Nov. 15, 2014 Recap | Final Stats | Notes | Photo Gallery 
LOGAN, Utah - Utah State Football
vs. New Mexico (11/15/14)
Post-Game Quotes
Head Coach Matt Wells
Opening Statement:
"Unbelievable win for this team and this program. I think it continues to cement who we are as a program, who we want to be, who we say we want to be. When times are tough, we continue to face adversity and find a way to win. That's the name of the game, whether it's defensively, we played great last week, let down a few at times today, but offense found a way to run the football with different people running it. It doesn't matter what it looks like. The culture of that locker room is really, really good right now. They continue to will it upon themselves to wrap their arms around each and every guy. Whoever's the next man up continues to make plays and play at a high level. We have to play great around them. That's about what it was tonight. Really nice game in the kicking game. I thought Jaron Bentrude played really well, and that's the first guy that comes to my mind. Game ball goes to the offensive line. I really thought they established the run late in the game, especially, and didn't give them the ball back. When that happens, you have a chance to put a game away and not give them a chance. I'm really, really proud of this team. We continue to take care of ourselves. We'll look up in a week or two and see where we're at. Maybe we have a chance to slide into the championship game; maybe we don't, but we have to continue to take care of our business. Now it's on to a short week, and find a way to send these seniors out right. Again, I just think so much of these seniors. They're the winningest senior class in Utah State history, and they'll continue to add to that and add to that legacy. We'll try to find a way to send them out as winners next Friday night."
On what it does for the defense to have the ball pinned deep after a punt by Bentrude:
"Well, first of all, on one it didn't even matter because we got it stuck right down our throat for 99 yards, unfortunately. I think it allows (defensive coordinator) Todd (Orlando) to call a game from a defensive perspective a lot more aggressively. I think that it gives you a shot of adrenaline a little bit from a defensive perspective. I think he had four out of five downed inside the 20, and the one should have been. We had a miscommunication out there at our gunner spot with the look that we got, and that's my fault. I'll take the blame for that. We'll get that corrected, or it should have been five for five. That kid has done that all year in bad weather games. He had a great game last week. He came in and kicked off at the very end for us. Great job holding. He put one hold down that was a little high. The kid's done a really nice job all year."
Sophomore Linebacker Nick Vigil
Opening statement:
"Overall, I thought the defense played okay. We got gashed a few times in the run game, which we pride ourselves around here on stopping the run, so that wasn't good to see. We had a breakdown of coverage on that big, long pass play, so we have some things we're going to have to clean up for next game. We just have to be better in the run game overall."
On making sure New Mexico never took the lead at any point in the game:
"That's big when you play option teams. You want to get a lead early on. If you can do that, their primary thing is to run the ball, obviously, and that burns up a lot of clock. Then what you want to do eventually is try to get them into passing situations. I don't think we were very good in some passing situations tonight. We let them out on third down a few times, which we have to be better on third down. It was a good job of getting the lead early on and then being able to hold on."
Freshman Quarterback Kent Myers:
Opening statement:
"As an offense we played great, but we left a lot of things out there and we had some mistakes. Overall, the main thing is just getting a 'W' and that's what we did. Throughout this upcoming week, we're going to prepare better than we did this week and just go out there and try to get another 'W'."
On absorbing so much with such little time:
"Honestly, I just try to focus on what I have to do and not worry about all the outside stuff. Coach (Matt) Wells always says, 'You have a little part in this thing and you can't win the game by yourself.' With that, I don't have to do too much because I know my team and my defense has my back. With me, just doing my part and getting the ball to my receivers and running backs, is just a big part."
New Mexico Head Coach Bob Davie:
Opening statement:
"We're good enough to be close, that's what we are. They still have more juice than we have to put the hammer down at the end. A good effort to stay close, but we need more juice in the tank so we can at some point put the hammer down. We allowed way too many big plays on defense again. They ran a little toss play for 50 yards right at the beginning. They ran a sweep, where we missed a tackle for a 75-yard gain, big plays like that hurt us."
