Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State-Idaho Postgame Quotes
Sept. 1, 2018
Fresno, Calif.
Head Coach Jeff Tedford on how tonight’s performance matched up to the expectations…
“There were some good things and there are a lot of things we can clean up as well. We had some big plays on special teams, especially with the blocked field goals. That is all about effort, those guys are going all out and putting in effort. Going out and making the plays is all about how you draw it up. The ball bounced our way and the guys made a lot of plays. I was happy that we got the chance to play a lot of guys to create some depth. I thought they played hard the whole way. They rested at halftime and came out and continued to play hard. It is gratifying to get win number one but now that will be behind us we will prepare for next week.”
On improving this year…
“It was good execution of certain phases of the game. We will watch the film and I am sure there are a lot of things we can improve on. We missed a big play for a touchdown pass, we dropped a few balls and things like that that you cannot afford to do in tight ball games. I thought we played together well on offense, defense and special teams. That is really the key. It is nice to get victory number one. You never know what the first game of the year is going to look like. I thought our guys took the field with really good focus today and we need to continue doing that.”
On watching Idaho’s film to prepare for tonight’s game…
“You never know what they are going to do but it was not anything different. We came off the edge real hard, we squeezed the edge and cut the corner. Tank (Kelly) got out there and blocked it the way that he needed to block it. There is a lot that goes in to blocking a kick, you have to have the right angle and you have to block it off the foot and make sure that you have the right angles. We work on that and we get some good work at it. We don’t take plays off on field goals, that is the thing. It is not a play off, it is a chance to make a play. That effort gave us two big plays tonight.”
On special team plays…
“They pay off if you work hard at it and pay attention to the detail, no different than anything else. When you’re going after a field goal, it is all about effort and it is all about the push up the middle. It reinforces your hard work in practice.”
On the defense…
“We work on ball security every day, we work on tackling every day and we work on takeaways every day. Like we talk as a team, we try to create habits. Habits come from consistent repetition. We talked to the team last night about things that we do consistently. There are several things that we do constantly and it is all about practice. It paid off a couple times tonight, we had some not-so-difficult catches but there were some where we were diving on the ground and making it happen.”
On the offense...
“I thought the offensive line did a really nice job, there was a lot of movement inside. I thought that they did a great job at communicating. Our running backs did a great job at hitting the hole and hitting the hole quick. When you do that, and our guys up front stay on them, then we have enough speed to make some plays.”
Jordan Mims, RB, So.
On when he noticed the momentum start to build…
“The first few drives, we were running the ball well and executing well. That’s when I thought things were going pretty well for us.”
On depth at the running back position…
“We’re all interchangeable. We all can play. If I’m not doing well or something and Dejonte (O’Neal) goes in, he can do the exact same thing.”
On the impact of opening the season with a strong win…
“It sets the tone, but I honestly don’t feel like we played up to our full ability today. We had a lot of little things that we messed up on.”
On their mistakes…
“I just feel like as a team, compared to last year, it was different.”
On the mood of the running back room after scoring seven touchdowns…
“It should be great, but there are always things that we can fix and work on.”
On the last time he scored three touchdowns…
“Honestly, it was some time in high school.”
On whether the same production can be expected of him throughout the season…
“Yeah, no doubt. As long as our line and quarterbacks are all doing their jobs, it’s going to happen.”
On the mental impact a game like this can have moving forward…
“It’s always good to have the upper hand, but at the same time, we can’t sleep on anyone else because they can have a better week and play better. Tomorrow, we have to get after it and fix the mistakes we made today.”
On the defense’s performance…
“It’s great. Our defense is pretty good. We pretty much have everyone back. They fly around and make plays at practice. You saw that tonight, so it was good.”
Jaron Bryant, DB, Jr.
On the blocked field goal…
“Coach (Bert) Watts talked about it all week. If we could get one person off the edge, the end guy could step out and create that hole. That’s what happened tonight.”
On how it feels to recover a blocked field goal…
“When I see a green light, I’m going to take off running straight. That’s what I did tonight.”
On tying his season touchdown total from last season…
“I’m going to take whatever God blesses me with. I can’t count numbers right now. I’ll just take whatever God blesses me with every day.”
On the sets they used to score defensive touchdowns…
“You’re generally helping your team put more points on the board, so once you have your teammate step up and make a big play, you get happy, cheer them on and pat them on the back. After that, you focus on the next play of the next drive.”
On whether they’ve emphasized creating turnovers…
“We have the same motto from last year: get the ball out and create more turnovers than we did last year. We always try to get the ball out by stripping it or picking it. We do whatever we have to do to get the ball out and put the offense in a good position to score a touchdown for us. We try to get three-and-outs every time to give our offense a better chance of putting the ball in the end zone every time. That’s what we practice so we can perform in the game.”
On how the team’s performance compared to his expectations…
“We did well, but there are always small mental errors and mistakes that we can clean up. The scoreboard showed it all, but at the end of the day, we still had little mistakes that we can perfect.”
On whether he’d consider playing on offense…
“I’ll stick to the offensive side of the ball. I’m good on that.”
On allowing a decent amount of rushing yards…
“We’ll see in film tomorrow. I couldn’t tell you right now. We’ll go over the film tomorrow to see what it takes to stop it.”
Tank Kelly, DB, Sr.
On how they managed to block two field goals…
“Coach Thompson calls it the ‘Big Fish’, and we found our Big Fish on their field goal team. So we attacked the Big Fish, their weakest link basically. A Big Fish is someone who shows weakness, has the wrong footing or isn’t blocking down. They are the Big Fish on the market, that’s who we want to attack.”
On how he went about attacking Idaho’s field goal team…
“It’s a little scary at first, because you’re trying not to miss and hit the kicker. I just focused on the ball. I used one hand today, because I didn’t want to use two hands and hit the kicker.”
On Fresno State’s defensive coordinator from last season leaving and how the defense has changed or not changed…
“Everything is the same on defense. It’s all about the team and who is here. We’ve kept the same motto and everything is good!”
On the confidence the defense has…
“I think we are a humble team. We want to show the Valley that last year wasn’t a hoax. We’re here to stay, this is Fresno State football.”
On what he thought when he saw 79 points on the scoreboard…
“I still saw 0-0, I still wanted to put more points up there.”
On how they are going to prepare for Minnesota…
“Every week is 0-0, like the first game. We won’t prepare any differently, and we’ll start tomorrow.