Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State-Hawai'i Postgame Quotes
Fresno State-Hawai'i Postgame Quotes
Fresno State vs. Hawai'iBulldog Stadium
Oct. 24, 2020
Kalen DeBoer, Fresno State head coach
Opening Statement...
“One big piece of it was the turnovers. Getting a short field right off the bat and taking advantage of it. When we got the momentum going, just doing the things I know we can do, but just getting ahead of ourselves whether it is a dropped pass or trying to do too much and put the ball on the ground. It starts with that and we preach that and talk about it, but until the game is going and the bullets are flying, it is really hard to understand what the situations are going to be and how guys are going to respond in those. We have to take care of the football. I think the next thing is finishing some drives. There are some times we got in the position to finish a drive and somehow we would have something that would force us to stall on those drives.
"I think the guys played extremely hard. I can’t tell you how many times I had a guy who was cramping or things like that. I think we are just going to get better, because I can see the will to come back and play over and over and over again in those guys that had those dings, had cramps, whatever it might be. I just think as we go through this and as I told the guys, there is a decision and we will flip on the film tomorrow and watch it and we are going to learn so much from what happened tonight. There are so many scenarios we have not been in and have not had a chance to rep them together, learn from it on film and that is a big piece.
"I am happy we are playing on Thursday, yeah you want the preparation, but we aren’t going to know what these guys are doing this week either, because there isn’t going to be any film. We just have to do what we do, focus on the fundamentals, focus on finishing, there was not any let up, there was not any excuses in the locker room and there were some guys who were hurting, especially some of the guys who have been around for some time and they have put a lot into this. I am proud of this team for us even getting to this point, but we know what Bulldog football is all about and it is about winning football games and we are going to keep working. It starts right now.”
On quarterback Jake Haener...
“You can see what Jake is capable of doing on a lot of big throws. You see the arm talent is there, the want to is there, he is a competitor. He made a lot of big plays, but we don’t want to just run plays, we need to run an offense. We have to figure out how to move the chains late in the game. We have to figure out how to do those things. I love his mentality. It is a fighter’s mentality. He may be a little too hard on himself some times and has to let things go and move on. That is something I see today and you don’t know that until you are in those competitive environments, in those moments. I know he is going to be a lot better and I know because of him our offense will continue to improve. You can see that there are playmakers across the board.”
On defense...
“This is the most strain for sure these guys have had over the course of four hours. You saw that wear on the guys. I thought we brought some pressure with four guys in the pass game. As the game wore on, there were some running game things that continued to wear us out. I was pleased with the progress and where we are at, because I think we are going to continue to get better and keep understanding the style of play, the checks, the calls, the communication is going to keep getting better as these guys continue to get more and more reps. We have to have an urgency level, because it is a short season. There is no room for error and I am encouraged by what I heard on the sideline by multiple guys that we can rattle off the next seven games because of this one loss as long as we have the right mindset moving forward.”
Kwami Jones, Fresno State senior defensive end
On the team around him compared to the 2017 and 2018 teams…
“It’s a young team but these guys know how to fight just like the ’17 and ’18 teams. That [2017] team was young as well so it’s not about experience, it’s just about people wanting to play and these guys want to play.”
On moving on to the next game…
“We have to put this game past us and just look at the next game cause it’s coming Thursday so we only have three or four days to prepare for this game. As long as we stay there mentally we’ll be alright.”
Ronnie Rivers, Fresno State senior running back
On the start of the game…
“It felt like we started off hot, we had the hot hand but turnovers killed us. We have to be better next game, come out and keep fighting until the last minute.”
On getting past the turnovers…
“We all believe in each other and when adversity strikes we have to turn it around, confront it face on and just move on to the next play.”