LOGAN, Utah - Utah State head football coach Matt Wells, along with junior center Quin Ficklin and senior boundary safety Dallin Leavitt, held a press conference Monday to recap the Aggies' 52-28 win at UNLV and preview their upcoming Mountain West home game against Boise State. A complete transcript of the press conference can be found below.

Head Coach Matt Wells
On the UNLV game:
"I'm really proud of our guys in the UNLV game for overcoming three 14-point deficits. UNLV was running the ball on us, we turned it over twice on offense and handed them short fields. Credit to them for taking advantage of those turnovers at midfield and turning them into touchdowns. There were a few points in the first half there, where we could have folded. We could have gone in the tank like we did against Wake Forest. I'm not going to hide from the fact that I think some of our guys grew up. We had some guys go out with injuries, which is obviously part of the game. We lost two of our best players, (Ron'quavion) Tarver and (Jalen) Davis, very early in the game. It would have been easy to go in the tank a little bit, but we didn't. Hats off to Jordan Love, not only in his first start playing very well and very efficient, he was stingy with the ball, but you're starting your first game on the road and you have a 14-point deficit and you lose your best wideout. It could be easy to go in the tank and he did not. Dax Raymond responds like Dax always does, but we had some other wideouts step up. Braelon Roberts played his best game of the year. He was very physical and caught the ball well. He ran down on kickoff and filled in for Tarver. Savon Scarver showed up and played well in his hometown. I know that was important to him to play well in front of his fans, his friends and a lot of family members, so I'm happy for him. He played well in the kickoff return game, as well. I was just proud of our guys. They hung in there. We hit some plays and got it back to even at halftime. We played not bad, but horrible on run defense. But, our defense responded in the second half. The offense basically picked up where it left off. Some games are going to be like that. You're not going to have your best game on one side of the ball, and the other side needs to pick it up and win. Again, another strong outing, a complete win by our special teams. Both return units and our kickoff coverage was outstanding, again. So, all around, it was a good win. I've always said it's hard to win on the road. That's two conference wins on the road. Apparently, we need to learn to win at home in the conference."

On hosting Boise State this weekend:
"It's a big game with Boise State coming to town. Everybody knows how I've always felt about the Broncos. I have a tremendous amount of respect for them. I've always made the comments at media day, and I've said them in these press conferences, that the road to the championship goes through Boise. We've got two losses in the league, so I understand where that puts us in the race, but to me, they are who everybody is shooting for in the league. They will absolutely get our best shot - our coaches' best shot, our players' best shot and hopefully, they'll get our fans' best efforts, too, Saturday night. They are on a roll. They've won three in a row and they're very confident. They're playing two QBs probably better than I've ever seen somebody play two QBs. I don't know how (head coach) Bryan (Harsin) does it. He's managed both of them very well. They're getting a lot of good play from Montell Cozart and Brett Rypien. I'm sure they're good teammates and it's all working. It's neat to see. I'm a quarterback guy. It's a really nice job of him having a package for Cozart, a package for Rypien and then they had a package for both of them. As you study those cutups, it's interesting to see what they do with them. They've done a nice job.

"Alexander Mattison is another real tailback at Boise State and a really good player. Cedrick Wilson has home-run ability every time he touches the ball. David Moa, I think, is one of the best D-linemen in this league, I've always thought that. Sam Whitney and Jabril Frazier are legit, elite pass rushers in the Mountain West. They have two brand new linebackers inside, Leighton Vander Esch and Tyson Maeva. We've played against Weaver and Vallejo and all those guys. These two guys are legit players. They're not missing a beat at inside linebacker. Andy Avalos does a tremendous job with the run fits. The things they do, you look at all the formations, and we've certainly tried to formation these guys in the pass and they don't miss a line. They know how to fit runs, and they're very well-coached. In special teams, they have, here we go, two of the best returners in the league. Kent Riddle is extremely well-versed in what he does in the special teams, and I have a lot of respect for coach Riddle, always have. This will be a major special teams battle, it'll be fun. I don't know if it'll be fun for us trying to defend those two returners, they are really good."

On responding quickly with two touchdowns when down early:
"It was a big deal. I think it helps your confidence. One of them may have been a blown coverage, but we took advantage of it and called the right play at the right time. It's part of playing football, too. Coordinators can make good calls, and that was a good call on coach (David) Yost's part."

On hitting on big plays at the right time this year:
"Some of those are schemed, and some of those just come within the normal calls of the game plan. The one to Jordan Nathan was not a schemed shot; the one to Savon (Scarver) was. Credit to those two receivers. Credit to the offensive line. I thought they protected Jordan well. Jordan got sacked once and hit once. That's a pretty good night for a QB. Credit to Jordan Love. I thought they were excellent balls. Sometimes the hardest ball is the wide open ball for the quarterback. I'm talking about the one to Jordan Nathan. It can be easy to guide or overthrow a little bit, but he put it right on the money. It was a nice throw."

On what it says about the team to have two league losses and to still play hard down 14 on the road:
"We can talk about this because we're two-thirds of the way through the season, so I do know what we have in the locker room right now. I've said it since the summer, that there's a good vibe in that locker room. I said it all through the summer. I meant it. Our players, we have lost four games, and there has been no finger pointing, there's been no bickering and there's been nothing back-and-forth in terms of a negative attitude. They've stuck together. Quite frankly, I don't know if they know it's going to be hard to win the division. I'm not going to let them know that. What they do know is it's going to be hard to win the division. So, your back is against the wall, and we're fighting. This team's responded in the right way. We had a lot of distractions during the week. We had distractions on Friday. Las Vegas is a distraction-laden city. I thought our guys handled it very well, especially for having a lot of youthful kids. We have the fourth- or fifth-highest first-year starters, we started a redshirt freshman at QB. They responded in a great way. It was a good vibe in the locker room at halftime, and it was this morning, too. They know Boise State is a big opponent. They know it's a big game. They don't need anyone to tell them that. They need two more wins to get to bowl eligibility. They also know crazier things have happened. We can't control a lot of things that are going to go on in the division the rest of the way, but we can control Utah State. If we control our attitude and our effort every single week, how we prepare, how we practice, and then go out and try to find a way to win a game, then we'll look up at the end of November and see where we're at."

On the impact of Jordan Nathan in the punt return:
"Jordan Nathan's done a really nice job in punt returns, especially in limited opportunities. Now-a-days in college football, you don't get very many punt returns with the hang time, especially where we play in this mountain region with the altitude. And then, we've kind of become a punt block team more than a punt return team with all the blocks. When you do that, you limit your return game and he becomes a fair-catch guy. So, he's had limited opportunities. But the ones he's had, he's done a nice job with. He's secured the ball, got out and we made some good blocks for him last game."

On the importance of getting off to a fast start on offense:
"It's important to get off to a good start, but sometimes that's not always measured in touchdowns. You get off to an efficient start. Look at the game on Saturday. We didn't score on the first drive, but we move the ball and we kind of got going, and we flipped the field. We punted it to them and put them down there in negative territory. You're not always going to score on the first drive. If we could draw it up perfectly, we'd score the first drive every time. I want to start fast. I want to start strong. But more than anything, especially with a quarterback that's going to start his second game, you want to start very efficiently and get him off to a good start. You want to be able to run the ball and protect him early. You may miss on your first third down, and we did this time. Our guys didn't go in the tank. To me, it's also about how you react when you get out there the second time, as well."

On what he sees from Boise State's run defense:
"Well they have good players up front. I just mentioned some of them. Sonatane Lui is from Utah, and he's a big old nose guard. I already talked about Moa. You have Durrant Miles from Bingham High School. They just have good players. Their front seven, I mean, it's good coaches, it's good players, they fit the run well. It doesn't matter who they've played. They've struggled a little bit, they gave up a couple shots against Virginia and got behind. But they haven't been gashed in the run game. It doesn't matter who they've played, they've stopped the run. That's why they're top-20 in run defense. They've always been that way, though. This is a good team. They're 5-2 and could very easily be 6-1. Yeah, they gave up some shots against Virginia, but they had the lead and could have very easily won the Washington State game."

On the leadership council on the team and what goes on in the meetings every week:
"It's a captain's meeting. It's our leadership council and our captains. They serve as our game-day captains. There are four classes represented, seniors down to redshirt freshmen. They've been in the program at least a year, and they've been voted on by their teammates, the teammates that have been in the program a year. I don't want the guys that just got here to vote because they don't know. We talk about discipline, we talk about discipline issues and they have a say in some of the stuff that we do. We talk about leadership. We talk about where we're at as a program. We talk about the immediate future and the big picture. Coach (Dave) Scholz and I meet every Monday morning, and we try to help coach the captains, if you will, lead for the captains and teach them leadership as best we can. We find out the toilet's stuffed in the locker room and it's been that way for a week and I have to get facilities over here. Those things are important sometimes. You have keep the locker room happy. We found out the locker room speakers don't work, and they haven't worked for a couple weeks and the guys are starting to get upset. We have to find a way to get those things fixed."

On having a plan now that Jordan Love is starting to get Kent Myers in the game, just as they planned to get Love in games that Myers started:
"We did this past week. I have not made a decision on next week yet. We did last game, and Kent came in and played well. He moved the team down, scored a touchdown that got called back with a penalty. That was the plan, and we stuck to it. There are things that you make in advance of the game, that you stick to if the situation continues to present itself with the parameters that you made the decision with. It did, and that's why Kent went in, and we stayed with that plan. Jordan had played very well up until that point, and we went back with him. I'll get some flak from you guys and maybe it's merited. Jordan Love throws a touchdown, and I take him out of the game. That's fine. We had that planned. He had played well. Kent was going to have his series. We had a couple designed QB runs already ready to go, and they worked. That was the plan. We went right back with Jordan, he played excellent and stayed in the rest of the way."

On LaJuan Hunt bouncing back from the Wyoming game by playing one of the best games of his career against UNLV:
"I'm happy for LaJuan. I thought he played well. I thought he practiced very well. He bounced back from the fourth quarter of the Wyoming game. He thinks that's his fault, and it absolutely was not. We, as leaders, sometimes put a whole lot of guilt on our shoulders for a loss, and that comes with the territory. I felt like that after Wyoming. He says he felt like that. To see him come out and have three touchdowns and get over 100 yards, he ran the ball hard and had a great catch on the screen. He played his tail off. LaJuan has been a very consistent player for us over four years. He's durable. He practices when he's hurt. He's tough. He's field corn. He's a tough guy. I'm happy he had a great game."

On if Jordan Love's downfield passing opens up the run game more:
"If we can't run it, all they're going to do is put four or five in the box and play coverage, bracket and cover two. It helps our passing game, probably more than anything. If he does it consistently, and Savon and (Ron'quavion) Tarver and those guys are consistently making plays and teams start committing more safeties to the passing game, it could. But, we have to play well up front. Certainly this is a big week to protect the quarterback and run the ball. Those are Boise State's two strengths. They've done it against everybody. They've rushed the passer. They're No. 1 in our league in sacks and run defense. That's their strength, is their front seven."

On what the key for his defense is this week:
"We better do something better than we did in the first half or it'll be 50-0 at halftime."

On what changed at halftime for the defense:
"We talked to them about their character and their heart. It had little to do with fundamentals. I thought we played poorly on defense, especially the front seven. I'm not worried about the secondary's tackling because we play hard enough and we run to the football around here that we'll cover up for missed tackles. You're going to have missed tackles. Lexington (Thomas) has done that against everybody. I saw him do that against really good teams early in the year. You guys know who they played, I don't need to say it. He made guys miss. If you run to the ball with an extreme amount of effort and intensity like our defense is built on, you can cover up for missed tackles. The stuff up the middle, that's uncalled for and that's embarrassing."

Junior Center Quin Ficklin
On the UNLV game:
"We played pretty well as an offense. We started slow, but we only stopped ourselves. Really, throughout the whole game if our drive didn't end in points, it was on us, mainly on touchdown, it was just us not executing well enough. I was really happy with the way that our offensive line played and the running backs ran; everybody ran hard. Special teams did a good job getting us some good field position a lot of the game, and the defense turned the ball over a couple of times and we took advantage of that to the best of our ability. That was a pretty good game for us, and I'm pretty happy with the way we played and it was nice to have some long passes that we could just run on the field and celebrate instead of having to grind out 11 play drives. But, 11-play drives are fun, too. That was nice to do, too. Good game."

On Boise State's defense:
"They're a very good defense, they've been very good at getting to the quarterback all year, so that'll be a good matchup for us, getting us in the right guys. They blitz a lot, but they only really bring four people when they blitz, they'll drop somebody and then bring somebody else, so they try to confuse that way. It will be a lot of film study this week. Hopefully, I can figure it out before Tuesday, really, so we can start to get good practice at picking up their blitzes and reading the defense so by the time Saturday rolls around, we'll be good to go."

On if Boise State blitzes similar to USU:
"It would be pretty similar. I haven't watch too much film of them yet, I've been trying to recap the last game. Monday afternoon is really when we start getting into it as a unit, so if you ask me that tomorrow, I could answer that better, but right now I don't know."

On how redshirt freshman quarterback Jordan Love played against UNLV:
"He played great. Jordan played absolutely phenomenal. He was player of the week for the conference, so he played very well. As far as the feeling of who's behind me in practice, most of the time I don't even know who's behind me. But in the game, it was nice to have someone and to stick with it. He did a really good job, and when receivers catch the ball, it makes anybody look good. They made him look great and he made some great throws, and we just played very well as a unit together, and he did a good job of leading us."

On if the return of redshirt junior offensive lineman Sean Taylor made a difference:
"That we never really stepped off, we kept playing at a very high level when Sean had his injury and he was getting better. He came in and did a phenomenal job for us at right guard, and Rob (Castaneda) really stepped up at right tackle. We have a very talented group, so when one guy's down, somebody else comes in and we didn't really miss a beat. When Sean came back it was kind of just normal the way that we've been doing it, so that it was just familiarity."

On if the unit improves each game:
"We're consistently playing better individually and as a unit. If one offensive lineman misses his job, then all five of us look bad, right? That's been happening less and less as the season's gone along. It's week nine, so we're pretty well established in feeling good and we're getting better and better each week. You think the last game that you played is the best of your career, and, hopefully, the next game's even better than that, and I think it will be. We've been getting prepared well."

On how much of a test the Boise State game will be for the offensive line:
"It will be our best test all year, and I'm excited for it. You want to play against the best and you hope that all their guys are healthy because I don't want to play against Boise State's backups. We want to play against their starters, we want to see what they can do and show them what we can do. It's exciting."

On how Boise State against the run:
"Not to say what they do will affect us so much, but if we do our job, trust our technique and play with great effort, then it won't matter if they're blitzing or they're dropping back. If we get in our right area and block the guy we're supposed to, LaJuan (Hunt)'s going to hit the hole, Eltoro (Allen)'s going to hit the hole and we'll be fine."

On if Boise State's style is linked to great rushing defense:
"What they do, the way they blitz, all that kind of stuff, really helps them stop the run and really helps them as a whole defense. The main thing is they play very hard, it's a hard-working defense. You don't see them taking plays off or loafing, so effort covers up a lot of errors."

On if most teams have someone lined up over the center:
"It just depends. If they're an odd front, yeah, they'll have someone on me. If they're an even front, no. Wisconsin had someone right on me the whole game, BYU had someone right on me the whole game, San José State, very rarely. It just depends on what their scheme is. If they run a three down, then, yeah, somebody will be right on top of me the whole game."

On how gratifying it was as an offensive lineman to have a team rush for 265 yards against UNLV:
"It feels good. LaJuan Hunt was given one of the game balls because he had a great game, and if you can have a running back get a game ball, you kind of pat yourself on the back for a little bit, but then you forget about it and just work for the next game."

On if he's having fun:
"I'm having a blast, living the dream. It feels good to play all the time and it feels good to win, too, so it's been a good year."

Senior Boundary Safety Dallin Leavitt
On the UNLV game:
"The first half of UNLV was rough. They gashed us a couple of times and they were kind of doing what they wanted to do running the ball. Our defense made good adjustments in the second half, and we were able to get them stops. Our front asked Shave (Kendrick Shaver) and (Frank) Maile to stop moving the front so much, and they felt like they could just big boy them and they did that in the second half. They had 375 yards of rushing offense and only 75 in the second half. So, that's a testament to our front seven for stepping up and nobody putting their head down and quitting on the game. Statistically, they tried to throw the ball 30 times; they had 30 attempts for 85 yards, and I don't know about you all, but that was a dominant performance by our secondary. I'm proud to be part of that group. Coach Juice (Julius Brown) preaches it all the time that we have to be dominant and take over games, and we did that as a secondary. So, I'm very proud of our guys, especially doing so with the injuries that we had."

On Boise State's offense:
"Boise State's offense has a good quarterback, Brett Rypien, obviously. They're rotating more of a dual-threat guy, (Montell) Cozart, who is a good player, too. The Tight end is good (Jake Roh), the running back (Alexander Mattison) is solid and they have a really good receiver in Cedrick Wilson. So, it'll be a good matchup for us and they're going to try and sling the ball around the yard, and it will be fun for our defense."

On how the front asked to play more straight up:
"We just felt like we were moving our fronts too much, maybe slanting a little bit too much, and credit to the UNLV offensive line, they were doing a good job of taking advantage of that and watching, but we asked them to just play more straight up and they said that they'd be able to handle it, and they did a great job."

On his mentality when a team rushes for 375 yards:
"That we have to stop the run. As a safety, being the deepest guy, it's not necessarily my job. If I am part of the run fit, then my job is to be there, and I didn't do my job, I didn't tackle very well throughout the game and I have to clean that up. But in regard to the ball not getting to the second level, the only time I can really affect that is blitz, and I didn't really have many opportunities with that."

On Boise State's returners on special teams:
"We've seen a lot of really good returners this year, and our special teams unit has responded each time. Against Wake Forest, especially, we really emphasized it, as they had a really good returner, and our whole team did a good job at corralling him and we were able to keep him in check. (Avery Williams) has taken two back to the house this year, and he's a good returner, so it'll be a good challenge for us and it'll be fun for us."

On if UNLV is a potential turning point this season:
"We're back to .500. I wouldn't necessarily say a turning point because each week you have to go out and win. But, I do think that helped us get a lot of momentum. Our offense did an awesome job for the 52 points and that was even with a couple turnovers, so testament to them to be able to continue to score like that all game. That's hard to do. I do think that it gave us a little mojo, maybe, a little bit of confidence that we can come back from behind, and we did against BYU and we just did it against UNLV. It's a testament to our team and who we are and our coaches about not quitting and not looking and pointing the finger, just looking internally and figuring it out ourselves."

On UNLV being a team win:
"It's a team game. Coach Wells talks about it, if we have to win 3-nothing, then we have to win 3-nothing, and that's part of being a team. If we have to win 49-48, then we have to win 49-48. And the offense has to do that for us. So, that's what makes this game so beautiful, you have to have both sides of the ball play well, as well as special teams."

On last year's Boise State game:
"The ending score was 21-10. If we are only able to put up 10 points, then we have to hold them to nine, or vice-versa. We just have to win, that's the bottom line. They're a good team and they're going to come in and give us everything that they've got. They're going to remember coming down here two years ago, and it will be a great test for us."

On if the team is deeper now than when he first arrived:
"It's a physical game and that's going to happen. Guys will miss a week here or there, and all we can do is just get them back as soon as possible. But the depth does give us an opportunity to have those guys go down and not have a drop off at all in the slightest. It just allows us to be more aggressive and know that even if we do, whether it's you need a rest or we have a little cramp or something like that, we don't stress or worry about it, we know somebody else is going to come on the field and do their job."

-USU-