Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State-Washington State Postgame Quotes
Interim Head Coach Tim Skipper
On the game…
“This is a tough one to swallow. We had control there at the end and we gave it up. We had two many self-inflicted things, with 12 penalties on the day. When we did get turnovers, we weren’t able to capitalize and then we turned it over too much. It became too much to overcome. We have to get back to work, eliminate that stuff and get better.”
“The effort is good tonight. It’s all about playing smart. It’s limiting the turnovers and the penalties, those are killing us. We need to settle down and play ball, not allow ourselves to get emotionally high jacked. We can’t have those 15-yard penalties if we want to be a good team and win these type of games. We have to get back to work.”
On Mikey Keene’s response to interception…
“He’s a gun-slinger, he shook it off and got back out there. He drove us down the field and got us to where we needed to be, we just couldn’t execute at the end. We had some costly plays there, and he’ll own up to those if you talk to him. As a team, we can’t turnover the ball and we have to make plays when we need to make plays.”
On the defense…
“We started off slow and had some communication breakdowns at the start. We made some adjustments and slowed down their high-tempo offense. We settled in and made some plays, but then we had costly penalties after. Those are the things that hurt you and what will make us sick when we watch the film tomorrow.”
On having a short week leading into Nevada…
“It’s really important that we have a fast turnaround from this game. We are going to try to keep the beginning of the week normal on Tuesday and Wednesday before combining Thursday and Friday. We are going into a game where we will have to face a ton of adversity with our backs against the wall. We are going to see what we are made of, that’s what it’s going to come down to. We need to take it one game at a time. We need to have a good week, flip the switch, be ready to play and go see what we’re made of.”
On the run game…
“We started to hit some creases there. We were able to spread them out with us so that the box wasn’t as loaded, allowing us to establish the run which we wanted to do today. Those costly turnovers kill the momentum as you’re moving it. We will continue to keep running it, that’s an important piece of the puzzle.”