- we played with a little too much emotion right there, and I mean we got to grow up from that, and we’ll learn from it, and it’s our job as coaches to teach them.”


On if all the problems with penalties in a physical game are just a maturity thing

“I think so, I mean we want our guys to play on the verge of- I mean to play this game right, you have to be nasty and physical and play right there, but you have to be able to control it, and I think you learn how to do that, and we’re playing a bunch of young guys that need to grow up quick because we’ve still got a chance to win- we could still win 10 games, we could win on out if we focus. Anybody in this league can beat anybody on any day, just check the scores, so we got to regroup. Now, I’m assuming that the training room’s going to be a lot more full tomorrow than it has been because we lost, you know, it’s that whole ‘loser’s limp’ kind of deal, so we’ll see. We’ll see if they show up and handle that right, and I’ll be on the phone with them at 6 a.m. to make sure that they get there so that they can get themselves healed up because we have a big game next week against UCLA.”


On if he was happy with how the unit handled the run game

“No, they scored three touchdowns, we got to do better.”

Quarterback Jayden Daniels:

On the constant pass-rush he had to face from Utah

“We knew coming in that they’re a good defense, it was just some things that we have to fix as a offense. We didn’t have our best game today, but we just can’t dwell on it- we can’t dwell on this moment, we just got to move on- on to UCLA.”


On some things he can take away from the type of defense he faced tonight

“Just a relentless defense, they’re going to get after the quarterback. It’s just the style of defense that we just played, and we just played the game.”


On if he’s concerned about moving on too quickly and not learning necessary lessons from this loss

“No, not at all. I mean we got a couple of days to go back, watch the tape, see what we did wrong, fix our mistakes, and then come Tuesday, when we practice, it’s on to UCLA.”


On what he saw when the offense got the ball in Utah territory in the second half and weren’t able to move the ball

“I mean really, just look at the penalties, that’s really what killed us is penalties.”


On what he takes from this game:

“Really, just the lesson learned really just the defense that we played, the team that we played, they’re a very stout team, all three phases. Really just, like Kobe said, we’re not really a penalized team, so they’re already a good team, so the free yards that we were giving them, it just kept adding up.”


On if there wasn’t enough time to get off some deeper throws

“Their d-line is, they’re one of- probably the best d-line that we’ve faced so far to-date. Just, there are a couple of things that we could’ve done as an offense. Me getting the ball out faster, helping out with the d-line and really just stop softening them up in ways. But that’s just things we have to look back on and build from.”


Defensive back Kobe Williams:

On what he makes of how uncharacteristically penalized the team was in this loss

“We never had a game where we were penalized this much, so it was a lot of yardage and everything like that, those guys never really drove on us the whole game, it was penalties or just turnovers really. So, we’re just playing solid defense and just try to keep it going, but the penalties killed us and put us out of whack a little bit, just fighting the game, playing against a tough team that’s very physical.”


On if there were any plays he wishes he could have back

“There’s a lot of plays we just miss-tackled as a defense and stuff like that, that we missed, and keys that we just messed up on, but we just have to play better as a whole defense with a great team like that that can capitalize on that with a great running game like that.”


On what ASU’s defense felt like they did well

“Just playing our ball, that’s what we do, just play our ball and playing physical, just bringing that match to them, what they wanted to do, and when they’re running the ball on us, we wanted to just get in their backfield- we played in their backfield a lot early in the game, which helped us get off the field as a defense, and tried to keep it going, and then Zack got that run in the end. But, you could just tell how our defense- like you knew he didn’t pass that 55-yard mark, that record yard, until the last minutes of the game.”


On if he felt the team lost their composure once the penalties started adding up

“Most definitely, that’s why I said we got out of whack, we’ve never been there, we’ve never been in those moments where we just got all those penalties and coach always tells us to be passionate, never emotional, but we got emotional a little bit.”

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