LOGAN, Utah – Utah State head football coach
Matt Wells, along senior offensive lineman
Roman Andrus and senior linebacker/safety
Jontrell Rocquemore held a press conference Monday to recap the Aggies' win over New Mexico and preview their upcoming road game at Hawai'i on Saturday night. A complete transcript of the press conference can be found below.
Head Coach Matt Wells
On the New Mexico game:
"It was a good win for our team. The biggest thing coming out of that was a chance to get to 5-0 at home in Maverik Stadium and we cleared that hurdle, so that was a great job by our guys. Our guys prepared well all week. Our assistant coaches did a great job of getting them ready to go and they were energetic. They started the game well. Both sides of the ball fed off of each other. We got a big lead and the ballgame was over pretty quickly. The offense did a nice job of rebounding from the week before. They were efficient and the offensive line protected Jordan (Love). The receivers caught the ball well on the perimeter. A lot of guys caught it. Our defense played light's out against the run. We created turnovers and scored a non-offensive touchdown again. Almost every single game we're getting one from either the defense or the special teams. That usually creates momentum and our offense has fed off of it. Certainly, that was the case again on Saturday."
On Hawai'i:
"This week is a big week for us. Going on the road in the Mountain West and playing Hawai'i, it's always tough to win over there. There are a ton of distractions. There is the travel issue and all of that. We need to really focus on us, and control what we can control. That started this morning. We'll do our very best to continue to prepare at a high level. We respect every opponent. We fear no one. This is a team in Hawai'i that, man, what a really good quarterback and a great passing game they have. (Cole) McDonald has had a great season. He can be light's out if you give him time. Any guy like that, you have to get them off their rhythm. They have great receivers. (JoJo Ward), (John Ursua) and multiple guys I can't even name every single number that I've seen today. But, that's a passing attack. As an ex-quarterback, it's fun to watch. To see it on tape, coach (Nick) Rolovich does a great job. He played in that offense under coach (June) Jones. His lineage of being a quarterbacks coach there, the offensive coordinator there and just lighting it up. Nick's always done a good job coaching the quarterback, and he's got another great one right now. They're doing a great job on offense. (Kaimana Padello) gets your attention really quick on defense. He is very active off the edge and is an explosive pass rusher. I wouldn't say blitzer, because he's usually in the rush, but he is active behind the line of scrimmage. It's certainly a big challenge for us to go on the road and play well."
On being ranked in the Top 25:
"The polls are nice and the rankings are nice. It's for my wife and her friends, my mom and her friends, all of you guys and for all the students up on campus. Mr. (John) Hartwell loves it. The bottom line is this: We don't go through offseason in January and February and break every team huddle down by saying, 'Top 25 ranking on three. One-two-three.' Yeah, it's nice. It's recognition. But, I want to be ranked there at the end of the year. If we continue to strive and take steps toward our number one goal, there's a chance for that at the end of the year. Is it nice? Yeah, I get that. I recognize that. We're done with the retweets and the pats on the back and all of that stuff. That ended this morning. I've told them that it's great. That recognizes what you've done so far. What we've done so far is get ourselves to the month of November for games that mean something. Really, there's not much more to make out of it than that."
On Hawai'i redshirt junior wide receiver John Ursua:
"Besides the quarterback, he's what makes it go. He is dynamic, and he can fill zone or man. He knows how to whither himself open. He has tremendous hands and makes competitive catches. He's sneaky quick; fast. He's a great player."
On Hawai'i's rush being good, as well:
"That's the thing, you have to stop the one-back run game. They run one-back power. They're going to run zone-read, they're going to run draw, they're going to run the shuffle pass. That has been a staple in that offense. I remember coaching at Tulsa and playing them, coaching against Timmy Chang and all the way up. You can't sleep on the run game. That's what makes it a dynamic offense, because they do such a great stuff out of the run game with the one back."
On it being difficult to force Hawai'i out of rhythm:
"They do a good job of mixing and play action. They change the quarterback's launch point. They do some run-pass options. They do some play action. They have some half roll. There's drop back and there's quick game. This offense has been very dynamic and very successful for a long time."
On balancing giving backups experience and not running up the score:
"That's what makes it a headache a little bit for me. Your backups deserve a chance to go in and compete and play. That also makes it a challenge for our offense calling a game and managing the clock because we don't slow it down very well. We did a good job on Saturday controlling the time of possession in the second half and not putting our defense back out there on the field, and still giving ourselves a chance to move the ball with the backups. We went three-and-out on the first series with the twos. It wasn't just the twos. There were quite a few of the threes in there. We kicked a field goal on their very first drive and then we had a couple of turnovers. Other than that, they did a nice job of getting first downs and continuing drives. We were better with that group and a similar group than we were two weeks ago in the UNLV game when we were all upset in the way it ended. You're trying for balance. That's a tough balance sometimes."
On the second- and third-string defense getting snaps against first-string offenses:
"There's a mix of that being a positive. To me, the main positive is getting starters out and resting them. You go back and look at reps over the years. I keep a close eye on that because I believe it's cumulative, as we add all of these reps up. And certainly, so are practice reps. Practice reps against a tempo offense is tough. You're looking at those numbers for the defense, and it's been four second halves, where predominantly most of the second half of four different games our twos have been out there and our ones have been standing next to me. So, we've gotten a little bit more rest. Then, you add a bye week. We've already had our bye week. We're a little bit fresher than a normal team that's coming off of eight games."
On playing true freshmen with the new NCAA four game rule:
"You're still managing a few of them at a few positions just in case there are injuries. But, after the next couple of weeks, you're kind of set to how many games there are left and are you going to have injuries at certain positions? You're just trying to manage the roster. It's a lot more on me and a few of the assistant coaches this year than in year pasts, but it's an excellent rule. We've gotten a decent amount of freshmen in and gotten them some game experience, which is good ,and you're still able to redshirt them."
On sophomore quarterback Jordan Love's throws being as good as they could have been against New Mexico:
"We came out aggressive. (Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach)
David Yost came out and did a nice job of mixing some completions with some aggressiveness in terms of the down-field throws. (Ron'quavion) Tarver, especially.
Jalen Greene a couple of times. They made some contested catches early in the game. Any time you do that and you're getting protection, it gives the quarterback more confidence. Certainly, they all thought on offense that they needed to come out and prove that the week before wasn't our best. We come out ready to play and began the game in the right frame of mind."
On the maturity of the team:
"This year's team reminds me a little bit of the 2014 team in terms of the mature leadership. Our captains have been unbelievable this year. They're not all seniors. They are also juniors and sophomores. But, all 18 of those guys are leading by production and vocally. They're producing. There's a maturity about them. They enjoy football. They are doing a great job of holding their teammates accountable both on and off the field. They encourage the young guys. To see the way those veterans acted on the sidelines during the second half of Saturday's game, I was getting them off of the white all the time. They were on the edge. They were into it. There are a lot of football junkies on this year's team, and really amongst those leaders, too. They enjoy each other. They enjoy the success that each guy has. Every one of those guys has selfish, individual goals, but yet they're harnessed within a group and a team atmosphere with team goals at the forefront of everybody's mind knowing that what they can accomplish as a team supersedes anything they can do individually. The importance of the logo being a lot more important than one person. They actually get that really well."
On the team leaders keeping the team grounded:
"It's everything. A player-led team can be great. A coach-led team can be only good. Right now, we're being led by a lot of those leaders in that locker room. They're doing a great job. So, that's the challenge. Each and every week, it's what we do and how we do it. Recognizing who our opponent is and their schemes and the things we need to tweak on offense, defense and special teams. It's still all about us. A lot of that in terms of investment and how we practice has a lot to do with us."
Senior Offensive Lineman Roman Andrus
On the New Mexico game:
"The first drive wasn't the way that we wanted it to be. From there on out, once we performed, we performed at a very high level. We put up a lot of points fast and early, and sealed the deal nice and early in the game.
Jordan Love had an amazing game. Our receivers made some great catches and we were clicking as an offense. The offensive line was able to get some good protection and run the ball when it was needed."
On taking the Wyoming game personal with the way the offense performed in that game:
"It definitely changed the way we got ready for New Mexico, because at least from the offensive line room, we didn't play up to our standards against Wyoming. We came in preparing for New Mexico with renewed vigor to be ready to go and get back to doing what we were doing playing with our tempo, which I think was a huge part of the New Mexico game. There were a lot of times that we were up on the ball before the refs even had set the ball down. That kind of panicked their defense a little bit, which ended up helping us."
On playing different spots on the offensive line:
"Partially it was because of rotation and at some point, I played each of those positions throughout the year. It's a way to get our guys a break. I don't think there is a drop-off when I switch positions, which kind of allows us to have a good rotation keeping our guys fresh and keeping our offense rolling, which is important."
On the younger group on the offensive line:
"What was great about this game is when we did get our younger guys in, especially from an offensive line standpoint, they kept it rolling, which is great. It just means they're learning and they're getting some good experience against some good players. That will benefit our program in the future to have those live in-game reps. You can't simulate that."
On the improvement of the chunk yardage passing attack:
"It was great. We got a lot of our screen game going, kind of our bubble screen on the outside. We wanted to run the ball, but then load the box and we just threw it out to the bubble screen and got an easy five yards. That allowed New Mexico to spread out a little bit and then we got our run game going later in the game. It was huge and you have both a passing and running game in order to have an effective offense."
On being ranked in the Top 25:
"That was great waking up to that. I honestly didn't know that we were that close. It's a good feeling, but talking with Coach Wells, it's good, but also, we need to focus on taking one week at a time. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what we're ranked in the middle of the season, it matters how we finish the season. It's nice, but we're not done yet."
On changing anything as an offensive line when a different running back comes in the game:
"Most of the time with our tempo, they sub without us knowing. Most of the time, we don't know who is back there until we see him get tackled or they're running down the field. There's nothing that changes between us. They both run really hard, they both hit gaps and both are really good players."
On going against Hawai'i's defense line:
"We played them last year, so we got a little glimpse of that. Just like we're a different team from last year, they're a different team from last year, as well. We'll approach this week of preparation knowing that and taking that into account."
On studying Hawai'i:
"We can't take them lightly. We have to be ready for their schemes they have. We've seen similar fronts from some different teams earlier this year. That will help us move forward from there."
Senior Safety Jontrell Rocquemore
On the New Mexico game:
"We played really well on defense. New Mexico started off by moving the ball on us the first drive. We kind of snapped back into how we play and did a lot of things right. We forced a lot of three-and-outs and a lot of turnovers. We played a really complete game. There are some things from our standpoint that we need to fix. Overall, the defense played really well."
On being ranked 18th in the AP Poll:
"It's really cool. It's a salute to our program on how we do things and how the season has been going. At the end of the day, it doesn't affect the Mountain West Championship, and that's our goal. It's cool and an honor to be in the top 25. We still have big plans for the rest of the season."
On things to improve on:
"We get told we're a good defense a lot, but our goal is to be a championship defense. If you want to make sure that they only got three yards on this play, that's a good defense. Our mindset is if we read our keys right and be in the right position, they should have no yards on that play. Those are the things that we're looking at trying to chase and go out there every day."
On having fun playing his position this year:
"It's been great. It's been amazing playing the outside linebacker position. This position has really allowed me to elevate my game and do a lot of different things. I'm in the run responsibility and pass coverage a lot more. I'm all over the place and it's been fun."
On responsibilities changing more playing a passing attack:
"It's more focused on coverage this week. We still need to do what we do. With multiple defenses, we do a lot of different things. The main thing is to stop the run every week. I'm a run-first player, but at the same time, playing Hawai'i, they're going to throw the ball a lot more. I have to be ready for that."
On Hawai'i's offense:
"They're an electric offense. They make a lot of big plays and they're going to come out swinging. Every week, it's about what we do, how we prepare, practice and focus. The rest will take care of itself."
On covering slot players:
"It's going to be a mixture of everything. I'll be all over the field."
On the depth of this team and filling in for injured players:
"I'll always go back to how we practice and how our focus is. When you have a defense buy into that and not just the starting eleven, you have the whole defense, the backups, the second- and third-string guys are waiting to step into a role and be ready to play. It makes it easier when injuries happen. It's obviously hard for guys that go down and to move pieces around, but at the same time, we have guys ready to play and know their role."
On seeing a difference from last season to this season:
"We worked really hard in the offseason. We worked hard from January to now, and we continue to work hard. One of the biggest things is having all the guys buy into one goal and be Mountain West champs. We talk about it a lot in past years, and the biggest difference is you have a lot of leaders being more vocal and being more intentional. The younger guys are falling in line and wanting to be competitive as there is a lot of competition on this team, which is what makes it better. Every day, you have to go out and work. It's not just going to be handed to you. We've been doing that since January and having that goal since January. The dream of winning the Mountain West Championship is really elevating our game and focus. Once you put a string of wins like that, it's like okay, now it's not just a dream, it's reality. We're in control of our own destiny, something that we can do. You get in a position like this, you don't want to mess it up. You go back to your training and what you do and that's work hard. There's really nothing to change now."
On being one of the vocal players:
"I would say yes, but at the same time, I'm more of a quiet guy, I guess. I'm going to do my job and I will say, though, it's gotten to the point where us as leaders, it's not just if a guy isn't doing his job, let's sit back and hopefully he gets it, hopefully he learns that he has to do this eventually. As a leader on this team, we see guys who lack in some areas or they're not really committed in our goal. That's when you have to say something. That's when it's like I can't just sit back and I want, it's we want our team to win the Mountain West Championship. I can't just sit back and say he'll follow along at some point. Sometimes you have to say something and I feel like that's been my role."
On a true set leader on this season:
"This defense has leadership all over the place. You get it from a lot of the areas. You get it from the defensive line, linebackers and we have a lot of depth-leadership on our defense. I feel like that's what makes us really good because you hear it a lot, not just from the defensive line and defensive backs, but you hear it from every position on the field. From the defensive line, to corner, everywhere there's somebody that can potentially become a leader. We'll say something if things aren't going how we want it to."
On practicing the passing attack and facing Jordan Love every day in practice:
"Jordan is special. He's a special quarterback and there has been a lot of growth since he got here. Practice is hard, it's not just we go out and go through the motions. There is a lot of competition on this team and you have to compete in practice. Going against our offense helps us a lot playing on Saturdays because our offense is really good. You can't just go out there and expect that we're going to dominate the offense. Hawai'i has a lot of good players and it comes down to our focus and how we prepare. Preparing against Jordan a lot helps us on Saturdays."
