Colorado State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes
10/4/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 4, 2008
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CSU Head Coach Steve Fairchild
General
"I'm just really excited and proud of our kids. This is a good win for our football team and our program. It was a little different type of adversity than we've had in our previous wins. This one was a tight game but a game that we went down 14-3 but we didn't close up shop. We just kept playing and I was proud of our team in that regard. We talked last night that we were going to need all three phases to make plays and we did that. I'm especially proud of the way Gartrell (Johnson) ran the ball. He wore them down a little bit there in the second half. We'll enjoy this for 24 hours and then get back to work and watch the tape and learn from it and then we got a big game here next Saturday against a ranked team, a team that's probably one of the elite teams in the league (TCU). They're what we were in the `90s and this will be a good barometer and a good measuring stick for us."
On another close game and the team not folding
"Like I said, I'm so proud of them. We had some big eyes, so to speak, down 14-3 but we kept fighting and had enough wherewithal in ourselves to know that we could get this done. Like I said, I'm so proud of them, I can't put it into words."
On S Klint Kubiak's interception being called back because of a roughing the passer penalty
"There was no rhythm in the first quarter, and I'll leave it at that."
On whether he was concerned that the penalty call would deflate the players
"It deflated me for a little bit. But, again, the idea of this game is to let teams settle it on the field. Let's just change the subject."
On the red-zone offense
"Well we had two trips into the red zone and got a penalty and came away with a field goal. Our red zone offense has not been what it needs to be. It's tough with an inexperienced quarterback where you have to pull back the reins a little bit."
On taking a lot of penalties in the game
"We were 10th in the country coming in to the game in fewest penalties, and today it just got out of whack."
On overcoming Dane Stratton's penalty on the last drive
"Yeah, we did. That shows that we were starting, like the old days, to spruce up the run game a little bit."
On the status of Kubiak
"He turned an ankle. X-rays are negative. You typically go now 48 hours, treat it, and we'll know a lot more on Tuesday."
On TE Kory Sperry's diving catch on the last drive
"He just laid out. They were in two-deep coverage and he got down the middle and Billy (Farris) made a little play fake and he laid it out there. But Kory is a playmaker. He's a big target. Sometimes in this game you got to have guys like Gartrell on that last run and Kory on that last drive, guys who can step up and make a play when it's in front of them. We certainly had a number of those guys do that today."
On WR Rashaun Greer
"I think he's had a tremendous year thus far. I've always said this about him. I was very critical of him in spring ball, but when he came back and had the fall camp the way that he did, he does not know how good he can be. He's got a wealth of talent and he's a smart, hard-working kid. As we develop, he's going to continue to improve. He's really got a big upside."
On RB Gartrell Johnson
"He took control. He just hammered it up in there. He's hard to tackle. You know, a guy his size, safeties and linebackers don't want to keep coming at him when you're a warrior like he is. I was just impressed with him, not just by the last drive, but all day long."
On whether the team will ride Johnson now that conference season has started
"We tried to ride him a little bit today, but we'll need every carry Kyle Bell's got as well. And we'll probably need John Mosure before this thing is done. But you could certainly tell the spark that Gartrell had right off the bat."
UNLV Head Coach Mike Sanford
General
"I'm very frustrated. I think our team played hard. I think our team played with heart. I think we fought all the way to the end. I think we started off the game well and played well in the first quarter, but we did not play well in the second quarter. We got back in the game in the third quarter and then let it slip away. We played really hard and I think our team had character, but we didn't finish it off."
On his defense
"Well I think that we were attacking but we weren't executing the way we needed to. We were calling things to attack, but we weren't able to get some sacks and we missed some tackles. We are an attacking defense; we just didn't get the job done today."
On the rest of the season
"We're going to have to find a way. I don't ever believe that we don't have a chance to win. We have just got to find a way to win."
On whether their bowl chances suffered today
"I would never say that because we have a lot more football to play. We're only halfway through the season now and we have a bye coming up. If I remember right, four out of our last six games are at home. So there is a lot of football to be played, you never know."
On the play of Gartrell Johnson
"I got to give them credit, they did a nice job blocking and he did a nice job running. We didn't tackle him well enough."
On CSU's deep passing game
"I would have to watch the tape. But I know that on the big play down the right sideline, it was a double move. It was maybe a hitch and go. Geoffery Howard got hurt and he was out on that play and they double moved one of our corners. They threw some deep balls over the middle, and our safeties have got to do a better job defending that."
On the last play
"We were trying to stop them and force them to kick a field goal, that's what I wanted to happen. Unfortunately we weren't able to do that."
On the injury to Howard
"It looked like an ankle, but it didn't look super serious."
On the late UNLV drive to take the lead
"It showed a lot of character. It just seemed like we waited too long in the game on offense to get the thing going. We had some opportunities in the game to make plays and move the ball along and score points, but we waited too long. We got down 13 points and responded with 14 points and answered and got ahead, but we just waited too long."
On whether he did anything different with Frank Summers in the second half
"No, I think we just did a really good job blocking. He was running pretty good and we found some things that were working in the run game and we utilized it."
On the offensive and defensive line play
"Well, I think that we can play better on both the offensive and defensive line but I think there is more to it than that. I there were some other people involved in making those plays other than just them. We've got to play better total offense and better total defense. We've got to move the ball and score more points on offense."
CSU Players
RB John Mosure
On importance of winning conference opener: "Very important. Before the game, in chapel, we talk about making choices. It's a choice you have to make. And the choice we made was we're going to win in conference, and we're going to go into TCU confident."
On being fired up after first quarter: "Since we went in at half winning, I guess in halftime we got all riled up. And also coming out, we tend in second half not to play as good as in the first half, so we came out and played the second half like we played the first half."
On being on winning side of close games: "It's a great feeling. You look at last year, and the past couple years before that, we'd lose these types of games; we'd be 0-5 right now. But we're sitting at 3-2 and we're 1-0 in conference. Three close wins for us. It builds confidence. I think it builds character in a team knowing that we're going to hang around and we're going to be able to play with most people. And when it comes down to it, we're going to get the big play we need."
On leading conference standings: "It's been a while since we've been there. It's good for us. We've got confidence right now. We're playing well in all aspects of the game. We've got a good TCU team coming in here next week and it's going to be a test for us, obviously. They're a top 25 team so we're going to be ready for `em and I look forward to what the season has in store for us."
QB Billy Farris
On coming away with win: "It's huge. When conference starts, it's completely different; you forget about all your preseason games. As a team, we learned a lot from the games that we played earlier on. We showed we can come back and I believe in all these guys around me. Defense believes in offense, offense believes in defense. If we can keep coming together as a team like this, we're going to do some good things."
On scoring 14 points in 9 seconds in fourth quarter: "You know what, the pressure just melts whenever Gartrell's running like he does. You can see the sideline getting energized. He just runs hard, he gets people excited."
On putting team on shoulders: "I'm kind of an old guy on campus, me and Kory Sperry. I've seen a lot of the great players that I've learned from, like David Anderson and all those guys that really put CSU on their back and had success.
"I don't mind putting the team on my shoulders. As long as we win, that's what it's really all about."
On CSU playing well lately: "This is great. We're going into conference with momentum; we're 1-0 right now. We get TCU at home, so we just gotta get back to practice Tuesday through Friday, and Saturday just come out and play a good game."
On what was working well: "The O-line, it was just great."
On UNLV: "That was probably one of the best UNLV teams I've seen in a while. They played tough against Arizona State. They played a Nevada team tough last week. These guys really were a good team. We just came out and had the mindset that we weren't gonna stop."
On CSU defense: "They played great. They had a lot of balls batted down. Pagnotta had a heck of a game. It was a team effort. Guys cam e together. We never hang our heads, even at the end when we gave that touchdown up and it was 28-27. You couldn't ask for a better effort from Gartrell."
DE Tommie Hill
On being on winning side of close games: "It feels good just to know someone is going to make a play. We don't know who it is, but we just believe as a team, someone is going to step up and make a play. And every week that we've won, it's coming down to that. So we just believe in that and expect it."
On his interception: "The tackle cut me, so I knew it was going to be either a quick throw or screen or something. So I just got my hands up and I happened to tip it straight up and then it fell in my hands."
On being atop conference standings: "It feels good. We'll put this all behind us. We'll put this game behind us, now we're 1-0. We'll be excited to have TCU coming here and that'll be the next step."
On own play during game: "I just go out there and do my job. A lot of the other defensive players put a lot of confidence in me and I'm just going out there playing as hard as I can and show them that I deserve to be on the field."
On getting pressure on UNLV quarterback: "This is the first time we got that much pressure on any quarterback. And it helps out the defense a lot when the quarterback is pressured. He really doesn't have the option to do anything."
On getting win as a complete team effort: "It feels good. It was a complete effort by the whole team, special teams, defense, offense. We need to keep doing it every week and getting better at it, too."
UNLV players
TB Frank Summers
On the team performance: "Things didn't go too well running the ball, first-half wise. You know, who's going to make a play? Somebody has to step up. Somebody has to get things started and I just tried any way I could to get us started."
On the outcome of the game: "We came out and started late. It was a tough one. We didn't do what we were supposed to do in the first half. Maybe we were still asleep or something. I don't know. Hats off to them. They came out and did a great job. They played well. You know it's really not about them. It's about us. We need to come out and put four quarters together. Play 60 minutes. We can't miss a quarter because that one quarter could be detrimental to the team in a loss. In this case we kind of missed out on a half and missed a lot of opportunities and they took advantage of it."
On the final 6 minutes: "It's real disheartening. But we're a team and we win together, lose together, offense, defense so it was a team loss. It wasn't just on the defense. You know, they did a great job. They stopped them sometimes and we went 3-and-out. They could be thinking the same thing. It's a team loss for us."
On the offensive line: "The offense line just came out and did a great job of getting them off the ball. They came out in the second half and did a great job. We got some push up front and gave me some running lanes. I just tried to do my hardest to do some lines after contact. They did a great job of getting them off the ball in the second half."
DT Jacob Hales
On the loss: "It basically came down to us wrapping up and tackling. At times we play really, really well, and at times we just aren't concentrating at all. We are not focusing in at all. Last week we obviously weren't focusing all. This week we did in half the game. Hopefully the next game we can do it the whole time. We could be so good if we could just dial in on our assignments and do the things we are supposed to do. Half of the time we don't and that's why the games are so close and they come down to the last play. We didn't do it today and we lost."
On the focus of the team: "All it takes is a half of a second and you are not paying attention and somebody is running by you and they are scoring a touchdown. All you have to do is lose focus and with the blink of an eye you made a mistake that you can't recover from. Points are on the board and you can't take them down. We got to do something to get everybody dialed in."
WR Casey Flair
On the team's performance: "There were a lot of missed assignments. I didn't play well tonight and some of the other guys said they didn't play well. But we have to play better to win against this team. We didn't make enough plays. It was on our shoulders and we got to find a way during the bye week to get back on track and ready for Air Force."
On the offense: "The offense took a long time to get those points on the board for us to be ahead and we put the defense in a position where it was do or die, pretty much. We can't do that to our defense. We just got to do it offensively first ."
On the loss: "It was disheartening. We just put two touchdowns on the board. It's one of those things were we have to find out how to play as a team."
On the future of the team: "There's not going to be a tailspin. This team is not like teams past. There's not going to be a tailspin. We are not going to start putting our heads down the drain. With 3-3, we are still halfway to a bowl game and that's where our mindset is at. We have to get ready for Air Force."
SLB Jason Beauchamp
On the future performance of the team: "There are a lot of changes that could be made. A lot of defensive, a lot of offensive changes. Hopefully we can make those changes and hopefully going into the bye week. We can need a lot of guys healthy and really get out there."
On how to make changes: "We got to capitalize and make plays when it really counts. We didn't make plays when it counted but we really don't want to put ourselves in that position so that's what I'm saying by getting things going early. We don't want to have our backs against the wall like that all the time."
