Colorado State University Athletics
Postgame Quotes: CSU vs. UNLV
11/14/2015 12:00:00 AM | Football
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COLORADO STATE HEAD COACH Mike Bobo
(general)
"I thought it was a great night. We definitely wanted to come out and get a win for these seniors. You got 26 of them, not all 26 played, there's a couple medicals, but a good group of guys that have played extremely hard for this university, most of them got their degree or are about to get their degree, and they bleed green and gold. I'm really proud of how they came out and played, I'm really proud of how they weathered the storm this year. It would've been easy to pack it in, but they keep fighting. They got a chance to do something special here, three straight bowl games, talk about leaving a legacy, and part of that step was tonight, finishing at home which they did. It wasn't pretty, it's never pretty with us, we found a way to make things easy, interesting, but they finished, and I expect them to come back and do what we do, and that's work hard and get ready for the next opponent and keep improving."
"I do think we're improving. Offensively tonight, I really, really liked the way we played, I thought we were in sync and understood what we were trying to do all night. [We were] really, really efficient on first and second down, we didn't have many third downs, I think only nine of them, and we were 6-9 on those, then we were really efficient in the red zone, 7-for-7 and seven touchdowns. I'm really proud of how those guys played, really proud of how we ran the ball, how we threw the ball effectively. We missed a couple that were routine plays, but you're going to miss some sometimes."
"Defensively, I thought we settled down in the second half, we played better. Especially in that third quarter, we just didn't do anything offensively to take advantage of that momentum, we had a couple lulls, but of course Hayden [Hunt] flipped the field and punted them deep, and we like to hold them when we put them in deep. I'm just proud of the overall effort of the team, and when the game looks like it's in hand and we fumble, the defense comes up with a big stop right there when they've got the ball in their territory, then offensively we were able to take it down and go up three scores."
"A great night for our guys, a lot of things we can still improve on, but I will say we have improved from week to week as a football team and I believe we'll continue to do that."
(on if they're finding a good balance for the running game)
"I think so. I'd like to be a little more balanced. I thought coming into this season our strength was in the receiving core, but for whatever reason we haven't been able to find a rhythm that we need to. We've continued to always stress the running game. It's been very important to me since the day I got here. I believe that's how you win championships - being able to run the ball and play defense and I like where we're at running the ball, I've said it for about 3-4 weeks now, since the Utah State game I really think our line of scrimmage is coming along and gelling and playing very, very well. They're starting to understand what we're trying to do conceptually, they're able to make adjustments during the game, and they're playing hard, and the backs are running extremely hard. We're still able to complete a high percentage of balls and get one-on-one match ups, and Rashard was able to win most of his battles today. When we threw him the ball, a couple times we missed him, and that's part of it, but I really liked the way we're playing. We're going to have to continue to do that. We're going to have to be able to do ball control and help our defense out and stay off the field, but I like where we're headed. It's not going to get any easier the next two weeks because we go on the road. Anytime you go on the road it's hard to win on the road in any league."
(on the explosiveness of offense)
"I've been saying it all year, the explosives don't have to come to Rashard Higgins. They could come in the running game. We're starting to get that way, where we're able to fit a hat on a hat and the backs are gaining more confidence in how our line's blocking, and we made some people miss tonight. We made the free guy miss the safety a couple of times, we got hats on hat and we ran some misdirection tonight, but the number one play that worked for us was probably the toss sweep. We kept thinking they were going to adjust to it and we were going to have to come back to something else, but the guys did a nice job of fitting up and running and making big plays. We still have got to do a better job of holding on to the football and not throwing it up for grabs, but I'd say we played pretty well offensively tonight. And explosives help that, you have to have a lot of explosives to only have nine third downs. We were getting explosive plays on the first or second down, big chunks."
(on Rashard Higgins prospective future)
"I think Rashard played well, but I think Rashard's got two more games to play, and I think we'll do our due diligence and get the information from the NFL of where they see him, and he needs to make a decision that's best for him and his family. We don't know whether that's going to be to come back. My personal belief is if a guy's not going to be a first rounder, I think he needs to come back to school and finish school and improve to try to get himself into that category and where they're ranking."
(on if this is the healthiest Rashard has been)
"He's been healthy for about two weeks now, two and a half weeks, and I'm going to say this too, after the San Diego State game, we had that beating and talked about practice habits, Rashard Higgins has practiced like a great player should practice the last two weeks. I think his play has been evident of that in the way he's practiced. You've got to practice to be able to play at a high level and put yourself in a position to make plays. I don't remember how many catches he had last week, but he played his tail off last week. He didn't want to let anyone down, he practiced that way, he practiced that way this week, and he started to play the way we all think he can play."
(on senior class' performance)
"To me, they became my guys when I walked in the door. I told them 'I didn't recruit you guys, I don't know your background, I don't know who's important to you, but I want to know. I want to know who raised you and who helped you get here to this point because if we're going to be all in it together than we have to be all in'. Sometimes it's easy to come in and say we're not all in, we're going to move onto the next group and we're going to get ready for the future, but I've said it to you before, I'm a competitor. I want to win now and I'm really proud of these guys of how they fought and how they continue to try to get better and take coaching. The easiest thing to do in the world sometimes is to say 'it's not the same', but they haven't done that. They bought in, played hard for each other, for the team and for the university."
(on sending seniors off with a win)
"It's very important. We've talked about that there are a lot of reasons why everybody in this room choose Colorado State. It could've been the coach or could've been the players. There's a lot of reasons why we play the game; to get into the NFL, for a grandmother, for an aunt, some of them have children, but I said the number one reason why we're going to play this game today is for these seniors. They represent what we want here at Colorado State. They've worked hard and stayed out of trouble. We want to play hard for them and send them out on a good note. Then I told these seniors that it's their job to show us the way and I thought they did that tonight. Like I told them in the locker room, we have to finish and we're not done. This isn't the last game of the season. We have a lot of football left to play and I expect them to continue to lead."
(on winning consistency)
"We're still a little bit inconsistent and you saw little stretches of it tonight, but you have to give those guys credit. They're pretty good offensively in what they do. They have some receivers and a quarterback that can make plays, but we have to continue to do what we do. That's get treatment tomorrow, enjoy tonight and come back ready to work Monday because nobody's going to hand us the game. We have to go on the road to a very good New Mexico team. I watched them a couple of times and they're explosive. We have to be at our best and they have to be at their best. We all want to go to a bowl game, we all want to have a winning season, but we have to go earn the right to play the bowl game and earn the right to have a winning season."
(on finishing)
"Yeah they finished. It wasn't pretty and we had a little adversity there. They had a chance to gain some momentum, but our guys finished. I told them today that I thought last week was the closest we've come to playing like the team I want us to look like. We played hard for each other, there was excitement, when the offense did something the defense did something, and I thought we continued that this week. We got a little bit better. We played a little bit better in all areas and we finished against a team that has played every team they've played like this. They fought for 60 minutes, they've been in the games in the second half, except for UCLA and Michigan, they've been in every game in the second half and tonight was not different, but we finished on both sides of the ball in the fourth quarter with the big drive and the big stop out of the defense."
(on giving up yardage on defense)
"It's always a concern when you're giving up a lot of yards and points, but I think at the key times when you had to have it we made the crucial stops defensively. The whole game I told them they don't have to perfect. I know we want to come out here and be perfect defensively and shut them out, but you just have to keep playing and trust that the guy next to you is going to do their job and it'll come. I thought the second half they played a lot better defensively for us. They scored on us on that late touchdown when we had subbed guys in, but overall defense got after it in the second half."
(on defensive performance)
"We're playing hard. We're looking more like we did those first three games defensively. After the San Diego State game, we put on some tape and basically if one guy didn't make the tackle the guy wasn't going to get tackled. The result was that we were having long runs and we said that's not how defense is played. We don't have to be perfect defensively. It's about effort, it's about getting off a block, and it's about chasing and playing hard. Those guys have done that the last two weeks and I think that's the reason we've played better defensively. We don't want to give up 172 yards, I don't know how many the quarterback had, but I thought we shut down their run game pretty good."
(on starting the game off strong)
"The plan was to come in and be aggressive on the running game, but we wanted to let them know that we weren't afraid of throwing the ball early in the game. Nick did a nice job on the first play that every snap to that formation you had one-on-one coverage to the field flanker. We had switched receivers and put Rashard (Higgins) to the field and they actually doubled him so he went right to the tight end, he trusted his progression and threw a great ball. It was good to start out that way and we've started fast the last two weeks. We started fast against San Diego State, but we just didn't finish. We talk about starting fast the first five minutes, and then we came out and finished fast there at the end of the half to be able to get a touchdown. Then we started fast at the end of the third quarter. That was the difference in the game."
CSU S Kevin Pierre-Louis
(on playing final game at Hughes Stadium)
"It was fun to play in front of the home crowd. Tonight was the first time I have played in front of my mom since little league. It was exciting and really emotional and it kind of hit me when I walked out onto the field before the game."
(on the defense's ability to get stops)
"The game plan was getting stops when it matters, and that's exactly what we tried to do. We came and executed that and we feel pretty good about doing that."
(on riding back-to-back wins)
"It feels good, but we can't allow that to not prepare for next week. New Mexico is a good team and they beat Utah State (last week). We have to keep pushing and continue to work hard and the results will come."
(on the offense's ability to perform)
"It feels good because when they doing their job we feed off of each other. When we do our job on defense they feed off of us. It's always a good thing when the offense is clicking and can put points up for us, because they are having the defense's backs."
CSU S Trent Matthews
(on if he was proud of the effort from the seniors)
"Oh yeah, of course, man. I was just happy for them. Nu'uvali {Fa'apito] with two touchdowns, man. Kivon [Cartwright}, I saw him running like he used to. My DBs, we left Hughes with a great win and with a bang. That's all we wanted. I didn't care what the score was."
(on what he'll miss about Hughes Stadium)
"I'm going to miss the great wins. I'm going to miss the halftime, coming in [the locker room] and just focusing back. I'm going to miss when I'm in the game and I smell popcorn and I want some. These are a lot of the things that I cherish, because every play and every down is a memory for me. I love this place."
(on if he feels blessed)
"I'm very blessed. I'm honored. I'm just glad we got the win for the seniors, man. I was happy going out of the tunnel, man, seeing my mother and hugging her. She doesn't usually come out here, so it was a great honor to play in front of her. I'm happy, man. We got the win."
(on having more football to play)
"We've got some more football to play, but I'm going to soak this in, get ready for New Mexico. They're a good opponent. They're having a good season. We're going to have to see what they do, scheme them well. I know they're going to do a good job scheming us. I know they have a great offense. We're just going to have to carry over what we did this week."
CSU OL Sam Carlson
(on how under-appreciated the group of Colorado State running backs is)
"I don't think they get as much recognition as they should. They're guys that come to work every day. It's just another thing that motivates us to get those guys going. They run hard for sure."
(on how undervalued the offensive line is)
"We're used to it by now. We don't get a lot of the credit anyways. Coach does stuff like, hey, if we get over 300 yards, he's going to take us to dinner."
(on where they're going to dinner)
"We don't know yet. We're trying to talk him into Sonny's, but he's not going for that. He said if we got 200, we'd go out to eat. We got over 300, so we're pushing Sonny's right now. He's saying, 'no, McDonald's is where we're going.'"
(on Dalyn Dawkins)
"The guy just runs so hard. He's not a big guy. Everybody knows that. But he just runs so hard. He puts everything he has into that single play. It's hard not to block for a guy like that who puts everything into every single play."
(on if the offensive is gelling down the stretch)
"Yeah, definitely. I've been telling some of the guys, we're getting things down concrete. We know what we do well and what we don't do well. The coaches are putting us in great positions to do what we do well."
CSU TE Kivon Cartwright
(on the offense's ability to score)
"All year we have reviewed film and we saw how close we were. If everybody just focuses on doing their job we can be a really explosive offense."
(on playing final home game)
"It was a very emotional game. I remember when I came on my recruiting trip and I was up in the press box. Just being able to flashback to that and now know I played my final game here is pretty special."
(on the seniors getting a win in their final game at home)
"There was a lot of emotion during the game, and guys played with a lot of love in their heart. I did not want to let my brothers down, and they did not want to let me down."
CSU QB Nick Stevens
(on the big opening play to Steven Walker)
"It was pretty awesome, and I did not really expect that. I was going inside of him and the safety turned out probably to try and play over the top of Rashard (Higgins) and Nolan (Peralta) ran with him. So I gave it to him and I was hoping he would not get hawked like he did. I think it helped us a lot it gave us the momentum we needed. They (coaches) talk about starting fast and we did."
(on scoring pace in the game)
"There were a lot of points scored and we were only stopped on a couple drives and we only punted once or twice I believe [twice]. It was a good performance on the offensive side of the ball by everyone involved. "
(on having a balanced game plan)
"I think we tried to follow our game plan and we were just taking what they were giving us. It showed a lot in the last couple of minutes when we were really trying to run the ball down their throats. Trying to get what we could get and run the time out. We were trying to get what we could and get yards and it worked itself out."
(after scoring at the end of first half, and receiving in the second half)
"It is always good to score at the end of half and get the ball right back. That definitely helped us a lot and it allowed us to keep the momentum up in the second half."
(on the seniors getting a win in their last home game)
"It felt great and I am glad we were able to play well for them. Scoring so many points on offense and do really well on defense allowed for a complete team game and I think everyone is really happy with it. It definitely is how the seniors wanted to go out. "
CSU RB JASEN ODEN JR.
(on if not having one featured back helps the rushing attack)
"That just comes with what this offense is. It's a well-balanced offense. The run opens up the pass and the pass opens up the run. When we start clicking on all cylinders, we're a force to be reckoned with."
(on what's going through his head right now)
"It's real emotional right now. This is my last game here at Hughes, I'm real humbled. I just appreciate Coach Mac and his staff for bringing me here, and Coach Bobo and his staff for accepting me. Times like this make you reminisce on the days you thought about quitting. These types of days make you think it's all worth it. It's all worth it. All the sweat, all the tears. It's all worth it. I left everything I had at Hughes every time I stepped on the field. I'm just proud of my brothers. I'm proud of the seniors, how we went out. I'm going to continue to try and get better. We're going to try to do the same thing next week. We're going to try to finish the season strong and go bowling. Right now, I'm just going to enjoy the moment with my seniors tonight and just try to soak it all in."
CSU WR Rashard Higgins
(on if the offense has now found a formula)
"Yes, sir. I think we do. It just goes back to practice. It feels great."
(on if it has gone through his mind that this might be his last home game at CSU)
"You know, I'm still talking to my mom about it."
(on his relationship with Nick Stevens)
"Same thing that I did with Garrett Grayson. It'll all work out, we've just got to give him time and hopefully things start clicking."
(on if it was time for a breakout game)
"I felt like it was time. I felt like I've been quiet in the closet a little bit, just catching two or three balls here and there."
UNLV HEAD COACH TONY SANCHEZ
(opening thoughts)
"Tough loss tonight. I was just going to talk about the defense first because it seemed like they were struggling against the run tonight. Bad tackling too, it was pretty atrocious. We looked a little tired out there. I mean we had a few moments, not many that we moved the ball and was running the ball at will but we looked like a tired defense out there."
(on if he was surprised)
"I mean yeah, a little bit. You know we're late in the year and you know it's unfortunate and really it comes down to tackling, we just did a poor job of tackling. If you look at yards after contact there was a ton of them, I mean, we just had guys in position who didn't make plays."
(on the play of his defense)
"Yeah we don't really have it together. We had a couple of moments where we made them run and we had that one turnover but other than that they pretty much moved the ball at will up and down the football field and they did it running the football, it's disappointing. Again, our guys, they look like a tired football team."
(on the pressure the offense faces with lack of defense)
"Well in a game like that, it has to do more with what they are doing offensively and I don't think by any stretch of imagination we played our best football tonight. I mean, how many balls did we drop? We dropped a ton of balls. Even when Kurt (Palandech) is in there, I mean, he played some good plays and we dropped balls. I mean, he missed some wheel routes that were wide open and we had our opportunities, we just didn't cash in on them."
(on if is this most disappointed he's been all season)
"You know what? I wouldn't say that. I'm disappointed in the outcome, no doubt about it and I told the guys that the hardest thing about this is I don't think we played our best football. You know I feel like we left a lot of things out there on the football field. That's a good football team and they were a better football team than we were tonight and I think that was apparent. We needed to do things at a higher level to compete with these guys and that's just not where we're at right now."
(on the team competing for the whole game)
"No not at all. I mean, again, I don't think it's the first time we've done that. I think you look back at the season and there's other plays we left out there. I just think this is another hurdle we have to go over in the evolution of this program and this is not a game we were out of. This is a game where it was tight going into half, it's tight coming out and it's tight in the third quarter. You know they get the 14-point lead and we cause the turnover and we let the ball go in on the 29 yard line and we don't capitalize offensively. So again, it's another one of those deals where we are right there and we are competing to the darn end and it just seems like we don't have enough mustard to finish."
(on the play of his young guys)
"You know, you're seeing it as the season goes on. These young guys are growing up right in front of our eyes and there's a lot of them doing some high-level things right now and that's kind of where we are at. You know, we need more depth. We need to go out there and we need to get better at certain areas. We can't drop that many balls, we got to be better at tackles but individually there are some guys that have bright futures and I think that's very obvious."
(on how they are going to improve)
"Well you know, that's on me. We got to take advantage at practice and the hours we spend out there and making sure they are getting enough rest. You know, who knows, I haven't been at UNLV very long but I don't know when the last time we fought in the fourth quarter this many games in the football season and I think it wears on you a bit. Again, when you have depth issues and you have young issues. You look at how many guys were playing high school football last year and they're out there and they're going deep into the college football season and you know it shows up a little bit but hey that's who we are and we got to get better."
UNLV QB KURT PALANDECH
(on coming in cold off the bench)
"I don't think it's pressure so much as you want to go out there and have a successful time. When we are playing from behind, we're a little more aggressive. I don't think it's pressure on myself but we have to move the ball as an offense and we left some opportunities on the field."
(on the pass rush messing up his internal clock)
"Each play is something a little different. It's not necessarily the offensive line's fault. With certain plays, if the read isn't there, I feel like I have to take off and make some plays with my feet. When I felt pressure, I tried to get it out of my hands more quickly but we'll watch the film. I'm sure that I should have thrown a couple. We'll just have to go from there. As the game went on, I don't think the clock really changed, I was just trying to make my reads and make the plays."
(on getting game experience)
"Every experience getting game time is always good and I feel more comfortable than the first time I went out there. There's still a lot of room for improvement and we just have to keep building off of that."
(on not being able to make a bowl game)
"It's frustrating. We let a couple go earlier in the season and when you look back, it's always one or two plays. Those things are going to haunt us in the offseason but they're also going to make us work harder and try to become a better team in the future."
UNLV WR KENDAL KEYS
(on his play)
"We knew that we were going to throw the ball more. We run a lot, that's who we usually are and to win the game, we had to throw the ball and we came up short. The receivers knew we had to make plays on the ball when it was in the air."
(on whether he has been expecting a performance like this from himself)
"Definitely. I wish that I had been doing this all season but it's something that I knew I had and it was about time. I do it in practice. I had a good week of practice and it translated to the game."
(on switching quarterbacks midgame)
"It doesn't really change. The ball is the same and when the ball is in the air, you have to make a play regardless of who's throwing it."
UNLV LB RYAN MCALEENAN
(on his frustration)
"It's very frustrating. We had a good scheme but we just didn't execute well enough to stop them. Very frustrating."
(on the struggles of the run defense)
"We have the scheme and we have the right calls, we just didn't execute the way we needed to. We missed a lot of tackles and the execution wasn't there."
(on the defense not getting in a rhythm)
"It was frustrating to not get in to a rhythm. We usually find a rhythm and play better. It was just a frustrating night for everyone on defense. We didn't play the way we needed to play."
(on QB Blake Decker's injury putting more pressure on the defense)
"We knew we had to make stops all game. We just didn't execute well enough to do it, no matter which quarterback was in. Kurt (Palandech) came in and played well. We just knew we had to make stops and we didn't do it well enough."
