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UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT SAN ANTONIO FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCESeptember 16, 2016Michael EgwuaguDalton SturmSan Antonio, Texas Arizona State - 32, UTSA - 28 Q. Dalton, can you talk about the mood in the locker room? DALTON STURM: Proud of the effort that we had. But I felt like everybody else in the locker room, it hurts. Coming into a game like this, a lot of people are calling us underdogs, but we expected to win. So it wasn't a surprise to us. We've just got to find a way to finish in the fourth quarter. Q. Dalton, could you talk about the offense in the fourth quarter? It seemed like was it something they were doing differently? It seemed like you guys got a little stagnant there in that fourth quarter? DALTON STURM: No, that's just the game of football. We've got to find a way to get out of it. They weren't doing anything that I haven't seen all game. So definitely just got to find a way to get out of it. Usually it takes one big play, and you're right out of it and start making plays again. Like I said, just got to find a way to make plays. Q. Dalton, are you concerned about your running game? Outside of you, I think the team had about eight yards rushing. DALTON STURM: Oh, no, not at all. We've got two great backs right there. Our O-line they're going to do a great job. That front was pretty good. I think on average they only allowed about 57-yards rushing. We'll pick it up for sure. We'll go back to work, and Dub and Jaylon had great games thanks to the O-line so I'm not worried at all. Q. Can you talk about Arizona State's offense in the third and fourth quarters? They seemed to get it rolling a little. I mean, did they wear you guys down? MICHAEL EGWUAGU: I wouldn't say they wore us down. I think defensively we have to continue doing what we did in the first half. We have to wrap up. We have to pursue to the ball and we have to execute. We have to be better. We have to finish the game out. Q. Michael, Coach said no moral victories. With that said, what positives can you still take away from tonight? MICHAEL EGWUAGU: I think offensively we did some great things and I think defensively we did great things as well. I think what Coach means by no moral victories is that there is still room to get better. We did some good things. By no means should we be complacent. By no means should we be complacent with being second best. We always want to win. We always want a victory, and we're going to get better, and I think that's exactly what that is. Q. Along those lines, can you talk about the preparation of the defense? You guys, really Ballage comes in here after scoring eight touchdowns and you only score one. Unfortunately for you guys it was the game winner. Can you talk about how you tackled really well, and everything was crisp defensively? You really put a lot into it. MICHAEL EGWUAGU: Right, I think defensively and offensively for that matter, this week in practice we put an emphasis on just executing and speaking strictly for the defense, we talk a lot about pursuing to the ball, a lot of gang tackling. So if one guy's in there, then we need two, three, four guys to jump on his back, get the tackle down and just swarm to the ball and be tenacious on defense. I think we did a lot of that but like I said, there is always room to get better. Q. Dalton, if you could talk about after the call that gets overturned on the interception, what was your belief level at that time in winning the game? What did you tell the guys in the huddle when you got things going? DALTON STURM: 100% we always believe we're going to win. When we have a chance to go down and score, we have to take advantage of it. The guy went out of bounds and came back, and I caught the ball. So we were fortunate to get the ball back there. I've got to be smart with the ball in those situations and we had some open guys. I had a seam route and I kind of overthrew him. I've got to make plays whenever it counts. Q. Mike, I wanted to ask, (Inaudible) how does this one compare to those other games? MICHAEL EGWUAGU: I think we've come a long way from both of those seasons. I think we're a different team from both of those seasons. We just have to finish as an entire team defensively, on special teams, on offense we have to finish and we have to capitalize on more opportunities. We have to get over that hump. We have to get over that hump and we just have to capitalize. Q. You guys were three touchdown underdogs and people didn't expect much about your game. What do you feel the nation learned about you watching this game? MICHAEL EGWUAGU: We can play with anybody in the nation, and we believe that. We believed that coming into this game, and we believe that after the game as well. DALTON STURM: Yeah, we kind of looked at it, I mean, we don't really care about what the numbers were or what the under and over was, whatever. But regardless, everybody's going to see it. People are going to see it. People are going to post it and see it on Twitter and anything. You're going to see what the over under is and what the motivation. Just like you're going to come in, and no matter if we're 50-point underdogs, we're going to hit you in the mouth and play down-low football and toss it over your head. We're just going to play our game and play pretty much with all of our hearts. That's all we're going to do every time. Q. You guys keep saying you have to finish and there are no moral victories. But a game like this, you guys don't look too upset. I know you're hurt that you lost the game. But does this provide a springboard as you head into conference play? MICHAEL EGWUAGU: One, we're very upset. We're upset. There's no doubt about it. It's a bitter taste in our mouths. But as far as a springboard, I think all it does is show we can play with anybody. And that shows it to everybody else because we already knew that. So whenever we say no moral victories, that means we have to finish. We have to capitalize on other team's mistakes. We have to minimize our mistakes, and we have to execute on every phase of the team. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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