Colorado State University Athletics
Postgame quotes
10/31/2009 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 31, 2009
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CSU Head Coach Steve Fairchild
General: “Congratulations to Air Force. They deserved to win. Obviously they made some nice plays out there. I thought we were in position the first half. We just, once again, didn’t do a good job on third down on either side of the ball and we need to either sustain drives offensively or get off the field defensively. Consequently you play too many snaps on defense when you’re doing that. We’re playing well in some areas. We’re running the ball very well. And our offensive line is playing…I mean I thought they were good but I couldn’t even imagine that they would be playing as well as they’re playing. Offensively we’re not giving them much help in the passing game by making some plays, catching some balls and doing that sort of thing. Defensively we’re a little nicked up. I thought we hung in there but again our third-down woes continue. Having said that, our attitude is good. We’ll practice hard. I’m quite confident of that and sooner or later we’ll bust our way out of this.”
On the confidence of the Rams after six losses: “I don’t think we’re overly confident. It’s silly to say that, but we’re practicing hard, we’re playing hard and when you do that, good things will happen. We’ll just keep doing more and there are some areas we need to improve in.”
On the lack of passing game on offense: “We’re not executing in the passing game all year like we should. We’re underachieving in some spots. There’s no question about that.”
On the success of the passing game earlier in the season compared to recently: “I would agree with that, no question. We were winning some games earlier in the year as well.”
On the run setting up the pass: “Yes, but you’ve still got to throw the ball and catch it and run the right route and line up right and all of those things. I’m not going to point any fingers at anybody. We need to execute and it’s obvious we’re not executing in throwing the football like we need to. And my hat’s off to our offensive line. The way they’re playing, they deserve better.”
On Leonard Mason: “I thought Leonard came up big. He’s still not finishing plays the way a Colorado State back’s going to do it from here but he was much improved. He’s coming off the injury and there was some positive things going on in the run game. If we can take control and just convert a few third downs, that’d be a good thing.”
On what makes it difficult to come back: “The number of plays. That offense generates plays and clock. A perfect example: we ran a couple of good plays in there and then we dropped a third-down pass; well it might be the end of the first quarter, but you’ve got to make that play. You’ve got to continue that drive; you’ve got to get some points, and that’s how you beat an Air Force team. We’re quite confident we’ll get our program there.”
On the Air Force no-huddle offense: “That no huddle, they might as well huddle.”
On giving up a score at the end of the first half: “It’s hard, but again it’s a third-down deal. You’ve got third down and 7, third down and 8, you’ve got to get them off. And when you have third-and-4s and third-and-5s, you’ve got to catch the ball and convert. Until we do that we’re going to be standing here with the same talk.” (more)
On Mason’s injury: “He could have played more. I just wanted Lou Greenwood in there at the end. I just wanted to take a look at him.”
On the effectiveness of the Air Force passing game this year and last year: “They hit us for a few more big ones last year.”
On his own frustration: “I’m not frustrated. This is a process and I knew that when I took this job. My job right now is to try to make that product better every time we go out there on the practice field and every time we go out there for a game. We’ve hit a plateau here but we’ll pass through this.”
On the plateau: “Call it what you want. We’re going to get better. There’s no question. We’ve got some good young guys and they all continue to work.”
On playing several backups Saturday: “Anytime we can get anybody that’s not a starter onto the field, that benefits us. One day you’ll have a number of guys competing for spots and competition and those sort of things. It’s just not there yet.”
On injuries: “Mychal (Sisson) will be alright. Eric Peitz might be the one. And that hurts us because I think Eric’s got a future after college and he’s got a shoulder issue. We’ll know a lot more about that Monday or Tuesday. (Chris Gipson’s injury) is more of a recurring thing (shoulder).”
On linebacker injuries: “I was looking to the stands, trying to ask people to play. But that’s no excuse. We’ll just line up with what we’ve got and go from there.”
On re-opening the quarterback position this week: “We’ve got to do something. That’s for sure, because we’re obviously not getting it done there. But there hasn’t been a whole lot of help in the passing game. In fact, there’s been very little help other than the protection has been outstanding. We’ve just got to address some stuff. We’ve got to look at a few things in our passing game. There’s no question.”
On Grant Stucker’s good play only weeks ago: “At the beginning of the season he was outplaying guys. For the first four weeks we were on a roll there. Really until the end of the Idaho game we did well but we’re not getting it done now. It’s like last week with the DBs. Just because we’re not throwing the ball well doesn’t mean it’s the quarterback. If a guy’s supposed to be at a certain split and run a route on a certain step and catch the ball, that sure helps the quarterback if he’ll do it. We’re just not firing on all cylinders.”
On Stucker’s interception: “They were man under and the first read is probably a 35-yard gain and he just passed it up and went to his second choice. But people make mistakes sometimes.”
Air Force Head Coach Troy Calhoun
On the play of the Falcons’ offense: “They played pretty solid. Especially coming out of each half, coming out and having good drives put together. The fumble is inexcusable, to have that and a couple of minus-yardage plays, we have to get that cleaned up.”
On quarterback Tim Jefferson: “I thought he played pretty reasonable. He looked comfortable. That was a big-time play he made on the first touchdown. He had pressure and he was able to get out of the pressure and spontaneously make a play. He seemed older the way that he played, more assertive, more mature. At the same time we’re pushing him pretty hard, too. In a way we’re wanting something real, real soon but there’s probably a right balance you have to strike there in terms of nudging a guy and yet at the same time giving it some time. ”
On whether the Falcons threw more against the Rams defense that has struggled against the pass: “We go into every game and try to take our shots. We did last week, too. We just have to make more of those plays. It helps when you’re able to grind out some first downs; I think guys get a little bit antsy and nudge closer at the line of scrimmage.”
On Erik Soderberg’s 50-yard field goal as time expired in the first half: “That’s a big play. When you’re up by seven and you’re receiving the kickoff in the second half. But you have to make the extra point, too; you’ve got to be a complete player that way. We’ve got to send it right through the uprights.”
On Air Force’s big plays from scrimmage: “It helps. There are times you have to grind to make 3- and 4 yards on carries. But you don’t always have to wear your mudder or your plodder shoes; you can wear your other shoes, too, and get up on your toes a little bit.”
On next week’s game against Army with ESPN Gameday on site: “Big game. Big game. it’ll be a tough game, too. (Gameday) is for the Academy; you have cadets and you have men and women that want to serve and I think it’s great that that’s acknowledged.”
CSU Players
FS Elijah-Blu Smith
“Our goal in the beginning was to eliminate big plays and we kind of gave up some here and there. That definitely hurt us a little bit.”
On Air Force’s passing game: “That was definitely a big thing that was frustrating for us. They give us some good runs and then they get our guys coming aggressively. They capitalized on that.”
On giving up third-and-long plays: “Those are exactly the big plays we want to eliminate before going into the game and we definitely gave that up; it hurt us tremendously throughout the game. Those third downs were key for us. We needed some plays to be made right there and we kind of didn’t.”
RB Lou Greenwood
On Air Force’s defense: “We knew that their defense was good and Coach Fairchild said we were going to run the ball regardless; we had to get the running game open in order for the passing game to open. It was a big part of the gameplan today.”
On getting the opportunity to develop as a player: “It’s monumental because next year and the years after that my eyes won’t be big.”
On getting in the end zone running the ball: “It is nice. It felt like being home again like in high school.”
SS Ivory Herd
On Air Force’s offense: “It is really different when you see it in person. You can practice it all week but when you actually play against it, it can be a lot different and faster.”
On what makes Air Force’s offense hard to stop: “You have to have your keys and everyone has their keys to read. When you don’t read your keys, one person can mess up the whole thing. We had reads that we made and missed them and they would just make a big play.”
On being on the field for a big portion of the game: “I feel like we are in good shape. It’s just a matter of just keeping in tune in the game and not losing focus.”
QB Grant Stucker
On the second half: “We just couldn’t put points on the board, couldn’t stay in the drive, we couldn’t make the big play, and we just couldn’t execute. When you don’t do that against a team like Air Force, they will just keep grinding the ball against you. It will never play to your advantage when that happens.”
On any decline in the passing game: “I think our gameplan for this week was to put a lot of responsibility on our offensive line and we knew we would be able to run the ball against them. Once that was working for us, we just stuck to that gameplan. It wasn’t that we just shied away from the pass because we wanted to, it was because our running game was working so well.”
On six straight losses: “Everybody is hurting and they should be. It is kind of hard to keep guys positive throughout this kind of thing, but that is what people have to do. They have to look at the good things we have done and just move on to the next game.”
Air Force Players
LB John Falgout
On what this conference victory means: “It is a great win for us, especially with it being a conference game. It is really a huge win for us because it was one that we knew we needed to win if we wanted to make it to a bowl game.”
On aspirations for the remainder of season: “We would love to win out and we think we have a great chance to come out and put some pressure on every team we go up against the rest of the way. We played tight with TCU, we played tight with Utah, which are some of the best teams we have played, so I think we can finish the rest of the season out strongly.”
On defensive play: “It’s always great when our offense helps us out like they did today. We have been priding ourselves in our D all year long. As the game went on we started making some plays and got back to causing turnovers, because that is what we are used to doing.”
WR Kevin Fogler
“It felt really good to get the offense clicking out there. We tried to find some weaknesses and places where we could take some shots. I felt like we were moving the ball really well today”
QB Tim Jefferson
“I just went out and played. We got some pass plays called, and I just went out and did what I do best and just played ball.”
On first few drives of the game: “I think we had some doubt in our offense. Lately we haven’t put up as many points, but when we go out on the first two drives and march down the field like we did, I think that gives us a lot of confidence.”
On whether sitting the last two weeks helped him in his performance: “It did; I was able to clear my head a little bit and just go out and play. Before, I would think a lot when I was out there on the field. I got the chance to sit back and watch Connor (Dietz) and was able to relax and see how the team moves aggressively down the field, and I noticed I was able to do the same thing, so I think it helped a lot.”
On whether the benching hurt his confidence at all: “No, it didn’t do anything to my confidence. It just let me calm down a little bit, and I think it really did help.”
On if he had anything to prove: “I don’t know. I know that we have been trading starts and it kind of hurt us when he (Dietz) went down because he is a great player. I don’t think I had anything to prove, I just wanted to go out there and play and I got the chance.”
On the third down and 18 play to begin the second half: “It was just a typical stop-and-go and I was able to hit him. It was really huge for our momentum in the second half because we got backed up when I made a bad pitch. It really helped us get going in the second half on that first drive.”
On whether he was surprised by that call: “I wasn’t surprised because it was in the game plan. The coaches told us that we were going to have a chance to hit some shots because their (CSU’s) secondary wasn’t that strong, so I was glad that he made the call and had confidence in me.”
On the offense needing a game like this one: “It does a lot for our confidence. We see we can move the ball down the field and put up points on the scoreboard. Hopefully we can carry this over to next week when we play Army.”
On how dangerous the offense can be when incorporating the pass: “We can have a lot more big plays, especially when we make throws down the field. I’m pretty sure Coach Calhoun is going to let us air it out a little bit more.”
FB Jared Tew
On passing game opening things up for offense: “It’s huge; when you have a quarterback that is on like that and can throw the ball on the spot, it opens up a lot for me, especially when they have to respect the pass instead of just knowing we are going to run.”
On what to expect going into the Army game: “Army is such a big game coming into our house. It was nice seeing our offense clicking a little bit. We need to keep that momentum going into next week.”
On College Gameday being at the Army game: “It is exciting having such a good opportunity like that. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance, especially for College Gameday to do an Academy game. We are excited, but we definitely have to keep our focus on the game and not get caught up in all that.”
On the offense having a game like this: “It is actually very nice not having to rely so much on our defense to make plays and score some points for us. It definitely helps going into next week knowing that our offense can actually do some things and not having to have only our defense make plays.”