Fresno State Athletics
UNLV-Fresno State Postgame Quotes
UNLV at Fresno State Postgame Quotes
October 28, 2017
Head Coach Jeff Tedford
On what hurt the team most tonight…
“I would say all three phases (offense, defense and special teams) didn’t play very well. It was a total team loss. Special teams was obviously fumbling a punt return and having a snap go over our head. Those are key for talking about special teams. Defensively, we couldn’t get off the field. They controlled the football and we didn’t capitalize on or convert third downs when we needed to in order to stay on the field. We didn’t play very well in any phase of the game. I give them a lot of credit, they did a great job. Their quarterback made a lot of good throws to convert a lot of third downs. Their running back played a great game; he is a real hard guy to tackle. We didn’t tackle very well so it is a total team loss.”
On being ready to bounce back…
“Yeah, in the locker room, people are disappointed; there is no doubt about it. We have got to go back to work. Give them credit, they played well and we didn’t. That’s what happens when certain things happen in a game and you can’t get off the field and tackle well, we over threw balls on third down and special teams had two critical mistakes when we really needed it. We only had the ball three times in the first half and the fourth time we had the ball, we scored. We didn’t have the ball very many times, so it was critical that we made every possession count. You cannot fumble a punt return because we really needed that possession.”
On 4th-and-2 strategies…
“I felt like we would put them down deep. There is a lot of time left, I felt like we could pin them down in there and have defense hold them down there. They really hadn’t played from down deep all game. Their punter wasn’t really kicking rockets out there, they were really average punts. I felt like we could stop them down deep and get the ball in really good field position. I didn’t expect the ball to go over the punter’s head obviously.”
On the emotion he wants the team to have going in to next week…
“Emotionally getting back to work. It stings when you don’t win and when you aren’t successful. We will watch the tape very closely and point out the areas that we can get better in and we will work on that next week. I am sure no one feels good about it. It is a matter of getting back now. It is going to sting for a little while but you have got to let it go. It has to resonate with us about what it takes to win a football game; I don’t care who you’re playing. The details are always critical. We will do just that. We will make sure that we approach every week the same, it will be no different than how we approach any game. We uncover the mistakes, we look at them and we work on them every day in practice.”
On UNLV outplaying them regardless of all the preparation put in to it…
“They did a good job, we have to give them credit. They did an excellent job. The quarterback did a good job, he was accurate and he threw the ball on the money. They converted some big third downs in the first half to keep the drives alive. We only had the ball three times in the first half, some of that is on us but you have got to give them credit for making those plays. We got outplayed, no excuses about it, we got outplayed.”
On taking away any positives from today…
“I don’t care about being favored, none of that makes any difference to me. We don’t think about that. Is there a positive to take away from that? No. The only positive will be the corrections that we make and how we approach our mindsets going in to next week. As of this point right now, there are no positives about this. This stings; this is not what we work hard to do. It is disappointing.”
On the offense getting into a rhythm…
“It was really hard to get in the rhythm. It was over an hour of real time that the offense was on the field. It is kind of hard to get in the rhythm that way, but when we had the ball in the third quarter, we scored. The turnovers were key in a tight ball game like that. We needed a possession; we have to get off the field on defense. We give them credit, running back made a lot of plays, their offensive line played really well and gave their quarterback a lot of time to throw the ball and he was accurate in throwing it and they made some key plays. We got out played.”
Marcus McMaryion, QB
On the game…
“I think we just got outplayed. You have to give credit to UNLV. They came in and did their job. They made plays when they needed to make plays and we did not, myself included. We left plays out on the table. UNLV played a good game.”
On overcoming mistakes…
“When you’re playing good teams and stuff like that happens in close games, you can’t shoot yourself in the foot. I think we beat ourselves on a lot of plays out there. Obviously, UNLV played well but we did leave a lot out there. We need to look at the film and fix it.”
On the lesson that can be learned from this game…
“You cannot overlook any opponent. I’m not saying we were lackadaisical at practice or anything like that; we just have to come in and treat every game like it’s a big game and a big week. We just can’t be shooting ourselves in the foot. That’s the biggest thing.”
On if being favored affected preparation this week…
“We don’t really look at that. That’s for outside noise and for the fans and media to hype up. We were focused but we just got outplayed. It’s like a beating a dead horse, but we didn’t make plays when plays needed to be made and that’s myself included.”
On what preparation for BYU will look like in practice…
“Nothing changes. We’re going to do what we do every week. We’re going to come out and work hard, trust the process and what Coach Tedford is preaching. Nothing is going to change. We are going to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
On how the loss will affect the locker room and focus…
“I think it’s going to be a test for us. It’s a humbling loss and we can either fold or we can bounce back and come out even stronger. It’s going to test our team in a good way and it’s going to be a humbling experience for us to step back and see what we’re made of as a team.”
On the decision to punt on fourth-and-2…
“You can talk to Coach Tedford about that. Coach made a call and I’m confident in what Coach Tedford calls and that’s what he thought was the correct decision. I’m going to backup Coach Tedford.”
On what led to the struggles in the passing game…
“I think the offense played well at times but I totally put it on myself. There are throws out there that I could have made and extended drives. We just have to get better, myself included. I’m always going to be my biggest critic so I put the passing game on myself.”
Aaron Mitchell, C
On if the team was focused and ready to go after receiving national praise…
“All of that is outside noise. The way you have to look at it is that we’re a team built inside the locker room. Of course, there’s talk about it and people talk about it. The only thing that we can control is what we do inside the locker room and put on the field. UNLV outplayed us, there’s no doubt about that. We just need to be better. There wasn’t a lack of focus out there. There wasn’t a lack of focus at practice. We need to be more dialed-in and we need to play better, bottom line.”
On not being able to move the ball consistently on offense…
“Coach Tedford always talks about the little details. One guy missing a block or us as offensive lineman not making our blocks. There’s a million things that can go wrong on a single offensive play, but it’s a group effort. There’s 11 of us out there at a time and we just have to play better. We have to be better, bottom line.”
On if this loss stings a little bit extra…
“Every loss stings, there’s no doubt about that. Whether you lose three in a row or you’re on a roll and you lose one, it hurts. Talking to Coach Grubb, it’s an expensive cost loss. We lost, bottom line. But we can only go up from here. There are a lot of things we can fix and improve on. There’s a lot more football ahead of us. There are a lot more games where we can come out and put a good product on the field and that’s what we’re really looking forward to doing.”
On when he has last felt this way after a loss…
“You guys know, all last year. Everyone wants to talk about it, but that year has been flushed. Alabama and Washington, those are tough losses. It doesn’t matter where they’re ranked and who says who they are. A loss is a loss. I know this team is hurting right now. You can feel it. The morale in the locker room is a little low, but it’s just time to go back to work. That’s what football is about. You have 12 game each year. You forget a good win and you forget a bad loss. That’s just how it goes. You have 12 opportunities to go out there and go 1-0 each week.”
Jeffery Allison, LB
On the defense stopping UNLV…
“They just came out and executed. They wanted it more, they took advantage of every opportunity that we gave them. They study film just like we study film, and they executed their plays.”
On takeaways from the game…
“You can’t just overlook any team no matter what their record is you always have to come out ready to play, always have to prepare and you have to stay on top of your grind. That’s what we have to do we have to do, we have to come back out and start over start fresh and rebuild, come out with better focus and determination.”
On moving forward knowing there is more that can be accomplished…
“We have great things to accomplish, but we don’t like looking ahead we take it week by week.”
“Every week is an important week, like today was an important week. I give UNLV credit, they came out ready to play. They just outplayed us, they wanted it more.”
On why he thinks they outplayed us…
“They saw every opportunity and they took advantage of it, they wanted it more.”
“Like the coaches told us, we had a target on our backs. We were undefeated in the conference and every team looked to want to beat us. They wanted to take that away from us and they did.”
On expecting the game to go the way it did…
“We already knew what we were going into, it didn’t matter what their record was. We watched film and they have athletes on their team. Their running back and quarterback, no matter which quarterback it was, they have some athletes over there. They were ready to play and they came out juiced up.”
On if they did anything he wasn’t prepared for…
“Every team always does something that you didn’t prepare for, but I feel like we prepared for everything. We always have to be ready for adversity, but like I said they executed on the opportunities that they had.”
Head Coach Tony Sanchez
On the game…
“I’m just happy for my guys, they’ve put in a lot of work. The season didn’t start off they we wanted it to and we aren’t where we want to be, but I’ve got a great group of kids in that locker room. They’ve stayed the course through the adversity we’ve faced. We’ve had some good first halves this season, but we’ve been looking to put together a solid second half. The last ten minutes of a game is where you win a game and our guys did that tonight. Our defense who has been highly criticized this season came out and held a Fresno State team to 16 points was huge. To have our offense come out and score right away was big for us as well. The bounced our way a couple times tonight and we took advantage of that. There were so many individual efforts out there tonight but they came out as a group and fought together. I couldn’t be prouder.”
On the kicker…
“I couldn’t be prouder of Daniel Guttierrez’s effort tonight. He came onto the team as a walk on, our starting kicker went down and he came out for us tonight with ice in his veins.”
On the QB…
Most guys that have had the career that Johnny Stanton has had would have ran for the hills, but he didn’t. He became a good teammate and worked really hard. When he had his opportunity tonight to step up, he took it and led us to victory. I thought he played fantastic.”
Johnny Stanton, QB
On the game…
“It was a team win. The defense played so well tonight. I’ve played a little defense so I am able to be really appreciative of that. We really turned it on in the second half. This week we focused on second halves. Our offense didn’t do as much as we would have liked in the second half but our defense really picked it up.”
On stepping into the QB role…
“No, it wasn’t because that is my natural position that I’ve been playing for 10 years. The part that was hard was becoming ‘the man’, but I felt like I fell into the role well. After playing half the season as the backup for half the season, It was a lot more pressure and responsibility but that’s why I play football. I love the pressure.”
October 28, 2017
Head Coach Jeff Tedford
On what hurt the team most tonight…
“I would say all three phases (offense, defense and special teams) didn’t play very well. It was a total team loss. Special teams was obviously fumbling a punt return and having a snap go over our head. Those are key for talking about special teams. Defensively, we couldn’t get off the field. They controlled the football and we didn’t capitalize on or convert third downs when we needed to in order to stay on the field. We didn’t play very well in any phase of the game. I give them a lot of credit, they did a great job. Their quarterback made a lot of good throws to convert a lot of third downs. Their running back played a great game; he is a real hard guy to tackle. We didn’t tackle very well so it is a total team loss.”
On being ready to bounce back…
“Yeah, in the locker room, people are disappointed; there is no doubt about it. We have got to go back to work. Give them credit, they played well and we didn’t. That’s what happens when certain things happen in a game and you can’t get off the field and tackle well, we over threw balls on third down and special teams had two critical mistakes when we really needed it. We only had the ball three times in the first half and the fourth time we had the ball, we scored. We didn’t have the ball very many times, so it was critical that we made every possession count. You cannot fumble a punt return because we really needed that possession.”
On 4th-and-2 strategies…
“I felt like we would put them down deep. There is a lot of time left, I felt like we could pin them down in there and have defense hold them down there. They really hadn’t played from down deep all game. Their punter wasn’t really kicking rockets out there, they were really average punts. I felt like we could stop them down deep and get the ball in really good field position. I didn’t expect the ball to go over the punter’s head obviously.”
On the emotion he wants the team to have going in to next week…
“Emotionally getting back to work. It stings when you don’t win and when you aren’t successful. We will watch the tape very closely and point out the areas that we can get better in and we will work on that next week. I am sure no one feels good about it. It is a matter of getting back now. It is going to sting for a little while but you have got to let it go. It has to resonate with us about what it takes to win a football game; I don’t care who you’re playing. The details are always critical. We will do just that. We will make sure that we approach every week the same, it will be no different than how we approach any game. We uncover the mistakes, we look at them and we work on them every day in practice.”
On UNLV outplaying them regardless of all the preparation put in to it…
“They did a good job, we have to give them credit. They did an excellent job. The quarterback did a good job, he was accurate and he threw the ball on the money. They converted some big third downs in the first half to keep the drives alive. We only had the ball three times in the first half, some of that is on us but you have got to give them credit for making those plays. We got outplayed, no excuses about it, we got outplayed.”
On taking away any positives from today…
“I don’t care about being favored, none of that makes any difference to me. We don’t think about that. Is there a positive to take away from that? No. The only positive will be the corrections that we make and how we approach our mindsets going in to next week. As of this point right now, there are no positives about this. This stings; this is not what we work hard to do. It is disappointing.”
On the offense getting into a rhythm…
“It was really hard to get in the rhythm. It was over an hour of real time that the offense was on the field. It is kind of hard to get in the rhythm that way, but when we had the ball in the third quarter, we scored. The turnovers were key in a tight ball game like that. We needed a possession; we have to get off the field on defense. We give them credit, running back made a lot of plays, their offensive line played really well and gave their quarterback a lot of time to throw the ball and he was accurate in throwing it and they made some key plays. We got out played.”
Marcus McMaryion, QB
On the game…
“I think we just got outplayed. You have to give credit to UNLV. They came in and did their job. They made plays when they needed to make plays and we did not, myself included. We left plays out on the table. UNLV played a good game.”
On overcoming mistakes…
“When you’re playing good teams and stuff like that happens in close games, you can’t shoot yourself in the foot. I think we beat ourselves on a lot of plays out there. Obviously, UNLV played well but we did leave a lot out there. We need to look at the film and fix it.”
On the lesson that can be learned from this game…
“You cannot overlook any opponent. I’m not saying we were lackadaisical at practice or anything like that; we just have to come in and treat every game like it’s a big game and a big week. We just can’t be shooting ourselves in the foot. That’s the biggest thing.”
On if being favored affected preparation this week…
“We don’t really look at that. That’s for outside noise and for the fans and media to hype up. We were focused but we just got outplayed. It’s like a beating a dead horse, but we didn’t make plays when plays needed to be made and that’s myself included.”
On what preparation for BYU will look like in practice…
“Nothing changes. We’re going to do what we do every week. We’re going to come out and work hard, trust the process and what Coach Tedford is preaching. Nothing is going to change. We are going to keep doing what we’ve been doing.”
On how the loss will affect the locker room and focus…
“I think it’s going to be a test for us. It’s a humbling loss and we can either fold or we can bounce back and come out even stronger. It’s going to test our team in a good way and it’s going to be a humbling experience for us to step back and see what we’re made of as a team.”
On the decision to punt on fourth-and-2…
“You can talk to Coach Tedford about that. Coach made a call and I’m confident in what Coach Tedford calls and that’s what he thought was the correct decision. I’m going to backup Coach Tedford.”
On what led to the struggles in the passing game…
“I think the offense played well at times but I totally put it on myself. There are throws out there that I could have made and extended drives. We just have to get better, myself included. I’m always going to be my biggest critic so I put the passing game on myself.”
Aaron Mitchell, C
On if the team was focused and ready to go after receiving national praise…
“All of that is outside noise. The way you have to look at it is that we’re a team built inside the locker room. Of course, there’s talk about it and people talk about it. The only thing that we can control is what we do inside the locker room and put on the field. UNLV outplayed us, there’s no doubt about that. We just need to be better. There wasn’t a lack of focus out there. There wasn’t a lack of focus at practice. We need to be more dialed-in and we need to play better, bottom line.”
On not being able to move the ball consistently on offense…
“Coach Tedford always talks about the little details. One guy missing a block or us as offensive lineman not making our blocks. There’s a million things that can go wrong on a single offensive play, but it’s a group effort. There’s 11 of us out there at a time and we just have to play better. We have to be better, bottom line.”
On if this loss stings a little bit extra…
“Every loss stings, there’s no doubt about that. Whether you lose three in a row or you’re on a roll and you lose one, it hurts. Talking to Coach Grubb, it’s an expensive cost loss. We lost, bottom line. But we can only go up from here. There are a lot of things we can fix and improve on. There’s a lot more football ahead of us. There are a lot more games where we can come out and put a good product on the field and that’s what we’re really looking forward to doing.”
On when he has last felt this way after a loss…
“You guys know, all last year. Everyone wants to talk about it, but that year has been flushed. Alabama and Washington, those are tough losses. It doesn’t matter where they’re ranked and who says who they are. A loss is a loss. I know this team is hurting right now. You can feel it. The morale in the locker room is a little low, but it’s just time to go back to work. That’s what football is about. You have 12 game each year. You forget a good win and you forget a bad loss. That’s just how it goes. You have 12 opportunities to go out there and go 1-0 each week.”
Jeffery Allison, LB
On the defense stopping UNLV…
“They just came out and executed. They wanted it more, they took advantage of every opportunity that we gave them. They study film just like we study film, and they executed their plays.”
On takeaways from the game…
“You can’t just overlook any team no matter what their record is you always have to come out ready to play, always have to prepare and you have to stay on top of your grind. That’s what we have to do we have to do, we have to come back out and start over start fresh and rebuild, come out with better focus and determination.”
On moving forward knowing there is more that can be accomplished…
“We have great things to accomplish, but we don’t like looking ahead we take it week by week.”
“Every week is an important week, like today was an important week. I give UNLV credit, they came out ready to play. They just outplayed us, they wanted it more.”
On why he thinks they outplayed us…
“They saw every opportunity and they took advantage of it, they wanted it more.”
“Like the coaches told us, we had a target on our backs. We were undefeated in the conference and every team looked to want to beat us. They wanted to take that away from us and they did.”
On expecting the game to go the way it did…
“We already knew what we were going into, it didn’t matter what their record was. We watched film and they have athletes on their team. Their running back and quarterback, no matter which quarterback it was, they have some athletes over there. They were ready to play and they came out juiced up.”
On if they did anything he wasn’t prepared for…
“Every team always does something that you didn’t prepare for, but I feel like we prepared for everything. We always have to be ready for adversity, but like I said they executed on the opportunities that they had.”
Head Coach Tony Sanchez
On the game…
“I’m just happy for my guys, they’ve put in a lot of work. The season didn’t start off they we wanted it to and we aren’t where we want to be, but I’ve got a great group of kids in that locker room. They’ve stayed the course through the adversity we’ve faced. We’ve had some good first halves this season, but we’ve been looking to put together a solid second half. The last ten minutes of a game is where you win a game and our guys did that tonight. Our defense who has been highly criticized this season came out and held a Fresno State team to 16 points was huge. To have our offense come out and score right away was big for us as well. The bounced our way a couple times tonight and we took advantage of that. There were so many individual efforts out there tonight but they came out as a group and fought together. I couldn’t be prouder.”
On the kicker…
“I couldn’t be prouder of Daniel Guttierrez’s effort tonight. He came onto the team as a walk on, our starting kicker went down and he came out for us tonight with ice in his veins.”
On the QB…
Most guys that have had the career that Johnny Stanton has had would have ran for the hills, but he didn’t. He became a good teammate and worked really hard. When he had his opportunity tonight to step up, he took it and led us to victory. I thought he played fantastic.”
Johnny Stanton, QB
On the game…
“It was a team win. The defense played so well tonight. I’ve played a little defense so I am able to be really appreciative of that. We really turned it on in the second half. This week we focused on second halves. Our offense didn’t do as much as we would have liked in the second half but our defense really picked it up.”
On stepping into the QB role…
“No, it wasn’t because that is my natural position that I’ve been playing for 10 years. The part that was hard was becoming ‘the man’, but I felt like I fell into the role well. After playing half the season as the backup for half the season, It was a lot more pressure and responsibility but that’s why I play football. I love the pressure.”