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ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 21, 2015Mike BercoviciLloyd CarringtonDevin LewisAntonio LonginoTempe, Arizona Arizona - 37, Arizona State - 52 Q. The up and down season that you've had, what's it like to beat your rival and kind of pull away at the end the way you did today? MIKE BERCOVICI: When you're at the point in the season where we were before today, you can't look back. The focus is solely this game, and everybody that's a part of Sun Devil nation knows what this game means to us, especially the feeling last year that we had on that field. But just for this senior group, for this football team, for the future of this program, it's ignited us, and we've seen the way we've been able to play in the fourth quarter, and it's fun to be a Sun Devil right now. Q. Can you just kind of elaborate on the way that you guys won, the defense comes through and not only makes some stops but puts it away? LLOYD CARRINGTON: That was just continuing to fight, not get down on ourselves. You know, we gave up some plays and a few scores helped get them back in the game, but man, we have great leadership on this team. That's from the players, from the coaching staff. We all do a great job of just sticking together, and in times of adversity, we all pull everything together, stay focused, and just be able to stay poised in those situations, and that's what I believe helped us the most. Q. Is this the kind of performance you dreamed about when you came here in the first place? Can you walk us through sort of adjusting to this program, to this offense, and what it felt like to cap it off with this today? DEVIN LEWIS: Well, the adjustment wasn't as hard as most people would think, just because of the senior group that I had, and they really took me in under their wings as soon as I got here, Lloyd, Berc. I was at Berc's house damn near every day over the summer, and then just being here, it hasn't really been an adjustment, and then to have a game like today, my hat goes on to everybody else who helped put me in that position to do what I did. It was great, and I'm really at a loss for words because this is my first time really doing something in a rival game. Q. Mike, in the first half you guys had several huge plays. I think it was five plays for 260 yards, just really big plays. What was going on with their defense that allowed that? MIKE BERCOVICI: It was more about our preparation. Coach Norvell does an incredible job. This game, like I said before, we circle this game in the summertime, so the preparation has started in August to play against these guys, and we saw a lot of things on film that we liked, but our players made plays. Devin stepped up huge around the ball because I know he's going to go get it, but the offensive line played great, protection was awesome, wide receivers played fantastic, and in the first half it was fun to get some explosive plays. Q. What was going through your mind, you've got 4th down on your own 49 and it's a one-score game. What were the conversations with Coach Graham? MIKE BERCOVICI: Yeah, obviously the decision to punt it or go for it was up in the air, but when you have three senior interior linemen saying, run the ball, run the ball, run the ball, it's pretty obvious that we're confident in those types of situation. We've been in those situations before, and the offensive line did an amazing job getting a push. Fortunately I was able to pull it around the corner, but that's just all up front, just incredible push all night long. Q. Devin, can you compare the rivalry games? DEVIN LEWIS: Y'all are funny. You know, not really. It's just -- it's two totally different games, honestly, just the whole feel and everything. But I'm not going to give the edge to either rivalry, just to be politically correct, but I'm going to tell you I had a lot more fun in this rivalry than I ever did in the USC/UCLA rivalry. Q. Mike, you wrote an open letter to Sun Devil fans at the beginning of the season, you and Jordan and DJ. I pulled that letter up. In the last sentence of that letter, it says, one last note: The Territorial Cup will return to Tempe this year. How does it feel to fulfill that promise? MIKE BERCOVICI: It's home. It's home where it belongs. The mission all summer long, shoot, ever since January, was that that Cup needs to come home, and obviously we're sitting in a different situation than where we thought we'd be in the summertime, but we're here. We're living in the moment, and like I just said, the Cup is home and it's going to stay here for a long time. Q. Lloyd, in that last pick six, you had just gotten a pick six, and then sort of trying to get back into it. What was going through your mind as that ball was in the air? LLOYD CARRINGTON: Really just, man, my brothers, thinking about this senior group we have on this team, man, so much we've done to get to this point, all the sacrifice and the hard work we put in, man, I honestly couldn't think nothing but them, but about them, and just being able to just do my part and play my role in the game and be able to get that score to help put the game away. But the main thing really, man, just us being able to go out playing the only man and enjoying this last moment as seniors, playing here in Sun Devil Stadium. Q. Devin, earlier this week you said that senior day might not have the same impact on you as it does to the guys who have been in this program for four and five years. What does your performance indicate about the relationship you've been able to build with the fellow seniors over the past season say to you? DEVIN LEWIS: Can you say the question again? Q. What does the performance that you had today indicate about the type of relationship you've built with these seniors just in a season? DEVIN LEWIS: I mean, me and Berc worked all season on deep balls and just having that connection so we can have a game like we did today. I remember during -- I remember vividly, we were in the bubble, and I run a post route and he missed me by an inch, and we'd just keep going and going and going, and today you see us connect on one. It's just little stuff like that. When you take it back five months and you see all the hard work that you do, that really comes out towards the end of the season. Like I've always said, this senior group is amazing. I don't like to compare, but this is a really, really close-knit group. I went to an all-boys' school, Crestview High School, and we were very close there, and like I always said, as soon as I got here, I felt the same exact vibe here at ASU. Q. To the defensive guys, when they pulled their quarterback, did you know much about the redshirt freshman who came in at all? Had you discussed him during the week in your preparation at all? LLOYD CARRINGTON: Well, we didn't know too much, but Coach Graham and the staff, man, they do a great job of preparing us. We knew what type of quarterback he was, although he was a freshman and we didn't have much film on him, but we understood what he liked to do and the type of offense that they ran. We pretty much didn't have to do too much as far as our game plan to change things up, just as players just go out and do our part and execute. Q. Antonio, you said after last week's game that you wanted to fight back onto the field, be healthy, just play the last couple games with your brothers. Now it's back-to-back multiple sack games. How would you evaluate these last couple games and sort of how it's felt? ANTONIO LONGINO: Time is ticking, so just enjoying it, just having fun. That's what our coach wants us to do, just have fun. I mean, it's a big game, but play it like any other game, just passionate, just have fun. So that's what it is, man. I mean, sometimes -- it took a while because it finally -- it takes a while when it finally clicks into your head what they're trying to say to you, like have fun and do what you do best and just be coachable like that, and it took a while, but that's what we all started doing. When we play together, like we really can't be beat. I mean, we just have fun and go get it, you know. Count on the man next to you to do their job, and you see the results. Q. Mike, when you cut it down to a score, with that 95-yard pass in the third quarter and you guys responded with an 11-play 74-yard drive, what happened on that drive? It seemed like the offense really kind of clicked and got back to what you guys were doing. MIKE BERCOVICI: Yeah, we didn't flinch. I think when you just see the type of response you get from the sideline right before you're about to take the field, obviously defense has been controlling the game all night long, and now it's our part, and basically like you can't say enough about our front five. Those guys set the message every single time we step on the field, and when you've got playmakers and an offensive line that believes in running the football and believes that we're going to get in the end zone, I mean, the rest is history. We knew -- it was clear. It was clear what we had to do. Q. Mike, you hit on a couple long touchdowns there in that first half, one to Devin. Both those balls were very accurate. What were you seeing in that that enabled some of those opportunities? MIKE BERCOVICI: Like I said before, it's a lot of preparation that goes into it, a lot of things that we saw on film. It's something that we were excited about going into this game. We have some serious deep guys, deep threats, especially guys like Devin, Jalen Harvey, a young redshirt freshman has stepped up, and all it is is protection, and just it's timing. It's reps and reps and reps. Gosh, I mean Coach -- when you overthrow a post in practice, you'll hear it, and it feels good to connect on some of those, but you just can't say enough about the playmakers we have. As a quarterback it's easy and it's fun to throw the ball. I mean, those guys are the ones running it and getting it. Q. You guys kind of talked about it's all clicked. It's coming together. The coaches, their message finally has gotten through. You talked about being just an inch off in practice, and it seemed like that was kind of the case throughout the year where the offense would play well one game, and then the defense. It seemed like it all came together today on this stage. How nice is it to have it come together in this game against this team? MIKE BERCOVICI: Yeah, fortunately people remember how you finish, and Coach Graham has been preaching that all week long; how you finish is how you're going to be remembered about these last couple games, especially this game, and when you have a coach that every week steps in here, writes on the white board a message that immediately clicks with you and trickles down from the seniors all the way back down to the freshmen, you don't flinch, just like when we were down and we had to go score 95 yards. It's just what we do. We're so thankful to have a coach like that that believes in us no matter what anyone else is saying because we know the characteristics that this program is built on and the pillars of how we do things, and it's just a recipe for success, so what we're going to do right now is enjoy this game a lot, and it's time to go get our next win. Q. When you say a lot, like how much? MIKE BERCOVICI: Yeah, it's just -- it just feels good to know how many people -- Coach says that you're remembered by the games that you play against the team down south, and fortunately for the guys that have been here since 2003, we're 3-2, and I can promise you whether this senior group is on the field or not next year, we're going to do whatever we can to help beat them again. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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