Opening Statement
A great program win. Just told the guys and everyone a part of it. Really, really pleased with the work that was put in in a short week. You know, to play two in 13 days,, was a tremendous effort by everyone in the organization. I really thought the offensive staff did a tremendous job of refining the plan, to match the skill set of what we’re learning that we are becoming and to build a plan that made sense on the short week that we could execute at a high level. and the kids did a great job owning it.
Defensively there was some bright spots and they’ll be the first to tell you that, you know, we we got to fight off, you know, kind of being a little bit complacent and and and finished all the way through in that regard and played to our standard on each and every single play. Big kicks made by by Gabe obviously cool for him to touch his career long and to if I’m not mistaken, make the longest field goal here in Snapdragon history, which is great. And then you know for them, him and Hunter, to be able to control the game, control the field position. Really a great program effort all around. Really pleased. Great to get the first conference win and going to make the day off tomorrow a little bit more enjoyable to be able to watch other some some other people stress and get recharged a little bit before we go into another challenge with Reno before we hit that that second work week.
Coach, that boy had ended 256 yards and two touchdowns, the most passing yard by quarterback in your offense since your time at SDSU. What worked well tonight for him?
All the work that they had put in prior to tonight, right? I mean, we we talked about how we’ve been inches off, you know, just few inches here, slightly overthrown there, slightly under thrown, releases, the the time on task that all those guys have put in. The success that we all saw tonight is that lagging indicator of all that hard work that they put in. So it’s a testament to the receivers, Denny going all the way back to when guys were up and available and able to throw in the summertime to the refinement of the craft and the work that they’ve consistently done to take advantage of the looks that we got today and to be able to execute at a really high level.
You mentioned the defense getting a little bit complacent. How can you work on that in the film room and practice?
Yeah, I mean again it’s just playing to our standard, right? And again, on a night like tonight, you know, it’s just having relentless focus. It’s having relentless fundamentals and not allowing, you know, like, okay, well, hey, the the offense is scoring points tonight and there’s this natural human reaction like, oh, we don’t need to have the effort that we did a week ago now. And that’s a great sign of a great program, right? Like a week ago and they were relentless, right? And there was zero complacency. And because of that, it gave the whole organization a chance and the whole program a chance to win. And on a night like tonight where the offense was doing some things in a dominant fashion, like I think there’s again just this natural human tendency to like, oh well, we don’t need to be as sharp and you kind of relax and we have to eradicate that from our program in all three phases. Just happen to show up a little bit today in the defense, especially the way that we finish. Like again, if you get an opportunity to get game reps, like the standard doesn’t change. Next man up, those reps are invaluable and we got to finish the game the right way and play to our standard in all phases, at all times.
WR Jordan Napier posted a career high two weeks ago, just to break it today adding another 153 yards. How influential has it been for QB Jaden Denegal?
Yeah, I mean Jay Boog’s been, I think, a great resource for Jaden ever since he’s shown up, right? Like he was the only guy that had any production, you know, coming in this year and a lot has been made about that and his knowledge of the system and his understanding of what is right and what is wrong, right? like that, Hey, doing X, Y, or Z a certain way is going to be acceptable, but if you do it like ABC, like that ain’t going to be good, right? So, his awareness of again like what the standard is and holding everyone, Denny included, and all the new wide receivers that made plays today, right, like above the line is just an extension of us and the growth of his maturity and the growth of his craft. And really a testament to his character. Like I’m extremely proud to be able to coach him. Extremely proud that he’s a part of our program and you know, a lot gets made about obviously our ability to retain Trey and to retain Chris and to retrain Tano and you know, a bunch of the other guys, but like you know, Jordan went into the portal and his belief in us to come back, right? And now the proof’s in the pudding like like you can accomplish all your dreams and you can do all the things right here on the Mesa, right? You know, really, really proud of him. And, yeah, you know, there’s a great level of comfort between him and Denny, in their relationships. And obviously, again, as we continue to go, we had to continue to to grow that because teams are going to be aware of that and probably start rolling coverage his way or bracketing them and all those things. So, now other guys got to step up as well.
Coach, after the Cal game, you talked about Jaden being efficient and you were happy how efficient he was and that you’re hoping that would lead to maybe spreading it out a little more. That’s what happened tonight. What have you seen from Jaden over the last two weeks that he really succeeded today?
I’ve probably gotten to know him a little bit better in terms of what suits him, right? You know, I mean, and what suits his eye, what suits his skill set, you know, like a lot gets made about his execution early on, but it’s me learning about him as well and us as an organization learning about him and putting guys in position that he feels most comfortable with and so that he can be efficient with his throws. And again, like there was tremendous work and great conversations that have been had since the time that he shown up. And you know, I mean, I think when we came back from Washington State, you know, him and I had some good one-on-one time to really get to know each other even on a deeper level and like, hey, what the intent of calls are and what we’re trying to get done. And he had a deeper appreciation for that because of, you know, like now he’s in it and he’s operating and he’s not watching someone else doing it. And since that time again, like he’s doubled down his efforts, right? He he’s really recommitted to his craft and his fundamentals and the kid’s a warrior with tremendous skill set, right? Like he’s he’s playing at a high level and whatever he finished for tonight like he was very efficient and he was very explosive because the people are playing around him better as well, right? Probably too often too much credit and too much blame is put on that position. That’s the nature of of what it is, right? but the people around him are playing better as well, which allows him to produce, which makes this game so beautiful that it takes all 11 guys all the time.
You guys were eight of 12 on third and fourth down tonight. Obviously, much better than last week. What do you attribute that to?
Better execution, you know, I think a tighter plan. A point of emphasis that was made during the course of the week, personal pride that the guys have, right? And and it wasn’t just last week, but it’s previous weeks. Like we haven’t hit those marks, you know, like we we have our our goals that we evaluate after every single game. And we haven’t hit the third down mark in a long time to our standard, right? We want to be above 50% every single week. And if you’re above 50%, generally speaking, at the end of the year, you’re going to be in the top 15 in the country, right? So, it’s a high bar. It’s a high mark. We have high standards. And the kids have responded to that. And again, like they took personal ownership of the plan, they executed it. And again doing that on a short week, you know, shows what they’re capable of and we need to continue to elevate, you know, that performance and that execution week in and week out.
After Washington State, you said we’re a good team that had a bad night. Anyone that might have doubted that then probably doesn’t doubt that now three weeks later. What can you say about how the team’s responded from that?
They’ve responded to every single opportunity and to every single challenge that has been laid in front of them since January, right? Right. Like since we came back in January and I stood in front of the team and said, “Hey, like the way that we finished last year, we embarrassed the program, a very prideful program, and everyone’s going to earn the right to earn their colors again.” And like it’s a t-shirt. Okay. Well, yeah, it’s a t-shirt. It’s a big deal. It’s a tremendous honor to be able to wear these colors with this logo and the new logos that we’re going to be able to wear as well and to represent, you know, the the pride in the program that was and the future that we’re creating. And from that response on January 20th all the way through like that response, the competitive maturity, the competitive stamina that this group has shown. It’s who they are, you know. So there’s no doubt in my mind that they were going to respond appropriately and that we’d be, you know, continuing to get better as we go.
So again, we have great fans, right, that that that want us to perform at an elite level each and every single night and and good. So do I. And I mean, shoot, they showed up and they showed out yet again tonight. And it provides tremendous, you know, energy for our kids to feed off of. And we’re a good team who had a good night tonight. And in eight days, we’re going to go back out. We’re going to put the ball down. Like I’ve said before, we’re only going to be as good as our latest outing, right? And that’s what we signed up for. And that’s what makes it so special and that’s what makes it so beautiful and that’s what we embrace and uh the kids do a heck of a job with it.
Offensive line wise, this offensive line, particularly this season, they’ve done a great job eliminating sacks. How does that help your offense?
Yeah, I mean, right, like so much gets made about how Trey White impacts a game, whether it’s sacks or it’s pressures, right? like when you can keep your quarterback upright and you’re able to run the football efficiently, you’re you’re able to be multi-dimensional, it keeps the defense off balance. And again, coach Schmidt and the O line and has done a tremendous job of developing, of coming together. And you go all the way back again like Christian Jones was a guy that people tried to tamper with, people tried to pull away. You know, like a kid of his size, his stature, his character at left tackle are hard to come by, right? And he believed in our vision and so he stayed like Ross being back at his natural position as center. We put a lot on his plate today where it was like, “Hey man, like you’ve earned our trust. You got to go make us right, you know, and being able to do the things that we did tonight was because of his maturity, his football IQ, his understanding of the system. We weren’t able to do that a year ago.” And it’s a testament again to his preparation and his knowledge. And then, you know, you’re able to add Bio, you’re able to add Kalin, you’re able to get Big Joe back. Like that that’s a physically imposing unit. like they’re big dudes. Like I like standing around them because they make me feel small, which is awesome. And I tell the staff all the time, like, “Hey, when you go recruit offensive linemen, like they better make me feel small.” And we’re gonna be okay because big people beat up little people, right? So, we got to do a good job of keeping them healthy, keeping them up right, and continuing to thread that needle of keeping them healthy, keeping them up, right? Yet, again, like not allowing them to seek comfort and getting complacent because they did some cool things tonight. And with Coach Schmidt leading them, I know that ain’t going to be an issue.
Earlier on special teams, particularly having Gabriel in the back pocket when the offense doesn’t, you know, score a touchdown. How much of a luxury is that?
Yeah, it’s huge. I mean, like, you know, we’re sitting there, you know, at the start of the second half and we have a fourth and one and we have a a foolish penalty that, you know, takes the takes a decision off of my plate of what, hey, can we go for this on fourth and short or we’ll know, hey, now it’s fourth and 15. like, “No, we got to we got to kick it, you know, and it’s like I kind of like just take for granted, okay, well with that the ball’s on the 20 and it’s a 15-y penalty, so that’s at the plus 35 and oh, okay, this is going to be a 53 yard kick.” But it’s like, yeah, we’re good. Like, send it. Like, let’s go. Right. Like, it is a luxury. It’s absolutely a luxury. And again, it’s a testament to the work that all those guys have put in and the consistency of Gabe’s approach that he goes out there and sends it and bangs it and probably has it for I mean, shoot, at least another 10 yards, right? So, yeah, it’s great, right, to win the middle eight in that way. Like defense responds, only holds him to a field goal, we go back, get a touchdown, we get points coming out, like all those little nuances of the game and and having a specialist that you can count on. It’s huge.
Something the night that you saw tonight that the job, he threw three balls in particular, they were beautiful. And have we not seen those before or they just weren’t caught before so we didn’t know?
I mean there like we get so obsessed as society about end results, right? So like we played pitch and catch tonight which is really cool, right? And so then because of that it’s like whoa. But like we obsess about the process, the approach and yeah he’s a really really talented kid, right? He’s got the ability to touch the whole field. He showed that tonight. And again, for as much as we put on Ross’ plate tonight with a short week and the multiple looks that they gave and the amount of pressure that they brought, we put a ton on JD’s plate as well to to manage and to control and he did a great job with it. So, again, like it’s a culmination of all the hard work that they’ve put in. And yeah, there was a lot of that that we saw through spring ball and through training camp that gave us the confidence that that would come to life in real time in-game reps that again, you know, we kind of talked about somewhere between game four, game six of year two, things will kind of come together. Here we are.
Yeah, I mean, time will tell, right? But I think like any of us, I mean, when you put so much into something and you have a really good show and you have a really good performance, it recharges you. It gives you confidence. It allows you to lean back into the work even more. Aand again, like these guys will have a good day off tomorrow and they’ll have their normal day off on Sunday and everything, but like I know I’ll be chasing guys out of the building because they’re going to be eager to go do the next opportunity and to attack the work, right? Like that’s the really fun thing that these guys have embraced, right? And of all the sayings and all the things, right? Like work works. And when you do the work really really well, like the reward is more work and then the expectations will be higher, so you better do the work better. And that’s what it is and that’s what we willingly embrace and you know JD is at the tip of the spear of that. And so I know he’ll lean right back into it.
On the team’s new found momentum
Yeah, I mean we got real momentum right now. Like I think winning is a skill. like we talked about earlier in the year and rewiring that trait within our DNA, this team’s DNA, right? Like there’s a winning tradition in this program that our kids are really, really prideful of. Like there’s former Aztecs that are in that locker room like that are beaming with pride because they can wear their colors proudly again. And that gives me, you know, I mean, a tremendous sense of pride, right? Like that that’s all I ever want, right? So what Moose and JD and I talked about like I want to restore pride in the program and make the city come back to life and to see the fans, you know, the stands packed with fans, the city rallying around us. To have previous alum like proudly wearing their colors saying tell the boys that a boy, right? Like all those things means the bunch, you know, it means so much. And so because of that, again, I just think it like you want to go back to work. like you you want to continue to chase that feeling and when you know how much is required to capture and feel that feeling the way that we do like you lean more into it and you you’re able to snowball gain momentum and regardless of how you’re feeling individually it’s like man like I want to I want to chase that feeling again like I want to be in club dub again I want to be singing the fight song again like I don’t want to feel the other way and a lot of guys felt the other way a lot of times right so it’s like they have that beautiful concoction inside of them, right, of chasing their goals and chasing and doing the work week in and week out.
What’s it like having three guys who can run the ball consistently and run well as they did tonight?
Yeah. I mean, again, we’re spoiled in that room and we’re spoiled in this area because all three of those kids are San Diego kids, right? So, if you’re a San Diego kid, like stay home, stay on the Mesa. you’re gonna get to play, especially if you’re back behind a really big physical offensive line and we’re going to be a balanced attack that can push the ball vertically down the field. So, the numbers in the box are going to be right and when we hand it to you, you can make a guy miss and create explosive runs. I mean, all three of those kids are really, really talented and they are champions of one another. And again, like they all probably want more carries, but they all know and understand by sharing the workload collectively together, not just are they better in one game, but they’re going to be better for the duration of the season. and um you know they prioritize winning which is great.
With the kicker who’s as efficient as he is and from the long range, does that allow you to be a little bit more aggressive on offense, say like on third and long, instead of trying to just get five yards to get closer to the field?
To an extent, right? Like it kind of depends on where we are, but I like to be aggressive as is, which has been well documented, right? So knowing that he’s there and the decision-m process that Denny is going to make, right? Like it allows as a play caller and the offensive players understanding the intent of the calls to make good decisions within the framework of the calls so that we’re not taking points off the board. Like it all kind of works together, right? Right. And I think the kids know again because of being around me and how I call it during spring ball and how I call it during training camp and how I call it every single day that like they don’t need to press. Coach is going to call it aggressively. So take what the defense gives you within the framework of the call and eventually like they’re going to give you a shot down range that we can take advantage of, you know, and then if it doesn’t work out, we got a guy who can bang it from distance, you know, really really well.
Obviously a big win to open up conference play. How do you guys stay hungry and stay humble going forward?
Yeah, I mean, we measure everything to our standard, right? So, there’s things where we were above the line. Um, there’s things that we were we were not. We’ll make sure that, you know, we take 24 hours to to celebrate it and then we’ll be back in the building to clean up this tape and and go forward. But, you know, it’s funny like you’re in there and there’s one half of the locker room that’s really really excited, right? That did a really really good job. There’s another half that like kind of, you know, feels like that they could have done a hell of a lot more, right? And it was the same feeling a week ago, you know, and so like again, like there’s I go back to there’s personal pride in that locker room and we’ve yet to play a complete game in all three phases together, right? So, luckily for me, I can dangle that carrot a little bit, right? And, you know, pull on those mechanisms um and make sure that we’re touching the right cord so that guys are eager to go again. But again, like we don’t want to seek comfort. We don’t want to seek complacency and we want to continue to grow. We want to continue to get better because as much as we are and we’re sitting here and we feel, you know, good about where we are at 4 and one, like we’re not even halfway through this climb and we want to continue to elevate. We want to continue to take steps. We want to continue to improve our performance and our execution each and every single time that we go out.
On CSU’s blitzing Defense
Yeah, I mean like we knew that they were a high pressure rate team. If I’m not mistaken coming into this week, they had the higher highest pressure rate out of any defense in the country and they were a man pressure team. So, we felt that if that trend continued that we felt good about how we could protect some things and how we could push some good vertical balls down range that we thought were going to be good calculated shots. And again, we were able to connect on them. And, you know, it’s one thing to have that belief, it’s a whole another thing for the kids to bring those plays to life and to execute it the way that they did tonight. So, really proud of them and the way that they executed those calls.
On the offenses successful night in general
I think there’s probably still a point of us, that like early success leads to success, right? Kind of like wins, momentum, snowballs and like that momentum. I think, you know, there there’s still probably a piece of us offensively right now for as much as we’ve grown that where we can still like have internal confidence that even if we don’t go down and score a touchdown on the very first drive or have early success that like we’re still really good because we are really good, right? And I think there was a little bit of last week probably like, oh wait, we’re kind of banging our head against the wall here a little bit and some self-inflicted wounds and like realize like we’re in control of that, right? And we’re going to be okay as we go and to, you know, have that confidence because of the accumulation of the hard work that we’ve put in that we have the power to change it, you know.
So, on a night like tonight where, you know, we stalled out early, but then we go find the paint multiple times in a row, like, okay, like we’re good and we’ve hit our stride and away we go, right? So again, I think that’s an area that we will point to, right, within the offensive side of the ball where our competitive maturity needs to continue to grow because there’s going to be those games where all right, we get a field goal, like we might have to punt, we might get a touchdown, we might have to punt, we might have to punt, we might get a field goal, and like we’re good. Like let’s make these adjustments. Let’s let’s make the corrections. let’s refine the execution and we’re good and we’re a good unit and we can operate and we can execute at a high efficiency, you know, even if we didn’t do it the last drive, like let’s just play this drive and this play and do that to the best of our ability.
On the community’s response and upcoming game in a month from now
Yeah, I mean I think there’s an exciting brand of football that we’re playing. I think for the past two weeks, you know, we’ve put a tremendous product out on the field that we can continue to get better. And I think our community has responded in a big-time way, right? So, we got a little bit of a time away, right? Like we we’re going to go play at Reno. We’re going to have a by-week and then we’ll be back home for homecoming. And I know our fans and our community is going to show up and show out. And I can’t wait to see, you know, this place packed. You know, we got to hit 325 for it to be a sellout and that has yet to happen for a football game. And I’m excited for us to do that first this upcoming opportunity right when we get Wyoming here at home, you know. So I know our fans will come out. I know our kids will continue to work hard and I know this is a great sports city, right? And when you put a winner on the field, people are going to rally. People got tremendous pride in this program. People got tremendous pride in this university and the way that we’re deeply rooted together, right? We’re connected and I can’t wait to see this place packed when we get back here in a few weeks.
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