Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State-Sacramento State Postgame Quotes
Fresno State Head Coach Jeff Tedford
Opening statement…
"It was a win. There is a lot of work to do. There are a lot of mistakes that we need to clean up. We have a lot of respect for Sacramento State, I want to give them a lot of credit because they are a really good football team. They do a lot of really good things on offense and their defense is very stingy, they have proven it throughout the year. They have a great pressure package and they are tough against the run. We had three fumbles, two missed field goals, a missed extra point and some key penalties, and we have to clean some stuff up. We are fortunate to win the game tonight. It always feels good to win, don't get me wrong because it is hard to win. I was proud of our team and their resiliency because in the third quarter, there wasn't a lot going on offensively. I want to point out Blake Cusick. What a weapon he is. Field position in the third quarter, especially, we really had them backed up down there and Blake did a nice job at keeping them pinned in there, and defense did a nice job at keeping them down there. We just kept playing. Nobody gave anything away. We found a way to win. That is really important. Like I said, I have a lot of respect for Sacramento State. I think they are going to go a long way this year."
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On Josh Hokit…
"He is a part of what we do. Him and Ronnie (Rivers) are our two backs and we have a lot of confidence in Josh. He catches the ball well, he pass protects well and he runs hard. You don't see the pile going backwards very often when Josh has the ball. It was moving forward. He is a hard-nosed tough kid and I thought he played really well tonight."
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On Cesar Silva…
"So far this year he has been really good, but he pushed everything to the right tonight. We know he is a good kicker. It was just one of those nights that didn't go his way and we need to go back and correct it, but we know he is a good kicker. We will fix it. We have to keep his confidence high, get him to examine the tape and what his fundamentals were, but he will bounce back. I am sure. I have confidence in that."
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On bouncing back from 0-2…
"We just got back to work, we didn't go back to the drawing board. We didn't reinvent anything. We do what we do in practice and we work very hard. We practice very physical and we really focus on fundamentals. A couple of times, that didn't transfer over too well tonight. In tackling, we let some guys get out of tackles which is not like us. There was nothing out of the ordinary that we did in the last two weeks."
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On the defense…
"I thought they stepped up because last game out, we gave up some big plays. It is nice to get off the field. Sacramento State was 4-of-14 on third down conversions. I thought we came up and made some big plays, and some plays in the secondary. Early in the game, we gave up some big plays which we can't allow to happen, but I thought we had them backed up in the second half. It was nice to keep them back there. We got our hands up and batted some balls down in key situations. As always, the guys played hard."
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On the play he remembers the most…
"There are a lot of plays in a game, but the one that sticks out to me the most right now is Blake (Cusick) punting it down to the one yard line. That might not be very sexy, but it is very effective. Being out past midfield and putting it at the one yard line, that is huge. That sticks out the most in my mind right now. I thought that was big. To keep them backed up at that time helped us to keep some momentum defensively"
Junior wide receiver Keric Wheatfall
On which play of his was the biggest…
"The one that was third-and-forever. It was a big play that put Josh (Hokit) in the position to score us a touchdown."
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On coming back from an injury…
"It was kind of difficult watching my teammates ball out, but I never let that beat me up. I was always there for my teammates. I was always there to pick them up if someone was down. So, it wasn't too bad."
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On the receiving corps…
"We have a ton of good receivers on this year's team. Nearly every day, we stay after practice and put the work in with our quarterbacks. In the receiving group, we are like a family. We keep each other up, we let each other know if someone is slacking and we always have each other's backs."
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On getting the first win…
"It feels amazing. It is never a good feeling to lose two games in a row, but coming back from it and leaving it in the past, coming back and working each day in practice, it feels amazing."
Senior quarterback Jorge Reyna
On getting a victory.....
"It feels great. The best part is our offensive line responding to whether we are going to dominate up front or not and they did. I am more than happy, I am thrilled for our offensive lineman."
On attacking Sacramento State....
"Fortunately, we had two weeks off to prepare for them and to go against that great defense, we were able to execute to our highest potential and get the win at the end of the day."
On Josh Hokit's performance....
"It shows you all the work we have done in the offseason. Josh is a great guy and is mentally and physically strong, but he also represents our team. The last two weeks have not been the best weeks for us and we came back and found a way to win and Josh is our leader is displaying that to the fans of how dominant we want to be."
On moving forward now in the season....
"First of all, we will enjoy the win for 24 hours and then tomorrow go back to the basics, tell the truth and fix our details that need to be fixed."
Senior cornerback Jaron Bryant
On the win tonight....
"It was a good win, but we still have work to do. We will be back tomorrow to fix all the mistakes we had in the game and prepare for next week."
On the defensive performance....
"We played good, but we could be better. We will come back tomorrow, fix all the details and get back to work."
On the atmosphere of the team after the victory....
"It was a good atmosphere after the win, but we still have work to do."
On what Sacramento State did well tonight....
"They played all four quarters and never gave up. Normally when you get punched in the mouth, you give up, but they did not give up and kept fighting for all four quarters."
On how he prepared during the bye week....
"I always kept a chip on my shoulder. Nothing will be handed to you and you have to keep working and that is how you get a win."
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Opening statement…
"It was a win. There is a lot of work to do. There are a lot of mistakes that we need to clean up. We have a lot of respect for Sacramento State, I want to give them a lot of credit because they are a really good football team. They do a lot of really good things on offense and their defense is very stingy, they have proven it throughout the year. They have a great pressure package and they are tough against the run. We had three fumbles, two missed field goals, a missed extra point and some key penalties, and we have to clean some stuff up. We are fortunate to win the game tonight. It always feels good to win, don't get me wrong because it is hard to win. I was proud of our team and their resiliency because in the third quarter, there wasn't a lot going on offensively. I want to point out Blake Cusick. What a weapon he is. Field position in the third quarter, especially, we really had them backed up down there and Blake did a nice job at keeping them pinned in there, and defense did a nice job at keeping them down there. We just kept playing. Nobody gave anything away. We found a way to win. That is really important. Like I said, I have a lot of respect for Sacramento State. I think they are going to go a long way this year."
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On Josh Hokit…
"He is a part of what we do. Him and Ronnie (Rivers) are our two backs and we have a lot of confidence in Josh. He catches the ball well, he pass protects well and he runs hard. You don't see the pile going backwards very often when Josh has the ball. It was moving forward. He is a hard-nosed tough kid and I thought he played really well tonight."
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On Cesar Silva…
"So far this year he has been really good, but he pushed everything to the right tonight. We know he is a good kicker. It was just one of those nights that didn't go his way and we need to go back and correct it, but we know he is a good kicker. We will fix it. We have to keep his confidence high, get him to examine the tape and what his fundamentals were, but he will bounce back. I am sure. I have confidence in that."
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On bouncing back from 0-2…
"We just got back to work, we didn't go back to the drawing board. We didn't reinvent anything. We do what we do in practice and we work very hard. We practice very physical and we really focus on fundamentals. A couple of times, that didn't transfer over too well tonight. In tackling, we let some guys get out of tackles which is not like us. There was nothing out of the ordinary that we did in the last two weeks."
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On the defense…
"I thought they stepped up because last game out, we gave up some big plays. It is nice to get off the field. Sacramento State was 4-of-14 on third down conversions. I thought we came up and made some big plays, and some plays in the secondary. Early in the game, we gave up some big plays which we can't allow to happen, but I thought we had them backed up in the second half. It was nice to keep them back there. We got our hands up and batted some balls down in key situations. As always, the guys played hard."
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On the play he remembers the most…
"There are a lot of plays in a game, but the one that sticks out to me the most right now is Blake (Cusick) punting it down to the one yard line. That might not be very sexy, but it is very effective. Being out past midfield and putting it at the one yard line, that is huge. That sticks out the most in my mind right now. I thought that was big. To keep them backed up at that time helped us to keep some momentum defensively"
Junior wide receiver Keric Wheatfall
On which play of his was the biggest…
"The one that was third-and-forever. It was a big play that put Josh (Hokit) in the position to score us a touchdown."
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On coming back from an injury…
"It was kind of difficult watching my teammates ball out, but I never let that beat me up. I was always there for my teammates. I was always there to pick them up if someone was down. So, it wasn't too bad."
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On the receiving corps…
"We have a ton of good receivers on this year's team. Nearly every day, we stay after practice and put the work in with our quarterbacks. In the receiving group, we are like a family. We keep each other up, we let each other know if someone is slacking and we always have each other's backs."
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On getting the first win…
"It feels amazing. It is never a good feeling to lose two games in a row, but coming back from it and leaving it in the past, coming back and working each day in practice, it feels amazing."
Senior quarterback Jorge Reyna
On getting a victory.....
"It feels great. The best part is our offensive line responding to whether we are going to dominate up front or not and they did. I am more than happy, I am thrilled for our offensive lineman."
On attacking Sacramento State....
"Fortunately, we had two weeks off to prepare for them and to go against that great defense, we were able to execute to our highest potential and get the win at the end of the day."
On Josh Hokit's performance....
"It shows you all the work we have done in the offseason. Josh is a great guy and is mentally and physically strong, but he also represents our team. The last two weeks have not been the best weeks for us and we came back and found a way to win and Josh is our leader is displaying that to the fans of how dominant we want to be."
On moving forward now in the season....
"First of all, we will enjoy the win for 24 hours and then tomorrow go back to the basics, tell the truth and fix our details that need to be fixed."
Senior cornerback Jaron Bryant
On the win tonight....
"It was a good win, but we still have work to do. We will be back tomorrow to fix all the mistakes we had in the game and prepare for next week."
On the defensive performance....
"We played good, but we could be better. We will come back tomorrow, fix all the details and get back to work."
On the atmosphere of the team after the victory....
"It was a good atmosphere after the win, but we still have work to do."
On what Sacramento State did well tonight....
"They played all four quarters and never gave up. Normally when you get punched in the mouth, you give up, but they did not give up and kept fighting for all four quarters."
On how he prepared during the bye week....
"I always kept a chip on my shoulder. Nothing will be handed to you and you have to keep working and that is how you get a win."
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