Oct. 23, 2010

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CALIFORNIA HEAD COACH Jeff Tedford

On playing at home versus on the road:

"You would like to think that the crowd and the home field have an impact. On the road, obviously in Nevada and at USC not so good; I thought we played well at Arizona. We just let a game get away from us that we should have won. But yes, home field is key."

On the effect of negative media:
"It looked today, by the crowd, that some people have given up on us. I'm proud of our team that they haven't given up on themselves. That is what it was about this week. It was about heart, because that got questioned this week. That is a great Arizona State football team that we just played. I was really proud of the guys to keep their focus all week. The ones that believe are the ones in the locker room, and I'm really proud of them."

On learning from the loss to USC:
"There are always specific things we can improve on. It had nothing to do with quit or character or anything like that. We showed by playing hard in the second half (against USC) the character it takes to keep fighting through things. The things I'm more looking at every down are the specifics about football. Did we block? Tackle? Did we throw? Did we catch? Every week we have to continue to improve; that's part of the process."

On the defense improving this week:
"It was a group effort; through the week everybody practiced hard. When you take a look at the defense they played well. We gave up quite a bit last week. It was nice to get back with a good game plan."

On playing QB Brock Mansion at the end of the game:
"He has been more consistent (than Beau Sweeney), that is a competitive spot. He has been more consistent in practice and throwing the ball better."

On Cal's lack of consistency:
"The consistency thing, like I said last week, isn't so much about lack of preparation. It is about how you match up with certain teams. All you can do is practice hard, prepare hard and cut it loose every week. That is what we do. I still don't think there is any game - maybe the Reno game - that we went out and schematically got hammered. I don't see an up and down team every week in practice. Obviously what happens in the games says what it says, but I still love this team. I love their character. I love their work ethic. I'm proud of the way they bounced back."

On S Sean Cattouse:
"Sean (Cattouse) played really well. He tackled really well, drove the ball hard. I thought he did an excellent job. He deserved some playing time."

On QB Kevin Riley:
"I thought Kevin (Riley) did some good things. I still thought he could have thrown the ball away a couple times, especially in the red zone instead of taking a sack. He did a nice job throwing the deep ball to Marvin (Jones). He did a nice job going down the field in the two-minute offense before the half. He didn't turn the football over, which is key. On the surface, there are some places he can improve, but he definitely made some good plays."

On the team's offensive balance:
"It is always important to stay balanced. In order to be successful each and every week you have to be balanced and be able to throw the ball. While they aren't huge numbers, they are effective numbers."

CALIFORNIA PLAYERS

Mike Mohamed, LB

On shutting down opposing offenses at home:
"I'm not really sure if there is an answer for that. I think one thing that plays a part of it is that we practice on that field everyday. Being at home, in front of the home crowd, I know we're definitely more comfortable at home, but who isn't? We definitely need to work on playing on the road, especially next week at Oregon State."

On playing in the wet weather:
"The ball was out a couple times, it was slipping out of everybody's hands. It got kind of wild out there. I think them being from Arizona, they aren't too used to the moisture and that might have helped a little bit."

Kevin Riley, QB
On establishing the passing game early to go deep later:
"I always feel comfortable throwing the ball down field; I've always said that's one of my strengths. In practice this week, we took a lot of shots and that went well. Coach had confidence in us when we called it. Marvin (Jones) made some adjustments and made some great plays. That's what he does. He was a little upset about the game last week and he responded well."

On the touchdown pass to Marvin Jones:
"It's one of our main play-action plays. It's a three-level stretch. The safety came down with the play-action, and we had a one-on-one with the corner. When you get that opportunity, you take that shot. Marvin made a great adjustment and got in the end zone. You throw the ball to Marvin when he's got a one-on-one. There's a good chance he's going to make the play."

Sean Cattouse, S
On his game today:
"Coach gave me the nod today. He gave me an opportunity. My teammates were my biggest focus. I just wanted to show the guys that I was back. It was amazing. It was great just being out there with the guys and being able to contribute. We all played well top to bottom."

Jeremy Ross, WR
On why the team seems to play better at home:
"I wouldn't say there's a specific reason. I don't think that where we're playing is such a factor. I think that the wins and the losses are about not executing our game plan at certain times. But we come out every game with the same tempo and the same mindset to get the win."

On his touchdown:
"It was great. It was a good feeling just to get in there for the first time this year. I've definitely been graving that feeling. It felt great to get back in the end zone."

ARIZONA STATE HEAD COACH DENNIS ERICKSON

General comments:

"They kicked our rear end. I don't know how other to put it. They out-physicalled us. We didn't tackle very well. We didn't make plays. Everything you can do to lose a football game, we did. You have to give them credit. They came out after what happened to them last week and played extremely well. They ran the football, played great defense. They played great on special teams. There was no aspect of the game that we even came close to competing with them on. It came out of nowhere. I'm very surprised that it happened, but it happened."

On quarterback Steven Threet:
"Steven had a concussion. They wouldn't let him play the second half. He got it at the end of the first half. Obviously, you can't play with a concussion so he didn't play. [Back-up quarterback Brock Osweiler} wasn't completely healthy so we went with [Samson Szakacsy]. Obviously, he hasn't practiced very much. It took a little bit away from what we were doing. Then the skies opened obviously and we were a little bit hand-tied because of what they did defensively. In the first half, we had some momentum going and we couldn't get it in the end zone. Everything that has caused us to lose games, we did. We had penalties, we turned it over, they had it big plays - all the things that you can't do to win a football game.

On whether there was anything that can be built on from today:
"It's two steps back. We have taken a lot of steps forward in this program this year. Then, all of a sudden, you get blindsided. To me, we've made a lot of progress, and this knocks us back so now we'll see what we're made of. I don't think our guys quit. They just got their read ends beat. They played hard till the end. It came out of the blue as far as I'm concerned. I didn't see it coming."

On whether he thought the team was ready to play:
"I always do, but you don't know. I've felt that when I didn't think guys aren't ready to play and they played good, and vice versa. If I could write a book on that and knew the answer, I probably wouldn't be standing here right now."

On Cal's speed:
"They ran it right at us, with Vereen. They ran the football. Cal, when they can run the football, and we knew that going into the game, and they can run their play action fake stuff with Riley and they made some plays - it was ugly."

ARIZONA STATE PLAYERS

Samson Szakacsy, QB

On how he felt coming on for the injured Threet:
"Like a freshman. I just felt a little bit rusty. I wanted to go in there and repeat last year. I did my best. It was unfortunate that the entire game turned out like it did. But I felt like I need to get into practice a little more."

"There's no excuse. I felt rusty, but I should still have played well. I'm not making an excuse out of that at all. I got to play better, and things like this happen. It's a crazy roller coaster, but it is what it is, and we can only get better."

On the offense:
"We thought we came in with a good plan, we just didn't execute very well offensively. It's as simple as that. Our offense is heavily, heavily execution emphasized. We have to be precise about what we do and we weren't that today. So that can happen."

"I think we've been beating ourselves. We haven't really been stopped by anybody but ourselves and lack of execution. Give credit to Cal though. They are an awesome defense and nothing should be taken away from them. But in terms of what we can do, we take it upon ourselves to execute and we didn't do that today."

"We came and approached it like a business trip. I don't think it was anything like lack of preparation or lack of focus. I can only speak for the offense, and we didn't execute. I don't know what else it was."

On the outcome and coming back next week:
"The past couple years there has been that trend were we start tanking. I don't feel like that's our attitude right now. It just hurts to lose, especially after the win over Washington, where we felt like we had some momentum on our side, turning the train around and getting it the right direction. It sucks to come out here and have the result be what it was. But it is what it is, we'll see what our character is like. The season is not over. We have to keep working."

Brandon Magee, LB
On the game:
"It's pretty disappointing and it showed. It's disappointing for our fans and our team. But the game is over now so we have to fly back to AZ and learn from our mistakes."

On Coach Erickson's message:
"The message was, `Learn from your mistakes. Go home and watch the film. We have another whole game next week, and we start practicing Tuesday. We have to put this one behind us.'"

On the poor tackling:
"I couldn't tell you because I missed a couple tackles myself. Some days you have it, and some days you don't. You just have to learn from that. Maybe we'll do some tackling drills next week. I would like to do some tackling drills next week."

On Cal's offense:
"We saw all of it on game film. And we actually executed pretty good. But it was just the tackling and some misfits. Other than that we fit everything good, we just have to make the plays."

On the rest of the season:
"Truthfully I hope we don't look at it like four out of five, because we have to play every game. Every game is different. And you've seen the Pac-10; people lose, people win. We've just got to keep grinding and see where we end up at the end."