California Head Coach Sonny Dykes

General comments:
It feels good to get a win. I thought – particularly early in the ballgame –we played really well and were pretty efficient on both sides of the ball. We had a lot of penalties. We had 10 penalties and we have to get that fixed. That is the thing, to me that stands out as much as anything else. That is something we have to get corrected. I will say this, we did a good job at overcoming them. We had a couple plays on the opening drive that put us into long-yard situations, but we were fortunate enough to make some plays and keep the drive going. When they started making some plays offensively against our defense, the defense did a really good job at creating some turnovers. At that point, our guys played with a lot of confidence. It was a fun game. It was fun to get to play that many players. Those guys work incredibly hard in practice. I told our scout team guys that I think they are the best scout group I have ever been around. They work incredibly hard. We have so many young, good players that have really bought into our program and have worked incredibly hard, so it is good to get to reward them with some playing time. We are going to have to play a lot of those guys, and a lot of them grew up today and really benefited from that playtime. Overall, I thought it was a good ballgame. We are certainly making some strides and improving.

On scoring on the first six possessions:
That is what the offense is supposed to look like. We are doing a good job at taking what they are giving us. Last week, we had an 18-play drive to start the game and this week it was a 15-play drive. That is a hard thing to do – to be able to play and execute at that level for that many plays. They were playing soft off of our receivers a little bit, and we weren't quite sure what we were going to see from them. We did a good job at making first downs, moving the chains and getting the ball in the end zone.

On putting starters back in the third quarter:
We felt like we lost some momentum. Football is such a game of momentum. We fumbled the punt and we were fortunate that Griffin Piatt made the interception on the following play. We felt like at that point of the game, the momentum had slumped to them. We were genuinely concerned about losing momentum and our ability to get it back from them. We felt that at that stage of the game, we had to put our first group back in and score a touchdown to get a little more separation.

On Jared Goff:
I thought he was very efficient and made good decisions with the football. He had a couple drops early – I think we dropped two balls early on. I think he only had five incompletion the whole time, with two of them being drops. He did a good job getting the ball out. He gets better and better all the time, and I think the game has slowed down for him. He has just got to – the same thing our team has got to do – just keep coming to work everyday, keep improving, and keep executing at a high level.

On Kenny Lawler's one-handed catch:
You kind of expect it. He is one of those guys – I am going to start calling him 'Vicinity Kenny' – you just get the ball in his vicinity and he catches it. He's got really great ball skills, probably as good as anyone I have ever been around. He just keeps getting better and better. The thing is, our quarterbacks have a lot of confidence, and really all of those guys do. When you sit around and look at the group of receivers, our quarterbacks believe that if they get the ball close to them, they are going to get a chance to make a play on the football. That is a big deal when your quarterback has that much confidence in your receivers. 

California Players

Jared Goff, QB

On scoring touchdowns on the first six possessions of the game:
“That's exactly how it is supposed to go. I talked to Coach Dykes briefly about it and asked him if this is how it's supposed to look and he said 'Yeah this is how it's supposed to be.' The offense executed very well in the first half and I was very happy with it.”

On Kenny Lawler's one-handed touchdown catch:
“He's ridiculous. There is no other way to describe it. I don't think I've ever seen anyone catch balls the way he does and it's not the best catch I've ever seen him make. He makes those in practice constantly. When he caught it I wasn't even surprised at all. I just said to myself, 'That's Kenny.' He is a great target to have on the outside and I told him I don't know how he does that.”

On how the team ran the ball today:
“It definitely helps, especially when guys run for big runs like [Daniel] Lasco did for the touchdown. It really takes a lot of pressure off of myself and the rest of the offense when they can do that. It allows us to be multi-dimensional and makes other teams have to prepare for both. I'm just really excited to see them to continue to get better because they are going to. They are getting better every week at practice and I am excited to see how they are going to do the rest of the season.”

Kenny Lawler, WR

On his one-handed touchdown catch:
“Honestly, I don't even remember it. I do remember celebrating with my teammates. It just happened in a split second and all I could do was react. I remember celebrating with my offensive line, celebrating with my quarterback.”

On the rotation of quarterbacks:
“It helps to make us multi-dimensional. Luke [Rubenzer] can get in there and run the ball, but he can also throw it as you saw today. That helps with our offense and makes us more explosive.”

Trevor Davis, WR

On the offensive performance:
“The main thing is that we were getting first downs. After we got first downs, we were able to start wearing out the defense and keep getting our fast tempo. After we get our first first down, the offense started rolling and, as you can see, we were able to have longer drives that resulted in touchdowns and field goals.”

Daniel Lasco, RB

On his touchdown run:
“The offensive line played very well today. On my touchdown run there was just great blocking all around the perimeter and the wide receivers were blocking for five, six, seven seconds and it was great to have a solid blocking unit on that play.”

Sacramento State Head Coach Jody Sears

General Comments:
“We were disappointed. We weren't making plays. We weren't tackling. We weren't throwing and catching the ball. We had a couple of big turnovers and a couple foolish penalties that were uncharacteristic from the first week, and so obviously things that you can control. A little bit disappointed, but I'm really proud of the way the guys stayed together. They stayed engaged, and the energy was good. We made some plays in the second half like the pooch kick. You take some chances. The guys were good, the energy was good and the leadership was good. We gotta clean up the fundamental things.”

On playing against an upper-level opponent
“Run-game wise we weren't doing a very good job of tackling. We gave a couple fade balls, I think five with good coverage, but at the same time, when you play up like this, the margin of error is nil. If you're going to play at a championship level, your guys have to have a sense of urgency that they didn't have to have last week against a Division II team that just moved up. It was good for them. We have to go through these trials. We have to go through this adversity.”

On Daniel Lasco
“[Daniel] Lasco is very, very strong. He's a big strong runner.”

On Cal's defense
“Second year in the program it looks like they got some good team speed in the secondary and at the linebacker spot, most definitely. Being able to get some pressure on the quarterback obviously is going to be very helpful. I don't know how they'll match up with the rest of them. I'm sure they'll match up a lot better than they did last year. I think they're a good team. I've always thought they were a good team.”

On Luke Rubenzer
“We had planned on him playing, and obviously they ran it with him. I think he only threw one or two passes last week. All week long we kept telling the kids that he's going to throw it. So we have to be sound in the run game, we have to be sound in the passing game and we have to be good tacklers, and we weren't.”

Sacramento State Players 

Garrett Safron, QB

On what the team takes from playing a Pac-12 team:
“I would say it was a huge learning experience. We're coming together as a family and learning from those adversity moments and the mistakes that we made. We're just improving off of that.”

On the team staying together until the end of the game:
“We came in at halftime after scoring and came in with a little momentum, even though we were down by so much. At the same time, we were able to execute our offense, come together and make some plays.”

On what the team can learn after this game:
“There will be a lot of learning experiences that we will watch on film Monday. We'll correct those and then go back to work.”

Austin Clark, DB

On playing Cal:
“You dream about going out on a field in a Pac-12 stadium you're whole life. As a kid you dream about playing on TV, so to actually get on the field and play them is unbelievable, especially coming from a town like Cottonwood [Calif.] that is nothing but Cal fans. It's cool to take on the hometown team, so to speak, and make the most of every opportunity.”

On playing in front of the 48,000 fans:
“It's wild. The sound is wild with the band and the crowd cheering. It was an unreal experience that I can't put into words. With that, you want to be on the winning end of it, but it was a cool experience. It is something that, win or lose, you want to hold onto and cherish and be thankful for at the end of the day.”